The Carrero Heart 3: Happy Ever Afters

SOPHIE

“Hey beautiful, you’re early. I was going to come to meet you. How was it?” Arry comes out of the kitchen as I walk through the front door, bag in hand, and I have to smile through my crappy mood. I don’t want him to know how awful today really was. I don’t want him thinking some bitchy girls are victimizing me already and that coming here was a mistake.

He moved heaven and earth to get us here before I started the term, got our apartment ready, and pushed a lot of his stuff back so he could be with me for the first weeks of life in Paris. I don’t want him thinking it was all for nothing—not yet anyway, not in the first few days when it all might settle down, and I will stress him out for no reason. He would hate knowing that these girls have just spent a day ostracizing me and throwing bitchy looks and snide remarks all day long.

My tutors were not any help, turning a blind eye, and I could see even among them, they had their little clique groups and were no better than the students. It’s a huge culture shock compared to my last school, where all the students tended to form little friendly groups and keep out of each other’s way; or maybe, I guess I didn’t see it happening as I had friends of my own to keep me oblivious to this kind of thing, and here, I have no one.

“They let us leave when we were done with an end-of-day assignment, and you know me, I’m a fast worker. It was okay. Weird being the new kid again. Will take some getting used to and a little time to settle in and make friends.” I try for upbeat and sound deflated and exhausted. Arry narrows his brows at me and crosses to meet me, helping me take off my bag and jacket, and hangs them up for me as I slide my boots off.

I can feel his eyes on me, reading me, analyzing me like he always does, and I try not to show anything that will worry him. “You sound tired and fed up. Something happen today?” His eyes are boring a hole in my head, and I shrug and move to walk past him, but he catches me and draws me into his body from behind, wrapping his arms around me and snuggling close, so his mouth is right by my ear.

“Talk to me… I can tell you’re upset, baby.” Husky, soothing tones that make me melt. Covering his arms with mine and squeezing him tight. “It’s nothing… first day blues. Missing home, missing my friends. It’s just new, different, and so far from what I’m used to.”

Nothing ever feels like this, his circle of safety and protection. His way of making me feel whole. I close my eyes and savor the tight embrace as all day’s stress and frustration ooze right out of me like a hot liquid. This was always his gift, even when I was a kid and so crazy messed up inside my own head. He would be my anchor and hold me tight until it all felt better again.

He’s the only person who ever could do this for me. “You’ll get there. It’s normal to feel like this. So much has changed by coming here, losing your circle of familiarity. We will get through this and settle quicker than you realize.” He lets me loose and securely takes my hand in his entangling fingers, guiding me into the apartment, past the lounge, and down the hall to the kitchen.

I watch him walk slightly in front of me and admire his ease; even in a new world, nothing phases him about being in a strange place. Arry loves cooking when he has downtime, and I can smell that he’s probably been at it while I have been gone. He has the table set for us; it looks so pretty that it makes me smile. The boy is well-versed in romance and beautiful candlelit table setups. He knows how to make me go weak every day.

“What about you? How was your day?” I smile at him when he hits me with a quick peck on the mouth and pulls out a chair to maneuver me into, sliding me in smoothly when I sit down and wandering over to the worktops where he has plates sitting. He begins dishing with his back to me. “Weird… I can’t remember the last time I had nothing to do in a day and was here alone. Normally we’re together, or we’re at work. It was kinda good to be a house husband.”

He turns and winks at me, and I giggle. Not that he really is a house husband; we have a cleaner here who comes every day, and she’s supposed to cook our meals too, but I guess Arry decided to take over today. I’m not complaining; I wish I cooked as he does. I have never mastered more than the basics, even though he is a patient teacher.

I suppose half the problem with his cooking lessons is we somehow always end up having sex on the worktop before we ever finish a recipe. Just can’t seem to cohabit too close a space with each other without some manhandling from either side. Even after a year, I still want him so badly. “Don’t get too used to it… I want to see you back in a gym before you lose those abs.”

I raise a non-serious brow at him as he returns with a loaded plate of carbonara, my favorite, and a bowl of garlic bread and puts mine in front of me. He comes back with his a moment later and sits opposite me. “I know, baby… I remember… stay fit, stay hot, or you’re dumping my ass.” He grins at me, and I nod as though I am completely serious—not that I am. Even if Arry gained weight, got slobby, and didn’t shave, I would still love him to death because he’s my Arry and makes everything right.

“As long as you know it.” I point my fork at him and then dig in with the appetite of a famished person, starving for food. “I met a nice couple today when I went looking for a bread shop. They own the bakery a couple of streets away and asked if we wanted to meet up at a bar on Saturday night. I said I would ask you and see them tomorrow when I go to pick up some baguettes.”

Arry raises his brows at me, and I smile, awed at his ability to make friends wherever he goes. It’s effortless, like breathing, and it always amazes me that people respond to him. Everyone wants to be friends with my boy. Only Arry could go out for groceries and get an invite, while I spent a day with fellow students and got nothing but icy stares and cold shoulders. Go figure.

“As long as they speak English, it sounds like a date.” I carry on eating, feeling better and less shitty. Food is the answer to all of life’s problems.

“I told them you were finding the language challenging, and yes, they both speak fluent American. They’re British, English, I think.” Arry is digging into his food, his feet under the table on either side of mine, so we play footsie and tangle our limbs instinctively, and I sigh.

“How you can pick up languages so easily is beyond me… you suck.” I rub my foot up his leg and smile when he puts his hand under the table to grab my foot and pull it up on his lap, sliding his warm hand around it and kneading my sole firmly. I wiggle down my seat so my foot is further on that sexy lap and smile at him broadly. Arry’s foot rubs are still the best, and he’s a pro at one-handed eating while giving me my daily massage.

“I think it’s being bilingual. Growing up, speaking two languages must help. Jake is the same… just picks them up easy.” His cell rings on the worktop across the kitchen, and he slides up to retrieve it, leaving my foot to fall back down, and I carry on eating, savoring the most delicious pasta known to man.

Arry leans on the surface as he talks into his cell, and I hear him utter his brother’s name. He throws me a smile and then wanders back to sit down even though he’s still talking, throwing me a pained expression, a little eyebrow twitch, and a grimace that worries me. I try not to listen in, but he’s sat right opposite me, hardly trying to be quiet. Arry has a face that rarely gives much away at any time, but I know his little tells and quirks, and he doesn’t look happy.

“Sure. If needs must, but not for a few days yet. Give Sophie time to settle here.” He throws me another look, a more obvious frown, and I wonder what he’s talking about. I’m getting a weird vibe, and I don’t like it. I try to keep eating, but the odd lurch in my stomach tells me something bad is coming.

“Yeah, okay. Look, I will call you later. Sort that out for me, and have Amanda email me the details.” He frowns my way again; this time, I know something is up. He has that look on his face, the whole ‘she’s not going to like this’ expression, and I lower my fork to stare at him, trying to decipher what ‘it’ could be. Arry stares back, slides a hand across the table to capture mine, and plays with my fingers, throwing me a half smile that doesn’t reach his gorgeous hazel eyes.

Now I know for sure he has something to tell me that I will hate. He’s working the ‘softly touching’ angle to prepare me; usually, this is also a ‘hold her hands down so she doesn’t fly off the handle’ maneuver.

“Okay, bye then… Yeah, love you too.” He swipes his cell and puts it on the table beside his plate carefully and calmly, and I know this is not good. He’s being deliberate and delaying so he can choose his words, and I yank my fingers out of his and raise my brows.

“What? Tell me… Just say it.” I throw him that ‘don’t bullshit me’ glare because he knows I hate when he skirts around something. I would rather he did it quickly, like pulling off a band-aid, not the Arry method of beating around the bush. He sighs heavily and taps his thumb on the table, instantly antsy.

“I need to go to New York soon… Preferably no further than a week away. Something’s come up with Carrero Corp… A huge deal in the making. I own a third of the company. I need to be involved.” He’s tense, and my stomach drops to my knees from a great height at speed.

“We only just got here a few days ago. I don’t know anybody.” I can’t help the overriding emotions of fear and hurt that hit me hard and realize how dumb I’m being. I’m not a kid. I’m twenty, almost twenty-one. He’s not my dad; he’s my boyfriend, and I need to stop clinging to him to always do everything for me. Other women can survive separations from their men for a few days, so I should be able to do it too. I survived so much worse and stood on my own two feet before him. I need to get a grip.

“It’s only for a couple of days… the flights make it a little longer; it’s like eight hours one way. I can fly the red-eye through the night and cut down how long I’m gone.” He’s watching me, poised and waiting for my reaction, and my eyes well up. My throat is aching because I don’t want him to leave me so soon. This is all new, and everyone here hates me. It’s crappy and lonely, and he’s all I have right now.

“Hey, don’t do that, baby. You’re killing me here.” Arry is up on his feet and by my side, kneeling in seconds, putting his arms around me and pulling me into his strong embrace, smothering me with the smell and feel of him.

“It’s so soon,” I whisper, unable to cut out the dumb tears, and I try hard to sniff them back, wiping them with my sleeve. Arry tilts my face to his with fingers under my chin and brushes them away.

“I don’t want to go… If it bothers you this much, then I won’t. We can do it via video call or something. I don’t want you upset.” Arry looks and sounds sincere, nuzzling my face with his, straining to get as close as possible, and it just makes me feel even more stupid, clingy, and needy. He tries so hard always to do what’s best for me. He’s changed so much in the last year, even putting up with my random jealous outbursts or occasional insecure wobbles and crazy temper without losing his cool, without being a jackass. I never knew he could be more lovable than he was as my best friend, but he is.

Arry has matured a lot more than I have while being together, and sometimes, I feel like I’m failing him by being slow to catch up. I know he’s twenty-six now, and it makes a difference to how he is, but I still feel I need to be more capable than this.

“No. Don’t… I need to learn that sometimes we might have to be apart. The sooner I get used to you having to go away for a few days, the better, right?” I blink at him and try to force a smile on my face that I’m just not feeling. This was always part of the plan; sometimes, he would have to go back and work.

“We’ve barely moved in, Sophs. I’m not surprised that this is upsetting you. It’s upsetting me that I must go. I promised I wouldn’t go anywhere for the first month.” He leans in and brushes his nose against mine, warming me to my core and soothing me in many ways.

Tilting so our faces are so close.

“Jake wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. He knows how things are right now.” I stare at him imploringly, trying to convince myself as much as him that this is really okay. I can’t be such a baby all the time.

“It sounds like it is. It’s a multibillion-dollar partnership with our biggest competitor… It’s huge, Sophs. An opportunity we cannot pass up.” Arry stands up, leaning to kiss me on top of the head now that I am calmer, as he knows I like my breathing space to compose myself fully, and goes back to sit at the table to resume eating.

Sliding his feet around mine and pulling them toward him snugly. Still got to have his contact, though.

“I’ll be fine… Show you I can take care of things while you’re gone. It’ll be good for me. Throw me in at the deep end.” I smile brightly, not feeling it but wanting so much not to be that needy girl that I know sometimes drives him crazy. Not that he ever says it, but I know it must.

I used to be so much more independent.

“Hmmm.” Is all he replies, doubtful and overly serious as he ponders me fending for myself. Despite knowing I can and have done it before, he doesn’t actually like me doing it, and I smile genuinely. He doesn’t want to go.

I know him. Loving my protective boy and telling myself this will be fine. His overriding instinct is to always look after me, be there for me, take care of me, and being so far away will stress him out as much as it will me. I can guarantee it will result in daily calls, texts, Skype calls, and emails.

It won’t be so bad.

I have to prove to him that I’m not as needy and incompetent as everyone seems to assume. Arry being away will give me back some of my self-dependence and maybe grow up a little. Too used to being waited on hand and foot, pampered, and adored by him.

It’s time I started acting like a grown woman and got my shit together for myself.