Chapter 2
The flight to Spain will be happening in a few days. That leaves me with three days of trying to live my life before it gets ruled by relatives and family. Three days of sanity and doing whatever I wanted.
It was late afternoon and I had just got off work. My mother had texted several times to remember to bring decent clothes. That means no sweatpants, no old t-shirts, and no yoga pants. This means my whole closet. I made a comment back to her that I might as well go naked because that eliminates everything I have.
Of course, she offered to go out and buy me some but I immediately tossed that idea out the window. No way will I let mother buy me clothes.
So, this left me driving to the fire station to pick up Axel. Why do I need to pick him up? Because the only friend I can think of that will tag along with me on a shopping trip and not make me bored.
I pulled up to the rounded drive way at the fire station. He was already standing by the entrance waiting. When he saw me pull up, he jogged up and opened the passenger door to get in.
“I can’t believe you’re making me go shopping with you, Hermosa. I do not shop. I buy clothes online and have them delivered to me.” He said.
“Oh, stop pouting. If I am going through this torture, you will go through it with me.” I snapped before shifting gears and driving towards the mall.
Axel pulled down the visor and checked his hair. I don’t know why he needs to because it is usually a disheveled mess but it did make him look like a total bad boy. Axel has two brothers. Axel was the middle child. His older brother is married and has five kids. The younger brother was studying abroad.
I haven’t met the older brother yet but I have met the younger brother when he came to stay with Axel for a couple of months. Axel is twenty-eight years old and if I recalled he was a year or two apart from his brothers.
Axel was a total playboy but can you really blame him? He was tall, dark, and handsome. He has sharp black eyes that was half hidden by tangled masses of jet black, unkempt hair. His burly physique deepened his exotic look and to top it off I have seen him almost naked.
There were several occasions he will walk over to my apartment with only a towel wrapped around his waist. A full-fledged warrior avatar tattoo on his right biceps and on his chest, was ′Non desistas, non exieris’. It meant never give up, never surrender.
Now, you are probably asking why haven’t I fallen for him? Truth be told, living next door to him and hearing women scream with pleasure it isn’t my thing. I know him. I know he is a play boy and I don’t want to get my heart broken. So, I stop it before it could. Common sense and all.
Axel and I arrived at the mall and headed into the first store that I saw had a few cute clothes. He stood around with his hands in his pocket. His eyes wandering around the store. A few women stopped to whisper and gawk at him. He seemed oblivious. In fact, I’m surprise he was stuck to my side.
“What about this one?” I lifted a maroon flowy dress from a rack. I chose it because It’ll hide my fat.
He glanced down at what I picked and shook his head, “Nope.”
He looked away again and I can see the boredom clearly in his eyes. I huffed and pouted as I placed it back on the rack. I looked through the clothes and when I found nothing I liked I moved onto the next. When I couldn’t find anything that I liked or would at least look decent on me I huffed in irritation.
“There’s nothing good. Why do clothing companies make clothes that makes a fat girl look like a fucking cupcake?” I grumbled.
That caught Axel’s attention. He sighed and placed his hands on my cheeks, forcing me to face him.
“Repeat after me.” He ordered. “I am not fat.”
“Stop.” I tried shoving his hands away. “That’s not funny.”
“Ryleigh, there are tons of clothes here that would look good on you. You just don’t know how to look.” He emphasized it by squeezing my cheeks harder.
“Ow.” I mumbled before shoving at his hands again. “Let me go you idiot.”
He chuckled and released my cheeks only to grab onto my hand. I looked down at our hands and back at him. His fingers were nicely intertwined with mine. I couldn’t help but noticed how well our hands fit together.
He jerked our hands and my eyes snapped up to meet his, “Let me find you some clothes.”
“I don’t know if that is a good idea.” I squeaked out as he half dragged me to some racks. He started picking out clothes and tossing them into my free hand. After he was done, he dragged me to the dressing room.
He released my hand and with a hand motion, motioned me to go to one of the dressing room. I rolled my eyes and trudged to one of them. The first dress I picked was a black silhouette dress that was knee high. At first thought, it wasn’t my kind of clothes and not my first choice but I’ll indulge Axel.
I slipped it on and tried zipping up the backside enough to look decent. After zipping it up halfway I looked into the mirror and was taken aback. It didn’t look so bad. I looked incredible in this dress. The low neckline revealed part of my boobs. My mousy brown hair falling over my shoulders and down to the curve of my back.
A knock at my door snapped me from ogling my body, ”Hermosa, I hope you’re alive in there.”
“Axel.” I whisper shouted. “This is the women’s fitting room! What the hell are you doing in here?”
“And your point?” He sounded confused.
Rolling my eyes, I whipped the door open to glare at him. “My point is you are not supposed to be here unless you have a vagina that I am not aware of.”
He looked me up and down slowly and I snapped my mouth shut. My skin prickled with awareness and I suddenly felt very naked in front of his dark smoldering eyes.
Did I really stun the playboy Axel speechless? I must admit though, I did feel like a million dollars in this dress.
“Axel...?” I raised an eyebrow.
He blinked and that seemed to snap him out of his stupor. He cleared his throat and scratched at the back of his neck.
“You look amazing.” He complimented.
“I know, don’t I look hot in this dress?” Completely forgetting that he was still in the women’s fitting room, I turned around to face the mirror, the door opened wider and Axel now had full view of my big ass and that is exactly where his eyes went to.
He whistled and bit his bottom lip, “Damn, that’s what you have been hiding underneath all those sweats.”
My hands went to my ass cheeks in a sorry attempt to cover it. “Can you please stop staring like you want to eat it?”
His eyes flickered up to me and flashed me a wicked smirk, “Sounds like a good idea.”
My eyes widened and I picked up a hanger to hit him with it. He chuckled and backed away. When he was well out of my space, I closed the door. I was finally alone and I glanced in the mirror to see that I was blushing. Placing my palms on my cheek, I tried to shake off the butterflies fluttering in my stomach.
“This is Axel. The playboy.” I muttered.
After trying on the clothes that he chose, I ended up buying more than half of it. We went to the shoe store. I tried on a couple and had two in my hands.
When we were reaching the end of the shoe aisle he stopped and I turned around to see what caught his attention. He picked up a pair of two inches black high heels that looked like hooker shoes.
"Hermosa, you have to buy these and wear them when we finally have sleep overs.” He winked at me. I know what Axel mean by ‘sleep overs’. With him, it wasn’t just sleep overs. I am pretty sure if I opened my door wide open, the man will jump into bed. If he could hump anything, he would.
“Yeah, that will never happen.” I took the shoes from him and place them back on the shelves.
"Tú no sabes (You don’t know),” He said huskily. “You might not be able to resist my charms.”
“I’m immune to them. It doesn’t affect me.” I told him.
He chuckled, ”Hermosa, no women are immune to my charms. I will find a way to break that hard shell of yours and when I do, Te enamorarás
de mi (You will fall for me)."
After shopping for shoes, we walked the mall for a little bit. When we passed Victoria Secret’s. He made a stop. I glanced at him and at the store.
“Oh no. We are not going in there. I like my cotton underwear.” I shook my head.
“You mean those granny panties? I am not even sure you can call them panties.” He made a face. I growled at his insult before punching him in the chest.
“Ow, ok, now that hurt. What the hell, Axel, do you wear chest plates?” I grumbled, holding my injured hand.
He chuckled before grabbing a hold of my arm, again, half dragging me inside the store.
Oh no, you won’t!
“Axel, let me go!”
“If we are going to make this boyfriend girlfriend relationship real, you have to wear panties.” He said as if he will even get to see what I am wearing underneath.
“Why do you care? It’s not like you will get to take them off anyways.” I muttered.
“Will you just buy it?” He rolled his eyes at me. ”Dios mio, you are stubborn, Hermosa.”
I rolled my eyes after him, “Fine. I’ll get some. Who knows, I might end up liking someone there and maybe he will get to take off my clothes after all. It wouldn’t hurt to be prepared.”
I started to pick up a lace pantie but the next thing I knew he grabbed me around the elbow and dragged me out of the store.
“Axel! Stop manhandling me, you oaf!” I snapped when he released me.
“If you are going to buy it for another man then let’s just forget it.” He grumbled in irritation.
“Nope, now you had convinced me. We are going back in there and getting me some sexy undergarments.” I marched inside. I heard him groan and followed in after me.
