Mirrors

The loud shutter of the camera went off for probably the hundredth time within the past three hours now and Christian began yawning and dragging his hands through his hair. "How was that one?" He asked as he leaned against a brick wall in his apartment. His dress shirt was undone at the top and he adjusted his vest.

"It's really good, you're so photogenic." I smiled as I reviewed the pictures, "I think I've got all that we need." I plugged the camera into the office's Macbook pro.

"Can I see them?" He asked, peeking through his now dishevelled hair. I chuckled and nodded, "Yeah." He walked over and looked over my shoulder at the screen. He laughed at a few as I clicked through the pictures, commenting that they looked too fashion magazine-like.

"Well you've got the build of a male model and the face of an angel. You could be in a fashion magazine." I laughed.

He was quiet for a moment and I could feel his eyes on me, but I ignored it and continued reviewing the photos. Then abruptly, I felt his lips against my cheek in a quick kiss.

I blushed and turned to him, holding my face and starting to laugh. "Christian."

He gave an impish grin, "I couldn't help it."

I raised an eyebrow at him and shook my head, "Well it's not appropriate for work."

"But we're not in the office, we can do anything we want here." He bit his lip, having a dark look in his eye.

Again I shook my head and gave a laugh, "Oh no we can't. Christian, we've gone over this more than once." I logged off the laptop and set the camera down before I walked to the couch, taking a seat and getting my notebook ready.

He slowly walked over and sat next to me. "I'm sorry." He spoke in a quiet and innocent tone. I watched him for a moment and waited for that impish smirk to reappear on his face. He continued, "Can I ask you something?"

I hesitated, "Yeah."

He smiled, "Remember last week when you came into my office with the coffee and Brandy was in there with me? You were acting weird...were you jealous?"

I gave a laugh, "Me? Jealous? No."

"Then why were you acting that way?" He raised an eyebrow.

I bit my lip, not wanting to tell him the truth.

He stared at me and gave me that "go on" look.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, "I thought she was your girlfriend."

He slowly smiled, then gave a short laugh, then threw his head back in full on laughter making me scowl at him. "Well I didn't know!" I rolled my eyes.

He grinned, "Avery. Me? Have a girlfriend? No, no no no. I haven't had a girlfriend in years. I mean, before I met you I, admittedly, was a serial dater, but I've never stayed in a relationship longer than a couple of weeks. And especially now, since after meeting you I have no desire for any other woman than you."

"You've never had a long-term relationship?" I made a face.

"Yes I have, when I was younger, but you're going off topic now."

"No I'm not. We're talking about relationships. How long was it?" I smiled slightly.

He sighed, "I was twenty-one and we were together for four years."

"And then what happened?"

"She broke up with me. End of story." He abruptly said.

I realized that maybe I was prying too much into that area of his life so I backed off, but not without one last question. "So is that when you became a Don Juan?"

He smiled and lightly laughed, "Don Juan? Yes, that is when I became serial dater."

"You and I are completely different." I smirked and shook my head. "You make me seem inadequate when it comes to the dating area in life."

"Well you're younger than I." He shrugged his shoulders.

"But don't you feel that I'm too young? I mean, you're worldly. You've done things I can only dream about. And you're much more experienced and intelligent than me."

"But that's why I'm so attracted to you. You're young and innocent. You're fun and so open-minded." He placed his hand on mine, but I pulled my hand back. "We should get started with the interview. Things are getting a little too personal right now."

"I've already answered all the questions for the interview. Right here." He reached for his notebook and showed me that he had written down his answers to the questions.

I smirked and looked at him, "So then I guess my work here is done." I checked the time, 3:21pm. As I was about to stand up, he gently took my hand in his. "Please stay. I planned this out because I wanted us to spend time together. I miss you, I miss the talks we used to have, and the way you'd look at me. Like I was the only one who truly understood you."

I paused for a moment just staring at him, like my heart skipped a beat. I missed that too, the talks, the laughs, the moments of silence. Slowly I sat back down.

He softly smiled as we watched each other in silence. He slowly moved closer to me and placed his hand gently on the side of my face. He closed his eyes and whispered softly, "You're so beautiful." With his other arm he gently pulled me closer to him, my heart racing, he was about to kiss me but I hesitated and closed my eyes, bowing my head. I placed a hand against his chest to distance us for this moment, "Christian." I whispered in a pained tone.

"Please. Please, Avery." He whispered, cupping my face with both hands now, his lips pressed firm against mine in a slow and passionate kiss. The familiar taste, the feelings that awoke inside of me because of him. "No one will ever have to know." He murmured into our kiss, slowly lying us down on the couch.

His kisses trailed down along my jaw line to my neck where he lingered, slowly and softly kissing my skin. I wanted to give into him but I knew that this feeling was being brought on by the hormones. I immediately thought about Hudson. I can't do this, it's because of the hormones.

I struggled to push him back, trying to sit up, "Ugh, hormones." I murmured. My eyes shot open and I could feel the colour draining from my face. Did I just say that out loud?

He stopped and looked at me with a confused look on his face, "What?"

"Nothing." I quickly said.

"Hormones?" He laughed, "What are you talking about?"

Think of something quick. "PMS?" I blurted out. Yes, embarrass yourself further.

His expression dropped, "Oh. Uh...is there...anything I can do...for you?"

I shook my head, "No. I'm sorry if this is weird. We just can't do that. I mean, the hormones and emotions, I'm in a really vulnerable state right now and I can cry at the drop of a hat. So, no. I'm sorry, but no." That's one way of turning someone off.

He quickly nodded. "I understand. Um, are you hungry?"

"What?" I lightly laughed.

"I grew up with three sisters. So I kinda know about...that. Some girls like to eat, or crave chocolate, or they cry a lot." He chuckled.

I slightly smiled. "Um...I'm hungry." But it had absolutely nothing to do with PMS!

He smiled, "Same here. I'll make us something to eat." He stood up and motioned me to join him in the kitchen.

As he was finishing up making spaghetti for us, I sat at the island and watched him. He noticed and smiled, plating the food. "I like when you watch me."

I blushed and looked down, "Sorry, I zone out sometimes."

He took the plates and nodded toward the table, so I followed him and sat across him at the table. As he set down my plate, he leaned into me and placed a soft kiss on my cheek. One that I wasn't expecting.

I cleared my throat, "This uh, looks really good."

He smiled, "I hope you like it."

"I think I will, I love spaghetti. Well, anything Italian, really." I twisted my fork in the pasta and tried it. It was so good. "This is amazing."

"It is, isn't it?" He smiled complacently. I just laughed and continued eating. After awhile of eating in silence, he cleared his throat and wiped his mouth with a napkin. "How did you and Hudson meet?"

I stopped eating and looked up at him, surprised that he'd even say his name, let alone ask about him. I wiped my mouth with a napkin, "You want to hear about that?"

He nodded, "You said that you and Hudson got together by...well, cheating. I'm just curious as to how you met and when you pursued a relationship."

I paused, feeling a bit uncomfortable talking about it with him. "I was in Barnes and Noble, it was June 28th, a beautiful Sunday in New York." I smiled the more I thought about it and could even feel the butterflies in my stomach. "I was in the classics section and was reading the back cover of The Picture of Dorian Gray. I wasn't paying attention and I began walking and I bumped into him. He was holding a coffee and I thought I made him spill it, but he didn't, and well, we just started talking. But our conversation was cut short 'cause I got a call from Amelia, I was late for our lunch date. So I left, thinking we'd never meet again. I mean, it's New York, what are the odds that we'd see each other again?"

"So I went and met Amelia for lunch, then later in the day I decided to go for a jog in Central Park, and I wasn't thinking anything of it, but I was doing something on my iPod and I ran into someone...it was Hudson. We went on a date after that and we just connected. A week later things got deeper between us...I invited him to my birthday party even though I knew Eric was going to be there." I closed my eyes and smiled, "I remember the way I felt when he walked in, wearing that leather jacket, carrying his bike helmet. The way he would watch me. Not long after we left the party on his bike and drove all night, and we talked, and ended up at his place. We just slept. We held each other and slept." My heart was pounding and I opened my eyes, realizing all that I had just said.

He watched me and gave a half-smile. "Sounds like quite the romance."

I bit my lip and nodded, looking down at my plate and pushing the food around, my appetite lost. Why did he even ask? I cleared my throat, "So are you going to Jann's party this Friday?"

He nodded, "Yeah, have you ever been to it before? I'm not sure what to expect."

I rolled my eyes at the thought of it, "I dread going. Just think; drunken karaoke, drunken employees hitting on each other and dancing, everyone is drunk. And expect to be told multiple times by Jann that he loves you. He's an affectionate drunk."

"That's a lot of drunk." He chuckled. "Is that why you dread going?"

I nodded and shrugged a shoulder, "Mostly. It's just his parties are tacky. I'm used to hanging out with my friends, not my co-workers. But I'm actually inviting them to this party."

"Is Hudson coming?" He asked.

"Yeah, he is." I blinked.

"So I guess this means I should be on my best behaviour?" He raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"I would appreciate that. And I'll keep him away from you in return." I chuckled.

"It should be an interesting night." He rolled his eyes. I made a face but was startled by my phone ringing; It was Jann.

"Hello." I answered.

"Doll face, have you finished that shoot yet?" He asked.

"Yeah, I just finished, what do you need?"

"I've got some big news for you, do you think you can come back to the office, this needs to be told to you in person." I could tell he was grinning. I smiled too, "Yeah sure, I'll be right there."

I was eager to find out what the big news was.