GUYS WE HIT #21 I ACTUALLY CAN'T BELIEVE IT! THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU ARE ALL GIFTS TO ME AND EVERYDAY I CAN'T BELIEVE PEOPLE ACTUALLY VOLUNTARILY READ MY BOOK HAHA!
Love you guys loads! I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Two days since Mason returned I still felt like I was stepping on eggshells despite the fact that he was being uncharacteristically sweet and rather unsettlingly quiet. I still felt like things hadn't been resolved and that there was a question of trust between us. He knew I wanted to help and that what I was doing wasn't just for him but was for Claire, but I'd hurt his pride. That's something hard for him to bounce back from.
"Here, I made you a coffee." He passed me a steaming mug and I smiled warmly to thank him. This was the fourth coffee he'd made me in two hours and as a result I was starting to get a weird tingly feeling in my fingertips.
"Do you wanna watch a movie? There might be something good on Netflix?" I called from the couch to the kitchen. There were shadows under his eyes from a lack of sleep and I knew that he was being cautious around me.
"Yeah, maybe. I'll just clean up in here first." He wiped down the benches - another uncharacteristic movement - so I sighed heavily and went to stand in front of him.
He'd barely touched me in the few days that had gone by. Even when we slept I would usually have my head resting on his shoulder while his arms wrapped tightly around me, but now he slept with his back to me. I felt lonely and just the very thought of it made anxiety fill my belly and tears prick at my eyes.
I rested my hand on his warm chest and felt the steady thrum of his heartbeat beneath my fingertips.
He stared down at me, his eyes unreadable his face stone.
"I miss you," I whispered, my voice getting caught in my throat towards the end and I felt a sob ripple through my shoulders.
"I'm right here." He returned, his eyes softening a little as he stepped slightly closer and he brought his hand up to my wrist. I expected him to push me away but he flattened my palm against his heart as though he were trying to prove that he was standing in front of me by letting me touch his heart with my bare hands.
"But you're not. You're not here. You're not here with me." I suddenly felt exhausted despite the amount of coffee I'd been given. There was a massive weight on my shoulders that I could feel pressing me down to the earth that wasn't gravity.
He swallowed hard and deliberated his movements slightly before pulling me into a tight hug that would be painful if it weren't for the fact that I was craving his touch. I buried my face into his chest and inhaled deeply, letting my head swirl with him. All him.
"I know that this isn't for me. It's all for Claire, she's the one who needs the money but I guess... I guess I'm still getting used to trusting people with things that I handle myself. I wish I could and I'm trying, really I am. But it's hard." He spoke softly, and I buried my face deeper into his chest. Having his arms wrapped around me dissolved that odd breathless feeling you get when you miss someone's touch, along with the feeling of their hands on your skin without them actually being there... Almost like phantom hands that leave only a sense of aching for their touch.
"You said you were at Ethan's? As in Ethan Delaney?" I brought my head up to question him, my face contorted in confusion. I didn't realise that he and Delaney were so close, I mean, I'd seen them talking at his party but I had no idea they were friends per say.
"No, a different Ethan. Ethan Ashwood." He avoided my gaze, staring off into the distance as he brushed his fingers up and down my back gently.
I shrugged under his grasp, I didn't know the kid but I thought it was weird Mason had never mentioned him before if they were friends.
Stop overthinking everything, Ashley.
"My families birthday bash thing is next weekend and dad said to invite you - I was going to anyway but it's a good thing that dad wants you there to right?" He nodded, his eyes unfocused as he mulled over something in his head.
"I mean," I looked down at his chest to avoid him seeing my embarrassment, "if you don't want to come that's cool too, I just thought that maybe you'd want to come again cause you'd had a nice time and-" he cut me off by pinching my lips between his fingers, a slight smirk playing on his mouth.
"What would make you think I don't want to go?" I pushed his hand from my mouth and pouted making his lips purse as he held back a laugh.
"You just looked like you didn't want to."
"I do. What do I bring?" He asked, letting go of me to pull a bag of sultanas from the cupboard to eat.
I pulled myself onto the bench and grabbed a handful after him.
"Nothing, just yourself," I replied popping a few sultanas on my mouth.
"Not even clothes?" He wiggled his brows at me and I rolled my eyes. My inner-self sighed in content, normal Mason had returned from his holiday.
"Yes, bring clothes." I brought my attention back to my palm before side eyeing him again. "Don't bring pyjamas." A grin appeared on his face and I giggled.
Throughout the week we slowly dissolved into the same playful nature that is our relationship - mostly us arguing over takeout menus and who gets to shower first.
On Friday morning after I'd spoken to dad about ordering a taxi service to take us to his house again, I heard Mason's deep angry voice coming from the kitchen with some choice words attached to his sentences.
I poked my head out from the bathroom where I was packing my toiletries to see him spike his phone over the kitchen bench and into the couch burying his phone deep into the cushions.
"What's wrong?" I called out, stumbling as I got up from the floor.
"That was Ross," he screwed up his nose and balling his fist as he took a swing at the fridge but stopped millimetres before connecting. "Calling to let me know that I'm basically screwed with the Dean and other professors on the panel."
"What do you mean?" I demanded, searching for his phone in the couch and struggling to find it.
"He's made up shit about me having past issues with professors and threatening him at the doctor's office and told it to the Dean, they're still gonna give me the interview but they've pretty much already made up their minds."
His shoulders slumped at the weight of his defeat as he leaned over the bench and I padded over to rub the tension from his shoulders.
At a loss of what to say I just rested my chin on his back.
"I think this weekend is a blessing in disguise," I said as he sighed and stepped away to go pack his things.
Left alone in the kitchen I was battling with my inherent need to meddle in peoples business... well, meddle in my boyfriends business.
I resumed my search within the couch cushions, finally laying my hands on his phone to begin my potentially bad decision. I unlocked my phone and copied Dr Ross's number from Mason's to my contacts so I could deal with it later.
The only thing I could think of that would possibly work is speaking to Dr Ross myself and even that had the potential to make the situation worse and given our relationships history would have an 80% chance of destroying it completely if it went wrong.
"Today isn't the day to think about it. You've got this weekend to forget everything, figure it out later." I muttered to myself before walking off to finish packing.
"So, aunty Edith equals two daughters Kate and Michelle and she's your dads older sister. Michelle is married to Colin, they have one kid already and she's pregnant now. Kate is 23, really shy and will most likely go off to read a book somewhere. Grandma Trudy is 74 and will ask you uncomfortable questions. Uncle Daryl-"
"David," I corrected him, a smirk on my face as he recited all the information I told him about my family.
"Right, David is your dads younger brother who isn't married but has a 15-year-old daughter Amy and a girlfriend, Alice, and I should avoid all topics of marriage when I'm around them. Aunty Carol is the youngest of your dad's siblings and is really spiritual and will most likely give me a tarot reading." He smiled, proud of himself as he stuffed his clothes into his bag.
"Well done, now let's see if you pass the real test." I snorted, throwing my bag at his chest which he caught easily. "meeting them." And he left to put it by the door.
The ride there seemed longer than before and was definitely colder. However, the snow was beginning to look more like slush and I could see premature buds of flowers and leaves on not many but some trees that whizzed past us.
I snuggled up to Mason in the backseat of the car and proceeded to do what I do best: annoy him.
I stuck my fingers up his nose and in his ears, tried to tickle him by sticking my freezing hands up his shirt and eventually he had both of my wrists in one hand above my head and the other on my waist pushing me away.
His face was all serious and said 'continue and I will easily throw you out the window'. I tried to wiggle my way free but he tightened his grip on my waist.
"Kinky," I said suggestively, wagging my eyebrows at him and his lips twitched as he tried to keep his composure but ultimately failed, pulling my arms around his neck to kiss me.
"This is going to be crazy, you know that right?" I asked him, leaning into his chest. He chuckled and shrugged his shoulders in naivity.
"Hey, I deal with you, can't be that much worse can it?"