Daisy sighed, shaking her head with a roll of her eyes. “I bet you did, didn’t you? Did you enjoy making me worry, too?” she hummed the question, raising her eyebrows at him. She didn’t wait for him to answer before turning around and stepping further into the kitchen. “Something to drink? Water? Coffee? Tea?”
“Water will be fine,” Arvil answered as he followed her in. “And to your question, no, I didn’t enjoy making you worried. I was, however, extremely touched that you were worried for me.”
“Well, who wouldn’t be worried when someone promised to call and didn’t for two hours?” Daisy questioned, avoiding his gaze as she reached into a cupboard, grabbed a glass, and filled it with water. She took a breath and let it out before turning around to face him, a neutral expression carefully pasted on. “Here you go.”
Arvil took the glass from her with a ‘thank you,’ eyes carefully observing her.
“I did tell you I was at a meeting,” he said. “Yet you got worried.”
“You said that you would call when you were free. I thought it was almost over,” Daisy explained with a shrug, stepping last him and into the dining room. “Did you want that tour now, or what?”
Arvil sighed. She was back to being that cold and cool woman, huh? Had he mistaken her worry, or had it been genuine?
“The tour sounds wonderful,” Arvil muttered. “But I’m actually exhausted. I should probably head home now.”
Daisy turned to blink up at him, a flicker of disappointment appearing and then disappeared again. She nodded slowly and glanced at the clock on the microwave.
“Right. Of course. You were just in a meeting, and it was probably far away,” she sighed. “You should definitely go home. Rest.”
“Mhm,” Arvil stifled a yawn, running a hand through his hair, missing the look she’d sent. “Unless, of course, you want me to stay with you. I’d gladly do that.”
“No. No, you should go,” Daisy answered, shaking her head. “But I will take your cup.”
Arvil blinked before looking at his hand. He still had the cup of water in his hand. He shook his head.
“I nearly forgot,” he muttered, setting it aside. “Well, Daisy, I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah. I’ll see you,” Daisy murmured as she walked him to the door. Before he stepped away, before he left, she added, “Thank you for the flowers. They’re beautiful.”
“Well, I thought they’d be perfect. You smell like roses often,” he shrugged. “Mostly vanilla, but you usually wear rose scented perfumes as well. I thought you’d like those, if that was the case.”
Daisy blinked at his observation. He’d really noticed the way she smelled? Interesting…
“That’s actually a combination of my perfume, shampoo, and deodorant,” she said with a shrug. “My shampoo is vanilla, my perfume is rose, and my deodorant is both.”
“Ah,” Arvil blinked tiredly. “Well, it smells nice. Anyway, I’ll see you around, Daisy. Sleep well.”
He smiled at her, nodded once and turned around to walk to his car. Before he sat in, he turned back to look at Daisy. Finally, he started his car and drove off.
He had hoped Daisy would tell him to stay. He didn’t really know why.
[TIME SKIP: THE WEEKEND]
Arvil had a pretty bad start. He woke up in the morning after three hours of sleep, and he woke up a little later than he usually did.
Now, that wasn’t a bad thing in itself. Arvil wasn’t a good chef, but he never missed breakfast. He certainly never missed his morning coffee, either, because the lack of caffeine made the adult very hard to handle. It was a problem. But he missed both his breakfast and his morning coffee. That was a bigger problem.
Now, he went to work and found out there were lots of papers to be looked over and signed, three different games to be checked, and a meeting to attend. To make matters worse, he had lunch scheduled with Daisy’s parents. Again. Life had been hard, but it just became harder. At least he had managed to get some coffee, but five hours later, Arvil managed to finish more than half of his work and got done with the monthly meeting with his employees (which, might he add, gave him a severe headache).
All that work had made Arvil very annoyed, and an annoyed Arvil was never a good thing. But here he was, dressed up appropriately, looking fresh, in front of the Riley’s front door.
He rang the bell and waited.
Daisy definitely did not want to have this meal with her parents, and she was still feeling incredibly awkward around Arvil. They kissed one time, and that was all it took for her head to be filled with thoughts of him. And then the thing the other day happened with him not calling her and the flowers and her being worried and whatnot…
She sighed as she crossed her legs, leaning back on the couch. Her parents had let her in and told her that they were just waiting on a couple more people. One of them was obviously Arvil, but who was the other?
The unasked question was answered a few minutes after the journalist had sat down when the doorbell rang. Her mother got up and answered it, then led a painfully familiar man into the room.
“Gavril?” she breathed, her eyes shooting between the man and her parents questioningly. “What— What are you doing here?”
The doorbell rang once again before anyone could answer, and Daisy’s mother came back with the man posing as her fiancé. Gavril and Arvil stood next to each other, and Daisy shifted uncomfortably.
When Arvil entered and saw Gavril, his sour mood had escalated. What was he doing there?
Both males stared each other down, neither backing off until Arvil rolled his eyes and stepped toward Daisy. He pulled her to him, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. This action seemed a far more intimate one than they’d ever shared. Aside from that kiss, of course. For Arvil, that is. This woman had just become far more enchanting.
“Hey,” he murmured, caressing her cheek lovingly. “Sorry I didn’t call you today. Work had piled up endlessly, and since we got to see each other now, I hope I’m forgiven.”
Before his fiancée could answer, the man Arvil found most annoying cleared his throat.
“Well, then, since we’re all here,” he drawled, “Should we have a seat?”
Daisy blinked up at Arvil, shocked by the way he just so casually held her close. And he’d like used her again. Not in the lips this time, but still… Her forehead burned with the touch.
She slowly pulled away from his grip and took his hand instead. Her parents watched her with the men, their expressions carefully guarded. She knew what they we’re thinking, though. Twenty-six years of knowing someone gives you the ability to know that sort of thing.
“Yes, let’s. The food is done now and sitting on the table. Why don’t we go in there?” Daisy’s father suggested, brushing his pants off as he stood.
Arvil squeezed Daisy’s hand, knowing he’d made her uncomfortable again. It wasn’t like he wanted to. He just saw Gavril and how he looked at Daisy and it had boiled his blood.
“I’m rather confused,” Arvil started, eyes brushing over Gavril as if he was mere dust. “What is that man doing here?”
“Oh, we ran into him on our way home from the store and invited him for dinner,” Annalise explained with a shrug as she reached for her husband’s hand. “We thought you could both get to know each other better. Gavril’s family are long time family friends of ours, after all.”
Gavril looked at Arvil and smiled, though there was mockery present in them. Arvil’s hands fisted in his pockets, but he remained behaved. Not that it was an easy thing to do. Arvil couldn’t believe her parents would invite Gavril after what he’d said. Even after knowing how he viewed their daughter…
Gavril brushed past him and stopped in front of Daisy, took her hand in his and pressed a kiss to its back. Arvil gritted his teeth.
“I didn’t get to greet you earlier. Your… fiancée interrupted us,” he said smoothly. “You look beautiful today, Daisy.”
“I’d appreciate it if you let go of my fiancée,” Arvil started in a low voice. “I don’t fancy another man touching her, much less without her permission.”
Gavril chuckled, but did as he was told. No witty, insulting comments? Nothing?
Daisy narrowed her eyes at Gavril and slipped her hand from his hold. “If I had wanted you to kiss my hand, I would have extended it to you,” she said quietly, her voice low enough that her parents, who had gone into the kitchen a moment before, wouldn’t hear. “Don’t touch me, Gavril. I’m sure my parents would hate for me to get a restraining order against you.”
Arvil felt proud of Daisy in that moment. He looked at her in amusement, as well as showing the pride he felt. His woman could certainly bite, huh? He liked it.
His woman… Arvil immediately shook that thought away.
Gavril looked a bit irked, but he returned his hand to his side.
“Of course,” his voice was soft, but there was an edge to it. “Just like we’d hate for your parents to find out you’re lying to them, right?”
Daisy raised her eyebrows, definitely shocked but trying not to show it. “What are you taking about? Lying about what?” she questioned, her brows furrowing as she leaned further into Arvil. She’d be lying if she said it wasn’t for comfort just as much as it was for show.
Arvil wrapped his arm around her tightly, his thumb rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. Gavril merely chuckled, shaking his head.
“I guess we’ll find out, hm?” And he strolled past them into the kitchen. Arvil’s eyes set on the man’s back, narrowed considerably.
“One day,” Arvil breathed. “I’m going to kill him.”
Daisy shuddered, closing her eyes as she let out a breath. “How did he know, though? How did he find out?” she whispered, her eyes trailing after the other man. She shook her head and ran a hand through her hair. “We should go. My parents will be wondering what’s taking us so long.”
Arvil took her face in his hands gently, rubbing her cheeks with what he hoped was comfort. He pressed their foreheads together, looking at her in the eyes.
“It’s going to be all right,” he whispered. “Chances are he’s only faking it. He’s probably just trying to find a chance to prove he’s right. Okay? So don’t worry about it.”
Daisy blinked up at Arvil, her cheeks warming at his closeness. What was he doing? He didn’t like her in that way… right? Because… because he couldn’t like her like that. They were faking an engagement. They couldn’t fall for each other. This was all fake.
And yet… he was being so gentle…
“Yeah,” she murmured, tearing her eyes from his. “Really, though, we should go join everyone… My mother will be upset if we make them wait too long.”
He felt her face warm up and Arvil felt his stomach squeeze, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling. He liked that feeling. Had her eyes always been this pretty? When had he started thinking about her like that?
Then she removed her eyes from his and he immediately missed looking into them. His eyes flickered to her mouth—it would be so simple to just press them together. He shook that thought away.
“All right,” he let her go and stepped back. “Let’s go before your mother gets angry.”
Daisy nodded and glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. Was it just her, or did he look like she’d rejected him? She hadn’t rejected him, had she? There wasn’t anything to reject him for…
She looped her arm through his — it would be expected that the couple were holding hands or arms — and led him into the dining room. Her parents glanced up from their places on opposite ends of the table. Gavril was seated on one side, and two empty chairs were on the other. At least she silent have to sit by the man.
“Sorry about that. We just needed to talk about something,” she explained, forcing a smile that she hoped looked real onto her face.
Her parents simply nodded. “Have a dear. We’ll eat as soon as you’re ready.”