Chapter Thirty-five

Athena's POV

''What's going on?'' I ask as I rub both of my hands together, producing heat. My eyes wander around to see unknown people walking in—taking all of the furniture out through the front door.

Alex stands in the middle, watching each one of them doing their job. He turns around, eyeing my body before meeting my eyes, ''We're redecorating the living room.'' He replies, a small smile appears replacing the previous appeared frown.

I walk closer toward him, looking up—realising that our height differences seem to be quite a lot, ''What do you mean by that?'' I raise an eyebrow, looking around. Seeing them all walking as fast as they can with at least one furniture in their hands.

He shrugs, ''I want to redecorate the living room. When I think about it, the living room looks a bit dull. It makes me feel boring, you know?'' He then shove both of his hands in his jeans' pocket, ''So, yeah.'' Alex adds, shrugging.

''You can't just think that the living room looks dull, Alex.'' I mutter under my breath as he continues to look down—straight into my eyes. Tugging at my shirt, I lift my hand up, faking a cough, ''Anyways, yeah, sure whatever you want to do.'' Putting both of my hands behind me.

One of the workers walk toward Alex, showing a list, ''We have taken everything you've listed.'' He says, pointing at the piece of paper—catching my attention. I stand on my tiptoes, trying to peek but Alex notice my struggle and lift the paper higher.

''That's great, thanks Bob.'' He gives the paper back.

''It's Ben.''

The man says, making Alex turn toward him but Alex shrugs, ''Okay, thank you Bart.''

''It's—'' He sighs, ''Never mind.'' Taking the piece of paper before walking out with his co-workers. I eye them until they are all out of sight, not even a single noise was heard afterwards.

Biting lightly on my lower lip, ''Well—um, it depends.'' I reply. He walks closer, blocking the distance between us with our bodies. One more move and I would collide our bodies together. I breathe in—inhaling his cologne. My heartbeat is raising every second, making me mind my surrounding.

''I want you to redecorate the living room.''

I let out a laugh unknowingly, not completely believing the words that has just slipped from his mouth but he looks back at me—furrowing his eyebrows. My laughter dies, making me look back at him with wide eyes, ''Are you serious? I—I mean, I thought you were...''

He shakes his head slowly, ''I'm serious. I've been to your apartment before and I like how everything seems nicely arranged and neat.'' Speaking about my apartment, I haven't step in it for a month now. It didn't even appear in my head, which is weird. It feels like I'm comfortable here living with him.

''Pft, you've got to be kidding me. I'm not an interior designer, you won't like how I design or arrange stuff. It's your house and I think you have the right to do everything yourself. I won't bother nor would I complain on how bad your taste could be—'' He lightly places his index finger on the middle of my lips, stopping me from finishing my sentence. My eyes narrow as I watch him frown.

Alex tilt his head to the side, slowly reaching for my forearm, ''I'm not kidding you. I want you—'' He leans in, his lips brushing against my earlobe—touching my ice cold skin, ''—to redecorate the living room and that's final.'' Then he leans back, letting go of my forearm and removing his finger away from my lips, ''Let's get started.''

He winks before he starts pulling me out to the front door.

Alex stops the car once he has fully satisfied with the parking position. He unbuckle his seat belt and I follow his action afterwards. We both step out of the car, me walking as close to him as possible. We are heading toward the furniture store.

Unfortunately, we spend here longer than we thought...

''No, I want it in green.'' I say, taking back the cushion from the rack—glaring at Alex. He grabs the cushion from my grasp and throw it back at the rack, ''What do you think you're doing? You're not possibly going to argue with me just because of the colour!'' I add, completely frustrated.

''There's like different colours but why green?'' He crosses his arms, glaring back at me. I try to reach for the green cushion back but he grab my arm—stopping me from doing so, ''Nope, don't even think about it.''

''Are you even serious right now?'' I groan loudly, catching a few people's attention but I ignore them—not even glancing their way. Roughly running my fingers through my hair, I push him aside before walking toward the different section. I can't deal with him right now.

So, he asked me to redecorate the living room but he won't let me choose. What's the point? Nada!

I reach for the clay vase as I imagine purple tulips filling it. My lips curve up into a small smile as I put the item in the cart. Turning around, I see that Alex is nowhere to be found so I continue to search for more. We have checked the sofa earlier and luckily, Alex and I both agree on it and on the colour. We also agreed on the coffee table because it matches both of our style.

All of a sudden, Alex appears beside me, giving me no expression. I ignore him as I see him putting a plain white table lamp into the cart. We continue to reach out for items and I'm glad that he doesn't bring any argument up.

My eyes look down to the cart—seeing that it's almost full. I take one last glance at the mirror which has caught my attention. It would be nice if I could hang the mirror on the wall near the window. I turn to see Alex playing with his phone so I quickly run toward the mirror and pick it up—slowly putting it in the cart.

Once we reach home, Alex told me that he wants to go out for awhile and I just nod without bothering to ask him where he's going. I look around at the empty space before sighing, ''Let's get started.'' Repeating the same word.

I manage to arrange the living room nicely when the store arrived to deliver the sofa me and Alex wanted. They help me with arranging the sofa and the coffee table. I stare bluntly at the empty sofa but I continue my job by putting the clay vase at the middle of the coffee table—adding purple tulips afterwards.

It took me four hours to place everything in the living room and the dining room. Everything seems to be in place and everything looks cozy. I smile unknowingly as I turn to see the fireplace—it would be perfect just chilling in the living while enjoying the warm sensation.

''Almost there,'' I mutter to myself as I watch the walls.

A week of redecorating wasn't easy either. Alex helped but he didn't do much. After a couple hours of helping, he went straight to work—saying that he has a meeting to attend before training with his team. I don't mind though, it would make my job easier without him bothering me.

When Alex wasn't around for the whole day, I've called an interior designer to help with the walls. She told me to add sand stones wall near the fireplace so that everything wouldn't be so plain. I agreed and turned out, she was right. I have changed the lights and make them a little bit dimmer so there wouldn't be so much force in the room.

Everything is settled hours before Alex called, saying he would return home in a few.

I fasten my pace as I walk down the stairs, turning off all the lights. As soon as I hear Alex opening the door, I quickly cover his eyes with my hands—making him chuckle in an instant, ''What's wrong?'' He asks, sounding concern and confuse at the same time.

''Just trust me.'' I whisper softly into his ear.

He keeps quiet, continuing to walk as I close the door by kicking it with my foot. I look up to see him sniffing but he stays quiet, just allowing his hands to travel in the thin air. I wanted to laugh and say how funny he looks but I keep quiet too, not even bothering to ruin the moment.

''Are we—''

I cut him off, ''Nope, shut up.'' I reply and he obeys. We both stop walking and I stand on my tiptoes, ''Are you ready?'' I ask, softly. He nods and I slowly remove my hands away from his eyes. In an instant, the lights turns on—revealing the perfectly decorated living room. Three lighted scented candles on the coffee table.

Moving slowly, I get a better view of his face. In this kind of ligthting, I see his well-sculptured face—making him look ten times attractive than he actually is. He looks around, eyeing every spot—making me feel slightly nervous.

''Do you like it?'' I raise an eyebrow, tugging at my shirt.

Alex looks down at me while clenching his jaw. My heart somehow stops beating, oh, does he not like it? Should I call the interior designer to change everything? I tug harder on my shirt, looking down. Shit, did I mess up?

''You know... I don't think I do.'' He starts to speak, ''From this direction, the sofa looks plain and empty. Even the flower doesn't fit in. Not just that. I mean look at the—'' He looks straight into my eye and I let out a deep sigh, ''—princess, I love it, okay?''

''But you said—''

He cuts me off by softly punching on my arm, ''I was joking. You did well, I love it.'' Then he wraps his arm around my shoulder, giving me one of his breathtaking smile. Unknowingly, I smile back and look down at the ground—letting my hair fall to cover half of my face.

His hand reach out to tuck a strand of my hair and as I look up, his smile drops. Just like that. ''I need to tell you something. It's really important and it's about you. I know it might be a lot to take in but I want you to listen, okay?''

I nod lightly, gesturing him to continue.

''Athena, it's about Jeremy.'' As his name slip out of his mouth, I feel my legs weakening but I manage to awaken my senses. I breathe out, trying to calm myself but only memories of him torturing me keeps on appearing—non stop. I hold onto my head, receiving Alex's attention. ''Athena,'' He mutters before holding me by the waist.

''We need to see him.'' I hear him say.