âPAUSE.â
"Wait, where's Mr Parker?" I asked, lifting my head from Archer's chest as he reached for the remote.
He paused the movie. "Hm, I honestly don't know." His arms around me tightened as he made himself comfortable.
"Is everything okay? It looked a little tense here just now." I asked and he laughed but it didn't look sincere.
"JP gets that way sometimes. Nothing to worry about." I could tell he didn't want to talk about it so I didn't probe.
"Why do you call him that?" I peered up to look at him and he arches an eyebrow, wanting me to elaborate. "JP?"
"Jace Parker, so JP, get it?"
"So what? He calls you AK?" I scrunch my nose at how weird it sounded and Archer chuckles.
"Something like that. Anyway, we should finish this up, it's getting cold." He says as he grabs a handful of fries and playfully stuffs them in my mouth.
"Archer!" I squeal, his name barely audible from my lips since my mouth was full with soggy fries.
He laughs then kisses my cheeks that are full and leans back into the couch before resuming our movie.
Once I finally swallow the mouthful of fries, I ask the question that's been dying to get out. "Do you remember the key you had?" I asked and his expression was instantly pressed into a frown.
"Mmhmm." He hummed, waiting for me to go on.
"Do you know anything about it?" I asked, clasping my hands together.
"Nope, it was a gift from a friend." He said as he resumed the movie.
"Wait," I tapped his thigh, trying to get his attention. "Didn't you say you found it?"
"Hm?" He raised an eyebrow. "No." He let out bluntly as he stuffed some fries into his mouth.
"Really? I thought-"
"I have to go to the washroom, give me a second." He said giving me a quick peck on the lips, silencing me.
"Hm." I frowned as he walked away.
Getting weirded out, I decided to look for the key. I wanted to have a better look since he'd always take it away from me right before changing the subject.
I entered his room hastily and made my way to the wooden box.
I popped the lid off and reached in to grab the key but ended up grabbing a handful of something else.
I stared at the pieces of torn up paper in the palm of my hands, "What the heck?" I used my free hand to dig through it, trying to find for the key but to no avail.
The pieces of paper didn't look like it was from the same document. Some pieces felt like newspaper while others felt hard like magazine pages. I looked at the magazine pages first and a snippet of the article can be seen.
Archer Rutherford Kane, author of best selling-
And that was it on this piece of the magazine. I dug through the rest of the box trying to find the rest of the article but the pieces were too tiny to distinguish quickly.
By the time I could find anything comprehensive, I hear him.
"Red!" I heard his voice call out.
"Shit." I cussed under my breath. The table was a mess. The little scraps of paper everywhere. I pick my bag up from the ground and with one sweep of my arm, I brush the pieces into my bag. Once every piece is in my bag and out of sight, I close the wooden box and hopped onto his bed.
"Red, what are yo-" He paused as he looked at me, a smirk playing on his lips as he stared at my form laying on his bed.
"Someone's a little forward." He chuckled, unbuttoning his shirt.
"No, no!" I laughed, still coming down from the adrenaline. I sat up. "I just wanted to sleep," I said as I hoped he'll mistake my flustered state as me being embarrassed and not hiding something.
But, technically, I wasn't the one hiding something. He was. His middle name was Rutherford. Like the name on the key and lock? It could be a coincidence but what were the chances?
"Why are you so shy? It's not like we haven't done it before." He shrugged, plopping onto the bed next to me.
"Archer!" I gasped, hitting his chest slightly.
"It's true." He looked at me, his lips curving into a subtle smirk.
His hand then made its way to my thigh as he squeezed it lightly, "Okay turn around." He said and I frowned.
"We're sleeping, aren't we?" He said as his hand travelled up to my waist, bringing me to lie down.
His entire body pressed against my back and his hands tightened around my waist like a belt. "Goodnight." He kissed my neck right before nuzzling his face into the crook of it.
I felt every tense bone in my body relax as I laid in his embrace. But one thing still bothered me, the key and his name. I didn't understand why he was so reluctant to talk about it.
I took in a deep breath and exhaled trying to empty out my thoughts and instead, savour the moment. Being in his arms, it was the best feeling. I wanted to be able to revel in this a while longer before figuring out his connection to the key.
I wrapped my tiny fingers around his hand and pulled it up to my chest, holding it close to me. I felt the world go still at that moment, everything went silent. The streets outside went quiet, no more traffic, no more voices coming from the houses that surrounded us.
The only thing audible to my ears were the beating of our hearts that were so perfectly in sync with each other. It felt like we were the only two people on earth, with no cares and no worries.
It was as though life had taken a quick pause.
I took in another deep breath, making sure that I had this memory tattooed onto my heart and this feelings engraved into my soul. I exhaled, and life resumed itself but I still had him close to me.
"Goodnight," I whispered back, allowing the night to consume me.
. . .