Page 81 of Charmed, I'm Sure

“Alright, alright. Don’t bite my hand. You can have that one,” he says with a chuckle as he picks up the Pumpkinridge Club.

We eat in silence, not the kind that feels like it needs to be filled with words, but the kind that is two souls enjoying the presence of the other.

For the first time in my life, I don’t feel like I need to be someone for anyone, there isn’t an urge to keep my walls up, to push him away.

I watch him as he eats, peacefully enjoying himself, humming as he goes. I wonder what it’s like to be so carefree and relaxed?

Is this what my future looks like? Casual, peaceful lunches where I actually look forward to them?

His hazel eyes flick up, catching me watching him. The corner of his lips tilt up, as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking about.

“What,” I snap a little too defensively as I pick up my sandwich.

He hums around the bite of his own sandwich as he watches me. “Nothing, I’m just wondering if this will be part of our daily lives going forward.”

I choke on the sandwich as his words hit me in the chest. Right in my heart, that wasn’t prepared for it. Did he read my mind? I check my mental walls, and they are intact as always.

“Don’t,” I threaten as I pick up my French fry, “don’t get all sappy on me, Dog Boy.”

He holds his hands up in surrender as he leans back in his chair. “I’m just saying I only had to worry about my fingers when it came to your sandwich selection. Which, noted.”

I throw a fry at him expecting it to smack him in the face. Instead he lurches forward and snatches it with his mouth out of the air. Damn wolf reflexes. Something I’m going to have to remember if I ever plan to pull a prank like that on him.

He’s mid-munch of the fry, smirking at me, when he says, “I could definitely get used to this.”

I might be rolling my eyes and not responding, but really, I could too.

After lunch, I do everything I can to ignore the elephant in the room. But it’s a little hard when he’s still writing notes in his notebook, still reading the Witch 101 book, and the afternoon sun is warming the spot he’s sitting in. The glitter in his hair, that I still don’t understand why he loves, is refracting off my shelves as it shimmers in the light.

Deciding I clearly won’t get any more work done today, Iclean up my workspace as I feel his eyes on me. Watching me as much as I have been him. We are dancing around the truth, something we haven’t really talked about.

“We done for today?” he asks as he closes his book and stacks his notebook on top of it with his pen.

He’s already establishing a routine. I smile as I watch him move with ease in my space after such a short time.

“When did this become a we?” I arch my eyebrow at him.

He smirks. “The minute you didn't hex me and you let me feed you today without a snarky comment.”

I’m speechless. Not because of what he said but more so that he’s right. We’ve already fallen into an ease with each other that I wasn’t wielding my sarcasm to keep him away today. More to have fun with him.

He walks over and wraps his arm around my shoulder before reaching behind his back to pull my arm around his waist.

“Now, as for dinner. Do I even want to know what ingredients you have at your house or should we just go ahead and do our first domestic task together?”

“Domestic…what?”

He pulls me towards the door. Giving me a dose of my own medicine when he says, “Yeah I figured as much. Off to the grocery store we go!” he shouts as I groan.

The glistening red apples in the wooden crates outside Apple & Ash General Store come into view as we round the last corner. I already wanted to run away the second I laid eyes on the group of people standing outside, excitedly chatting. I’ve never been the person who willingly walked into these situations. Often I would shop during the late hours when most people are home.

He seems to sense my hesitation, maybe from the slowing of my steps, or through some sort of link between the two of us. I really need to talk to him about the whole mate bond thing and what all of it means.

“Come on, Trouble. Nobody is going to bite, well, maybe the vampires, but I’m not sure they come to the grocery store?”

My hand covers my face as my cheeks warm. “Yes, Miles, of course they come to the grocery store. They don’t completely live off blood.” I roll my eyes as I watch him absorb that information. Probably shouldn’t tell him what exactly they come to the grocery store for…

“Okay, good to know, I think.”