CHAPTER556
Now I know for sure he has something to tell me that I’m going to 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, 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 just skirts around something. I would rather he did it quick, like pulling off a band aid and 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. Throat 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 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 to always 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 loveable 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 like 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, that sometimes he would have to go back there and work.
“We’ve barely moved in, Sophs. I’m not surprised that this is upsetting you, it’s upsetting me that I have to 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, soothing me in so 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 fully compose myself and goes back to sit at the table to resume eating, sliding his feet around mine and pulling them towards him snuggly. 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 to not 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 before, he doesn’t actually like me doing it and I smile genuinely. Loving my protective boy and telling myself this will be fine. He really doesn’t want to go, I know him. His overriding instinct is to always look after me, be there for me, to 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 just 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."
