Chapitre 23: Chocolates

Thea had moved into Erick's car and was munching on the chocolates that were meant for Anne while humming a tune. She keeps eating nonstop. She enjoys the flavor a lot. Erick stared at her and chuckled as she stuffed her face with sweets. She has a pufferfish face.

"Save that for tomorrow or you'll get an upset stomach, don't you think you've eaten enough already?"

"Are you worried that I'll gain weight?" Thea could only pucker her lips.

As he grasped the wheel, Erick chuckled. "That seems nice, and putting on more weight would be beneficial because you appear to be underweight for your height."

"Hey, you meanie, don't desire for me to gain weight."

"Well, I'll stop making fun of you; do as you please as long as you're satisfied."

The couple's beautiful waves of laughing engulfed the car. They have become a lot more at ease speaking to each other than they were before. On the other hand, Erick was relieved that their first date went smoothly as he gave Thea a caring glance.

He sighed at the thought and said, 'Don't worry Thea, I promise that my feelings for you are true even if there is a condition in our engagement.'

A skilled general like him should know how to control himself, but watching the old man staring at Thea with lust made his blood boil, and rage steadily erupted within him. He now understood how special Thea was to him, especially when he got irrational with his emotions.

He said, 'I will keep you safe from them, Thea.'

He was deep in thought when he noticed that Thea's humming had stopped and the car was enveloped in a piercing silence.

"Did she pass off? He questioned. When he turned to look at Thea's side, he saw that her eyes were partially covered and that her face was glowing red. A loud hiccup then broke the stillness in the car. As he pulls the car to the side of the road, Erick starts to worry.

He was frightened when he saw Thea's red face and asked, "Thea, are you okay? Do you have a fever?"

He leaned over to Thea's side, who was grinning from ear to ear as her uncontrollable hiccup persisted, and promptly unbuckled his seatbelt.

"What's wrong, Thea? "he asks, leaning forward to see if she has any injuries.

Although Erick was astonished by Thea's gesture and was perplexed by it given that their faces were only a few inches apart, he just allowed her do what she wanted. Thea only pouted her lips at him while delicately cupping both of Erick's cheeks.

She spoke in a raspy voice, "Y-you Erick is the one wrong here.

"Me ?! what did I do wrong Th-." When Erick noticed the scent of an unusual aroma emanating from Thea, he was forced to pause in his bewildered remark.

He wondered if she had consumed alcohol. Yet Thea's three boxes of chocolate, which were nearly empty, drew his focus back to them.

She kept pressing his cheeks as she did so.

He said in a serious tone, "Wait on Thea, did you consume all the boxes of chocolate?"

He took a piece of chocolate to smell it, asking himself, 'Did she consume all of these?' To his horror, the chocolate smelled strongly of alcohol.

'That's why the chef told me it was exclusively for couples, tsk, foolish chef.'

Thea's tears, though, began to gather in the corners of her eyes when she heard Erick yell at her.

She bent her head and placed both of her hands in her lap while wailing, "Sorry, sorry ple- pl- please don't leave m-me." Her brown eyes glittered.

Erick sighed and lifted Thea's chin to look up at his face while he talked gently. He hadn't intended to yell at her, but he was in a panic. His other hand was patting Thea's head.

"You should not be worried; I'm not upset, okay?"

She uttered "Your not? " as a little toddler pleading for her parent's attention.

He smiled at her cute face and patted her cheeks, telling her not to worry because he wouldn't leave her.

When he looked at Thea, who was grinning ear to ear at him and watching him fasten Thea's seatbelt, he took the chocolate boxes and put them in the back of the car.

Thea just bobbed her head in response to his smile and subsequent cheek pinch, "Behave okay."