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'I've said everything I came to say, Ava,' Caden continued. 'Just please, please come back to VC.'
'Okay, I think I should maybe get dressed now,' I said, smiling awkwardly as I handed the flowers back to him and turned around, grabbing my t-shirt from the bed and pulling it on.
'You could have just stayed the way you were,' Caden mumbled, and I turned to him with an arched brow. 'Sorry.'
'Yeah...not really the right moment for jokes,' I told him.
'Well, I wasn't joking,' he said, shrugging softly. 'I've already seen all of you.'
'Please don't remind me,' I sighed, my face turning hot with embarrassment.
'I don't know why you always get so flushed when you receive a compliment,' he said, watching me as I sat down on my bed.
'Because I don't get them often,' I replied.
'Which just blows my mind,' he said. 'Look at you.'
'Stop kissing my arse,' I grumbled. 'It won't get you anywhere.'
'I'm not kissing your arse,' he said. 'I'm being honest.'
'Look, if you've said everything you need to then you can go now,' I told him. 'I cancelled plans with Keira to listen to what you have to say but if there's nothing else...'
'There's so much I have left to say but now that I'm here with you my whole speech has just gone out of my head,' he sighed, placing the bouquet down on the seat of my dressing table. He edged over to the bed and perched himself on the very bottom, so I budged further up to the top to keep the distance between us.
'That's no good to me, Caden,' I told him.
'I've never done this before,' he said. 'I've never had to apologise to a woman because I've honestly never cared about any woman besides my mother!'
'You're still trying to convince me that you care about me,' I said, laughing lightly. 'Come on...lets just start being honest.'
'I swear on my life, I don't know why and I don't know how it's happened but...you've really come to mean something to me,' he said, his face deadly serious. 'I'm not saying all of this so you'll carry on sleeping with me, I promise. I know all of that is over but I'm just trying to redeem myself here. I want us to be civil.'
'We could never be friends,' I told him.
'I know that,' he replied. 'But we work together.'
'No, I work for you,' I corrected.
'Yes, and if you come back we will bump into each other all of the time so I want us to make a fresh start,' he said.
'Look, I've already told you, I accept your apology and I do forgive you for the things you've said,' I told him. I was so weak. It didn't take much for me to forgive someone for something, but I could see he meant every word he was saying. 'I just don't know if I can come back.'
