Chapter 27 Breakfast & Confession
The floorboard creaked with barefooted Betty padding downstairs. It’s seven in the morning, the sun harshly lighted up the house with Gretchen doing some household chores. She stopped in her tracks when she heard clanging of pans and water running on the sink, with Tom’s back on her, busy washing the dishes.
The kiss from last night played in her mind like a broken record, feeling her face warm, she could look like a beet red right now.
Sensing her presence, Tom turned around with a smiley face and stared at her face, then to her lips. Glint is playing on his eyes while smiling all out to her. Betty just stared at him unfazed with the good aura emitting from him. But deep inside, her stomach and heart are doing backflip and elephants running around making her feel woozy and slightly nauseous. She is not new to these feelings, but she is certain of one thing. This one is different.
“Good morning.” She said silently sitting on the barstool of the kitchen counter. Tom is busy making breakfast while coffee whirring on the right end of the counter.
“Good morning to you too. Here, have some.” Tom plated nicely the fried egg, bacon, toasted bread, and some greens on her plate. While he casually munched on a piece of bacon while pouring coffee on their mugs.
“Thank you. Wait, it’s past seven, aren’t you going to the office?” she asked while taking a sip on her mug.
“No, I want to stay here with you.” He said teasingly staring at her with a smile on his face.
“You’ve been absent for three days straight now. What kind of boss are you?”
Tom squinted his eyes playfully challenging her to continue. But Betty shuts her mouth gaining a chuckle from him.
“Seriously, I want to stay at home and get some sleep. I never had proper sleep these past few days.”
Betty’s smile disappeared as a feeling of guilt washed over her. She knew she is the reason why Tom has been taking absences at work, sleep for just three hours to look after her and take care of her.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry. I know it’s all because of me.”
“What? Oh god, no. It’s not because of you Betty. Please don’t think about that.”
“But…”
“No, listen. You had been taking care of me since you became my assistant. Now it’s my turn to return the favor.”
‘What I am doing is not a favor, Mr. Dawson. It’s my job.”
“Tom. Just call me Tom.”
“I just can’t call you with your first name. You’re my boss.” She explained in disagreement with his proposition.
Tom sat down beside her, turning her stool to face him.
“Betty. Let me call you Betty from now on, okay? I have one question. Tell me the truth.”
Tom’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. He is also nervous to ask the most controversial question.
"Okay, I'll try." she laughed awkwardly at his proposition.
"Are you okay?" she asked staring at his weird actions.
"Huh? Yeah, I'm okay."
"Are you sure?" she seems worried about how Tom is acting right now. He seems to be worried and nervous.
“Betty… Do you like me?” he blurted out surprising Betty.
"What?"
"Do you like me?" he asked calmly with hopeful eyes.
What kind of question is that? Betty thought as she stared at him blankly.
“And what? Say that you didn’t mean the kiss?”
“What?”
“Do you remember the last time you kissed me? You just slap me in the face with the words, I didn’t mean it, it doesn’t mean anything.” Betty stifling a laugh staring at Tom’s expression turned sour as he recalled the memory.
“Oh shit. I wasn’t thinking straight at that time. I was just afraid you’d say the same thing, so I decided to say it first. I thought you didn’t like it. Look, I’m sorry. I, I—”
“I was quite disappointed in you at that time, to be honest.”
“Look, I’m sorry Betty. I mean it, I’m so sorry.”
“Okay. I like you too.” Betty said those words with full of sincerity in her eyes.
“What? Come again?”
“I like you, too.”
Tom smiled all out circling his arms, caressing her hair squeezing her small body.
“I like you. So much that it’s getting out of hand. I don’t know what I would do with you after this. Or should we live together? Or should I meet your foster parents? Or… I don’t know. I hate the part that I don’t know what to do with you. I like you. No, I lo—Yeah, I like you. So so much.”
Betty just stared at him with mouth agape like a fish out of the tank. She just can’t believe how much this guy went from being cold to head over heels.
“Now, let’s finish our breakfast.” He murmured kissing the top of her head.
“Yep.” She agreed to put a whole strawberry in her mouth.
Caught in between the era of a teenage dream, the two are exchanging looks as if they were some old couple recounting every memory they had. It
It’s as if they’ve been born again. As if starting to fill their book with flowery words and happy pictures. But one thing is for sure, they are in love and no one or nothing can take that away from them.
After a couple of bickering between Tom and one of the executives, he decided to go and report to the office and solve whatever problem it is. Betty needs to rest for one more day before her appointment with the doctor, so she decided to stay in the library for a while.
“Betty?”
Her head snapped to the front door with Tom on his suit and tie with his suitcase in his right hand.
“I’ll go to the office. Tell Gretchen not to cook dinner for us, I’ll buy something on the way okay?”
“Okay. Take care.”
Her smile melts Tom down to the core. He is now contemplating whether to go or stay at home and stare at this woman for hours. But he has to take care of his company too.
“What do you want for dinner?”
“Uhm…anything?”
“What anything, do you exactly want?”
“Pizza?”
Tom laughed at her antics. She looks so cute with her pink pajama, messy bun hair, and fluffy slippers with a book in her hand asking for a pizza for dinner.
The man is whipped. Total whipped.
“Okay. Pizza, it is.”
Betty smiled at him adorably fidgeting on the book in her hands. But Tom just can’t stare at her a few feet away, so he came towards her dropping his suitcase and slowly caged her in his arms once again. She is chuckling as butterflies came fluttering around her. She knew that this man is way too far from her reach but the fact that it was him closing the distance between the reality, everything fell into its places and making them arguably happy.
“Go now, you’ll be late from work.” She snickered with Tom not letting her go.
“Okay.”
In a split second, a kiss erupted between the two. Short but feels like an eternity. These are those times where you can’t control the emotion building up inside. They were like two birds flying freely, expressing how they feel.
“See you later.”
“Okay.”
There Tom waved her goodbye and slowly padded his way out of the mansion. He had left but she can still smell him and taste him. Oh, the love between these two.