"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...," I shrieked when I saw the pug run towards us at full speed.

Torryn, thinking that my screams were out of fear, quickly put himself between me and the dog, probably to calm him down. I only screamed some more out of pure happiness and roughly pushed Torryn out of the way. There was a resounding thud as he fell to the ground.

Ignoring him completely, I kneeled in front of the newest love of my life.

"Aww," I cooed, "You're such a good little boy, aren't you?"

"Did you," came an arctic cold voice from behind me, "just push me? " The disbelief in his tone wasn't lost on me, but I chose to ignore such trivial matters at the moment.

"Oh hush, Cole. Can't you see I'm talking to the love of my life here? What's his name?" I didn't have eyes for anyone but the one who deserved me, the pug. He was currently barking at me in joy.

"His name is Milo," came an amused reply from somewhere in front of me.

I reluctantly looked up from Milo, who was currently licking my hand, to see a beautiful, middle-aged woman. Taking in her straight nose, forest green eyes and tall figure, I decided that she was Torryn Cole's mother. From the auburn shade of her hair, I would've doubted that, but her features were too similar to Torryn's.

"Oh, hello," I smiled warmly at her. Walking in her direction with my left hand outstretched (my right one was covered in dog slobber), and Milo at my heels.

"I'm Arabella Cole, Torryn's mother. You are?" She returned my smile.

"I'm Aria Miller, Co- uh, Torryn's friend," I quickly got my tongue in check, " It's great to meet you, Mrs Cole."

"Oh, call me Arabella, darling. It's not every day that I meet the girl who brought my son to the ground," she winked at me good-naturedly and turned to Torryn, who still hadn't gotten off of the floor out of shock, "You seem to be having the greatest of times on the floor, son." She smirked at him and I decided that she was one amazing woman.

Torryn grumbled incoherently as he got up, dusting off invisible specks of dust.

"Mr Cole, would like me to fetch you a new shirt?" An incredibly formal voice said from behind Arabella. Oh my God, was he-? The man looked old with silver-grey hair and a wrinkled face. He still stood with his spine straighter than a ruler.

"No, Alfred, I don't think I'll be needing it," Torryn replied in a gruff tone.

"Alfred?" I pointed a shaking finger at the erect form of the butler and then shifted it towards Torryn, "Your father's Batman, isn't he?" And then I whispered under my breath, "I knew it! "

"What? No!" Torryn looked at me with a weirded out expression. "You come up with the strangest of notions, Miller."

"I will have to agree with you, Mr Cole," Alfred nodded with a stony expression.

Like master, like butler, I thought to myself bitterly.

A loud chuckle erupted from Arabella.

"Oh, you're certainly refreshing, Aria," she said gleefully. "I'm curious how Torryn managed to befriend you, though."

Before I could explain anything to her, Torryn had already grumbled out, "I befriended no one. She just needs my help with a school project."

And with that, he caught my arm and tried to manoeuvre us around the smiling form of his mother towards a grand staircase in the middle of the room.

"Okay," she smiled, the amusement in her eyes as discreet as a flying brick to the face.

"Move your own feet, Miller. I haven't got all day," Torryn glared at me when he saw that I was letting myself be pulled by him. Why should I walk when someone's already doing it for me?

Milo was still following us as we walked up all the way to the second floor.

Torryn's expressionless face morphed into one of disbelief when he saw that I was out of breath.

"Why do you have such a huge house? Why are there so many stairs?" I was still gasping for breath.

"It's not the fault of the architect of this house that you are such a terribly unfit person," and with that, the asshole continued walking without checking to see if I was following.

"Hey, slow down, you big oaf!" I called after him, running to catch up. "You do know that I can get lost here very easily, right?"

He paused at a dark-colored door, "But it didn't happen though, did it?"

With that, he opened the door.

"He is not the most polite person out there, is he?" I murmured quietly to Milo, "But don't worry, I still love you." I smiled at him.

"If you are done giving love reassurances to my dog, do come inside," Torryn looked back at me as he went to retrieve something from the corner of the vast room.

Torryn Cole's room reflected much of his personality. It was mostly painted in black and dark blue. It was twice the size of my room.

Almost in a daze, I walked towards the comfy bed in the middle of the room with Milo following me and jumped on it.

This is what heaven must feel like, I mused to myself. My bed has some damn good competition. Maybe I should take this one to my hou-

"Shall we start?"

I turned to my right to see Torryn standing with his arms crossed and that was when I got a good look at the wall behind him.

"Holy fuck," I sat up straight and let out a low whistle at the painting of the ocean on the wall. 'I have the ocean in my veins' written in neat, cursive letters over it. I faintly remembered the time he told me he liked water.

"You have the ocean in your veins? I only have chocolate in mine," I grinned at him. "Did you do that?" I pointed at the wall.

"Yes," he answered.

"It is breathtaking," I whispered. "Well, I'm glad you're my partner," I muttered under my breath as I patted Milo. "You like to swim, Cole?" I raised a curious eyebrow at him.

A small nod was all I received in response.

I looked around the room, taking in the details this time. A door that probably lead to the bathroom beside another that looked like it opened to a walk-in closet. There was a dark blue colored table, a few textbooks lying haphazardly on it.

By the time I was done observing his room, Torryn had already set up a canvas board along with the stand. Realizing that I was still sitting on the bed like a lazy penguin, I got up with much reluctance and walked up to him.

"So, what are we supposed to do for this project?" Torryn asked as he got his art supplies.

Mrs Willis' projects were always easy for most. Keyword: for most.

"Mrs Willis said we can paint whatever we love the most. So, can we paint chocolates, then?" I looked at him with wide, hopeful eyes.

"No."

I pouted, "Why?"

"We are supposed to paint something that both partners love the most," he pointed out, looking at the piece of paper on which I'd scrawled the topic of the project.

"What do we both love?" I looked around the room. And then it suddenly clicked.

"I got it! We can paint Milo. He's the newest love of my life, anyway," I grinned at Torryn before bending down to scratch Milo behind the ears. "C'mon, Milo, pose for us, boy!"

"Hmm. I can't say that Milo is a bad choice. Come here, boy," Torryn called Milo, who immediately left me for Torryn.

"Did he just cheat on me?" I murmured in confusion but decided to leave it at that.

I thought for a while. "Okay, I've got an idea!" I bounced up to Torryn, who eyed me warily, clearly not trusting my idea to be a safe one.

"Oh, relax, Cole! I'm not going to tell you to jump off the roof or something," I rolled my eyes, "even though that would be fun. I was just going to say that maybe we can include other things that we love, too!"

"We have very different definitions of fun, Miller. But I'll see what we can do about the painting." He nodded.

So, after two hours and 46 'yo mama so fat' jokes (Torryn, surprisingly, knew a lot of them), the painting was finally complete.

Torryn turned into this laid back person when he painted as if painting gave him peace. Well, I could understand that. Singing offered me peace, too.

We walked down the grand staircase as Milo ran in front of us and I took a picture of him.

He was so fucking cute!

"That's like, what? The 100th picture of him today?" Torryn snorted.

"106th. Keep up, you imbecile, " I gave him a dirty look.

"Imbecile? That's the best you can come up with, Miller?"

"Oh, I'll show you my best," I cracked my knuckles, pushing up the sleeves of my shirt.

"Ma'am please refrain from getting bloodstains on the carpet. It has been recently imported all the way from Kashmir," Alfred's voice stopped me.

I looked at Torryn who shrugged, almost smirking at me.

"It's okay, Alfred. I'm not spilling his blood today," I gave the stone-faced butler my widest grin.

Alfred narrowed his eyes, not believing me. But after a minute of silent scrutiny, he nodded and walked away from us.

"Oh good, you both are here. I was just going to call you down," Arabella gave us a huge smile. "Come on, Aria, let's eat."

Any other time those words would have me dropping everything to go with the person offering me food. But since it was almost five in the evening, I thought that I should probably head back home.

"Oh no, you don't need to trouble yourself. I was just going to leave anyway," I gave her a polite smile.

"Oh, nonsense, girl! Come now, I have baked a chocolate cake," she looked at me with a mischievous smile.

"A chocolate cake, you say? Why, lead the way, Mrs Cole," I grinned at her as she returned the favour.

And so, she lead me towards the cake as Torryn followed us with an exasperated shake of his head.

********************************

Hello, everyone!

First of all, Trouble In Paradise has crossed 1k reads!!! I'm so fucking happy! Thank you all for showing your love and support! May you all have whatever your heart desires to eat! <3

Now, it's almost 3:30 in the morning and I should probably go to sleep before my mother wakes finds out I'm still awake. :)

Anyways, let me know what you think about this chapter!

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Aria: Vote if the word cake crumbles all your restraint!