Chapter 80 You're Really Short

Eden's POV:

I'm freaking out. Literally freaking out.

It doesn't help that Noah has me sitting in his office collating documents when all I really want to do is run down to my grandma's office and demand to know what the hell is going on. Not that she'd actually tell me.

When it's finally time to call it a day, Noah rushes me out the door. I'm not sure why but he seems to be in a very good mood. I feel like a bit of a downer by comparison. It's hard to be happy when I'm so worried about grandma. But I can't tell him that. I can't explain my moodiness to him and that makes me feel even worse.

He takes it in his stride though. He doesn't seem at all affected by the fact that I keep giving him one word answers or that I'm barely being civil.

As he drives us to the supermarket, I stay quiet, staring out the window at the passing buildings. I'm not really seeing them. He could be taking me to the middle of the countryside to ax me to death and I would be none the wiser.

I jump slightly when he tells me to get out of the car. I hadn't even heard the engine stop. He's no longer sitting next to me in the car but standing over me, my door open.

"Are you coming?" he asks, smiling down at me. "Or would you rather wait here?"

I'm not sure what I want to do so I accept his hand and climb out of the car. He somehow manages to keep a conversation going even though I'm of little help.

"Should we have a bottle of wine?" he asks but I shrug my shoulders. "I think a bottle of red would be lovely."

I need to snap out of it. My grandma is more than capable of managing this situation. It's not like she's a frail old lady. She's a firecracker and she has a brilliant legal team. There's no reason for me to worry but it doesn't matter how many times I tell myself that, I can't stop myself from being anxious.

Noah's hand squeezes mine and I look up at him. Did he just ask me something?

"What sort of cheese do you want?" he asks.

"Mature cheddar is good," I say.

He smiles widely at me, probably grateful that I didn't just grunt my reply. I have got to pull myself together. I'm no use like this. If I were to ask my grandma if there's anything I can do to help, she'd refuse my help point blank. That leaves me with little that I can do for her. In fact, all it leaves me is the paperwork currently sitting on the coffee table in my living room.

That makes me feel slightly less useless. There is something I can do.

Noah making little jokes in an attempt to cheer me up as we make our way around the store. He keeps picking up random things and asking if we need it. The things he picks up get more and more wacky as me go. He starts off borderline normal, like the mug he suggests I need in my apartment because it says that 'I survived another meeting that should have been an email.' I quickly remind him that he's the one that arranges the meetings. But before I know it, he's picking up some random vegetable that I've never even heard of. Which is saying something because I love my veg...

Grabbing a can of dog food, he asks when his Christmas present is coming and I'm completely lost. I don't know what he's talking about.

"You said you'd get me a puppy for Christmas," he says with a mock pout.

"I don't know about you but for most people Christmas happens in December," I tell him.

"You mean I've got to wait two more months?" he grumbles. "Can't I have it early?"

"Do you even want a puppy?" I ask.

"Yeah. Of course I do," he insists. "If it's a gift from my girlfriend..."

"Girlfriend?"

He shrugs, smirking at me. He looks pleases with himself. This whole conversation was geared towards getting that word in.

"I see what you did there," I tell him.

He raises his eyebrow challengingly. "I'm serious, I really want a puppy."

"You're never home!" I exclaim.

"Sure I am..."

"Right. So you don't spend most nights at mine."

"I've never spent the night at yours," he says.

"That's not what I meant. When would you even walk it?"

"I have this amazing assistant. She can walk my dog."

"What?" Sometimes I swear he says things just to get a reaction out of me. "You want me to walk your dog?"

"Walk it. Home it. Own it." He shrugs his shoulders. "I just want to pet it. Everything else is on you."

Laughing, I shake my head. "Not happening."

"You're backing out of a promise?"

"No. I never promised. I said maybe."

We continue our way around the store until we have everything we need and then queue up to pay. I'm in a significantly better mood now, thanks to Noah.

"Are you sure you want to try my cooking?"

"Are you going to poison me?" I tease.

"Hopefully not," he laughs.

"Well... you risked my cooking," I say with a shrug. "It can't get worse than that."

"True," he agrees and I smack his chest.

"Oi! You're not meant to agree with me!"

He throws his head back laughing before pulling me in for a hug. With his strong arms around me, it's easy to forget everything else. For sixty seconds or so, nothing else matters except for his arms circling around me, his chest against my cheek and his chin resting on top of my head.

"You really are very short, Eden," he breaks the quiet with more teasing.