The New Classic

Chapter Twenty Two

I loved seeing her like this. Soft and with her guard down. I'd noticed this especially after we'd had sex. The small smile on her face, the way her eyes closed in bliss...I'd done that to her. Made her so mindless with pleasure that she couldn't think of anything else, let alone have her walls up. I wasn't lying when I said that this wasn't going to be just one night. I wanted more than that. And I was tired of pretending that I didn't.

I don't think I could physically restrain myself anymore in the office whenever I would see her. Which was why it made sense to do this. It wasn't a one night stand. Nor was it a relationship. I guess you could call it a friends with benefits situation? Not that I'd assumed we were friends or anything. I mean, what else would you call fucking your employee? Speaking of, we had to talk about it. ASAP. Before she decided to run again and that whatever we'd done was just in the heat of the moment. But I didn't want to ruin the temporary peace right now either. So I stayed quiet. At least until she dozed off for a while. And like the creep I was, I watched her sleep, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

I'd wiped away the cum on her stomach before she'd gone to sleep obviously - no matter how much I liked seeing the evidence of our pleasure on her body. Aaliya's eyes fluttered open in the darkness as she blinked at me. My fingertips trailed over the contours of her face as she gave me a soft smile. Something in my chest fluttered at the sight, my heart pumping twice as fast as normal as she nuzzled her face into my hand.

"Morning sleeping beauty." I murmured as I kept stroking her face idly with one hand. "Or should I say night?"

"It's still night?" Her voice was rough with sleep as she turned the other way, looking for the time. I instantly missed the feel of her against me but pretended not to show it as I stretched my arms behind my head. "What time is it?"

"11pm." I answered, tapping my phone screen as it illuminated in the dark. Squinting, I noted the missed calls from both Mac and my parents before shutting it off.

"We should probably talk about it huh?" She asked, both of us knowing that this conversation was inevitable if we wanted to move ahead.

"Yeah we should." I said softly, moving towards her again. Her body rolled in my direction as we spent a few moments just staring at each other - though technically we couldn't see anything but the outlines of our figures. "What are we doing, Aaliya?" The question was muttered quietly in the air, the heaviness of our impending talk looming ahead.

"Honestly? I don't know." She huffed impatiently as I felt her fingers tangle in the sheets, playing with them. I placed my hand over hers underneath the covers, effectively stilling them as she let out a breath. "I know for a fact that we aren't just fucking. It goes beyond that, doesn't it?"

"It does."

"But we're not a couple either." I already had my answer but I was letting her figure it out for herself, knowing that if she picked it apart with her own brain, it would make much more sense to her. After knowing her for the past few months, I knew how she worked. I knew how she valued logic and rationality and often prided herself for it. I knew that she liked to take her time to think over things and wasn't impulsive - despite her actions tonight proving otherwise. But most of all, I wanted her to realise that I wasn't another shitty person that was going to tear her down and be her ruination. I mean, it was pretty obvious that she hadn't had a great childhood based on the few glimpses of herself that she'd shown me and that she'd been hurt before too. "We're more than fuck buddies, but less than a couple so does that make me your half girlfriend?" She chuckled at her own joke, referencing the popular Indian book adaptation.