Chapter Two
And it had been no contest-not for a second had she considered accepting Itachi's extravagant offer, but sitting in her pajamas, eating her TV dinner and watching the credits on her favourite show roll, the house was too big and too lonely for one.
Lonely….
She had never admitted it, not even to herself.
Oh, she had friends and a job and was kept busy-but sometimes, sometimes she wishes she wasn't so wise, so cynical, so mistrusting where men were concerned.
She reached for a magazine, skipped straight to the problem page and read about other people's lives, and for the millionth time in her life she missed her mum. Missed the chats that would surely have happened about boys and men. Everyone else seemed to fine it so easy-her friends fell in and out of love, skipped from relationship to relationship, and some were even getting married, or moving in with their boyfriends.
Yet Sakura felt as if she'd been left at starting post.
Too embarrassed by her brothers' teasing, too scared of getting hurt, she'd hid her first innocent crushes, had said no to dates in her teenage years, envying how others found this dating game so easy and just dived in and said yes.
Dear Barbara, she penned the letter in her head.
I'm an attractive twenty-four-year-old, I have friends, a job, a busy life and I'm still a virgin.
Oh, and I just said no to a night in Paris with the sexiest man on earth.
She'd make letter of the week!
And though it was great to have come home to no messages from her father's nursing home or new bills in the mail, all she felt was deflated. She flicked off the TV, and for just a second she faltered.
A tiny, wobbly second, where she wishes she were stupid, wishes for that impulse gene where men were concerned that had been so sorely denied her.
Wishes she'd just said yes to Itachi's dazzling offer.
Itachi flicked through the channels on the television.
Not that he was watching it. It was on all day for background noise for the dog, Pepper-not that the animal appreciated it.
The night stretched n endlessly and he stood there rueing the fact that he had been yawing and bored at eleven p.m in Paris, but thanks to the time difference was wide awake and thoroughly restless at five minutes to midnight in London.
He should be exhausted, he had been up since five-but his head was clicking like an abacus. Hemming's, a large shopping chain, had called him in way too late to stop them from going under.
Except he could see a way to save them.
He grabbed a beer from the fridge and tried not to think about it, tried to wind down-just fed up with all the travel, with the demands. Why did everyone want an in-person-why couldn't they settle for a face-to-face on a screen in the meeting room?
Hell, an email would usually suffice.
Sex would be nice.
And there were plenty who would be willing.
But he couldn't be bothered to talk.
Couldn't be bothered tonight to even pretend to be interested.
His tie must have been soldered on, along with his cufflinks-because he had put down his drink to deal with them.
And deal with pepper
He snarled at the ginger miniature poodle, who snarled back at him. He let him out on his vast balcony to do whatever dogs did.
His maid would see to it in the morning.
Karin, an ex-girlfriend, had, after a trip back to his home in Sicily, decided to move in uninvited, and had conveniently forgotten Pepper when Itachi had asked her to move out-three years ago!
"You," Itachi said, wandering back to the fridge and selecting a few choice morsels, "are the most pathetic excuse for a dog I have ever seen."
He ripped a chicken leg off and gnawed it as he stretched out on his sofa, with Pepper quivering on the floor besides him.
"You're on a diet." Itachi reminded him. Half watching a detective show on the television, finally Itachi relented and threw some tidbits to the floor in reward for their new game-having recently found out that if he changed the word 'Paw' to 'High five' the outcome was the same, only much more satisfying.
It had been hellish breaking up with Karin-her tears and protest at the unexpected end had been unprecedented-as over and over she had asked how he could end something so good.
And she'd left Pepper-just hadn't taken him, sure that Itachi would crack and ring, would make contact-but what she hadn't truly realized was that when Itachi ended things, he ended them.
That Itachi would rather deal with a senile, smelly old dog than face her again.
The detective show actually wasn't that boring…
Three minutes from the end of the final episode of the season, Itachi decided it was something he might actually get into. And then the credits rolled…
And he knew this was what Sakura had been talking about.
Knew she was watching it too.
He just knew it. And wished she'd said yes to Paris.
Hehehe=^_^= Sumimasen minna…..This one was really short but I promise to make it up to you in the next chapter coz I've got all thing planted in my head for this story….Anyways in the next chapter you will be seeing more of our favourite paring A.K.A Itasaku…..And uh as always Reviews and Criticism are always welcome.
Untill Next Time!
ButterflyYuna x