Betrothed for Rejection

Chapter 19: The Storm

The loud sound of thunder was heard. I had never seen such rain in my entire life. The small shelter that we were in was all dark and muddy. I could bet snakes and other kind of creepy things were in each corner of that place.

Luckily, Adrian had set up a small camp fire and room had illuminated with the small light. We both were soaking wet to the bone. Adrian's white striped shirt had gotten all wet and was almost sticking up to his skin. Whereas, I was in no good shape either. My hair was dripping and so were my clothes clinging to every part of my skin.

Luckily, the heat from the fire was able to keep the small room heated. I could gurantee the warmthness on my cheeks was not because of the fire rather something else. It made a shivery feeling crawl down my spine. This was all too much. I was scared but my thoughts wandered elsewhere into those vivid images of what ifs, the one where I imagined, if the rain hadn't started or if we hadn't heard the thunder and kissed.

Suddenly, I felt someone grip my arm and then I was shaken back away from my thoughts to the real world.

"Are you always that lost?"

"Sorry, I didn't hear you".

"I said, if your phone is working fine, sadly, we weren't fast enough to reach here before soaking wet and my phone is destroyed, looks like my trip is going to be delayed more than I thought".

"Yeah. Here".
I said pulling my phone out of my back pocket only to find it unresponsive. Great. Now we both are stranded in middle of the woods in Scotland, without any communication to the world. I wonder how that turns out for me.

"Now what do we do?"

"Nothing. We sleep for now, in the morning, we walk to the gas station from where I can call for help".

Nodding my head I started to look in to my backpack. I always kept a snack or two in it. Just in case I get hungry. Excuse me, for having a big appetite.

"What are you doing ?".

"ahan! There it is! I hope you like chocolate. I have both flavors though, oreos!!"

I said with gleam in my eyes, I loved oreos, they were my bae food. I would have those biscuits anyway I wanted them and I would always carry them. Other than that, I had also stored in a bag of crisps with me.

Adrian raised an eye brow at me, his mouth forming an 'o', damn, if only he knew that small action was making my stomach have summersaults. Why am I feeling this way. I don't want to get hurt again, I knew I was in heaps of trouble if my instincts were correct.

Adrian was so difficult to understand. One moment he hates my mere existence the next he is hugging me I feel confused yet safe in his presence. I liked it when he was accompanying me. It felt safe. Here I go again.

"Aileyy ? What is wrong with you today? Why are you so lost?"

"Nothing, so you want some".

"Well it is better than starving, sure".

"You know, you could just drop your grumpiness, for a change".

"Excuse me for being this way Ailey, I just missed a meeting which could have helped me a lot".

"You overwork yourself, Adrian, you indulge yourself into the extreme form of doing your task, that results in you not being able to look more into things that are important".

"What could be more important than my job".

"Oh I don't know, family, friends, life, I mean, there is nothing to hide, just so you know, maybe that is why you are so grumpy".

"I am not grumpy Ailey, I have responsibilities".

"I know".

That silenced the conversation we were having until, I could feel myself on a kind of sugar rush. My heart wanted to say things which no normal person would say. It was that or the fact I had been jet lagged, with my ankle twisting and my fatigue downing up on me. I started to speak my mind.

"Would you like another oreo?"

I said leaning closer to his face, his blue eyes were looking directly at me, I looked up at him, he shifted a little, to reach for the wrapper in my hand, just as we both put our hands to grab an oreo we found that there was only one, immediately I decided to move back,

"Umm... You can have it".

"No you can, I am full".

That was fine, but he still gripped on to my hand, are fingers were interlaced now, I looked up at him again, I didn't know what to say, his eyes were looking straight at me.

"Adria--"

"I ended things with her. I couldn't hurt you that way anymore, I was hurting both of you, I had to grow up and accept my present, so I ended things with her".

"Wh--?"

My thoughts had gone haywire, he broke with Evelyn. But why. Because of me. What is going on. I couldn't figure out. And before I could say much, despite the fact I was out of words, I just hugged him. I knew he wanted one. He needed it.

After what Emma had told me about the bullying in his childhood, to the Evelyn support, breaking up with Evelyn must have been something big for him. I just wanted to support him for now. Soon I felt his arms engulfing me, and I knew I was back in my safe haven.