What The Heart Desires

Chapter-7

Amelia couldn't get enough of the wooden cabin that stood in its glory in front of her as Shawn stopped the engine of the car.
They got off their seats, and Shawn got the hamper from the truck of the car.
"This is your property?", Amelia asked.
"Yup, I built this cabin", he said.
"You, as in the carpentry and stuff", she asked in awe.
"Yes", Shawn said as he walked along side Amelia to go inside the cabin,"my dad taught us everything, from minute fixing of the electronics to building a cabin", he said as he unlocked the front door with the key in his hand.
"You are quite close to your dad?", she asked with a smile.
"Yes that can be said, he took out time for us even when he was handling the whole business himself", he said.
That reminded Amelia of her own dad. He flinched at it.
"What about you?", Shawn asked placing the basket on the side table as he moved towards to kitchen.
"What about me?"
"Dad, are you close to your dad?", he asked.
"I was", she said looking at the floor, "Until he left us to find his inspiration to write", she said with hurt evident in her voice.
"Write?", he asked as he fetched out a bottle of wine from his wine cellar that was adjoining the kitchen.
"Ahhmmm, he is the author of "Wild Dreams" and "I'm Your Dreams"," she said leaning again the door of the wine cellar, "wow this place is so cool", she said looking around the wine cellar.
"Don't tell me, DUDE you are the daughter of Grant Claire, like the Grant Clair", he asked in awe.
"Yahhhhh", Amelia said with a smile.
"Dude he is like my favourite writer and he wrote the script of "Vaticaon Town", right?", he asked looking at her all surprised.
"Yes, he did", she said with a voice full of sadness.
"He lives in Europe", she said looking at the ground, as she missed his presence in her life ever since he left,"he says he need to be alone with his thoughts to write".
"Hey, are you okay?", Shawn asked gently as he could see Amelia's eyes filling with tears.
Amelia shrugged the feeling and said, "Of course, I'm fine", she took the bottle of wine from his hand and walked out of the wine cellar saying, "and I'm gonna have this", playfully.

The two of them say near the fire place on the carpeted floor sipping the wine which tasted heavenly. 

"Where is the chocolate?", Amelia asked.
Shawn looked behind him and stood up to get the hamper.
They took out the chocolate and started relishing it sipping the wine.
"So dad's business, huh?", Amelia asked taking her eyes off the fire place looking at Shawn who mind you looked no less than a Greek God.
His toned muscle could he seen under the black sweatshirt that he wore, and his face glowed in the light of the fire place as he looked at her. Amelia couldn't take her eyes off his full lips, and when she did, she trailed her eyes on his perfect jaw line. His hazel eyes glowed in the light and all Amelia could think of right now was to kiss him.
"Amy?", Shawn placed a hand on her shoulder as she had zoned out.
"Yah?", she said as she realised her stupidity.
"Nothing", he chucked.
"I was telling you about my dad's business", he said.
"Hmmm", Amelia asked him to continue.
"He always told us that you can never buy two things in life, one:- someone's love and second:- someone's time, you always have to earn it. And when my brother and I, we became 15, he never gave us his time, he asked us earn it. So I tried to earn his time by doing every possible thing. But to no avail. After doing it for the hundredth time I got frustrated and I gave up. That is when I started spending time on my studies and myself. So I built a dating software and it grew big really big, I sold it and earned millions from it".
"You are the developer of the first dating app?", she asked.
"Yes", he said looking at her.
"Then?", she asked.
"Then my dad came up to me and said that he was proud of me now that I had earned his time. He helped me invest the money, and here I am", he said.
"These business, that you handle are yours? Like not your dad's, or your family's?", she asked .
"He taught me how to be fair in business and I owe everything to him", he said nodding.
"A man with different skills", Amelia said impressed by his set of skills.
"Haha, not really"
"Come on, you know cooking, you handle business deals, you are a professional photographer, and then a coder as well"
Shawn blushed listening to Amelia.
"Here, a little wine for the lady", he says pouring wine in the empty glass in her hand.
"What about you? You like writing? Like your dad?", he asked.
Amelia looked at him narrowing her eyes, contemplating if she should tell him or not.
"I haven't told this to anyone", she says.
"Yesssssss", Shawn said doing a little victory dance making Amelia laugh.
"I love writing", she finally said.
"And what do you write?", he asked.
"I don't really write anything", she said looking at the fire place now.
"What do you mean?", he asked.
"I'm scared of it, of writing", she said tears filling the corner of her eyes.
"I think I'll become who he is now, hurting the ones I love just for the sake of writing, leaving the people behind to strive on their own, to fill the void that I'll leave in their lives themselves not even thinking about anyone else but myself and my passion for writing", she said as a tear left the corner of her eye.
"So you threw away your passion?", he asked thoughtfully.
Amelia didn't say anything, just kept looking at the fire.
"What good is it doing to anyone?", he asked.
"I.....uhhhh don't know", she said.
"Then?", he asked.
"It's just that whenever I even think about writing I remember the pain I felt when he left us, one day suddenly, saying he will be back in a month. We waited for him, and with every passing month we would receive a check. He took care of us financially, and I never had to ask for anything, I always got what I wanted. But the void that I feel of a father figure in my life, will always be there. He would call us every week during the first few months and then his calls reduced as well. Now he only calls me on my birthday", Amelia pauses for a second and took a deep breath in before speaking again, "It's just that, I miss him", she finally said before bursting into tears.
Shawn comforted her into a hug placing their glasses on the marble shelf next to the fire place.
They sat in the same place for a few minutes.
Amelia looked into his eyes as the two of them moved back after the long, warm hug.
Amelia couldn't take her eyes off his lips, and Shawn was looking into her eyes and then lips. The two of them stood in the same place for a few seconds before Shawn moved back into his place.
Amelia, embarrassed now, moved back as well.
Shawn picked the chocolate from the floor.
"Want some?", he asked taking a few pieces for himself. Amelia accepted it and took a few pieces for herself.
All Shawn could think right now was about the kiss. He wanted to kiss Amelia so bad, but not when she was emotionally in a bad place, that wouldn't be right and he knew it. He knew he shouldn't have missed the moment, but he wasn't that desperate to take advantage of an emotionally weak moment. All he knew was that he was falling for her, and he could wait for as long as forever for her to fall for him as well, before they shared their first kiss.
Amelia on the other hand ate the chocolate cursing Shawn of his stupidity to move back when all she wanted was the kiss. No guy in the world would miss such a moment, then why did he do it? Does he have a girlfriend? Or an ex he isn't over yet? Or am I not the person he sees himself with?
Amelia was embarrassed and disappointed but she didn't want Shawn to know that, so keeping the feelings aside for the time being she ate her chocolate in complete silence.
The air of the room which was comforting a few minutes ago turned awkward the very next second.
Shawn knew he had to changed the vibe. And he knew the perfect way to do that. He picked up the cushions from the couch behind him and started removing the leatherite covers from them.

"What are you doing?", Amelia asked putting the last price of chocolate in her mouth.
Shawn picked up a cushion and hit Amelia on her back with it.
"This", Shawn said hitting her lightly on her head with the cushion this time.
"Really? What are we? 5?", Amelia asked before getting hit for the forth time by Shawn on her legs this time.
"Enough", she said picking up the second cushion from the ground before hitting Shawn with it.
What started with soft hits now turned into a full on pillow fight championship, in a matter of seconds with no one out of the two ready to give up.

Shawn got a hold of Amelia's cushion, and grabbing it from her, he threw it on the floor behind him. Amelia, frustrated from his actions grabbed the corner of his cushion and tried pulling it away from in. In the process, the two came increasingly close to each other, and the outer covering of the cushion tore spreading the feathers from the cushion in the air.  The feathers flew in the air of the lounge as the two looked up.
"Jeez", Shawn said looking at the price of cloth that held the cushion together a few second ago, and Amelia couldn't stop laughing.
Looking at her laugh, Shawn picked up the cushion he threw on the floor before, and tore it apart, throwing the feathers from the cushion high in the air.
"What the hell are you doing?", Amelia asked Shawn.

"It is fun", he said as he chuckled throwing the last of it up in the air. Amelia smiled at his child like behavior admiring it. The two of them looked at each other in the eyes again, he admiring her chocolate browns, while she admired his hazel brown one, before bursting out in laughter at the condition of the room.

The two of them rested on the couch, tired from the fight next as the room was now messed up from the feather of the cushion.
A few feathers were lying in the empty wine glasses that they had forgotten near the fire place.
"Water?", Amelia asked as she rose from the couch going towards the kitchen.
"Yes please", Shawn said sitting on the couch with his eyes closed.

The two of them sat sipping water, relaxing themselves.

"What's the time?", Amelia asked Shawn as her phone wasn't anywhere near her.

"11", Shawn said after looking at his phone.

"Wanna go back?", Shawn asked.

"I think we should", Amelia said and in an instant Shawn got off the couch and walked towards the door signalling her to follow him.

"We are gonna leave this place in this condition?", Amelia asked him, while getting off the couch, placing the glass of water on the center table.

"I'll take care of it tomorrow", Shawn said smiling at her courtesy, "How are you always this perfect?", he asked Amelia, as he walked past him out of the door, after switching off the electric fire place.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, little Miss 'I'll take care of everyone and everything' ", he said switching the lights off from the main circuit board and closing he door, locking it with the key in his hand.

Amelia giggled. "That is not true", she said looking at him in the eye.

"Oh it definitely is", he said as he opened the door of the car for her.

"Gentleman-ly much?", she asked before stepping inside.

"Ahhhhh, much", he said closing the door gently after her.