Bab 45: Grrrrr. Grrrrr.
He pulled his hand as soon as those words escaped her mouth, his eyes holding a guilty glint in them. Did he cross his boundary? "I am sorry. I-I shouldn't have -"
"No, you are taking it in the wrong way." She cut him off in the middle. It upset her to know that he was misunderstanding but before she could clarify it, the room illuminated as Melissa dashed in, holding an emergency light in her right hand.
Ilyan was on his feet by then.
"You okay?" Melissa threw the question at Irene, being familiar with her fear of darkness.
"I am," Irene said, rubbing her palms together to fight off the cold that she could feel because the power outage had caused her favorite heater to stop working.
Winter used to be her favorite season but lately, she had grown intolerant to the cold and could barely manage without the room heater.
"Go, grab your sweater. Meanwhile, I will look for the candles," Melissa suggested. Irene's eyes involuntarily went to Ilyan once before she pushed herself from her place to get to her room.
Melissa turned on her phone's torch as she began searching for the candles. Melissa wasn't really a tidy person so it was not possible for her to put her hand in a drawer and pull out the candles.
That was when Ilyan decided to offer his help which Melissa did not refuse. She had given Irene the emergency light. She knew she needed the candles before Irene stepped down.
It was sheer bad luck that the emergency light wasn't charged. She knew it could stop functioning anytime.
"You check those drawers," she told him, pointing to the left, "I will check these." And she moved to the right.
"Aren't you cold, Ilyan? Do you need me to get you something?"
"Nah. I am okay."
Melissa was done rummaging through the drawers and Ilyan was done carefully checking every drawer of his side but neither of them was able to find a single candle.
"Are you sure that you have one?" Ilyan turned around only to see Melissa with her hands on her waist glaring at the drawers in front of her. The sight was cute, he thought.
"I bought a whole bunch of them just last week." Melissa stomped her foot on the ground. "But I don't remember where I kept them."
"It's alright. Let's look somewhere else." Ilyan added calm support, with his willingness to search a bit more. "Is there any possibility that they could be in your room?"
Melissa nodded negatively. "I checked before coming here. They are not in my room."
"How could they be in your room when they are in mine?" Irene lifted the large transparent box of candles while she walked down, shaking her head to see that Melissa and Ilyan had invested quite some energy in finding them in the Hall.
Melissa just shrugged it off. It was not a facepalm moment for her because it happened on a routine basis. Forgetting what was where came just as naturally as breathing to her. She could not be bothered about it anymore. She had tried hard to change herself but it was beyond her capability. She had given up on getting better at that.
Fortunately, she had taken out the several wooden candle holders that she had found in the drawers while searching for the candles so she did not have to look for them again.
She placed them on the table and took the candles from Irene. She ended up lighting eight of them in the four candle holders.
She picked up one. "I will take this one to my room. I still have to continue with the meeting. Here, keep one in the kitchen and let these two be here." She hurried up and moved to her room when her phone started ringing again.
Slipping her hand beneath the holder, she carried it to the kitchen. Just as she placed it on the white marble slab, she pressed her palms beside it. The loose sleeves of her baby pink sweater falling against the countertop mirrored the hanging threads of her heart.
'Are you afraid of the dark?'
It was not Ilyan's question that was unsettling, but the memories that question brought along. The memories that sent a shiver down her spine every time they came back to her. The memories that made her skin crawl just with their remembrance.
"I am sorry. Please forgive me."
His whisper pulled her out of her thoughts. She looked beside her where he stood. Was she that lost that he made it all the way from the hall to the kitchen and she was oblivious to it until he spoke?
"Oh, please. You are making me feel guilty now. You were just being nice and you do not apologize for being nice." Her heart ached at her own words. Until they were spoken, they were good but just as they left her mouth, she realized - those words - those very words were the same ones that she had complimented Ayden with at one point of time in her life.
"Grrrrrr. Grrrrr."
He kept her a silent company there until the silence was broken by a sound that made their eyes instantly meet. Embarrassed, they averted their gazes from each other.
What a ridiculous coincidence it was for their stomachs to growl in unison!
"Is the offer still valid?" Ruffling his hair, he shot her a little playful glance slightly patting his stomach.
Until he did that, her brows were raised in confusion but that touching his belly made it clear that he was talking about food.
"Are you certain this time? Do my feet not need rest now?" She folded her arms across her chest, quite enjoying the squirming figure of Ilyan in front of her.
"Oof. My Lady, why are you misunderstanding this poor, innocent soul? Please entrust your kitchen to me for a while. I promise you an edible dinner."
Now, it was her turn to be the squirming squirrel.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
LostInFictions
LostInFictions I have been having a kind of writer's block lately. I am trying to write anyway. Please motivate me by voting, commenting and reviewing. Thank you for reading and appreciating.
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