His Queen

Chapter Twenty-Two

Arielle laid on the couch on her phone, as she let Netflix run a show as background noise.

She couldn't bother to make herself do anything productive and instead listened as Sebastian ran up and down the stairs from his office to their bedroom to get ready for work.

"Ari! Do you know where my keys are?" Sebastian yelled from above.

"The sink counter top!" Arielle responded, "In our bedro—"

"Found it!" Sebastian responded just before Arielle could finish her sentence.

She smiled and rolled her as she met with a very frantic and somewhat late Sebastian coming down the stairs.

"Look with your eyes and not your mouth Seb." She jokingly chided, "You do this all the tim—"

Arielle grinned as she was cut off yet again with a kiss from Sebastian as he bent himself down to the couch, " I'm running late but I'll make it home by dinner!"

Arielle couldn't help but find happiness in their somewhat return to normal. After their talk, Sebastian was convinced to put in more effort to stay at home more.

***

"Arielle?" Sebastian asked as he set his laptop aside and watched Arielle snuggle closer to his chest in response, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Arielle muttered as sleep laced her voice.

Their conversation about his nightmare had led the two to lay their in silence.

At some point, Sebastian stood up and got his laptop to get some work done and to get his mind off the heavy subject.

"For everything." Sebastian said vaguely.

In his mind, his mother's words rung clearly.

Was he in fact compromising her happiness for his?

"You don't have to apologize for anything Sebastian." Arielle replied as she titled her head to look up to him, "I know you needed to get your mind off the topic to work, I don't mind your form of coping as long as it doesn't get too out of hand and unhealthy."

He sighed and pressed a long kiss to her forehead as she turned her head back down and snuggled closer, "I'm just happy your next to me Seb."

"Not just that but so much more." He responded, knowing that she probably knew what he was referring to. "These days I've drowned myself in work to make sure I keep up safe. I was embarrassed and stressed about how the men somehow made their way into this house. That wasn't supposed to happen."

"I know." Arielle mumbled, "You did the best you could at that time though."

"Still, something could've gone really wrong if they figured out how to break into this room with you in it." Sebastian responded, "I've fixed the security and locks on the house and it's just I—"

"You're paranoid." She finished, "Your paranoid because you don't know what's going to happen next. You can't always live like that honey. If you only worry about the future and only the future, you'll miss the best parts of the present."