Aveline quickly turned, ready to disappear out of sight when Atlas pushed his slightly opened door, and stepped out.
"Why are you lurking?"
She stopped dead in her tracks, her face too crimson to turn around and face him.
"I'm talking to you." He raised his voice a little.
She bit her lips, and prayed internally that he just let it go.
"Are you lost?"
Seeing a window of opportunity, she seized it immediately.
"Ye-s." She nodded.
"Oh, okay. The turn before the turn you took this way. The last door to your right this time around. That's your room. Or do you want me to bring you to your room?"
An image of his shirtless body flashed through her mind, causing her to jolt slightly.
"No, I've got it now. I'm leaving," she said, sprinting away even before she completed her sentence.
Atlas' face contorted in confusion, stared at Aveline as she ran away.
"What have you gotten yourself into?" He questioned himself.
Finding someone random and gullible to marry was supposed to be less complicated in a one year long run.
Something told him that he was about to regret his decision.
With a sigh filled with confusion, he returned to his room, and this time, shut the door properly.
Aveline finally found her room, strictly because it was the only one opened for her to go through.
Yeah, somehow in-between running away, she had forgotten the direction he gave her again.
She gasped as she stepped foot into the room, and her eyes stumbled on the queen sized bed.
"Wow, Aveline!" She whispered in disbelief.
Her eyes and feet roamed around the room, soaking in as much as she could.
She walked over to the closet, and pulled it open in her excitement.
However, the smile on her face instantly waned when instead her bags Atlas assured her were already in there, she found clothes that weren't hers.
Her wandering hands began to move through the clothes.
They felt surreal. They looked even better. Super expensive, super chic clothes. Two things she wasn't.
The closet was divided into various compartments she figured could be moved by the push of a button.
At every move, she was presented with various kinds of clothing.
"Undies?" She covered her mouth in shock when she saw panties that looked exactly her size too.
"Pervert!" She thought and quickly closed the door.
"No way he has all of that already waiting for me. Where are my bags then?" She wondered, standing in the center of the room.
Her eyes went to her reflection in the big mirror, and she flinched.
No wonder the people in pineapple street couldn't recognize her at first, she thought.
"I look different." She touched her freckles she hated so much, and slid down to her dimples she felt were too deep.
"Deep?" She repeated the word as a memory from last night with Atlas, sprung in her head.
Her face turned bright red again, and hurriedly, she tightened her eyes shut, trying to cast away that perverted thought.
Nothing helped. Instead, her weird mind only moved to shirtless Atlas with water dripping down his body.
Too embarrassed of herself, she popped her eyes open, and hurried to the door she found in the room.
A sigh of relief slipped out of her mouth when she discovered it was truly a bathroom.
"A cold bath will fix all of this," she encouraged herself, as she peeled the expensive dress from her body, and hung it carefully on the railing she found.
Her eyes scanned around the bathroom, drinking in the sight of the things she has never seen before.
"Now how does the shower and bathtub work?" She asked, with two fingers on her chin, and her forehead furrowed in confusion.
Aveline returned to the room with a big smile on her face, after successfully deciphering the advanced technological barriers of the bathroom, and taking a bath.
A part of her heart still stung because of the recent blow she had been dealt, but another part of her wanted to look forward to the future.
She stood stark naked in front of the mirror, and made sure to really look at herself.
"Everything will work out for your good, Aveline." She repeated over and over again, before finally, she walked back to the closet.
The next morning, Aveline woke up with a start.
As she sat on the bed trying to keep her eyes open, whilst simultaneously waiting for her thoughts and consciousness to align, the scent of pancakes travelled into her nose.
Rising to her feet as her stomach started to grumble, she traced the aroma of the pancakes down to the kitchen.
She paused at the door and inhaled loudly, with her eyes still half closed .
The sound drew Atlas attention, and he looked up from the pan.
He stilled when he saw Aveline, wearing just pyjama shorts, and a singlet that hugged her body, outlining her breasts.
Her nipples puckered, staring straight at him. Her eyes were slightly closed as she was weirdly sniffing into the air. Her bare legs went on and on, reminding him of one moment of their night together, those same legs were wrapped around his waist.
"Jesus Christ," he thought, as he swallowed hard.
Aveline's nose suddenly began to squeeze as the pleasant smell of the pancakes gave way to something—
Her closed eye flew open, and she screamed, "it's burning!"
Atlas looked down quickly to see that the pancake in the pan had turned darker than an empty night.
Swiftly, he moved to take the pan away from the flat surface electric cooker, and winced when it burned his hand.
"Jesus Christ, you should use a rag!" Aveline ran to him.
Grabbing his hand, she pushed it to the sink and turned on the tap.
As his hand cooled, she walked over to the cooker, and turned it off from its source.
By the time she turned around to face him again, his hand was out of the sink, and he had turned the tap off.
"You should have left it in for a little longer. You'll blister, and get scars."
Atlas didn't answer but kept walking towards her, with expressionless eyes.
"What did I do?" She took a step back, confused, whilst also looking for an escape.
Her back bumped into the wall, just as he took the final step that pushed him directly in front of her.
"What are you trying to do?" He asked in an angry voice.
"I– I do-nt under-stand," she stuttered.
"You have your own clothes. Why are you putting on Faiza's?"
"Huh?" her eyes widened, as she looked down at herself. "I—"
"Go back to your room, take those off, and never wear them around me again. Do you understand?" He leaned in, breathing hard against her ears.
"But—"
"No buts! You cannot wear her clothes around m—"
"Sir?" A voice interrupted him.
"What?!" He screamed in frustration, whipping his head behind.
"We're done inspecting the girls' bags. We can now bring some of them to her room. With your permission, of course," Nelson said.
"Huh?"
He brought his gaze back to Aveline, and the sight he saw made his heart sink.