Together Forever

Evelyn's POV

"You want to sleep on my lap?" I ask, smiling slightly at him.

He gives me a look of disbelief and searches my eyes, probably trying to understand if I'm kidding or not.

"Are you serious?" He asks me.

"Yes, I'm serious."

"But I didn't say that I wanted to." He says as a smirk falls on his lips.

"Yeah, but your eyes told me." I shrug, smirking back.

He rolls his eyes at me, "So eyes speak too? You are impossible."

I raise my eyebrows and retort, "Ok, fine. I'm taking my offer back."

His eyes widen at my words as he says, "Wha- but I... I didn't say I don't want to either."

I chuckle, "Guess who's impossible then?"

"Whatever."

He looks down at my lap as he smiles a bit. Hesitantly, he moves closer and leaning towards me, slowly places his head on my lap. Butterflies start jumping in my stomach almost immediately. He makes him comfortable there while I put my hand on his hair and another one over his arm, keeping him close to me.

At first, I feel a little uncomfortable since no one has ever come into such an adorably intimate contact with me before. But I push the thoughts back and look down at him. The moon is shining and the side of his face is enlightened by the moonlight. The cool night breeze is blowing, the leaves grazing with each other creating a placid sound. I smile down at him as I keep running my fingers through his silky hair. He hums in comfort and closes his eyes.

"You know what Evelyn? Not everyone's lap is the same. It has to be someone special who can make you feel peaceful." He whispers, eyes closed. "Are you feeling calm?"

"Hmm."

"So does that mean I'm someone special?" I smile.

"You just knew that today? Of course, you are." He says, making me giggle.

A few minutes pass in silence while we enjoy the closeness and the balsamic quietness of the night. My fingers keep traveling through his smooth hair.

"Evelyn?"

"Hmm?"

He grabs my hand and hugs it tightly before he murmurs softly, "Will you give me a chance?"

He doesn't look at my eyes, instead keeps my hand close to him as if I am leaving him at this moment. I stare down at him for some time as I think. He has never gotten love. That's why he's like this. Love can change everything. He will change too if he gets love and care. And when he's asking me for these, I will definitely give him.

I sigh as I mumble, "Yes."

I can feel Ethan smiling though I can't see his face. He nods slowly. We both stay quiet after that. Only the breeze whistling and our breathing are the only sounds. I feel my eyes heavy and a yawn escapes my lips.

When I look down, I found Ethan already asleep. He seems so sound asleep that I don't feel like waking him up and telling him to go inside. Guess we will be spending the whole night on the balcony then. A wind brushes again and I feel Ethan shivering slightly. I look around for something to wrap around him when my eyes fall on my shawl that's on my shoulder. I smile and unwrap it then slowly embrace it around Ethan. He stirs a bit and goes back to sleep. I start feeling cold but I ignore it. If I go inside now for a blanket, Ethan might wake up what I don't want at all.

He seems so calm and there's nothing I wouldn't do to give him a peaceful sleep for one night.

The next morning I wake up when the cold breeze brushes against my skin. I feel myself shivering as I slowly open my eyes to meet with an unexpected sight. Ethan is sleeping on my lap hugging my hand, his messy hair on his face. Then the events of last night come to my mind. He shared everything about his family with me. Last night was really a memorable one.

I check the time on my phone to see it's 8 am. We still have one hour to get ready for the office. I take in a breath that refreshes me from inside. Birds chirping can be heard and the green leaves of the trees are wet from the dewdrop.

I look down at him and shake his hand slightly as I whisper his name.

"Ethan, wake up." He stirs a bit and turns around but instead of getting up, he wraps his hand around my waist and nuzzles his face in my stomach, causing a ticklish feeling there.

"Ethan, what are you doing? Ahaha- I'm feeling ticklish." I manage to say between my giggles.

Finally, he stops as he opens his eyes and rubs them with his hand. He seems confused for a moment while he looks side to side and back to my face, his head still on my lap. "It's morning." He says in a raspy voice.

As if I can't see that.

"We spent the whole night here?" He asks me and I nod.

"Now if you don't mind Ethan, would you please get up at least now?" I tell him, mockingly.

He smirks, "Nah I do mind a lot. I love it here."

I roll my eyes as I push Ethan hard and he finally gets up, chuckling. His eyes fall on me and the smile vanishes immediately. He looks down at the shawl and then at me.

"What the hell? You were like this in the cold the whole night?" He says, pointing out at my bare arms since I'm wearing a tank top right now.

I nod.

"Why was it around me? Why didn't you take it?"

"You were shivering. So I wrap you up with the shawl."

"And you thought it was fine for you to stay like this? Why didn't you wake me up?" He asks, kinda angry.

I sigh, "Ethan, it's not a big deal. You were sleeping so peacefully and I didn't want to wake you up. At least for one night, I wanted you to have a sound sleep. And the cold is nothing. I'm totally fine." I say as he keeps staring at me, surprised. When he doesn't say anything, I call him.

"Ethan, let's get inside now. We have to get ready." I say, getting down.

"Ok." He mumbles.

I quickly dress up in a white-colored top, dark washed denim jeans. I keep my hair down and wear a black suit jacket over the georgette top After getting ready, we both get out of the house and reach for Ethan's

black Mercedes. He drops me at my

office and then heads off to his.

I attend two meetings one after another with Cathie and come back to my office. Asking her to make a coffee for me, I settle down on my chair and lean back, resting my head when my phone rings. Argh! I can't even rest for a while.

I curse under my breath and take out my phone from my purse. As soon as my eyes fall on the caller ID, my eyes glisten as I smile happily.

Dad

For the four months I've been here,

dad called me approximately every week since he was so busy with work. But it's been two weeks since he last called me. I wanted to call him a few times but thinking maybe he was really swamped with work, I didn't. And I was busy too,

I receive the call and dad's soothing voice beams through the phone.

"Baby girl."

"Hey, dad," I reply, smiling.

"I'm sorry I couldn't talk to you in the last few days. I was really busy. Are you mad at me?"

"No, dad. I'm not mad. I understand. Like I'm here getting exhausted by the number of meetings and files I have to face every day. I don't know how you handle all this all alone."

Dad chuckles as he speaks, "I got used to it. By the way, you don't have to take too much pressure. I don't want you to fall sick because of me being selfish, I made you handle everything all alone. Don't overwork yourself, okay?"

"Don't worry, dad. I won't. How's your health now? Did you go to the doctor's appointment last week?"

"I did. The doctor said everything's alright. Nothing to worry about."

"Hmm. And don't forget to take your medicines in time."

"Ok, ok, mum. I'm your good boy. Don't be tense."

I chuckle at his words.

"And how's the deal with Mr. Jones? I heard that you were making an agreement with Mr. Reynolds and his son?"

If only you knew dad. Everything got messed up. I'm living with Ethan and now Liam made everything a lot more complicated. But no way I'm telling you this.

I clear my throat, "Uh... yeah... everything's going well. We're working on a new project now and I hope the profit will be worth our hard work."

"I know, baby girl. You can do this. That's why I depended on you." He says and I can guess him smiling, "Oh I'm heading to a meeting right now. I'll talk to you later. And once again, don't overwork yourself, okay?"

"Okay, dad. Deal."

I hear him laugh, "Ok then. Bye sweetheart. I love you."

"I love you too," I say and cut the call.

As I put the phone down, someone knocks on the door. I tell them to come in and look in the direction in the hope to see Cathie but instead, Liam walks in.

Trouble again I guess?

He has a grey suit and his blond hair is gelled back. He comes towards my desk with a smile while I take the time to process. I don't know if I did it right or wrong forgiving him but now that I already did, we are friends now. At least guess so.

"Hey, Evie!" He greets me.

"Liam, sit down." I smile back.

He sits on the visitor chair and puts some files on the table. I eye them before throwing a questioning glance at him.

"Dad told me to hand you these files." He clears up.

I nod as I bring the files to me and after looking through the headings quickly, I put them aside. At least this time, he came here for work. That's good.

"Wanna grab a coffee?" I ask for the sake of manners.

"Sure."

I call Cathie and tell her to bring two coffees to my office.

When I put down the receiver, I watch Liam staring at me. To lighten the environment, I ask,

"So how's everything?"

"Everything's fine. And Evie, I'm really sorry about that night. I wasn't in my senses." He says, guiltily.

"It's ok, Liam. You already apologized." I tell him, smiling.

He smiles and starts to look around

Fel.net

the room when his eyes fall on the same acrylic painting Ethan was watching four months back from now. He stands up and heads towards it, standing in front. He watches it for a while before turning around and running his eyes over

the books arranged orderly in the bookshelf.

"You still read poems?" He asks, smiling at me.

I walk over to him and shake my head, "No, dad does. I'm not into poems anymore."

He takes out a book as he speaks, "But you used to love reading poems. You remember?" He asks, looking up.

I chuckle lightly, "Yeah but that Evelyn changed a long time ago."

A sudden look of sadness engulfs him when he nods slowly and says, "But I wish you never changed."

What does he mean? Why doesn't he like it that I changed? After all, I changed and that's why my crush on him went away. That's why I don't see him the same way I used to do years ago.

I look into his eyes that are filled with disappointment. He's acting really strange. What's wrong with him? I would like it if he stayed the same arrogant asshole he was who didn't even look at me. But no, this was the right time for him to come back.

We are staring at each other, lost in thoughts when the door clicks open. I look away immediately and at the door but my eyes widen and my heart starts jumping in my chest as I see who walks in.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐