Too Much Cliche

Chapter 17

- s e v e n t e e n -

Alaric got dumbstruck by her question. Though he had the hope that she must be asking in sarcasm but her facial expression weren't giving any cue of being in humour. Her lips were shut and eyes darting on him in all seriousness.

But after a few seconds, looking at him restless, Aurora burst out in a laugh.

He finally took the breath of relief to saw her guffawing.

Turning away and looking down at her feet, she covered her face with a hand and smiled with eyes closed. It's too easy to walk on his nerves.

She looked back at him with bright twinkle on her face. "I'm just asking. I don't want to freak you out." she sniggered again, "I mean you don't need any rent but I'm glad you thought of my self-respect and accepting it."

Alaric didn't say anything but smiled meekly. They spent a few minutes in silence, watching Atlas playing in the garden. Sometimes, they laughed together on Atlas when he rolled on the grass and sometimes they just share a look with each other before turning away on another second with a shy smile.

On the last sip from the mug, he thought to compliment her. He put the mug on the tray and rubbed his hands together. "Coffee was great," he muttered.

Aurora looked at him as he put back the mug down. She still didn't ask the question for what she made that coffee plan for. Before he could stand away, she thought to make him stop by asking, "So...how was the dinner?"

"It was good."

"Do you go every Saturday there?"

"Yeah, " he answered happily, looking down at the grass. " It's our family thing. Saturday and Sunday are reserved for family and friends."

"That's kind of nice."

After a small pause, he thought to ask something to her. As, first of all, he didn't take any step to start the conversation or maintain it. Secondly, he wanted to know something about her as he was curious. He twisted himself at his place and asked, "What about your family? Do they live here?"

She smiled. By turning her eyes toward the sky, she rubbed the side of her mug which was still half-filled. She mused something in the sky and then replied with a smile, "No. Actually, they live in the countryside." taking another sip from her mug, she continued, "We are the family of four humans and four animals.". She chuckled when she marked about four animals. "One is Atlas, one is a hamster which my brother has and horse and a cat at my parents' house."

Alaric smiled at her. They never talked like this before; about family and things. He realised that he didn't even know anything about her yet. Her hobbies, her favourite movie or a book. He didn't know what thing excites her the most or what makes her low.

But he wanted to know.

He thought to continue the conversation and asked, "You have a brother?"

"Yeah, he lives in New Jersey. Actually, we used to live there until I came here to study and got the job. Later, my father decided to went back to our old town where he grew up." she looked down in her mug, rubbing the corner of her mug. He didn't get what she was thinking but definitely about her family and maybe memories.

She told about his father when he asked. He was the chief police officer at New Jersey when he got retired. His eyebrows hiked up when she told him that his brother also being a cop. It was musing to know about her family until he imagined how strong they would be. Muscular men with legal guns in their hands.