Breaking the Habit - The Devereaux Case Files, Book 7

Chapter 8

Two days later and Dicken understood everything that Ayah had told him at the dinner party. There would be a right time for him to approach Fleur about whether they were dating or not and a right time when the whole thing would be settled by a sudden, and rightly times kiss. She was struggling to get over the death of her grandfather and so his dad and Reed had allowed him to have the weekend to himself, and with Fleur, before his training for the agency began.

Gino and Dakota were making arrangements at the funeral directors and Tony had taken the younger kids to the park, to keep him occupied and out of anyone's way, so they were alone. Dicken was round at Fleur's house, watching movies with her to keep her company. Neither of them said much, but there wasn't anything to say that would make what had happened go away. Nothing would make it better so there was no point.

It was a good day. Fleur picked the first film, then asked Dicken to choose the next one. Since she looked sad again and vaguely distant, he chose a film so that she didn't have to. Then when she was feeling better after lunch, she picked again and they were just finishing up that film, and putting the next one in when the world slipped out from under Dicken's feet.

He was in the kitchen, reaching into the top cupboard for a packet of chocolate sweets that Fleur insisted were there. But he had been in the cupboard twice already with no sign of them. Since the current film was finished, he tried again. His whole right arm was inside the upper cupboard, searching the back corners to see if he could find them. He had just grabbed hold of a slippery, shiny packet of something and was pulling them out of the cupboard when he turned to tell Fleur the good news. "Jeez, are you trying to scare me?" He asked, trying desperately not to use the cliché 'are you trying to give me a heart attack' reply. That would have been completely insensitive to her pain.

"Sorry." Fleur smiled and then, just as he pulled the packet out of the cupboard, smiling in triumph for the small victory, he was about to hand her the requested sweets when she surprised him. Fleur suddenly leaned in, on her tip toes and kissed him. Instead of just kissing him and running off, she gave him time to process her move and reciprocate it with a smile, before taking the offered packet of sweets and returning to the living with a blush. Dicken was surprised. He had kissed girls before and he had had girls who were sort of girlfriends before, but being around Fleur made him feel like a clumsy twelve year old with his first crush.

"Are you going to stand there all day?" The tormenting comment on his failure to move since their kiss sparked Dicken into life again. He lifted the bowl of chips he had just sorted and a new bottle of soda, before joining Fleur in the living room.

Since she obviously thought that he was stationary out of surprise because of their kiss, he decided to surprise her back. He placed their snacks on the coffee table, out of the way of the TV screen, and took his seat right next to her. He moved a little bit closer than before, lay one arm over the back of the sofa, sort of around her shoulders, and then leaned in to kiss her again. This time it was Fleur's turn to be speechless; Dicken kissed her for a good long time and then gently caressed her face as he stared at her. She had never known another boy like him and she couldn't help but feel lucky to have him. What other eighteen year old boy would give up everything to spend time with her after a family death, when he could be doing so many other things? They hadn't even openly admitted their feelings for one another until she kissed him. He hadn't been under any obligation to stay with her, but he had.

"That is going to be our last ever kiss together, unless you swear right now, to be my girlfriend." Dicken smiled with his words so that she didn't only let him get halfway through and then feel slighted or toyed with. He wanted her to know that he might have been two years older than her, but he was very immature and he was only just finding his way with her. He didn't want them to rush, to push or to have expectations for themselves. All he wanted was what they had. So he told her that.