Heiress in Distress

•Chapter 12•

•Word Count: 2,160

"I hope I'm not interrupting something" Elias says in his usual courteous manner, an unnecessary air of formality accompanying his lame excuse of a greeting.
I want to roll my eyes. If he was interrupting something, it would've taken me longer to open the door.

"Not at all; in fact, I just arrived from school. But you already know that, don't you ?" I test, referring to his goons, who made it their job to follow me and Clara whenever we're out, or play guard dogs when we're home.

I won't deny the sense of security that it brought me and Clara but, admittedly, despite their presence being ghostly, it grew uncomfortable. We've been coaching ourselves to lower our voices when laughing or even talking, especially when we're anywhere near the window.

The deep frown deforming his face is ephemeral, because a flicker of recognition flits through his eyes. A charming smile replaces it. And pop, goes the dimple.
I have to fight the urge to smile back.

"It didn't take you long to notice" He muses, sounding impressed.
His smile wavers when he notices my disinterested expression.

With an edgy throat clearing, he suppresses his smile and affects his usual solemn attitude.

"I would like to take you somewhere." He says, sounding only faintly nervous for the first time ever. The fact that he disregarded the 'asking' part gives me an insight to the arrogance I didn't know he fostered.

"I have a trai- work to do in a few hours, and I need a rest. Maybe next time ?" I tell him, only half regretful because this is the second time I turn him down.
It's either he overlooked or hasn't noticed my minor slip.

Besides, our last encounter wasn't exactly utilitarian, seeing as he got irked and flipped an imaginary switch at my need to retain my personal information.

I know I shouldn't have lied when I could have just passed the question just like he did, since I made the promise to tell the truth, but in my defence, it was impossible to tell whether I'm lying or not.
I have practiced speaking that lie forever, and it worked on everyone.
His attentiveness doesn't work in my favour, it seems.

"It won't be long, I promise. I just need to show you something. Please." It's not the way that he says it, nor the way he's looking at me that has me conceding.

But the belief this might be the business he wanted to show me that has me excusing myself to grab my coat and phone, and moving after him to his car.
I'm almost aware of the grieving session being held inside me, over the wishful thinking that was supposed to be my nap.

I type out a quick text to Clara, telling here I won't be home for a while.

The second we shut the doors to his car, a loud clap of thunder has me jumping in my seat and Elias casting the sky a brief glance before his jaw ripples on a few ticks.
I've never been afraid of thunderstorms but the loud sound never failed to shake me into a jolt.

It isn't until the rain begins to heavily platter against the windows that I realise today's training will probably be canceled due to the uncooperative weather.

My attention flits to the reason the car is still idle to see Elias just looking at the dashboard, hand hovering over the key in the ignition.
If I'm not mistaken, there's a slight tremble to his hand. I frown.

"We could do this another time" I suggest, since he seems troubled by something.

"No!" He snaps, turning the ignition on, making the car spur to life. My heart misses a beat at his attitude, despite my composed facade. His rapid change of demeanour never fails to perplex me.