Song of the chapter: Womanizer (Britney Spears cover) by Josie Dunne

I open the door to what I am relieved is still the clean apartment I left this morning, having had my doubts since Jess has a tendency to leave the apartment like a tornado has hit it whenever she's getting ready for work.

"Come on in." I tell Theo as we walk into the apartment with Charlie nearly tackling me with excitement within seconds. Except I'm not the only one he's excited about.

"Charlie sure seems to like you a lot." I observe as Charlie begins licking Theo's hand and Theo bends down to pat him.

"Well, then Charlie has good taste." he teases, lifting his head to look up at me with a smirk growing while Charlie practically rolls onto his back for Theo to scratch his stomach.

"He's not usually this open to meeting people. It tends to take a while for him to open up to new people." I explain.

It's highly unlikely that Theo would have met Charlie on my birthday because of this characteristic— Charlie spent most of the night in my bedroom because he gets anxious around a lot of people.

"Sounds like someone I know." Theo says with a flick of his eyebrows, his amusement and smug grin only growing while my embarrassment does at being appropriately called out. "And how old is this good boy?"

"He's twelve." I reply, as I drop my belongings on the hall console and make my way to the kitchen.

"Oh, so was he your family dog or something?"

"No, he wasn't. I only adopted him a couple years ago once I was finishing university and moving out here." I tell him. "I saw him at an animal shelter I was volunteering at after he'd been left there by a family who didn't feel like having him anymore. I couldn't bear to leave him there and he was so sweet to me so I kinda sprung a dog on Jess one day."

Theo laughs. "And how did that go down?"

"Well, it went as I had hoped. Any frustrations she could possibly have were outweighed by his slobbery kisses and excitement to be out of that shelter." I recall.

"I don't blame her for caving. I would have too." he admits.

I smile as I watch how he looks down at Charlie with such admiration and fondness in his eyes and smile.

"Is french toast good with you?" I ask him, as he takes a seat on a stool at the kitchen bench, Charlie following him to rest on the floor next to him.

"Yeah, that sounds great."

I begin gathering the ingredients I'll need for the french toast, as well as the toppings for later so I can begin chopping up some of the fruit while the toast is cooking. I'm busy cracking and whisking eggs when Theo disappears to the bathroom and reappears shortly after.

"Okay, my hands are clean. I'm ready to help. What can I do?" he says, rubbing his hands together with anticipation.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about helping. Just sit down and relax. It's a piece of cake." I assure him with a wave of my hand in his direction.

"It's no problem. Let me help." he says as he grabs the punnet of strawberries from the bench to go rinse them.

I stare him down for a second to see if he will forfeit to assurances of being just fine. But he doesn't. Instead, he joins me by my side while he begins chopping up the strawberries.

"So, no dog for you? You seem to be fond of them, or at least Charlie is of you." I enquire, trying to make small talk as we cook side by side in my tiny kitchen. It makes me think of his kitchen and how I could literally lay down across that lavish white stone bench of his and fit my whole body length on it because it was just that big.

He chuckles. "No.. no dog for me, even if the fondness is reciprocated. I'm not home enough to provide a dog with the attention it deserves."

I actually sense a slight sadness in this response, as he looks over his shoulder to get a glimpse of Charlie who still remains lying down by the stool where he had been sitting.

"Right, you're a fellow workaholic. How could I forget?" I tease, attempting to lighten the mood.

He chuckles. "You're not wrong about that. By the way, where do you keep your sugar?" he asks as he finishes moving all the strawberries into a bowl.

"In the cupboard right above me." I tell him.

The reality that he needs to actually get something from that cupboard becomes clear to me as his outstretches his arm above me to open the doors and look for the sugar, his body lingering so closely behind me yet only teasing its actual touch.

"I can't see it." he says, his breath tickling the skin of my neck as he speaks down to me.

I'm forced to look up from the bread I had been dunking into the whisked eggs to look up at the cupboard and then to him with acknowledgement.

"I think it's behind that tub of honey on the left." I tell him, unable to ignore the presence of his lips so close to mine. I won't pretend that I haven't had more than a couple thoughts about those lips since our moment on the balcony last week. And I think he could say the same as he looks from my eyes down to my lips.

"Right. Thanks." he says, quickly grabbing the sugar from where it had been hiding and moving back to his side of the bench.

I feel the need to clear my throat as though I need to let in more air; a common feeling around Theo.

"So, ever had a dog before?" I ask, eager to distract.

"When I was little. My parents got one when they first got married. His name was Scotty. He passed away not long after my mum did and we just never got another. We were always moving around and if you think I'm a workaholic then you should see my father." he tells me. "Got any blackberries?"

"Uh, yeah. In the fridge." I instruct him, distracted from what seemed like a pretty deep response by what he is doing. He has this absurd ability to mention an incredibly sensitive topic one minute and then act like nothing was said the next. I'll bet he's built up a great capacity to compartmentalise over his time.

He turns on the kettle once he's finished the raspberries I had brought out too.

"Sauce pan?" he asks me, taking me by surprise while I conduct a brief analysis of him.

"Cupboard to your bottom right."

I have no idea what he is planning on concocting but I'm just gonna go ahead and let him do as he pleases, even if he is moving around this kitchen like it's his more spacious one and needs to be returned to the reality of a Brooklyn apartment.

I return my focus to the bread I have begun transitioning to a pan, checking to see that the heat isn't too high.

"You cook a lot?" I ask, intrigued by his confidence around the kitchen. It's a characteristic ridiculously uncommon for most males I know- as if knowing how to cook anything other than a barbecue is so absurd.

"Not as much as I'd like to. I usually end up skipping dinner and resorting to take out while working. You?"

"I'd probably be the same if it wasn't for Jess. We try splitting the cooking between us and then if one of us ends up doing more than the other throughout the week we make up for it by doing something else like the laundry or grocery shopping." I explain.

"Have you been friends with Jess for long?" he asks me as he fills the saucepan atop the stovetop with the boiling water and places a glass bowl on top with some of the berries and the sugar in the bowl.

"Yeah, we met back in middle school. Then I moved to Australia and predictably lost touch with each other. But when I moved back here and went to Yale we bumped into each other on campus, eventually became roommates and then made the big move out here together." I recall.

"So, you're a two for one deal these days then?" he jokingly asks.

"You could definitely say that." I realistically answer.

"Is that why she's allowed to get away with inviting whoever she wants to your birthday without getting in trouble?"

"I guess— wait, if you're talking about—" I begin, having embarrassingly just realised where he was getting at mid-way through my sentence.

"Myself."

"I never said I didn't want you there." I argue.... weakly.
"But I have a strong feeling if you hadn't bumped into me that day at the cafe then it would've never happened." he says, rightfully.

"Well, I just hadn't seen you since....". I stop once I realise what I'm about to bring up.

"Since New Years Eve." says Theo, not afraid to bring up that night.

"Yeah."

The silence settles in as I don't add on to that confirmation and he doesn't either. But I can feel his eyes burning into me from the side of me where he now stands with his saucepan on the stovetop as well.

"Oops, nearly burned that one." I awkwardly remark, flipping over a crispy french toast slice.

He chuckles at my obvious attempt to change the subject as he continues to stir what appears to be a berry coulis. He dips his finger in the mixture and tastes it, nodding to himself with approval. With his coulis seemingly complete, he begins putting away his ingredients and tidying up. Soon he is back behind me, trying to put the sugar back into the cupboard he grabbed it from.

His body is firmly pressing against mine once agin as he places the sugar back in. I expect him to move away as soon as that cupboard door is closed, just like he did last time, but he doesn't.

"I've thought a lot about that night," he tells me, so close to my ear with the way he is standing that the air that comes out of his mouth as he speaks tickles the skin on my neck yet again. The tension is still very much lingering between us as that night out on the rooftop is brought back to the forefront of our minds.

"Oh yeah?" my voice basically squeaks out.

I have never tried to focus on a piece of french toast so hard as I am now.

"Yeah. Didn't you?"

I refuse to answer and admit that I did— that I had thought a lot about what would've happened that night after midnight if we hadn't been interrupted.

"I thought about it all the way until last Friday night on that balcony out there. Then I began thinking about other things."

At this point, I turn my head away from the damn french toast to the side where his face is still resting nearby. I'm looking at his lips, remembering what happened to replace that New Years Eve memory with another in both his and my mind. He too is looking between my lips and my eyes, just like he did that night, when I turn around to face him front to front.

His closeness shocks me for a second and I move backwards. But m back hits the edge of the kitchen bench and I'm trapped, not able to move anywhere as his body looms over me. Although, it's not daunting. Instead, it draws me in as he overwhelms my sight. It brings me closer to him so that I can see into those now dark blue eyes, pupils expanded like a dark moon caught in the midst of a storm.

As the silence and the intensity builds between us, his hand lifts itself up to my face and my cheek finds itself resting in the palm of his hand all over again. His thumb brushes against my cheek before our faces move closer to one another and then finally the balcony kiss gains a sequel.

Our lips and soon tongues intertwine as the attraction between us comes to fruition once again, except the passion has reached new extremes this time. Up until last week I could at least deny that whatever I felt around Theo was potentially down to the forbidden nature of our connection. But since that first kiss it has been like a lid has been opened up containing whatever attraction is existing between the two of us and it cannot be shut now. 

Theo's lips leave my own for a moment but it is only so that they can slowly begin tracing down my jaw, wet kiss by kiss, until they've reached the part of my neck just below my ear— my weak spot. I almost shudder as the goosebumps raise across my skin, making me lean back with my hands on the bench top edge.

His hands which have similarly made a trip down, but towards my hips from where they had been on my face, grip my waist as he lifts me up onto the bench top. Instinctively, I look to my side to check if we are far enough from the stove top to not have to worry about getting burnt. My practicality and caution will always persevere no matter if kissing an attractive male or not.

Sitting on the bench, his body is now positioned between my legs. My hands are exploring his chocolate locks as his own firmly hold onto the countertop. They begin to move back towards my body, sending hot pulses rushing up my body as they glide back and forth over my thighs. They move chaotically as our mouths do too, the heat in the room overwhelming me.

The heat.... it's so freaking hot in here.

Crap, the french toast!

I break away from Theo to quickly look down at the pan that is still sitting atop the stove top nearby. I can already see that the edges of the current slice of toast in the pan are darkened and can only imagine just how charred it will be when I flip it over.

"Shit, it's burnt!"

Theo practically chokes with laughter, a smirk growing across his face, as I poke around the ebony toned slice of bread from where I am still seated on the bench top.

"Really burnt." I add, like it wasn't already obvious.

Theo lowers his head now while he bites down on his lower lip, attempting to conceal his laughter from me.

I playfully slap him arm as he moves aside and I jump back down to the floor, needing to sort out this mess soon before the smell of burning overwhelms us or a fire starts. I don't need to destroy my whole kitchen and apartment over a slice of french toast.

"You'd be a horrible sous chef." I tell him as I skewer the slice of toast with a fork and throw it straight into the bin.

"Yeah, I think I'll be just fine sticking to architecture anyways." he says as he too checks on his creation. His coulis is of course fine while I am preparing to add a new slice of bread to the pan in the hope that this one survives me.

We continue cooking while making small talk and laughing over that poor slice of toast, with Theo beginning to set the table while I cook all the slices of french toast without any more victims to follow. Once all the french toast is complete and Theo has gathered an array of condiments on the dining table, we both sit down to finally eat lunch after an eventful cooking session.

"You don't dislike a berry coulis or something, do you? I probably should have asked you that earlier." Theo asks, suddenly concerned as he furrows his eyebrows and sits there with his saucepan in hand ready to pass over to me.

Like a dog looking at me pleadingly with puppy eyes, I tell him "No, I like it" so that he is relieved and offers me the saucepan which he has emptied of water and replaced with berry coulis.

We both garnish our slices of french toast with the coulis, berries and ricotta, my stomach all but grumbling at the sight of all this food. When I finally get to take a bite of the different pieces of the meal combined together I almost groan from just how good it tastes.

"I don't know if how hungry I am right now is skewing my judgement or not, but this is pretty damn good." I tell him as he prepares to take his first bite too.

Once his first bite is officially complete, with some serious consideration shown across his face, Theo joins me in nodding. "I'd have to agree with you on that. We made a good team."

"Yeah, we did." I agree with a smile on my face.

We get a few more bites down before I decide to continue our random discussions from earlier now that we've begun satiating our hunger.

"So, how's that project of yours going?" I ask.

"Yeah, it's going okay. Just a whole lot of planning and paperwork right now. It would have been a lot easier if I could've gone to work for the other company like I had planned, but I guess I'll just have to make it work." he tells me between bites.

"Well, I guess it's not the end of the world. At least you've got this amazing job that a whole lot of other people your age would be dying for." I try to remind him, hoping that he sees the bright side of his situation.

"I am aware of that," he says, his tone noticeably stiffening in an instant. "I have also worked hard to get to where I am right now."

"I know. I'm not saying that you haven't," I reassure him, not having anticipated this sudden defensiveness. "I'm just saying that not many people get to be in the position that you're in right now. So, maybe it's not the end of the world to have to put up with your father and his company a bit longer."

He's silent now and this is honestly worse than the tone he had begun using with me.

"Look, surely you have realised that you're quite lucky to be in the position you are in, with your father at the helm of this massive company that'll be waiting for you one day. And there must have been benefits to your arrangement." I point out, now having my own attempt at being defensive.

"Despite what you seem to be suggesting I have earned everything that I have today fair and square, and I don't exactly understand what is warranting your assumptions about these so-called benefits." Theo argues, having stopped all attempts at eating our co-creation and instead just staring at me with a look of disbelief and irritation in his squinted eyes.

"Well, you do have an Audi and live in a gorgeous apartment in the city with an amazing position at this massive firm. I don't know many people your age could do that." I observe.

"Let me guess, you've been talking to Damon lately.

I don't respond and that's enough to answer that question. Whether or not Damon's discussions with me about Theo is contributing to my comments right now is questionable but it is sure frustrating Theo right now. 

He drops his cutlery now and pushes out his chair so that he can stand up and loom over the table.

"Maybe if you actually asked me these things, rather than listen to a jealous dick who has expressed his dislike for me on multiple occasions and knew me seven years ago, then you would get to know the truth Ella."

"Theo, I didn't mean to—"

"No, you did Ella." he cuts me off, hands firmly placed down on the table as he seemingly prepares to lecture me. "If you had asked me, I would've told you that the car is second-hand so really wasn't that expensive. The cost of the apartment is shared with a roommate who is my best friend and who just happens to be on a work trip right now so that's why he's not around. I do have a good paying job but I worked my ass off for it. I only came to work for my father once I had already worked at other firms and could have previous contracts for him to match so that no one could tell me I didn't earn my spot. I worked throughout all of my degree and have paid back any cent that my father gave me at the beginning for my studies. And yet, all this still doesn't stop people like Damon, and even you now, from continuing to make assumptions."

Shit. Shit. Shit. I was so wrong.

"Theo, I didn't know." I tell him, pathetically trying to redeem myself as he walks away from me