where the time went- chloe price

the first paper cut.

four long hours ago mark had let me into his home, guided me through the lounge room and down a hallway to the right of it, walking past the staircase down to the dark room and showing me a room with a large chestnut desk, computer screen, bookshelves filled with files and filing cabinets to the left.
i was now sitting on the floor with pages spread out around me trying to organise them alphabetically, it had taken me four hours to organise all the way up to the letter 'M' and i was so close to being finished. mark was still sitting with me in the room, the sound of him clicking keys on the keyboard running through the room as i fiddled with pages,
"how are you going?" he asked, his eyes not leaving the screen, i nodded,
"pretty good," i replied, "i can do you for child labor right?"
"you're not a child, rosemary," he replied almost immediately, his eyes landing on me quickly before his lips turned up into a small smile,
"do you have any?" i asked him without thinking,
"any what?" he asked,
"children,"
"no," he shook his head, "do you?"
"no," i laughed before i looked down at the pages i was organising again, "why don't you?" i asked him without thinking and quickly looked up at him to apologise but he seemed okay with my question,
"it's never something i've ever been interested in," he spoke with a soft shrug, "why don't you?" i furrowed my brows quickly before answering,
"i'm so young,"
"you're mature though," he replied almost immediately and i stared up at him with a gentle gaze, "it doesn't matter how old you are... just if you're mature enough to do it,"
"are you trying to convince me to have a baby?" i laughed softly and he let out a laugh too before shaking his head,
"no," he replied, "i've just never known someone your age to be so mature yet so..." he paused trying to think of the right word to use, "innocent,"
"innocent?" i replied with raised brows, "what gives you that impression?"
"the way you view the world," he explained and i narrowed my eyes,
"i just swore at another student in your class, mark. i hardly think that makes me as innocent as you think i am," i spoke looking back down at the ground and sorting through the pages again,
"i can see it in your photography, rosie," he said and my eyes shot back up to his, "you're very talented," i couldn't fight the soft smile that was tugging at my lips, "your work, it's... it's soft and gentle even when your subjects are not," he spoke and the smile dropped off my lips and i sorted through the pages again,
"you're talking about the photo of my dad i showed you," i spoke and he inhaled deeply,
"the way you composed that image, rosie... without any editing," he sighed again, "your brain works very interesting ways," he said and i pushed out a soft laugh,
"my brain?"
"your brain," he nodded, "just take my word for it, rosemary. your work speaks louder than you know."

we went back to our work for another hour or so and i managed to move two letter down the alphabet to 'P' before mark spoke again,
"jesus," he mumbled, "it's 7pm,"
"is it?" i looked up from the piles on the ground i had made and looked out the large windows, noticing that the sun had disappeared behind the trees and the room was being illuminated by the two lamps mark switched on when we entered,
"would you like some dinner?" he asked as he stood up from his desk and i nodded my head, suddenly realising the emptiness of my stomach, but then also realising the messiness i would be leaving his office in,
"i'll just finish this up,"
"i'll start dinner then. you like pasta?" he asked making his way out of the room,
"pasta's good," i responded before i watched him disappear down the hallway and heard utensils and ingredients being gathered for the meal. my eyes ran back down onto the floor and i started to rush to finish the job off, my eyes hardly grazing across the words in front of me but still being able to place them in the right piles for about 20 minutes until i saw the familiar name of prescott. my eyes froze on the paper, i stared at it confused and started to read the rest of the page, something i hadn't done to any of mark's other documents. i stared at the page with confusion, my eyebrows furrowed and eyes narrowed at the sheet of paper as i read my father's name next to sean's with a sum of money.
a large sum of money.
2.5 million dollars to be exact. with the description of two underground bunkers. images of mark's dark room under his home flashed through my mind but that was only one? unless the small storeroom off to the side counted as a whole other underground bunker but i was confident it didn't. before more thoughts could flash through my mind i pulled out my phone and snapped a picture of the document, immediately sending it to chloe.