Page 101 of Blue Gold
“You’ll be the death of me…” He straightened up and spanked my ass. “How about you go shower while I finish up in here?” Brushing his hand over his jaw, he glanced at my suitcase, which waited by the door. “And why don’t you unpack while you’re at it?”
Surprised, I glanced at the suitcase. “Eh… I thought I’d go to a hotel from here.”
“What are you talking about?” Tucking himself back in his pants, he grabbed a wet cloth from the sink and moved to clean the cabinet.
“You don’t care if I stay here?”
After tossing the used cloth in the garbage, he frowned at me. “Don’t care? I thought we established you’d be staying with me from now on.”
An odd sensation took over me, and I rubbed my arm. “I… I didn’t think you meant it.” More like, I didn’t allow myself to believe it.
“Of course I did. Now, go take that bath,” he answered casually.
Now feeling awkward for being stupid, I looked around, seeing the mess we’d left behind us, starting with the clothes spread on the floor to the traces of cum Daniel had poorly cleaned from the cabinet.
“S-shouldn’t I clean up first?”
“Huh?” He turned to look around, then snorted. “I’m bad at cleaning, aren’t I? But to be fair, I was never good at it. Same goes for cooking.” He waved toward the stove. “Neither was Claudia, but at least she knew how to hire the right people to do it.”
Claudia.
Claudia.
Claudia.
Reaching for my underwear that were tossed on the floor, I put them on. “I’ll clean the mess,” I said, avoiding his stare the whole time.
“You really don’t need to, Elliot. I’ll just go over it again while you’re in the shower.”
As if. He could hardly do his own laundry, given the piles of dirty clothes hanging around the place. “I can do the laundry, too. I noticed you haven’t had the time to do it.” I was determined to prove to him I could do everything his ex-wife did and so much better.
“Claudia always complained about my clothes—”
“You keep doing that,” I snapped, catching him off guard.
He put down the spoon he was holding to glare at me. “I keep doing what exactly?”
“Bringing her up. Ever since I got here, it’s Claudia this, Claudia that.” I fisted my hands, anger bubbling inside me. “It’s like you miss her or something.”
“Of course not,” he was quick to say before moving closer. “God, Elliot, I feel like such a fool for making you feel that way.” He placed his hands on my arms, caressing me gently. “It’s just that we shared a life together, and even though I don’t miss her in the slightest, she’s a part of my memories. Frankly, I don’t even notice when I bring up her name. But I promise I’ll do better.”
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath.
“So you don’t miss her?”
He cupped my face. “Not at all… but please, always come to me when I do something wrong. I’m still trying to adjust to all of this, and I thought I was doing a good job. Turns out I’ve been a bad boyfriend this whole time, huh?”
My eyes opened at that one word, and I stared at him, lips slightly parted.
“Boyfriend?”
Realizing what he said, a faint blush crept to his cheeks, and he rubbed the back of his neck.
“Uh… I mean, yes?” His face turned as red as a tomato before he looked aside. “I thought me calling you that was fine, but I guess it sounds silly coming from a man my age, doesn’t it?”
He’s so cute.
“Not at all.” I placed my palm over my heart, trying to contain the emotion bubbling in my chest. “It’s just that I’ve never been anyone’s boyfriend before.”
