Chapter 16

Two weeks have passed now. Neither Samaira nor Azrael spoke of /that/ night again, not even with their friends. They were both trying to forget that night ever happened and tried protecting themselves and the deal they made. Over those two weeks, Azrael began to realize that little by little Samaira grew distant with him, but he didn’t want to bring it up, she was holding up her part of the contract and so was he. Though he did miss her, she was fun to talk to, tease, hang around with, watch movies, and not to mention eat with. Drinking he preferred to do with people he wasn’t attracted to. Every time he planned something for them she’d suggest they invite their friends and of course, he couldn’t say no. How would he tell her that he wanted it just to be them, he didn’t want to make things awkward. The only time their friends weren't around was for lunch and dinner with his family.

Azrael decided to surprise her for lunch this time, had he told her he planned in advance she’d find a way to include others. He bought them some panini with a side of sweet potato fries and a piece of fudge, it looked like the healthy kind, but he knew they were still delicious. His mother made those so many times already. “Samaira, can you come to my office? I bought us lunch,” He asked, without waiting, and already walked to his office. She sighed, wanting to say no but damn she was hungry.

“Not going out for lunch today?” She frowned, closing the office door behind her. Usually, they’d go out for lunch with either their friends or his family or sometimes she’d have lunch with the others in the office.

“Nope, I figured we could have it here,” Azrael handed her the paper bag then unpacked his lunch.

“Oh ok,” She pouted slightly, not having an excuse this time. “Thanks for the lunch,” Samaira looked at him as she opened the passion fruit juice.

“You’re welcome,” He shrugged, watching as she settled in first then finally said those words that worried people, “I feel like we have to talk.”

“Oh about what?” She frowned, feeling her heartbeat pick up, those words could mean just about anything and right now she had no clue what it was.

“I feel like you’re avoiding me lately like you don’t want to spend time with me,” He spoke whilst unpacking his sandwich, Samaira doing the same as him but froze for a moment after hearing what he said. She knew it was true, she had been avoiding him indeed and partly thought she was getting away with it, but he sadly caught on, all she could do was pretend that wasn’t the case so she wouldn’t have to explain why she was avoiding him, deep down she was confused too and being around him alone gave her weird thoughts.

“What makes you feel this way?” She cleared her throat, looking at him confused, hoping she was selling the look.

“The fact that this is the first time we spend alone in like two weeks,” Azrael retorted, close to rolling his eyes at her but he did notice she was working a lot more, her weekly results were proof of that.

“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realize,” She lied, giving him a very apologetic look. “Don’t worry I’ll spend more time with you, you attention whore,” Samaira jokes, a smile appearing on his lips, this started to look like their normal good times.

“Good, we have a trip to go on,” he said casually, knowing he had avoided telling her this till now. In his defense, it was confirmed today but they had been talking about it for a month already.

“What?” She frowned.

“This weekend my family will be going to Hawaii, we’ll both have to go because I never skip it and it will look bad if I skip the moment I got a girlfriend- also mom already made reservations for you,” Azrael explained then bit into the panini.

“Excuse me?” She flipped out, how was she supposed to go on a trip with him? There really wouldn’t be any avoiding him at all! “This weekend?!” She then realized how soon it was already.

“With Monday being a national free day and Friday being the company birthday-” He was explaining only to be cut off by her filling in the sentence, “Company policy is we get that day off, I know.”

“We leave Thursday around two PM and we return Tuesday at nine PM,” Azrael avoided eye contact as he spoke, knowing he’d be glared at for telling her just now, even when he also recently just found out. “If you want you can take a free day on Tuesday,” He suggested, knowing how tiring it can be to go straight to work after a vacation.

“Will you too?” She wondered, unsure if she should take the day off. She didn’t want to fall behind on her work.

“Nope, I’ll work from home and hotel,” Azrael shrugged, he’s technically the boss so he knew how to arrange his schedule to have minimum work during the vacation plus he could never take a break for longer than two days without feeling unproductive.

“I’ll arrange my work, so I won’t have to take the day off,” Samaira shrugged then bit into the sandwich, humming at the delicious taste.

“Sounds good,” He drank his water and studied her for a moment. “I’m taking you shopping tomorrow,” He decided casually.

She was confused at first then realized the timeline of this all, “Wait- it’s already Tuesday!”

“Exactly, my family is a bit of a last-minute trip planner,” He scratched the back of his head, watching as she freaked out right in front of him.

“What the hell, ugh,” She groaned, tipping her head back completely.

~~~

Later that day. Samaira arrived home and headed straight to work out followed by a shower. When she stepped out of the shower she saw her two friends had come home with some dinner for them all, now that they were all here she finally began to rant to them about the last-minute trip. She wanted to mention so bad she was trying to avoid alone time with Azrael, but she couldn’t else she’d have to explain why and what had happened three Saturdays ago.

“Then he just casually said ‘I’m taking you shopping tomorrow’ after looking at me from top to toe with a very judgy look,” Samaira paced in front of her friends, arms crossed as she complained to them. Everyone noticed she had been a little on edge lately, but no one knew why, even Samaira was a little clueless, she just felt stressed about something, but she couldn’t pinpoint it.

“I mean, no offense but you always wear comfortable clothes unless we’re going out. He probably wants to make sure you look great,” Akira pointed out. She knew her friend had great taste in clothing but that was usually only when she went out which was understandable, Akira too prioritized comfort.

“That’s not true, I wear nice clothes sometimes,” Samaira mumbled, breaking the eye contact as she knew it wasn’t much of the truth.

“He probably only sees you in those nice outfits when you go out, which is like not very often, especially lately,” Emma pointed out to her.

“Okay fine, I see his stupid point,” The brunette sighed and rested her hands on her hips as she looked at her friends.

“This is a little too soon, need help packing?” Emma offered, knowing the brunette would need some help.

“Right! He said his family is the last-minute planner,” She shook her head as she ranted for the last time. Akira almost wanted to laugh but knew that would only set her off more. “Also your help would very much be appreciated,” Samaira smiled briefly at Emma.

~~~

The next day after work. Samaira finished her shower and was combing her hair when she heard the doorbell. She frowned, knowing both her friends are still at work and she hadn’t ordered any food. She got up and tightened the robe around her waist as she walked to the front door. She opened the door to see Azrael standing there.

“Uh, what are you doing here?” She frowned, looking up at the man, noticing he was wearing a cap and glasses, a classic disguise.

“We have to go shopping, remember?” Azrael frowned, checking the time on his watch.

“Oh right, I thought you’d come later,” Samaira realized and took a step back, letting him in, then closed the door behind him. She watched as he walked to the living room and followed him.

“Traffic was surprisingly free today,” He mentioned, turning back to the brunette. He was so used to her being in heels he forgot how short she was compared to him.

“I see, well, wait here. I'll finish getting ready and we can head out,” She looked down at herself, still in her robe and only her hair was done.

“Sounds good, here,” Azrael handed her one of the cups he held.

“Thanks,” Samaira took the iced peach tea and walked to her room. She sipped from the drink as she hastily got ready, throwing on a simple outfit so she could change out of if she needed to try clothes on. She applied her lip gloss then shaped her eyebrows and was finally ready, picking up the half-full cup and exited the room.

“Ready?” She asked, adjusting the pendant of the necklace as she walked up to him.

“Yes,” He answered, turning from where he stood and holding a picture frame in hand. “Is this you?” He wondered, pointing to the photo of her and Akira from where they must have been six or so.

“It is, this is an old photo of Akira and me,” She smiled, looking at the photo. Azrael muttered the word ‘cute’ then put down the picture and saw another one next to it.

“And this is you in college?” He wondered, it was her, Emma, and Akira all in their college colors and hugging each other from the side as they posed for the picture.

“Yup,” She looked at the photo weirdly, it wasn’t that long ago but she looked very much different.

“You grew your hair out,” He noticed.

“I’ve always loved long hair but with swimming, the maintenance of it took too much so I held it short. Now without the daily chlorine water, I can have it as long as I want,” Samaira explained, a slight pout on her lips.

“Well get ready for five days of saltwater,” Azrael said as he put the frame down and followed her.

~~~

“Where will we be stopping first?” Samaira wondered whilst he parked the car. Finally, they arrived. The car ride wasn’t exactly long, it was just very quiet.

“We need like five outfits for dinner, around the same amount of swimwear and some casual clothes, beware my sisters take a lot of photos, so you want to look good at all times,” He calculated, his brows slightly furrowed as he thought about it.

“That’s a lot of clothes,” She realized. Gosh, did he mention dinner with his family? Those scared her because she worried either of them would slip up.

“Come on, let’s get started with swimwear first,” Samaira got out of the car with a long sigh leaving her lips. Swimwear didn’t need to be fitted so it was easier to get it done with, however she hadn’t expected him to take her to such expensive stores. At least his sisters took her to much more affordable stores.

“What do you prefer to wear?” Azrael wondered, looking around at the variety the shop had. There was truly everything so there wouldn’t be a reason to go to a different shop for their swimwear.

“Everything looks fine on me, I worked out tons for this body so I’ll show off if I can,” She answered bluntly.

“Fair enough,” He chuckled, his eyes trailing down her body, she definitely had a point.

“Wait, will your parents mind?” Samaira worried, not wanting to be disrespectful in front of them.

“They don’t tell my sisters anything so I’m sure they wouldn’t mind seeing some ass and cleavage of my supposed girlfriend,” He laughed, looking through the rack of bikinis.

“Fair enough,” She sighed relieved, she could wear what she pleased, the only thing she had to make sure of was to shave and take lots of sunscreen with her.

“What do you think of this?” He held out a multi-colored bandeau bikini set that looked absolutely gorgeous. It had very thin strips, so she didn’t have to worry about it slipping down.

“Oh I love it, definitely getting it,” She added to their cart. “Oh my god, look at this one,” She picked out a red polka dot bikini, the panties were high waisted and paired with a bra that seemed a little like a push-up, but she had one just like this just a different pattern and she loved the material and look of it.

“That’s pretty, love the vibrant color,” He looked at it then at the brunette and noticed red truly was her color, along with a rich tone of green.

The two continued to look through the options, at some point they arrived at the men's section and Samaira helped him pick out some swimming trunks, her personal favorite was the navy-colored one with thin white stripes. They also picked one with little flamingos on them. Samaira was then dragged back to the women's section to pick more bikinis, a yellow/orange floral one-piece caught her attention, the midsection was open and had a small knot in front. Another one she wanted was sadly not in her size, so she just picked a classic cropped tankini.

“Come on, let’s go pay,” Samaira looked over at the queue, luckily there was only one other person in front of them.

“Mhm, we have two more stops,” Azrael checked his phone and responded to his friend’s message. “Wait, do you need shoes?” He looked over at Samaira.

“Nope, I picked up enough sandals when I went shopping with your sisters,” She smiled, taking a step forward.

“Perfect,” He rested the basket on the counter and was about to slide it over but was stopped by Samaira.

“We should separate the things so paying separately becomes easier for them,” Samaira explained, wanting to be quick. They still had lots to do.

“Pay separately?” Azrael frowned as he reached into his pockets. “You do know I’m paying right?” He raised a brow at the brunette. There was no way he’d let her pay. Money meant very little to him so had no problem spending it, his bank account only grew more.

“But these are-” She was about to protest, wanting to pay for these herself. The cashier just looked at the two weirdly whilst counting up their total.

“Hush, you’re forced on this trip because of me so I’ll pay all the expenses that come with it,” Azrael handed his card to the lady, pushing Samaira’s card away gently.

“Azrael,” She glared at him, only this time her glare did not work. How was it supposed to work? She was barely intimidating.

“Samaira,” Azrael raised a brow at her.