Never Tell Secrets (18+)

Ch 28 - Old Habits

ATTENTION RADISH READERS! Please don't leave any spoilers in here or you'll be getting a spanking from Alfie. Or Elliot. Or Keira. Whoever you'd prefer. 😘

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The week passed by in a slow blur, life feeling somewhat normal knowing that Alfie was in a whole other country. Keira was gone more than ever, working or partying I didn't know. I kept up with her as much as she could but when I did catch a moment with her, she seemed distant. Maia was her usual quiet self, a silent roommate who only left her room occasionally to eat and drink. It was like living with a hungry ghost.

Saturday night rolled around and I was once again faced with the choice of whether or not to do what Alfie wanted. I stared at the dress he'd requested I wear. So seemingly inoffensive. But putting it on made such a statement. My hair and makeup were fixed, Alfie would be here any second and here I stood, in my underwear, locked in indecision.

The knock at the front door sent my anxiety into overdrive. Without thinking, I threw the dress on my bed and pulled out a similar one in forest green. I could hear Maia answering the door as I wrestled it over my head. It was tight and tugged at it, the zip pinching at my waist but the knock at my own bedroom door gave me no time to change. I opened it and there he was, in all his grey suit glory. 

"Hey," I breathed.

"Hey, yourself." He ran his gaze over my dress as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him, reminding me just how tiny my bedroom was, "feeling rebellious, huh?" 

Ignoring his comment I turned, packing my phone and essentials into my clutch. "How was your trip?"

"Boring." He looked over my chaotic mess of a bedroom.

"I'm guessing you hate this room worse than my old one." 

"I wish you didn't have to live like this, but I don't hate it." 

I narrowed my eyes at him for a moment, something was off. The first time Alfie had been in my home, he'd run his x-ray eyes over every inch of it, gathering every piece of information he might need about me. The first time he'd been in my bedroom, he'd done the same thing but this time, nothing. 

"Well, good. I'm ready, I just need shoes." Before I could move, he opened the closet door to his right, revealing my shoe collection in a mangled pile at the bottom of it. I stared at him. "How did you know my shoes were in there?"

"Where else would they be? There isn't exactly a walk-in wardrobe." He knelt, selecting a pair of black pumps. "These?"

I took them from him, slipping them onto my feet. He picked up the abandoned blue dress from my bed, I watched him finger the material.

Please don't make a thing out of it...please...

"Why didn't you wear it?" 

Oh crap.

"Because I wanted to wear this one instead."

"Bullshit," he scowled at me. "You don't even like it as much. You're holding yourself different - is it uncomfortable?" He ran his gaze over my body, landing on my waist where the material pinched. 

I sighed in frustration. For once, I found myself wishing Alfie was a normal, oblivious guy. "Why do you have to see everything?"

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?"

"I'm not, I - "

"- It's just a dress, Lola," he cut me off, "it doesn't mean I won. Not anymore." He met my eyes and I wasn't sure what lingered there. Embarrassment? Pain at the memories of how he made me the paranoid creature I was now. I felt the pain of those too. The ease with which he could manipulate me was a constant reminder that I couldn't trust this man.