Gianna hadn't felt so overly stimulated in a person's presence before. Her parents were always trying to intimidate her but she had never let herself waver from their constant butchering, which was why she couldn't believe this man had simply ruffled her with just a touch. He barely even touched her. If anything it was more of her hair and yet she couldn't stop her stupid, erratic heart from beating so loud, she felt it would physical make her deaf.
Xavier, seeing how mortified she looked grinned mischievously at how easy it was to make her blush. He pulled away and straightened. He saw her eyes dart, doing everything humanely possible to avoid eye contact with him. It was adorable.
"Gianna." He said her name and the subtle seriousness behind his tone made her alert as she quickly looked up at him, momentarily forgetting about her mortification. "I would never be an obstacle in your life." Her eyes widened in surprise at his confession, not quite expecting him to say something so raw. She nodded in understanding, already loss for words as she didn't exactly know how to respond to such a confession.
Xavier felt the need to reassure her because it seemed the talk of their marriage had been used to threaten her, although he wasn't sure of what exactly. She was so oddly against the marriage as if by getting married, she was losing a piece of herself she didn't want to let go and Xavier didn't even want to be the last person to make her feel that way.
He had intended to ask about her parents but decided against it. It wasn't his right to do so. Yet. He was happy with how things were moving and he wasn't in a rush either. If she ever felt comfortable enough with him, he knew she would tell him herself.
"I'll drop you," he said, already making his way to the door, hands in his pockets. Gianna couldn't help but stare. Everything he did was so cool and she felt she now had a too big of a crush on him to function properly around him. She patted her cheeks, chasing away the warmth that had crept throughout her entire body.
He turned around, as if noticing she hadn't been following him and she straightened immediately, like a child who had been caught stealing candy. She smiled awkwardly and walked towards him, hoping he didn't think her weird. Gianna knew her parents wouldn't be home at the time. It is why she wasn't objective about him dropping her off. If her parents knew she had gone out of her way and their will, oh boy. She shook away the shivers that momentarily took over and followed Xavier quietly as they made their way to the car.
A man, whom she believed was his driver, offered to drive the both of them but he refused, signalling him away. He opened the door for her and she couldn't help the pink that stained her cheeks. She entered the car to sit and she realized he had put his hand over her head in case she bumped her head.
She smiled. Xavier sat at his side of the car and very soon they were out of the Castillo compound. The ride was quite but Gianna wanted to talk to him. She looked over at him and his eyes were focused on the road. Maybe he didn't like to be distracted when he was in the middle of driving. Xavier had noticed her look at him but he decided to not say anything. He wanted to see what she would do. He was going to do things at her pace as he didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable.
"Do you go to the office everyday?" Curiosity had gotten the better part of her and before she realized, the question had already tumbled out of her mouth. And of course it was a very dumb question as she realized how ridiculous it sounded. "No, you don't have to — "yes, I go to the office everyday," a chuckle followed his statement as if the question amused him and she melted in her seat from embarrassment. Somebody kill her now! She pursed her lips.
That wasn't exactly the question she wanted to ask. She sighed. "You can come by the company whenever you want, Gia," he looked over at her as he said and her eyes widened in surprise. Wait... how did he know she wanted to ask that? Was he some kind of psych. "Whatever you're thinking, I'm not. You just have a very expressive face and I'm very good at reading faces." Gianna blinked, processing his words and she saw him trying to hide a smile. She nodded at him, a smile of her own making it's way to her face.
" I guess I'm an open book," she joked lightly. "You are and it's so good to see," Xavier said it as if it fascinated him how good she was at displaying her emotions and she took it as a compliment, reveling in it.
Her parents thought otherwise. And maybe it was probably only in his presence she had let her guard down. Now the thought was terrifying and she tried to not dwell on it.
She also noticed that Xavier seemed comfortable around her, letting his guard down, unlike the first time they had met. It surprised her how outspoken he was and in that moment she realized one thing. They both came from families they were not close to. Families they would rather stay far away from. Maybe that was why they had become so comfortable around each other. It was in their shared grievances about family.
"I don't need an appointment to come to your office right?" She smirked. "Look at you being all quirky," he chuckled. "No you do not. You didn't need one when we didn't know each other. At the time I thought you were very brave," he admitted and his tone turned serious as if morphing to the person he was on that day. "Honestly, I thought I was brave too because I do not know what possessed me to do that," she chuckled softly. "Why did you think I was brave?"
He looked at her, like he needed her to see his face when he answered the question. "You had my receptionist leave her post to come directly to my office. I thought if anyone could do that then I had to meet the person myself. Not because she's scary but because you had made her not scared to come to my office," he seemed genuinely intrigued by what had transpired the first day they met and she couldn't help the smile that formed on her face. She didn't know that was how she came off to him.
"You sparked my interest. And there aren't many people who are able to do that." She looked at him with a knowing smile and he chuckled. It's like they made each other happy and Gianna liked that, she liked that a lot. She fondly stared at him and tears almost filled her eyes but she quickly blinked them away. She smiled instead.
Oh this man was coming to break down her walls because she found herself laughing at everything he said throughout the car ride and for some reason she never wanted the ride to end, hoping they could go like that forever.