Ripped Jeans and Werewolf Kisses

Chapter 45:

Chapter 45:

Camila scrutinised herself in the mirror for the seventeenth time in the last hour. She was nervous. So nervous that she has to clasp her palms tightly together to stop them from shaking.

When they were not laced together her fingers were pulling at the hem of her dress or centring the pendant on her necklace. She had re-adjusted and run her fingers through her hair so many times that the spirals of her curls had grown flat and now looked like tendrils of frizz. She stepped away from the mirror and spied Taine staring at her from the couch. He set his eyes back on the Tv pretending that he hadn't been looking.

She rolled her eyes and laughed internally. She was the frantic one. The one often filled to the brim with emotions. Emotions which didn't know how to escape from her body so they manifested themselves in her racing heart and desire to perfect her appearance. Taine was supposed to be the calm one, or at least the one who could pretend he was calm and then focus his attention into calming her.

Instead, uncharacteristically, his usual stoicness was poorly concealed by the way he kept changing the channels and shaking his leg.

Camila needed to plant herself somewhere so that she could stop pacing back and forth between the mirror, the stove and the bathroom. She walked over to the couch, stepped over Taine's leg and placed herself next to him. Immediately, like a reflex, he relaxed into her touch, pulled her closer and rested his head over hers.

"Are you sure we shouldn't have picked her up?"

"Yes Mila, it's fine. Alfredo said they've already left anyway."

Camila nodded in response.

"Don't be nervous." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

She snorted. "Easy for you to say. You are nervous too."

The screen flicked in front of them but neither were really watching. They sat like that for a few moments. Lost inside their own minds.

Camila gently broke the silence. "Are you sure she is ready?" Camila asked the question about Melissa but as soon as she said the words she realised she was actually asking herself.

"She's very...delicate. She doesn't really like being touched, doesn't like loud noises. Doesn't leave the house much. But she really does want to meet you. Just be patient with her and don't expect too much."

"Also, two other things. Don't tell her it was you that put me in the hospital..." She hit his shoulder playfully.

"And don't call me Taine in front of her, she gets a little funny about it."

Camila thought for a moment. They weren't the type of couple that had nicknames for each other. She wouldn't mind much but Taine would hate it. "So what can I call you then? Babe?"

He detested, 'babe.'

She felt him sigh, "If you must."

A few moments later the doorbell rang. The sound sent a jolt of anxiety through her body. She had placed so much expectation and pressure on herself to make a good impression, that she almost felt crippled by the weight of it all.

Taine stood up and pulled her hand up with him. She trailed behind him to the doorway, not wanting to bombard Melissa and not knowing how to appropriately greet her.

Suddenly Taine stopped. She walked into his back and continued to glare at him as he pushed her in front of him saying, "You answer it, you got this."

She took a deep breath, pasted a smile on her face and twisted the door handle.

She didn't know what to expect when she thought about Melissa. She imagined her like a delicate flower of a person that had been starved of sunshine and oxygen, trapped inside a glass case.