Aura Finley

The break time rolled by in a blink of an eye. And Kian kept asking for an apology throughout, however, I dismissed his every plea— like a judge in the court dismisses an appeal not worth entertaining.  I had ignored him so many times that for once I even forgot what he was apologizing for.

Since it was lunch break, Joy and Vinnie, escaped to spend quality time with each other and so did Mia and Rachel. Leo being the jerk he was, used his free time to gawk at the female guests. Ezra was packing the stuff which was not needed for now. Kian, well, he was nowhere to be seen.

Whereas I sat on the wooden bench under the shade of the tree with my notepad and pen in my hands to note down certain specific practical problematic possibilities of Rian's escape plan which may hinder the plan if not paid attention to. Those tiny elements were to be kept in mind and prepared for in case anything went wrong. But after writing a few points I ended up drawing random circles on the paper while watching people emerge in the wedding preparation and rush to and fro to meet the ends.

I was so lost in myself that I didn't notice when Ezra came and sat by me and snapped his fingers in my face. "Earth to, Aura."

My body jerked, making me come back to my senses. "Oh, hey." I passed him a gentle smile.

He pinned my gaze, then his gaze traveled to the mess I had drawn on the paper. "Is everything alright? I've been noticing you for quite some time; you seem bothered. Where were you lost if you don't mind me asking."

"I...I..." My gaze went past him, into the void. In all honesty, nothing was going inside my head; it was... blank. I was just lost in myself.

I looked back at Ezra. "Uh, nothing, just random stuff which doesn't need much attention." I dismissed his questions smoothly.

He seemed unsure, yet he gave in to my response. "If you say so." He smiled.

"Uh, Aura, I wanted to ask you something—" Ezra was cut off by Leo, who came and slammed his hand on Ezra's shoulder quite hard.

"Hey, Ez, let's go for lunch. I'm starving." Leo said.

"Done with gawking girls?" Ezra asked mockingly, looking up at him. This made Leo laugh amusingly.

"You seem offended, bro. You too can watch the sexy ladies out there, no one's stopping you. Who knows you'll find the one for you." Leo winked at him.

Ezra scoffed. "I don't engage myself with clients or anyone related to clients."

Leo chuckled sweetly and pinched Ezra's cheek. "Aww, our boy has some rules set for himself." Then he playfully punched his arm. "Have some fun, man."

I amusingly looked at Leo. "That means for you, fun is...gawking girls?"

He looked at me with the most innocent look he could put on. "No, Aura, not just that. Taking them to a quieter place, then making naughty noises is much more fun."

I made a weird face, then laughed mockingly. "God, you boys!  Does anything else other than this ever run inside your head?"

Leo frowned. "Hey, it's not like that. Girls do it willingly, too. It's not that they are being forced or anything. It's mutual."

"Well, no argument there." I raised my hands in surrender.

"Glad you understand." He beamed. "Now, let's head for lunch." He said to both of us.

"You guys go. I don't feel like eating anything. The breakfast today was too heavy." I responded honestly.

"You sure?" Ezra asked, standing up. I nodded my head with a smile assuring him I was alright. He was a sweet and caring guy whom I could not see bothered by anything related to me.

Suddenly, Kian appeared out of nowhere and sat on the bench with me, leisurely sprawling his arms on the edge of the backrest of the bench.

"Hey, we are heading for lunch, wanna join?" Leo asked him. 

Kian flicked his gaze at me before turning it back to Leo. "You guys go ahead, I'll join you in a few."

Shrugging off his shoulder, Leo walked away with Ezra, who walked ahead with his eyes on us. Strange.

"You still mad at me?" Kian questioned as he folded his legs up on the bench, sitting with his body facing me. I didn't reply to him, instead, I flipped the fresh page of the notepad. I was about to write something when he snatched it from my hand and closing it, he hid it behind him.

"Hey, give it back to me." I tried to snatch it back but to no avail. Huffing, I crossed my arms and averted my eyes.

"I said sorry, Aura. Please, please, please forgive me?" I heard him plead which made me look at him with narrowed eyes.

"What does my forgiveness matter to you? What difference will it make? Nothing I believe?"

Okay, maybe I went overboard. I shouldn't have said that, regardless, I did and now I couldn't take my words back. Well, Shit!

I saw a change of emotion on his face, perhaps, a feeling of disbelief. This wasn't a good sign.

"Why would it not matter?" He tilted his head as he asked me. "It does, Aura."

Okay, he was really upset because he called me by my name for the second time in a row.

He shifted a little closer and spoke, "We are partners; we are supposed to work together. Tell me how will we communicate if any one of us is not responding?"

"And whose fault is that?" I raised an eyebrow. "Instead of taking things seriously, you opted to play wicked games and had me trapped in there with those scary guards for no reason. What if they suspected—Why what if...they are convinced that I am up to something. They have their eyes fixed on me like a hawk. I'm sure this is gonna create a hindrance in the execution of our plan."

He held up his hands in front of him. "I assure you nothing will go wrong. I thought of having a little fun and I sincerely apologize for that. Please forgive me?"

"First promise me you'll do no such thing ever again. You will not tease me anymore." I said firmly.

His hand traveled to the back of his neck as he licked his lips. "Err, about that. I promise never to go overboard."

I rolled my eyes. Here we go. He could never change.

"So, am I forgiven?" He asked hopefully. In response, I only stared at him. Honestly, I had already forgiven him but I wanted him to work for it a little.

"God, girls!" He growled. "You will not forgive me unless I do something special, will you?"

I shrugged along with a smirk.

He sighed. "I thought I'd not need to do this, but girls...Fine." With that, he lifted his t-shirt a little.

I shrieked as I grabbed his hand, not allowing him to lift his shirt. "What the heck you think you are doing?!"

He first blinked at my outburst, then he laughed. "Aww, you are so adorable." He pinched my cheek, still laughing his heart out. He laughed so much that he had tears in his eyes.

Frowning, I brought my hands back to me and wondered why did he laugh. He wiped the traces of tears from his eyes and spoke, still gasping for air.

"I wasn't showing off my abs, cheesesteak. Though I'd love it if you saw them. But what I was doing is..." He again lifted his t-shirt and pulled out a flower that was tucked in his waistbelt.

He outstretched it to me. "This. Please accept it as a token of my apology?"

My eyes flicked from him to the flower, which I noticed wasn't a real one; it was crafted with a white ribbon and fixed on a stem.

"And please, don't refuse it. I spent an hour making it with help of youtube tutorials. I invested my sweat and blood in it—okay not blood, but my feelings, yeah."

"You made it for me?" I was stunned. He invested his precious time— which he could have spent flirting around, to make a flower for me, just to earn an apology. How considerate of him.

I felt so low of myself for being rude to him all along. God, he turned out to be a sweet guy. Blush quickly got sprinkled over my face at the thought of that. This time, without wasting even a second, I grabbed the flower and smiled while examining how perfectly it was made.

"You are such a guy. Fine, you're forgiven." I chuckled amusingly, my eyes still on the beautiful flower created with feelings.

"Yes!" He fist-bumped the air, but when he saw he gained some attention from the people around, he reduced his excitement. "Thank you, cheesesteak."

He leaned forward and whispered. "And please, don't tell a soul about it. I never did this for any girl ever. If they heard about it, they'll demand it, too. But what they don't know is that these special things are done for someone special, not for everyone."

This brought a wide, wicked grin to my lips. "It means I'm someone special?"

His eyes turned wide and I swear I saw a hint of blush around his cheek. "I...I...didn't say that, uh..."

How cute.

I laughed at his cuteness. "So I make you speechless, too. Hmm, fine Mr. Flirt, my lips are sealed."

He playfully narrowed his eyes at me. "You're so wicked."

"Thank you for this." I laughed, raising the flower in my hand. "By the way, what did you find back there?" I asked the question that had been bugging me for a while now. I wanted to know what did he find on the east side exit.

"Oh, that," He looked left and right before leaning closer, way too close, to me. "You won't believe what I found there, Cheesesteak. Although there is a back secret entrance which wasn't hard to find, I found a broken wall behind a tree which is unnoticeable due to the wide width of the tree trunk."

I nodded my head, urging him to continue. "And the most amazing thing about that wall is that it's completely hidden from the cameras and directly leads us outside the boundaries of the mansion under no surveillance."

My jaw hung low in surprise. "Wow, that's amazing. Now, all we have to do is plan the way out from there."

"And that's why I consider you smart." He winked, beaming. "But let me warn you, we'll have to jump the wall, so be prepared for that."

"But we'll be caught in the camera while jumping off the wall. You were seen, too." I frowned.

"I know I did. I jumped from the middle of the way the instant I thought I could find something there. We will jump from the corner which is surrounded by the trees."

"God, trees are of so much help, aren't they?" I exclaimed admiringly.

"They are." He nodded his head, then we both went silent. I rolled the stem of the flower between my fingers whereas he simply bounced his knees. After a long silence, the only thing he said elevated my heartbeat.

"You should smile more often for it looks good on you."

Mouth agape, eyes slightly wide, I looked at him, only to find him staring at me. And as though he deciphered what he said, he chuckled. "I mean everybody looks good when they smile, don't they?"

I slightly shook my head wondering as to why he modified his statement after saying something good specifically pointed at me. He never did that when throwing flirty remarks.

Then all of a sudden, he cursed while looking past me. "Fuck! What is she doing here?!"

I followed his gaze and found him staring at a girl who just entered through the gates of the manor. Undeniably, she was beautiful. From afar, she looked elegant, fashionista, and confident woman. Her assertive walk said it all. While looking to left and right, her gaze got fixed on us, or rather on Kian. She seemed to behave as if she were trying to remember him.

With my gaze still on the woman, I asked Kian. "Girlfriend?"

"A long-forgotten ex to be precise." I heard him mutter.

This made me look at him in surprise; his gaze still fixed on her as if reminiscing the old times.

"Heartbroken?" I asked.

He flicked his eyes at me and slowly, a smile appeared on his lips. "Actually, no. As a matter of fact, I should go and greet her like old times, shouldn't I? It's been too long after all."

With that, he stood up and brushed off the dust from his jeans. "See you in a bit." And he strolled towards her.

I remained seated watching him approach his ex-girlfriend. They exchanged a few words before the girl squealed and jumped on him, hugging the life out of him.

Their loving interaction forced me to take my eyes off them and directed them back at the flower in my hand. He had said it was the first time he did something this precious for someone, but what about his girlfriend? He must have done it for her for sure.

The alarming thing about that was why that thought bothered me.

There was something wrong with me for sure. Bewildered and still bothered, I stood up from there and walked away to calm down my raging heartbeat.

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