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CHAPTER TWENTY TWO: whenever you like. ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·
When an hour and thirty minutes had passed, and there was no knock at Arden's door, she felt herself overcome with disappointment. Sure, she had told him that she'd be alright if he didn't come over, but he had said he would and that he'd be there in an hour. Had he changed his mind and went back home? Had he suddenly decided that Arden would be fine on her own?
She sighed, and began to make her way back into the bed she'd been rotting in all morning. Stupid empty words. Empty words from Tom, from her parents, from Timothée. She hated it, and she hated that she'd fall for them every single time. Why say something you know isn't the truth? Why do humans feel the need to lie?
Halfway up the stairs, her doorbell rang. And she suddenly felt bad for expecting the worse from Timothée. Arden gave it a few seconds so as to not appear desperate for his presence, took a few fake steps then made her way to the door and unlocked it. She was sure she looked rough, but he had seen her in worse states.
Timothée was looking around awkwardly until she had opened the door. She couldn't see his eyes from behind the glasses he was wearing, but Arden was sure they were crinkled in the corners judging by the wide smile on his face. She gave him one back, and moved out of the doorframe - a gesture for him to come in. As he stepped into her home, Arden took in the objects in his hand.
The panda, the matching monkey, her starbucks drink - iced white mocha, 2 pumps hazelnut with vanilla sweet cream cold foam and caramel drizzle - and a bouquet of flowers. A bouquet of flowers? She hadn't been expecting that. He placed all but the last of his items on a nearby table and turned to her. "I don't know where you keep your vases, so here you go." Timothée had passed her the flowers and given her a moment to inspect them.
"They're gardenias. I spent like, ten minutes in the starbucks drive thru- it was busy- googling what kind of flowers to get and what they mean." He rambled, his hands moving around frantically as he talked. "I came across those and the only thing it told me was that they meant 'you're lovely' which I felt was pretty accurate, because you are lovely."
"Timothée-" Arden spoke, though it fell on deaf ears as he continued.
"So then after I got your drink I stopped off at this boutique which is why I was like, thirty minutes late, and I was so clueless so this really sweet old woman helped me find them because I had no idea what I was looking for. And then when I finally found them, she asked how many I wanted and I didn't know how many was good so I got fourteen, because you're birthday is on the fourteenth-"
"Timothée." She tried again.
"If you don't like them it's fine, I can go swap them over- the woman said I could do that. You can come with me and pick out the ones you like the most- oh my god, Denny. There are so many different ones-"
Arden decided to take a different approach to his incessant rambling. She wasn't sure what had overcome her, or maybe for just a split second she had lost her mind. So instead of repeating his name again, she took a step towards him and stood on her tiptoes, planting a quick and gentle kiss on his lips. It was over practically instantly, but she saw his brain short circuit for a minute.
Then came the regret, the dread, the guilt. She hadn't even asked him if she could kiss him? What kind of person does that? "Fuck, I'm sorry!" She frantically apologised, rambling on and on the same way he had rambled on about flowers. However, instead of letting her go on for as long as he did, Timothée pulled her into a warm embrace, swaying back and forth slightly. Eventually her arms wrapped around him too.
"Feel free to welcome me like that whenever you like, Denny." He half joked as they separated from their hug. "Put your flowers in your vase and I'll set up Tangled and food and stuff."
If she jumped up and down out of glee as soon as she was out of sight from Timothée, nobody would know. It was nobody's business but hers.
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