Your Grace - Burak Çelik

CHAPTER 25

"Earth to Yazar Hanim?"

Ayedah blinked when Burak snapped his fingers in front of her nose, and it twitched in shock her view finally cleared as she was brought back to reality after what was a long reverie. She blinked as her vision focused on Burak, who sighed in relief to see that she had been brought back from wherever her mind had drifted off to. "Our food's here," he told her, and she looked down to see that he was right- in fact a waiter was just done with laying out their lunch for them. "Oh- sorry, er, please excuse me," she said, flustered. She turned to the waiter to thank him. "T-thank you. Er- tesekkur ederim." The waiter smiled at her before leaving to serve the other customers, and Ayedah breathed a sigh of relief.

She and Burak had gone out for a late lunch a few days later instead of breakfast like they had originally arranged for- unfortunately, Aarif had convinced Ayedah to stay with them and show them around a while, and as Ayedah did not want to cause any trouble or stress for her aunt, she complied. She had called Burak with a short and non-detailed explanation and an apology, and they arranged to meet up for lunch another day instead. And that very day, when he pulled up to the house, Ayedah could not have been more relieved to see him. She felt bad for leaving her aunt with Aarif and Reema to send off to look at colleges for Reema, but she had made it up to her beforehand by allowing her to pick out an outfit for her; something suitable for what she was so convinced was a 'date', no matter how many times Ayedah would tell her it was not.

In the end, she went out wearing a light blue jacket with a pretty white blouse and light gray pants, to match with a light blue hijab. She wore it under her everyday trench coat that she had on due to the cold weather, but she took off the coat when they arrived at the restaurant.

"You're starting to speak more Turkish, I see," said Burak with a grin, when the waiter left after Ayedah thanked him in the local language. "Your accent is improving too." "Thanks," said Ayedah quietly, forcing a small smile before she looked down, and began to play with her spoon in her rice before even attempting to eat it(though it did look tempting to just shove it all in at once). Her thoughts seemed slow, yet were racing at the same time.

She suddenly felt her chin being tipped up by a gentle finger, and her eyes met Burak's as they looked deep into her own. "I know that face," he said, smiling melancholically. "W-what face?" stuttered Ayedah, pushing Burak's hand away and faking a smile. "This is my face, of course you know it, you er- see it almost every day, don't you?" "It's the look on your face that I'm talking about," said Burak patiently. "Well I don't know about a look on my face, but I am looking at you, I suppose," Ayedah said with a forced laugh.

Burak raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical. "So everything's good?" he asked, and Ayedah nodded a little too quickly. "Yep, yes, I'm fine," she said with yet another forced laugh, before she realized- from the way Burak narrowed his icy, soul-piercing eyes at her- how obvious she was making herself. Well, damn it, she thought lamely, unable to successfully mask her discomfort any longer- once again, she found it difficult to hide her feelings from him. Before he could open his mouth to say something, she had read his mind and spoken; "I can tell you're not convinced," she said, smiling woefully. "No, I'm not," Burak admitted. "I can tell that you're hiding something that's bothering you." Ayedah nodded, and began to fiddle with the spoon again.

"What's going on?" he asked, looking concerned. "Tell me." She looked up at him for a split second then down again, feeling uneasy- that was until he took her hand in his gently, once again his touch sending warm tingles through her veins. A feeling of relief settled, and the uneasiness that caused discomfort to bubble in her stomach began to quell itself.

"You can trust me, you know that right?" he said. "I mean, if you purposefully don't want to tell me, that's a different story-" "It's Aarif," she blurted out, taking him by surprise. She blushed bright red when she noticed her tone. "S-sorry erh...it's Aarif." "Is he alright?" asked Burak, concerned. "He's alright," said Ayedah, scratching her arm awkwardly. "It's just...he's back." "Oh," said Burak, and he smiled- though not too widely, careful enough to not be excited like he normally would about such a topic, knowing that Ayedah was experiencing some discomfort. "That's a good thing, right?"