Chapter 8
Hart was unexpectedly called to come to her church's office later that afternoon, offering a rain check on your plans to drive up to Illinois for, in her own words, her regularly scheduled 'retail therapy' appointment. The boys were currently spending time with their father, leaving you alone in the house with nothing to do.
After a video call with Geri, you shoot your cousin a text to ask if you could hang out at the coffee shop to pass the time. She calls you in response to give you instructions on how to lock up and tell you what time she'd be coming home so that you can time your own return.
After about an hour's nap, you decided to leave at about half past two. Just as you were opening the door to get out, your phone vibrates in your purse.
Your heart jumps up at your throat upon seeing your phone screen display Sebastian’s goofy face. You tap on the green button and put the phone in your ear. Your jaw aches at how big your smile was upon seeing him.
"Hey you," he says as a greeting.
"Hi," you respond shyly. "Why'd you call?"
He fumbles with his words as he responds to you. "Uh, nothing…I just, um, I wanted to hear your voice before heading off to that meeting I told you about this morning."
Your neck warms up and you literally could feel it rising up to envelop your face in a mad blush. "You--I...," you respond meekly. He laughs softly on the other end.
"I can't wait to see you again, Y/N. Will you be free tonight?"
"Y-yeah. What did you have in mind?"
You hash out plans for dinner and a movie after he gets off from his meeting, agreeing to message each other for updates. You both were hesitant to say goodbye until his assistant came knocking on his door.
You couldn't help but squeal in excitement that you were seeing Sebastian again later.
The barista who gave you a free drink yesterday was laughing at you after you got in as she saw you stop and search for any announcement posted at the door to make sure you weren't barging in on anything again.
"You're hilarious," she says as you approach. You give her a cheeky grin as you approach her.
"Wouldn't want to cause a ruckus, you know? How are you?"
You and her made small talk in between placing your orders before you finally got to a somewhat obscure spot in the corner by the window. You decide on trying to finish Wuthering Heights first before working on your manuscript, anxious to see if Heathcliff and Catherine's story couldn't get any more tragic than what you've read.
After your order was delivered, you were soon lost again in the book, completely oblivious to your surroundings. It's what you absolutely love about reading and writing. You could be anywhere and anyone you want to be anytime of your choosing. Everything else didn't matter. It's an escape from your troubles and your number one go-to if you don't feel like dealing with life in general.
You've been reading for a solid hour already when someone tapped your shoulder, causing you to drop your book with a gasp of surprise. When you look up, a familiar, friendly face is smiling at you.
"Kayla, right? Oh my, hi-hi, how are you?" you stand up and she reaches out for a hug. "What are you doing here?"
"I uh, I may have left out a little detail when we met last week," she says hesitantly. "I'm…I'm Sebastian Stan's personal assistant."
You stood there, jaw dropping as Kayla told you who she was. That could only mean…
"...and he wants to see you, now, if you could. I'm sorry if he can't come out, his agent and publicist is here and they know about you and…"
"It-It's okay, just, uh, lead the way, I guess?"
His people already know about you? A lump got lodged in your throat as you thought of the implications of…shit, it's not even a full day, of course you don't know what you are to Sebastian. Would you ask him about it? Is it way too soon to define it now?
Your zooming thoughts come to a halt when you see him again, a giddy smile lighting up his face as soon as he sees you. You don't notice you were left alone with him until he's enveloped you in a bear hug that nearly knocked you down. You let out a near breathless giggle as you wrap your arms around him and breathe him in.
"You didn't tell me you were gonna be here," Sebastian says to you as he led you to sit.
"You didn't ask me where I was going."
You both laugh heartily before he stops and pulls you close to him again to brush his lips on yours. You both smile at the contact before you close your eyes and let yourself get lost in his kiss. The moment ends too quickly when a stern clearing of someone's throat echoes in the room.
Sebastian takes his time to pull away from you anyway before addressing whoever it was that interrupted you both.
"Hey Roxie," he says casually. "Are they here already?"
You turn around and see a tall, blonde woman who seems to be trying hard not to glare at you and failing miserably.
"Yes," Roxie says sternly. "You done here?"
"Jeez, what's with the attitude?" Sebastian asks with a slight frown. She scoffs before asking him again to be with them in five minutes and leaves the two of you again.
You felt like you were shrinking by the way you got the silent treatment from Sebastian's agent. You squeeze his hand and turn to face him.
"So um, I'll see you later?" you ask in a small voice.
"Yeah, of course!" he says enthusiastically as if the encounter with his agent didn't happen. He leans forward to kiss you again. Tugging your hand, you both come out of the room. You notice him looking around before kissing you again.
"Later, Y/N."
"Later, Seb."
Sebastian's meeting finishes a couple of hours after, him feeling very good about bringing another indie project to life. His giddy mood was brought down to a crashing halt when his publicist, Max pulled him to the side right after everybody had left.
"What's up buddy?" he asks.
Max sighs before beckoning Sebastian to sit down. "Roxie told me about the new girl you met."
"And?"
"I don't think it's a good idea, Seb."
"What isn't a good idea, Max?" Sebastian already knows what he's talking about and is not liking the idea that he hasn't even gotten to know you well enough that people around him are already trying to dissuade him about you.
"Come on, Seb, are you sure about this? You will have a lot going for you in the upcoming months, you sure you could handle dating someone on top of all your shit?"
"Jesus Max, I just met her and you're already acting as if she's going to fucking ruin me. I don't--"
"That's the point man! You can stop this nonsense before-before--" Max lets out a slow, exasperated sigh. "I just don't want the E incident and the SoHo photos happening again."
Sebastian scoffs. "Yeah right, you didn't even lift a finger when those got out so what's the point now? Wait, you know what? Don't answer that, I think I really like this girl and if it goes to shit, I'll deal with it."
"Seb…don't do this," Max pleads but Sebastian was already out the door to find you. He stops momentarily in the restroom, locking himself alone to recompose himself. He runs a hand over his head in front of the sink and looks at himself in the mirror, letting out a calming breath.
He really wanted to understand where Max was coming from but he just met you, it would be unfair if judgment will be passed when it hasn't even been a full day you'd met.
He found you still in the same corner Kayla found you earlier, this time hunched over. He stopped for a moment to just take you in.
Your brows were furrowed as your fingers moved rapidly as you wrote, pausing every few seconds to rest. Longer pauses he noticed, you'd peek at your phone to check the time or the dictionary as you'd mumble words that he presumed you were trying to define. You'd bite your pinky finger and raise an eyebrow when you hit a snag but you'd grin and giggle quietly when an idea pops up in your head again.
You were definitely different from all the women he'd dated in the past. You weren't a size four, not even an eight, but he didn't mind. For the first time in his life, he was eager to find out more about what you think about things, not if you'd be a great lay in bed. That first conversation over breakfast made him so curious, and he couldn't wait to get to talk to you again.
"Mind if I join you?" Sebastian asks, standing behind the chair across from you. When you looked up, he was thrown off by the smile you gave him, making him grip the back just a little bit tightly.
No one should be allowed to look that beautiful when they smile.
"Not at all," you respond. It would be so easy to just lean over to just brush his lips on yours, but he didn't want to risk it. He settles for reaching out for your hand instead for a light squeeze, hoping it conveys enough how happy he was to see you again. "Meeting done?" you ask.
"Yeah, we were able to hash out a lot of stuff today, I'm gonna be free tomorrow," Sebastian tells you with a wink. During the meeting, he tried his best to suppress his excitement when Cassidy, the production manager told him they were happy with the casting call as well as finalizing the location scouting within a day which meant there was no need for them to meet the next day.
"Is that so?" you lay your pen on the table and gave him a quizzical look.
"It is so," he responds. "I was hoping we could spend the day. Together," he adds the last word just to make sure he's clear with what he wanted.
You blinked at him, not sure if you were hearing him correctly. An entire day with you?
"What is it?" he asks, a bit of worry lacing his voice.
"Really?" you finally blurt out. He chuckles and takes your hand again.
"Of course. I don't come back home until Saturday and I couldn't think of a better way to pass the day."
"Stop apologizing, really. I'm okay with staying in. I'm sort of relieved, I guess?"
After a few more minutes in the coffee shop, Sebastian had asked if you both could just stay in his room for that pizza and movie he asked of you that morning. He wanted to be careful and take precaution as he doesn't want to risk you being photographed with him yet. He left first and then you followed him after 15 minutes. When you finally arrived, you blurted out an apology.
"Why is that?"
"I'm still trying to wrap my head around…this," you gesture between you and him. He nods his head in understanding, glad that you both were on the same page.
Sebastian closes the gap between you two, wrapping his arms around you as soon as he was able to reach you. You rest your head on his chest, feeling the gentle thump-thump-thump of his heartbeat.
"I know," he says over your head. "Whatever this is, I want to protect it. I want to protect you. And besides," he tilts your chin up so he can look at you. "I want to be able to do this as much as I can."
He gently pulls your face to him so he could graze his lips over yours. It's barely a kiss, but the way it sends him reeling takes him by surprise. He closes his eyes as you respond to him by taking tiny nips of his lower lip.
He was breathing heavily when you both pulled away. You weren't any better when he opened his eyes, seeing your cheeks as pink as a flower.
"I really, really like doing that," he says to you, a dopey grin on his face as he spoke.
"Me too," you whisper.