Chapter 2 -
Saturdays were usually a bit more calm for me, at least lately. With Henry visiting Paris more and more these last few weeks have been just me lounging around at home. I couldn't muster the motivation to study on the weekends, nor could I bring myself to go out.
Today though, was a different story. Surprisingly, Henry woke up earlier than me. When I awoke he was already in the shower and I heard him humming. Getting up, the kitchen beckoned to me and willingly I let myself be drawn over to it. Something creative was stirring inside of me and I think breakfast was going to be my next work of art.
Somewhere in the middle of creating my breakfast crepes, Henry had come out and told me that he would make his own and that I should go shower for the day. "You're not gonna pop in today are you?" "I might... depends on how sexy you are when you go in..." "In that case..." I slouched forward and mock-hobbled my way into the master bedroom.
By the time I finished, I could tell there were more than a few burnt crepes hiding somewhere in the garbage can. He was busy trying to divert my focus onto the two that he had somehow managed to make. They were a bit darker than mine, but the excuse "I like my crepes extra well done" seemed to explain that all away for him.
"Where should we go today?" He asked, pouring me a glass of juice. "Anywhere, so long as we go out..." "Did you lock yourself away while I was gone again?" "No... Maybe..." "Oh my dearest Aiden, my poor little Rapunzel" He threw on a face of concern "Ha ha, very funny."
We settled for a day out on the town, running errands together, and doing some shopping. I got dressed in my dark black jeans and a patterned grey T-shirt while Henry opted for something a bit more bright. He had settled on a asymmetrical zip up hoodie with a white shirt underneath and the same black jeans that hugged our legs a little more cozily than your average pair of jeans.
Our first stop through was someplace that I hadn't expected. He drove me to the site of my mother's burial and sighed as he got out and opened the door for me.
"Aiden... we're here." "..." I was at a loss for words. "I know you come here every year on the anniversary of your mother's death. This is the first time that I've been here in the country for it. So let me be here with you for it okay?" He asked, offering me his hand. "I was... going to come here later... by myself..." "I know, but since I'm here, and I know you'll be here sad by yourself, I wanted to be here... to... at least hold your hand." He grabbed mine now, and I still couldn't bring myself to look away from the dashboard of the car. "Henry..." "C'mon, lets go." He pulled lightly and I followed.
We walked into the small building that housed the remains of my mother and stopped at the third plaque that hung on the wall. On it bore the inscription of my mother's name, her birth, and the date of her death. Just two years ago. She hadn't survived her battle with cancer to see me enter medical school, something I was so desperate to show her. By the time I had brought back my acceptance letter she had left this world and left me and my father behind. I prayed in my head that she would be able to see at least what I have become now, and somewhere in my mind I reassured myself that she had.
"Aiden... are you okay?" "W-What?" "Its okay to cry... its okay to do anything..." Henry placed his arms around me. "I-It's..." The minute his arms came around my shoulders every bit of my tears streamed from my eyes. I refused to begin crying but my eyes betrayed me. "I know..." Henry reassured me, he turned me around and I looked up at him, the tears still streaking down my face. "Henry..." "I know..." he repeated, and moved his hand to my cheek, brushing away the tears with his hands. I felt him pull me closer and he let me lean my head against his chest and I cried into it. Looking back, I must have soaked that shirt through with my tears, but Henry said nothing. He just kept stroking my back, reassuring me that he was there and that I should cry for however long it is I needed.
After a few minutes, my sobs had subsided and I was able to compose my thoughts again, hoping that my mother could somehow sense them from beyond. It was then that a second pair of hands placed themselves on our backs.
"Dad..." I gasped "Hello Aiden..." My father had been busy overseas and I hadn't expected to see him for the next six months or so. "Mr. Park" Henry bowed. "Hello Henry, long time no see, great work on the advertising campaign for the new line." Henry blushed at receiving a compliment. "I came back into town yesterday with your father, he's at home resting before we go out to London, you should stop by and see him sometimes. I know he misses you." "I will sir..." Henry nodded. "Good... Oh Aiden my boy..." He smiled as he held out his arms, noticing my eyes were red. "Its okay son, your mother's in a better place. There's no more pain for her." He consoled me and I could only nod. "I just miss her..." "I know... but I bet she's happy that you came to visit her, so don't show her your tears, show her your smile."
In that moment I tried my best to calm myself down and stop the redness my face almost certainly showed. I thought to myself that my father was right. Instead I began to tell my mother about how happy I was, how I missed her, but knew that she was always watching over me. Lastly, I told her about how she was right when she told me that Henry was someone that I would come to depend on. In some ways it was because of her encouragement that I was able to open myself up for Henry.
We left my father after another hour, and when we sat in the car, I felt so emotionally exhausted. I must have portrayed it because the next thing I felt was his hand against my knee, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Asking if I were still up for continuing the day. I merely nodded.
Henry drove us out now to the nearby mall that we frequented he smiled as we walked to the front entrance and entered, already knowing where he wanted to go. We visited several stores, all of them with items that he had already seen online and wanted to pick up. I on the other hand shopped while we were there and ended up with a nice overcoat for the coming winter and new shoes to replace my running pair that had begun to come apart. For him I had bought a pair of shoes and a jacket since I knew he hated wearing his blazers. On our last store, he pulled me in, keeping me close and I didn't quite understand why until he literally shoved me into the arms of a sales lady and told her that he was the one who had called ahead to reserve a certain collection. In a flurry of curtains and fabric I found myself alone in a fitting room with at least eight different outfits to try on. They were all sized for me and I felt very self-conscious about walking out in them.
"Aiden?! Come out!" Henry yelled urgently into the thankfully empty fitting rooms.
My first outfit was a pair of black slacks with a white polo on top that had patterned accents on the inner collars and on the sleeve. My second, a more relaxed style with jeans and bright bold tones that seemed to compliment my skin tone. My third was a bit more dressy, with a collared shirt that again had the same accents and a pair of black pants that were close to my legs again. In this manner I kept coming in and out of the dressing room, showing Henry the clothes that I later learned that he had hand picked out for me.
"We'll take them all!" He said proudly, clearly satisfied with his fashion success. I sighed as I nodded and produced my card only to have it swatted away and Henry paid instead. He had claimed that it was his right to pay for me, and that I should "shut up and accept it." Then he further claimed that since he had such a wonderful "hot, young and sexy" boyfriend that he had the right to dress me up so that I could be his date at the Company's annual Christmas party that was coming up in a few months. I sighed and nodded again.
Then we went grocery shopping and we bought the ingredients for the menu that I had planned out for the week's dinners. I picked up an extra block of Henry's favorite cheese and a small bottle of wine from the market. He was busy inspecting the fish for tonight's sushi-making endeavor. By the time we had gotten our shopping and errands done, it was almost six in the evening. While at home I quickly cooked up the imitation crab and sliced up the vegetables, Henry was busy rolling the sushi rolls together. He and I had visited Japan many times during our breaks and had taken it upon ourselves to learn how to make sushi from the restaurants there, though it was stressed to us that rolls were a bit more American than Japanese. We didn't seem to make much progress, during the whole cooking portion, we ended up eating the rolls as they were made and could never seem to keep a substantial amount on the plate. After a few more rolls, we gave up and retired to the couch to rest our full stomachs. We caught an episode of some game show that I was too tired to pay attention to. I ended up falling asleep against the corner of our sectional and the next thing I knew I jerked awake to find that Henry had put the throw over me and was absent-mindedly munching on popcorn with one hand, and the other was sitting on my hip. He seemed to notice that I was awake and put down the bowl. Wiping his hands on a napkin, he leaned over and gave me a hug before pushing himself into the small crevice between me and the back of the sofa.
"Hi Sunshine" He said teasingly "Mmhm..." I groaned and twisted myself a little to stretch. There were two distinct pops from my back and as they did a wave of what felt like relief washed over me. "Getting old there eh?" He quipped "mmm.."
I remember falling back asleep with him behind me and he at some point settled for stroking my hair and keeping his legs warm under the throw with mine. I drifted in and out of consciousness the whole night and only fully awoke when he decided that he had enough TV for the night and turned it off. I was fully prepared to spend the night on the couch but Henry got up and decided to pick me up to take me to the bed. There was, very little resistance except for some squirming but after two wiggles, I knew that he wasn't going to let me go and gave in. I felt myself placed on the bed and the blankets were pulled back from me. The same two arms that had carried me here then came around me and lulled me back against his body. The blankets crawled their way up and I fell back into a deep sleep.
--- The Next Morning ---
"Aiden... Jason is here!" I jumped up and looked at the alarm clock on my bedstand. "Oh crap!" I had completely forgotten that I had a study date planned for this Sunday.
My clothes flew off me and a random shirt and a pair of shorts ended up on me. I had no idea what I picked and ended up walking out of the bedroom in a purple tshirt and a pair of brown shorts. I could tell Henry was studying me closely and his perplexed look was soon replaced with laughter when he walked over and told me that my hair was still a mess. He patted my head and lightly tossed my hair and I blushed slightly as Jason gave me a look.
"I'll be in my study if you guys need me..." Henry smiled as he walked away. "Sorry... fell asleep last night and didn't get to set an alarm..." I explained. "Well... its okay... At least I got to see Henry..." Jason grinned "You know... if you're going to oogle my boyfriend, could you at least pretend to be discrete about it..." "Well Mr. Sarcasm, I was just pointing out... that he's looking pretty fine these days." "He looks "pretty fine" everyday." I corrected him. "Oh stop it, you two are so pathetically in love, it's ridiculous" "Well... it is what it is..." I smiled to myself knowing that he was right.
Jason was my best friend, he had known me since our college years and we shared a few... embarrassing escapades together. Some of which, even Henry had not known about. When Jason had finally found out who Henry was, and that I was dating him, he was the one that was the most supportive of us. Not to mention one of the most nosey.
"Is he really rich...? Is he cute in bed? Is he GOOD in bed? Is he..."
A lot of these questions he still asks actually...
We went to the second floor living room. There was a small corner of it that housed a large and wide table that could seat at least 4 comfortably. We sat there and settled in with our slides of human anatomy. Jason had also been one of the few friends from my college years to join me as a medical student. He though, seemed to be one of those kids that could get by with minimal studying and still somehow comprehend everything. In that respect, I envied him.
Every two hours or so we took a break and we wandered around the house, jumping from the living room to the kitchen, to one of the bedrooms where we ended up laying on the bed and talking about our lives so far and how they've changed since college. Eventually, he had managed to somehow convince me that we should visit Henry and I acquiesced.
"Hi..." I peeked shyly into the study and Henry's face lit up "Hi..." He replied "Me too..." Jason followed behind me. "Haha hi Jason, how are the studies going?" "Good... just taking a break... " "Well... you two have been there for almost 6 hours now, did you even eat anything for lunch? I know Aiden didn't..." "I had something before I came..."
I watched my boyfriend and my best friend talking and for a moment I imagined this was what happiness was. At least... it was happiness for Jason anyway. I could tell by the way he was fiddling with his hands and his feet were unsteady.
"Aiden? Do you want me to pick you up anything for dinner? I'll go out in an hour" "huh?" "Do you want me to pick you up anything for dinner?" "Oh... uh... w-whatever Jason wants." "Anything is fine... really...anything.. is good." Jason said nervously.
Henry settled on going out to buy us some food from the neighboring market. He had insisted that he get us some "study brain food" as he put it.
"A-A-Anything is f-f-f-fine..." I teased. "Shuddap, why'd you have to put me on the spot?" "Why are you so nervous around Henry?" "Because... I... I want a guy like that..." "Rich?" "No!" "Then what?" "I just... after David and I broke up two years ago, I really got to think about the kind of relationship I wanted. When... I really got down to it, I kept thinking of how you are with Henry. I mean... I can see the way he looks at you... how happy he is just to be with you... I mean he even just ran out to get dinner for you so you could study... he supports you..." Jason sighed and I patted his back. He'd had a turbulent past with his choice in boyfriends and I knew that in some ways he was a little more than jealous.
"Jason, do you ever think that the reason why you think about this is because David treated you so horribly? Henry and I didn't get to where we were without work. We had years of trial and errors... when he wasn't working he was a little more wild... I even had to carry him home from a party after he was completely drunk and passed out. We all have our trials, but I know that when you find someone... and you begin building your relationship... you'll find your own Henry."
That seemed to make him feel better, though in all my years of knowing him, Jason had rarely let go of anything so easily. My best guess was that he would take my words into consideration... when he reviewed them at night by himself. I only hoped that whatever he decided... he could accept.
Henry came back to find the two of us sitting on the couch watching a murder mystery. With both of us horribly guessing at the culprit. (We were wrong by the way.) He had brought back for us a kale salad with some raisins in it, a rotisserie chicken, and some roasted vegetables with a garlic butter.
We ate gratefully, and stuffed ourselves until studying for another two hours seemed like a delusion. The kitchen ended up sitting with dirty dishes in the sink that night, as the three of us retired to the living room to "sit off" our dinner. I had to remind myself that I had no school tomorrow otherwise I'd be in a panic to make sure my scrubs were washed and my alarms set.
"You ever think Aiden would be a lot cuter if he weren't such a wreck when he worries?" Henry jokingly nudged Jason who laughed and nodded. "Ha ha... If I wasn't such a worrier, neither of us would have any anxiety in our lives." "That's true... but you know... anxiety is not a good thing, sometimes... you just gotta let go..." "You let go, I'll just hold on by a hair." I sighed, shaking my head.
Jason ended up leaving a few hours later, leaving Henry and I alone for the night. While we were cleaning up, a call came for Henry on his phone and I finished the living room cleaning by myself.
"AUHHGH" I panicked and ran to Henry's study in time to hear a loud bang. "Henry!" "That stupid..." "Henry?" "Sorry... I just... got a call that Landon has taken one of our clients... just stole it right out from under me." "Henry..." "Urgh I hate that guy... he always does this. Always. He never goes out to do his own work, just snakes in when we're already in the middle of negotiations. His company may be our rival, but when he takes it over, all this underhanded dealing is going to be the end of him." "Henry..." I sighed and put my hand on his back. "Aiden..." He looked at me with his sorrowful eyes.
I knew that he was feeling sorry for the way he had acted. He hated to show this side of himself to me. I knew that there was a reason why he was chosen to inherit his father's company, that Henry was of course, a businessman at heart. He had done his best to make sure that I never saw the more ruthless business side of him. I had told him long ago that I accepted him the way he was, but somehow he still felt apologetic to me whenever it reared its head. I knew that he hated it more when Landon was involved. He and Henry had grown up together, their fathers were friends, but over time they grew distant. Henry's father began the company that would soon house the Kim conglomerate and its subsidiaries, while Landon's father had been a little less successful. Somewhere in their childhood, Landon grew bitter and resented Henry for everything that had happened in his life. In just the short three years that Henry's father had built their empire, Henry lost his best friend. It was something he could never forget.
"Come to bed Henry..." I said softly, reassuring him it was perfectly alright to be angry.
"It means I'm going to have to go back to Paris soon..." "I know... but for tonight... just come to bed... and we'll deal with whatever happens in the morning okay?"
His face furrowed a bit before he let out a frustrated groan and threw his phone back onto his desk. There was a certain darker air around him now, and I let him go quietly back to the bedroom without standing in his way.
"Aiden..." "I know, I'll help you pack your bags tomorrow." "... I love you..." "I love you too... now go to sleep." "I'm sorry. I know that I just got back... and we finally had some time..."
He had a look of deep regret in his eyes and when I crawled into bed, I lay close to him and rested my head on his arm.
"Henry, you don't need to be sorry to me. I know who you are, I understand who you are and what you have to do. The business... your family's obligations come first. So don't apologize to me for doing what you're supposed to. No matter what you do, I love you too."
With that he seemed more at peace and closed his eyes.
"Good night Henry..." I whispered to him and gently pecked his lips with my own... "You haven't done that since we were living together in the dorms..." He smiled, keeping his eyes closed. "Good night Henry." I repeated and turned back to my side of the bed, pulling the covers over the both of us. In time, he slid his arm across my body and in our usual position, we fell asleep...
--- Author:
Thanks for reading another chapter with me! Again, as this is my first time writing a narrative, any comments or feedback would be greatly appreciated! A great big thanks to those who have given me some great feedback! Please stay tuned as Im already in the middle of the next Chapter!
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