Timothee.

chapter twenty. adele.

We walked to the food court, making a stop at a pho vendor and sitting down in a booth that was fairly secluded. My mind was racing.
"What do you mean he doesn't like me like that? Carter... You better not be lying."
He sighed, playing with his noodles.
"You don't know Timothée like I do... Listen. There was a girl named Florence. She... looks just like you. I think he thinks that you're a good replacement for her."
I laughed. He had to be lying.
"Explain?"
"Look, okay?" He brought out his phone to show me a picture of him and Timothée with a beautiful girl in between them. She had a beautiful complexion followed by gorgeous eyes and a clearly expensive dress. She had this sly smirk across her face.
"Okay, so what? We kind of look like each other. People look like each other sometimes."
"The fact of the matter is that one summer, Timothée and I loved the same girl. Florence. And she chose us both. The thing is... Timothée loved her. He would do anything for her. I think that's why he risked so much for you."
I scoffed, "Carter you have no idea what Timothée has done for me. He's letting me live at his house for reasons that have nothing to do with love or anything like that! You don't know shit."

"Adele-"

I stood up quickly, walking away with a cloud of frustration surrounding me. I felt his hand on my shoulder. Turning around I looked up at him, "What?"
"You have to believe me. I'm not doing this to manipulate you, I'm doing this to protect you."
"I don't need your protection. I'm fully capable of protecting myself."
"Adele, I know. It's just you don't get Timothée's world. Things move so fast— I don't want you to get hurt."

He barely even knew me, and he wanted to protect me. My mind was yelling BULLSHIT ALERT! How could I believe him. "Prove it, Carter. Prove that this whole thing is true."
He nodded, as if exasperated, "Okay. Now will you come finish your pho?"

*

"So where were you guys? You left me all alone in Louis..." Timothée pouted, struggling to roll his two suitcases behind him. Helping him, I took a suitcase and rolled it behind me as we walked out of the mall.

"Why did you get two suitcases? And two different colors at that?" I asked curiously, helping him hail a taxi. The taxi driver stopped, and we loaded the trunk with the two suitcases. "Oh... right. That one's for you." He pointed to an all white one, with grey letters decorating the entire suitcase.

When I say it looked expensive? It looked expensive.

"Why? Oh my God... Thank you?" I looked up at him with confused eyes. "...But why?"
"Because, I love you."
"Nobody who's loved me has ever bought me something so expensive before..."
"Well, there's a first time for everything."

A grin spread across my face, followed by a soft laugh. He smirked, "And I mean everything...."

*

"Okay, so my mom just sent me an email about the tickets... We leave in two days Timothée!" I plopped down on the couch, staring at the email my mother sent me. It was the happiest I'd been in days.
I hated to say it but Carter was right, in Timothée's world life moves fast.

"I'm so excited to meet your mother," He shouted from the kitchen, pouring a glass of wine, "I'm sure she's lovely."
"She is..."
"I hate to say it... but if Carter doesn't hurry up and get back with the food, I'm going to die before I even meet her."

I giggled back in response.
As if right on cue, Carter opened the door with a big brown bag full of chinese food, "I come bearing gifts!" He strolled over, setting the bag down on the coffee table and quickly ripped it open. "So Timothée... Now that you are Adele are pretty serious," He struggled with the bag, "Have you ever told her about Florence?"
"Carter— Stop," He looked dead into his eyes, his smile dropped, "Stop."
The room fell silent. If looks could kill, Carter would've been dead in seconds.

So he was telling the truth about Florence.

"Look, don't get all serious with me. Florence doesn't have to bring a damper down on the mood..."
"Yes, she does. She toyed with us, Carter. I'm not going to tell Adele anything about her."

I interjected. "Well it's too late, because Carter already did. He also showed me a picture, telling me that he thinks her and I look the same."
"No, you don't. You're nothing like her. End of the subject."

He sat on the couch pulling out a pint of lo mein from the bag, accompanied with a pair of chopsticks. "Timothée... If we're going to be in a serious relationship, you need to tell me about Flo-"
"I said no. Fucking no. That's it."
I furrowed my eyebrows, standing up from the couch, "Why not?! I have every right to know!"
"God... I should never have bloody said anything," Carter mumbled to himself.

"Adele, calm down. Sit down. Carter may have been over exaggeration if he told you anything. Florence is nothing but the past and that's that. So please..." He pleaded, looking up at me with his hand on mine. "Just sit and eat."
"Okay."
We ate, and the one thing on my mind was Florence. I always knew the more defensive somebody became over a topic, the more they cared about it. I had this heavy feeling at the bottom of my stomach that Timothée may have still loved Florence... that he still cared about Florence.
I felt almost like if Florence were to come back into his life, he would drop me in an instant.

"I'm sorry Timothée... For bringing it up. I shouldn't have told her—"
"...Yeah you're damn right you shouldn't have."
The room was silent again, and I was left with my thoughts.

The silence was interrupted with a knock on the door. "I'll get it," Carter put his food down, walking to the door that was not too far from him. He opened it.

And there she was. Florence.