Pursing my lips, I shrugged. If I needed a more of child-friendly car, I could always borrow one from the boys. Yesterday, I only took Audrey’s because she was my assistant and it just sort of made sense to me. Before I could answer Audrey’s question though, Violet called out attention, asking us to go now as she jumped up and down in excitement.
Audrey narrowed her eyes at me but turned to my niece with soft eyes, no traces of her annoyance to me to be seen. The three of us made our way to her car and I was ready to take the keys from her but she looked at me as if I sprouted another head. “There’s no way I’ll let you drive my car, Julian.”
I rolled my eyes and shrugged, heading to the passenger seat and settling in. “Let’s go, driver.”
Audrey glared at me when I said that but turned on the car and we made our way to Disney. Along the way, Audrey turned up her stereo and connected it to her phone so she could play her Spotify playlist of Disney songs to hype up our mood and Violet. My niece and I sang along and I caught Audrey smiling from time to time when she thought I wouldn’t notice.
We had all-access tickets in Disney and Violet wanted to try on almost every ride there was and head in every adventure there was. Audrey and I complied and didn’t really mind because Violet’s excitement was so contagious. To be honest, it felt incredibly freeing to wander around Disney without having to act cool or anything because Violet basically stripped me off of the rockstar swag that I usually had by making me wear this ridiculous sweater.
From time to time, there were fans that stopped me for a picture but I didn’t have to worry about Violet wandering around because she held onto Audrey. Maybe bringing Audrey along wasn’t such a bad idea. At least Violet had someone to be with while I tried to satisfy the fan’s need for pictures and selfies with me.
“Well, look who’s back, Vi,” Audrey teased as I went back to them. I knew I must’ve looked dishevelled and a little tired and felt apologetic that I basically left Violet with her for nearly an hour. I tried to get away from the fans but had to explain why because some thought Violet was my kid.
Violet laughed at me and then hugged me and I picked her up. “Sorry for that, Vi.”
She shrugged and kissed my cheek, leaving my cheek sticky with something and she grinned, her teeth covered in chocolate. “Now I forgive you but hold me up higher, Uncle Jules.”
I grimaced but did as asked, lifting her up until she was sitting on my shoulders and Audrey laughed in front of us as she took out a tissue paper from her purse. But Violet was still in my arms so I couldn’t really wipe it off of me. “You seem to have a little bit of something on your face there, Julian.”
Before I could react, Audrey held up the tissue and then wiped the chocolate off of my cheek with a small smile on her face. Her fingertips grazed my skin and as it did so, I felt a flood of warmth from that spot spread all over my body. I swallowed, my heart beginning to race, my hands feeling clammy and I couldn’t even begin to understand why Audrey Finch- of all girls- had this kind of effect on me.
Audrey was so close to me that I could get a whiff of her vanilla and cinnamon scent and get a closer look at her brown eyes. Her eyes flickered and met mine and she sucked in a breath, a little startled as she registered just how close we actually were to each other but she didn’t take a step back. Instead, someone behind her pushed her closer to me and I could feel her body pressed against me.
Her eyes widened as our skin touched but more than that, as she stumbled into me, our lips brushed but for a moment and it felt like I was on fire. Suddenly my body wanted more, the slight taste of her made me crave her. I wanted to put my niece down and grab Audrey’s head and crash my lips against her and it didn’t make sense because those were irrational thoughts.
But Audrey was quick to step back and pretend like nothing happened.
And in the instant, my lips met yours,
My soul burst into flame,
You’re addicting and satisfying and baby, I crave
Stay with me right here in this moment,
Stay with me in this lifetime
I’ll be yours for how long you’ll want it
Be it in this lifetime and even in the next one
The lyrics came into mind in a fleeting instant and I stumbled back. It was then that I noticed the sun had set and the reason why we kept bumping into people was because we were trapped in the crowd waiting for the fireworks. On my shoulders, Violet cheered as the first fireworks burst into the dark sky and beside me, Audrey moved to look at it, swiftly turning her back on me so I couldn’t see anymore.
My heart thumped wildly in my chest and the sound of the fireworks echoing it. “Oh wow, it’s so pretty, Uncle Jules!”
I nodded, smiling thinly but my eyes were glued on the back of Audrey’s head. God, I wanted her to turn around. I wanted to see her face. I wanted to see her reaction. And I didn’t know why.
There were Disney characters that burst out, waving at the crowd as the fireworks lighted the dark sky behind them. Then there was a quick pause as they pointed at the sky and I looked up as a number of shooting lights went up before bursting into an array of colors.
“Oh wow!” Audrey exclaimed, clapping excitedly as she turned back to look at us with big brown eyes. She looked at Violet, grinning widely as she flashed my niece a thumbs up. Behind her, the cloud lit up in different colors, basking her in a red and orange hue for a split second.
Holy shit, she looked absolutely beautiful.
For a moment, I wondered if Audrey felt our lips brushed against each other because she didn’t look fazed. Rather, she seemed giddy for the fireworks and looked absolutely over the moon with it. She had a big smile on her face as she watched and as the colors continued to reflect on her face, the more my heart kept irregularly beating.
I took a step forward so I was right beside her and all I could do was watch as she interacted with my niece, smiling so wide that I almost forgot that there was a scowl that took permanent residence on her face. I could hear the people around as ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ at the sight of the spectacular display.
I couldn’t agree with them more.
That smile sure looked spectacular.
12
Audrey
Julian and I almost kissed and for the past two hours, I’d been pretending that it didn’t happen. We stopover at a pizza parlour for dinner on Violet’s request and were on our way back to Julian’s and neither of us had said a word to each other. Our lips brushing against each other’s was merely an accident because I was pushed into him.
The desire that I felt for it to turn into something more, however, did not make sense to me.
I still hated Julian and for almost two weeks of catering to him as his assistant, I did not find anything about him that made me hate him less. There were certain traits that made him endearing like how he liked cooking and baking but that was just it. Those were things that didn’t make me see him in a different light.
Well, at least, that’s what I was telling myself.
“Audrey.” His voice broke me out of my reverie and I almost jumped in my seat. We’d been driving in silence for too long since Violet fell asleep after talking to her Mom on FaceTime. She probably had spent too much of her energy today which exclaimed why she fell asleep so easily.