Emma
Everything felt normal by the time Elijah entered the office. It felt like a massive load has been lifted off my shoulders. I instantly felt embarrassed as I realized that there was a spring in my steps, a real smile on my face, and as I walked around the office I would hum a happy song.
“Are you ready to go out to dinner with me?” Elijah whispered as he suddenly appeared to me out of nowhere, I didn’t even notice his presence. I jumped in surprise as I spun around to face him, but I didn’t expect that he was this close. I could already feel my face burning up from embarrassment. “Did you need something, Elijah?” I couldn’t help but stutter.
It honestly frustrates me that I can’t speak normally to Elijah, it was the only time I’ve ever been disappointed with my stuttering. It never bothered me before, but recently I’ve been wanting to talk to Elijah normally without stuttering, acting nervous, or merely act timidly in front of him.
He smirked as he casually leaned against my desk and said: “So will have dinner with me?” Except for those days he was not in the office, not even a single day goes by that he doesn’t ask me this question. He doesn’t give up before it used to annoy me that he doesn’t give up but now I found it quite admirable. Usually, when I would brush off men or shy away from them, they would easily give up. This was the first time that someone hasn’t given up on me.
My heart started racing at that very thought.
I sighed and said softly “Fine, but just this once.”
He stood there as his reaction came in late. He slightly tilted his head to the side and asked “What?” It was like he couldn’t believe my answer, I can’t blame him I’ve been rejecting him for a long time now. His eyes were widened, and his smirk was wiped off his face as he stared at me with complete surprise, it was a new reaction that I’ve never seen him.
I couldn’t help but let a laugh escape my lips; this only made Elijah’s eyes grow wider. I am carrying his hand to my lips to calm myself down and told Elijah “I’m sorry for laughing, but I’ve never seen that expression on your face before.”
“So, it’s a date?” he asked.
My whole body tensed as my cheeks started burning up once more. Might as well accept that the normal color of my cheeks is red because I’m always blushing.
“It’s not a date; it’s just two friends hanging out,” I was back to stuttering.
“Huh? Friends? Then where shall we go on this date?” he asked. I deadpanned him. “Once again this is not a date,” I tried to make it clear, but it’s like it went through one ear and out the other. I knew that no matter what I said he would think of it as a date whether I like it or not.
“Where shall we go? Paris? Five-star hotel? Cruise around the world?” he started listing impossible dates. Even if I wanted to do any of those, I couldn’t afford it.
“Normal people don’t go on dates like that,” I pointed out.
“I do,” he said so naturally.
“Well, I don’t think you’re normal,” I told him.
“So, I’m someone special?” he asked with the biggest smirk on his face. I won’t be answering that. “Then let’s just head back to my place, and I’ll cook you something,” he suggested.
This perked my interest. “You know how to cook?” I asked him in surprise. My first impression on him must be terrible since I always expected the worse from him. This all started from his house where I thought it would be messy but it turns out that it was sparkly clean, and now I expected him to have a professional chef to cook his meals making him not knowing how to cook.
“Don’t you have like a professional chef or something?” I asked him.
“I do have” he replied, and all I can say is that I’m not surprised. “But I like being alone at home so instead of ordering takeout I would cook for myself.”
That’s something new I learned about Elijah the more I get to know him the more I come to admire and respect him. He’s entirely not what I expected, but I still think he’s a pervert, but now I’ve recently noticed that he’s only a pervert when he’s around me. When he’s with other girls, he will act regular but with me is a whole different thing.
“That’s something unexpected,” I said.
“Believe me kitten; there are lots of things about me that you don’t know.”
When he said that it reminded me of something, those drawings in the room with the red door. Just remembering him drawing me made my heart thunder in my chest, and I had to take a step back to make sure that he didn’t hear how my heart was beating fast.
This is making me extremely embarrassed. First, not having Elijah teasing felt wrong. Second, it looks and sounds like we’re going on a date. Now that I’m learning things about him I wanted to learn more.
“Then it’s settled. After work we’ll go to my house together,” he said but what bothered me was that when he said that everyone around us including the women heard us. I suddenly felt like I was being hunted down, eyes were glaring at me that I could already feel a hole burning through the back of my head.
Time seems to pass by impossibly slow when you have almost all of the women in your office glaring daggers at you. I couldn’t focus at work at all because I felt like dangerous predators surrounded me, but the most dangerous of them all was the man who kept walking around with a smirk on his face as he kept reminding me that we had a date. Every time he brought it up another pair of eyes would glare at me.
Most of the time my mind would wander off towards the future, to be specific it would walk deep into what might happen after work. It came as a surprise that I’m looking forward to it.
By the time my work ended I couldn’t help but stretch my arms. I suddenly heard a chuckle behind me. “You do look like a kitten… kitten.” It was Elijah who looked ready to go home, and might I add that he seemed extremely excited. A little too excited.
“Stop calling me a kitten.”
“Ready to go kitten?” As always, he never listens to me.