Chapter 12: Daddy

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"I'm glad you did it."

"I'm glad too." Luca put on his glasses to drive and started the engine. "I feel lighter."

I looked out the window and said goodbye to the agent, who was smiling at us, the couple by his side.

We stayed silent, not even the radio was on. I felt like the tension from yesterday came back to stay. I played nervously with my rings, really needing a cigarette. Even though I promised myself I would stop smoking.

Luca cleared his throat. "My cousin likes you."

I turned to face him, furrowing my brow. I opened my mouth but he cut me off.

"Like, really likes you." He licked his lips and glanced at me quickly. "He asked me if I thought it was okay he asked you on a date."

"And... what did you say?"

"I said yes." He murmured, turning the wheel.

Was he for real? Had he forgotten about what happened last night?

For some reason, I got all defensive and turned to stare out the window once again, the frown deepening in my forehead.

"Oh, cool."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." I tried to sound convincing but I was a little hurt to be honest. I swallowed hard. "Tell him it's okay."

"Great." He whispered. I didn't even want to look at him to see his expression. "I'll talk to him then."

A thought came to my mind as quickly as it went away. Was he using me last night? Did he just do it to fuck and then forget? Just because he felt attracted to me?

I wasn't the kind of girl who did that. I didn't think it was wrong, it just wasn't for me. I needed to feel a connection with the person, and I had that with Luca. I didn't know what my feelings were towards him yet. But yes, we could say that I liked him.

And it scared me to admit it, but I had grown to like him a lot.

So fast and so strongly.

But no. Luca wasn't like that.

Right?

He wouldn't just play with my feelings to forget it afterwards. Then why being awkward? Why setting me up with Aiden?

Did I really know him?

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"Are you ready?"

"Yes."

I made sure I asked Aiden where we would be going when he asked me officially on a date, not by his cousin. I wanted to know where he was bringing me to know what to wear. Lucky for me, he wasn't a really formal guy, and I wasn't either. He said he wanted to show me the city, since I only came when I was a child with my parents and some random weekend, years after with Max. But I didn't really see anything, just the hotel and good restaurants.

The time I was here I didn't have time to do any discovering. Now that it was a long weekend and that we were going on a date, it was the perfect excuse.

I put on some jeans and comfy clothes, pulling my hair up on a bun.

Aiden was really handsome, that wasn't a lie. He also wore casual clothes and smelled really good.

"Luca, we're leaving!" Announced Aiden from the living room.

Luca didn't get out of his bedroom, surely not hearing us with the music.

"Bye guys, have fun!" Exclaimed Aiden putting a voice as if to mimic his cousin.

I rolled my eyes with a smile and we got out of the apartment. We saw some important buildings and monuments, and ate close to the park.

We walked in peace when Aiden decided to stop near the lake.

"I seriously can't believe you accepted to go with me on a date."

"Me neither." I murmured.

He opened his eyes and mouth wide and laughed, putting a hand on his chest. "Ouch."

"Oh my god, I didn't mean it like that." I said quickly, putting a hand on his arm.

"Don't worry, I'm bulletproof." He laughed shaking his head, his hair brushing his forehead.

"Seriously, Aiden. It's not like that. It's just... I got out from a relationship not too long ago, I-"

"You like someone else." He said with a smile.

"What?"

"Riley. Be honest with me, I know you like my cousin."

My regular blush came up to meet my cheeks. "Why do you say that?"

"I don't know, maybe because we haven't stopped talking about him." He chuckled, putting his hands inside his jacket pockets.

I frowned as I stared at the lake. It's true now that I thought of it. We didn't do it on purpose though, it was really the thing that linked us together. Luca. He told me some things about him, and I think I got too excited and started asking more and more questions about him.

"Riley. It's okay, you know. You can tell me." He shrugged. "I tried, you don't like me, so let me be your friend. I noticed-"

"We kissed."

"Oh my god, I knew it." For some reason he got all excited and bounced in place, turning to face me. "When?"

I faced him too and breathed out quickly, nervous thinking about the whole thing. "The other night at the party."

"Then what the hell are you doing here with me? What happened?"

"We- I mean, I stopped him. We started kissing and he guided me to the bed, we..."

"We what?" He asked. I looked at him. The only thing that was missing was a bowl of popcorn.

"Shit, it's embarrassing talking about this with you, okay?"

"Oh, come on." Aiden complained. "Just tell me. I'm sure it's nothing."

"Okay." I sighed and closed my eyes. Better if those light brown eyes weren't piercing mine. "I'm a little special when it comes to sex."

"What do you mean special?"

I opened my eyes once again and stared at my hands on my lap. "I... let's say I don't like when they're being gentle."

"Riley!" He gasped.

I glanced at him. "What?"

"Oh my god, look at you!" He laughed wrapping his arms around me. "And here I was, thinking you were all innocent!"

A blush came up to my face to contradict his statement.

"Fuck, this is so embarrassing." I mumbled hiding my face against his chest.

"So then what happened? Why did you stop? My cousin's too soft for you?" I stayed with my ear against his chest, his breathing calming my nervousness.

It was getting cold too, so his hands around my body helped with that.

"I had a boyfriend not too long ago. He's the reason why I came to the city. It was a very toxic relationship and the way we used to have sex messed my head up a little bit. He... He was very controlling and I liked that. But not all the time. There were times when I didn't wanna do things, and he made me do them. I- I kind of felt like that the other night." I frowned. "I felt like I was with him and not with Luca. I felt as if someone was forcing me to do it. I couldn't breathe, I was suffocating... Call me crazy but I couldn't do it."

"Luca would never do that. He's not like that." Aiden said.

"I know. It's not his fault. I just... I don't think I'm ready to do it just yet. Everything's too recent."

"Have you talked about it with him?"

"No. He's been kind of avoiding me after we came back from his house. I don't know what to do."

"You need to tell him. He's probably just confused, thinking that he did something wrong. I know my cousin. He seems like a pretty simple guy but he overthinks a lot."

I glanced up at Aiden worriedly. "I don't want him to feel bad."

"Then talk to him."

"Yeah." I breathed in and Aiden smiled.

"Come on, it's cold. Let's go home."

We both got up and started walking. I stared amazed at the sight. Everything was covered in orange and yellow leaves, making everything so beautiful it made me forget that we were not in my hometown, but in a city full of skyscrapers, huge buildings and polluting cars.

Aiden was quiet, probably enjoying the view too. I glanced at him and he was already looking at me with a smirk on his face.

"What?"

"Nothing."

I stopped walking and crossed my arms over my chest. "Seriously, what."

"I was just wondering..." he smiled mischievously. "Do you like to call them daddy?"

I scowled at him and raised my fingers. "You have three seconds to start running."

He got all serious and frowned. "What are you going to do?"

"One."

He yelped and began to run and I forgot about the three fucking seconds and ran after him. I couldn't help but laugh, as I tried to catch him, thinking how could I just confess all of that to him but especially how could I end up liking this idiot.

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"How was it?" Luca asked after his cousin left. It was already Saturday night and I still had no other place to live.

"It was fun. You can't get bored with Aiden."

I brought my laptop to the couch with me, Luca watching TV next to me. I needed to find an apartment, but the guy beside me distracted me. We needed to talk. I needed to clear things up, I didn't want him to overthink as Aiden said.

"What-" He began slowly, distractedly watching tv, "- did you guys do?"

I scrolled down the webpage I used to find apartments and shrugged. "Nothing special. He showed me around and we went to the park."

Luca nodded biting the corner of his mouth.

I stopped looking at the screen and stared at Luca for a few seconds. He was wearing his glasses, a hoodie and sweatpants being his outfit. He couldn't look cuter. I just wanted to approach him, take off his glasses, bring my-

"Riley." His eyes met mine. "Stop staring at me, you're making me blush." He said with a little smile.

I needed to talk to him, I needed him to treat me just like before. It felt kind of awkward being around him now.

"Luca, I..."

I averted my gaze to think before speaking and directed it to my laptop again when something caught my attention.

"Oh my god, somebody replied to my request."

He curiously got closer to me on the couch, both of us staring at the screen.

"It's cute, right?" I asked, showing him some pictures of the apartment. It was more or less as big as my previous one was. Just the arrangement was different. It was also just a room with the kitchen in it. This one had a couchbed instead of a bed, which would mostly stay in the form of a bed.

If I had a bed, why would I need a couch?

"Yas, girl! It's super cute." Exclaimed Luca in a girly voice.

"You're so silly." I laughed. "What do you say? Do you like it? It's a little bit more expensive but I think I can make it."

"I love it." I glanced at him and he was smiling, the faint light of the screen illuminating his face. "Besides, it's not too far from here. You can always come if you need me."

I smiled at him, our faces too close when he turned to face me. "You're right."

I called the woman from the ad, she said I could move in tomorrow. Great, that way I could have the rest of the week all for me in my new place. I didn't have to miss any shifts at the hospital or at Gourdon either.

I needed that money.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday morning, Luca gave me a ride to my new apartment. He helped me put everything into place and I thanked him cooking for the both of us.

"The terrace is a little bigger." He pointed out when we were both sitting on the floor, our backs against the couch as we watched TV while we ate.

Yes, there was a TV and I couldn't be happier. Even though I didn't watch it much, just so I knew that my money didn't go to waste.

"Mhm." I nodded.

"You can sit down there and smoke a cigarette."

That is what he imagined I would do?

Don't be an hypocrite, Riley. That would've been the first thing you did before.

"I- I don't smoke anymore."

Luca frowned and turned his head to face me. He then relaxed his expression and nodded. "Hmh. Good decision."

Now that I had his attention, I decided to be bold and go straight at it. Even though my heart was beating faster than ever and my face was burning up.

"Luca, we need to talk."

He sighed. "Ah. I was waiting for this moment."

"Look, I need you to understand that I stopped you because-"

"It's okay, Riley. I get it. I shouldn't have kissed you." He started, his brow furrowed as he looked down at the plate in his hands. "I got caught up in the moment. We were drunk and I really shouldn't have done it. I didn't want to ruin our friendship."

Shit, that hurt.

My face squirmed in pain and I lowered my gaze too so he couldn't see my face.

"I... I'm glad you stopped it." He said finally.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and bit my lips to stare at him.

"It's better if we stay as friends, don't you think?"

I nodded with a little smile. "Yeah, yeah. That's what I was going to say."

He had an expression on his face that I couldn't decipher but I was glad he hugged me tight against him. That way he couldn't see the expression on mine. I had a few seconds to calm myself down and make the tears at the corner of my eyes dry.

Luca didn't stay much longer, he had to make the laundry before it was too late at night and had to be up early in the morning.

And I didn't think I would ever say this but I was glad he was gone. When he left, I barely had the energy to open the couchbed, put on some sheets and slip under the covers.

At that moment, and only at that moment, is when I allowed myself to cry.

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I'll probably regret this next week, since I'm risking not having new chapter ๐Ÿ˜‚
I have a full time job while I'm still studying so I barely have time to breathe. But I'll try my best to post twice a week!

So that's the chapter! What did you think of it?

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