Chapter 33

Aaron and Zara were preparing ingredients for dinner. Since Zara was lucky enough to get along so well with Bri, they tried to cook together to hang out and catch up. Tonight was Aaron and Zara's turn, and it was probably the first time they'd had a chance to chat properly. Zara didn't want to bring the mood down, so she tried to broach the issue with a joke.

"So, have you talked with Leon yet? Like the proverbial 'If you hurt her' kind of talk?" She nudged him with her elbow playfully.

"Uh, no. Not at all. Don't need to." He answered firmly and without hesitation.

"What do you mean you don't need to? That's what best friends are supposed to do. Threaten prospective partners with the pain of death should they hurt them." Zara waved the knife she was cutting the veggies with.

"Uh, no. I don't know if Leon's told you much about this. He's kind of private with this stuff, or even if you've had a chance to talk about it. The only way I can say it is that he operates on a different level than us mere mortals." Aaron said with a thoughtful expression, momentarily stopping what he was doing.

Zara snorted, understanding what he meant. "Yeah, I get that."

"Since I've known him, almost as long as I've known you, I think he's probably had 3 girlfriends I've been aware of. There were two that I did meet and didn't meet the other. When he's with someone, no one else exists. No one in the world. The best way I can describe it is that everything in the world is in black and white, and the only thing he sees in colour is the person he's with. I don't think he even knows how to mistreat a partner; it's just not in him. Obviously, arguments and bad times will occur, but he just couldn't do the wrong thing by someone." Aaron explained slowly, taking some time to think before he spoke.

"If anything, I need to tell you to look after him. He's a lot more sensitive than he lets on. He is pretty stone-faced most of the time, but he's an emotional sort. Leon will always put you first." He added, flashing her a smile.

"I get that. He's…kind of intense. He did mention that he's heard that before, but I get what he means. But you know how much I second guess myself, and he's very reassuring, which I appreciate." Zara put the knife down as she explained, and Aaron made a noise of understanding.

"As cliche as this sounds, you couldn't do better. Actually, you are probably punching above your weight." He nudged her with his elbow, smirking devilishly.

"Fuck off…I am already aware of that. You do not need to tell me. Thanks, twat." She played along with his joke, even though he was probably right.

Someone has to bring you down to earth." He gave a half-shrug. "My point is that I don't need to worry about Leon not doing right by you. Leon's the kind of guy who believes in soulmates, love at first sight, and all that romanticised stuff. He's kind of perfect for you, actually… It's a bit sappy, but I'm very happy for you both." Aaron smiled at her warmly, and she smiled back.

"Thank you."

"You've done well reeling him in."

"Reeling him in? I'm not a fucking fisherman, Aaron." Zara raised an eyebrow at him and shook her head.

"You know what I mean. He's got this gravitational pull. Always has plenty of interested parties. But that doesn't even register with him when he's in a relationship. It's just like he only has one switch on the wall, and that's it." Aaron elaborated, and Zara nodded.

Although she felt slightly strange talking about it, she still hadn't wrapped her head around the abrupt change. In her musings on the matter, she couldn't pinpoint any moment where she felt Leon's feelings had changed. Not that she had been able to tell, anyway.

"So there's something I still don't fully understand. When did things change? Ugh, I don't even know how to phrase it. It stunned me so much, and I don't know when his feelings towards me changed. Leon never treated me differently, aside from when we first met." Zara tried her best to word it in a way that would make sense to Aaron.

"Ahh, well. I vividly recall the day he first saw you at the coffee shop. He was spaced out all day, and that's just not like him. We were just editing, and on a normal day, he's phenomenal, whereas on an off day, he's just fantastic...But that was different. He was just great on that day rather than his usual incredible self. I asked him what was wrong and he was kicking himself because he didn't talk to this girl at the coffee shop." Aaron huffed faintly at the memory, his gaze inward as he recalled it.

"The second time he saw you there, he was quite out of sorts by his standard. When he walked in, he just had a strange look on his face, like a kicked puppy or something. He told me that he'd seen her, you, again. And did not talk to you again. I didn't realise that it was you he was talking about. He did mention the red hair but didn't specify that it was dyed red, so it didn't register with me. I also didn't want to be a dick and ask a million questions about you since he was already disappointed in himself."

"When he got out of the hospital, he struggled a lot more than he let on. Before he was discharged, he did tell me about the strange dream thing, but I didn't realise the gravity of it. Once we got to his apartment, he just…broke. I was genuinely worried about him since I don't think he had to face the reality of it not being real until the moment he got home."

Zara frowned in concern and appreciated Aaron giving her more details. Leon had opened up about it over time, but having Aaron's perspective of how he had coped with it gave her a different viewpoint.

"Leon's a logical guy and did the right thing. Speaking to medical professionals about it and seeing a psychiatrist. The accident was bad enough in itself, so it was good he did his best to deal with it healthily. I watched him closely, but he got better pretty quickly." Aaron crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the kitchen counter.

"I think it was the second week in the hospital when he was lucid that I asked him about bringing someone in to help. We'd talked a handful of times over the last few months about it, but it forced us to do it. I knew you'd be a good fit with your musical background and administrative skills...I just didn't realise that you were the woman in his head. I can't tell you how much I kicked myself and beat myself up for that." His chin dropped to his chest, and there was no sign of the hint of a smile that was usually on his face.

"Aaron, that is..." Zara frowned deeply, not realising that Aaron had felt responsible for causing Leon's distress when he first saw her at the studio.

"I know, I know. It's completely unrealistic of me to expect that I could have known that you were the specific redhead that he'd seen in the coffee shop and that you were the woman he'd dreamed of. I know I shouldn't beat myself up."

"Yeah, fucking hell. You couldn't have known that. No way." Her frown didn't let up since Aaron logically knew it was impossible to have known, but he still seemed frustrated over it.

"That day when he saw you at the studio, everything made sense. When he reacted when he saw you, I was like, 'Oh shit, red hair'. That's probably a trigger. I didn't realise it wasn't the hair colour, but it was because it was you. The pieces just hadn't fallen into place about how few degrees of separation were involved. After that, he had a rough time but did his best to look after himself."

Zara knew that he'd gone to several medical appointments with the doctor who had treated him in the emergency room, psychologists and psychiatrists, and probably others that she wasn't aware of. Aaron had driven Leon to many of them, and she had manned the studio while he was gone.

"The answer to the question is...that I think it was already you. That first day. The first time he saw you. Everything else in between was just a shit tonne of spanners that ended up in the mix." Aaron looked at her with seriousness, and Zara blinked slowly as what he said settled into her mind.

"That's why there wasn't a specific change. Because there was nothing to change." Zara leaned back against the counter, steadying herself with her hands.

"That's just my theory. You should probably ask Leon." Aaron shrugged and turned back to what he was doing before.

Zara huffed and nodded, knowing Aaron was right. She was terrible at talking about her feelings and these sorts of serious, emotionally charged things, but ignoring them wouldn't help her understand. Pinching the bridge of her nose didn't relieve the racing thoughts in her brain, either. Everything that Aaron had told her was cycling around, and it felt like her mind was a snow globe. All the bits of snow were crashing into each other and into the sides of the globe. But it wasn't getting any clearer; they weren't settling on the bottom.

Without her realising it, she had stood, unmoving and stared at the same spot on the kitchen floor for roughly ten minutes before Aaron pulled her from her reverie.

"Why don't you go and talk to him?" Aaron suggested casually, and Zara's head snapped to look at him.

Zara inhaled sharply and slowly let the breath out, blinking slowly. She was still holding half a carrot but didn't notice it, clinging to it with a white-knuckled grip as she marched to grab her keys and straight out the front door.

Aaron was left behind, chuckling softly at her.

When Zara arrived at Leon's place, which felt like it took 30 seconds and 30 hours simultaneously, she parked in the visitor spot just across from his car. Bouncing on the balls of her feet with nervous energy, she went up in the elevator and continued until she reached his apartment door.

Panic hit her just before her hand pressed the buzzer, and she pulled it back like the door was on fire. Staring at the button on the electronic keypad, she realised she had no idea what to say now that she was here. The whole drive over here, she hadn't spent any time thinking about it. She'd driven over here with absolutely no plan for what to do once she arrived.

The door opened suddenly, making her flinch, and she saw Leon's face appear in the gap. The video doorbell would have alerted him that someone was there. She blinked at him wide-eyed momentarily and realised that she needed to speak.

"Hi." Was all she managed.

"Hi, darlin'." He said gently, likely realising from her face that something wasn't right.

Leon held out his hand to her, and she blinked at it before accepting it, placing hers on top. He smiled and led her inside. Leon walked them over to the couch, and they sat beside each other.

"Are you alright?" He finally asked after a moment.

"Um, yeah. I just…" she inhaled and exhaled slowly. "I kind of drove here without thinking about what I wanted to say."

Though he quickly composed himself, Zara saw Leon panic.

"No, no. It's nothing bad." She tried to reassure him, but his sharp gaze told her that it didn't help.

"So I was talking to Aaron before I came here and I was asking him if there was a certain point in time where your feelings for me changed. Because I haven't been able to figure it out. Unless you just hid it so well that I didn't notice." Her fingers fiddled with each other in her lap, and she was too nervous to make eye contact, keeping her head down.

"What did Aaron say?" Leon asked delicately.

"Since the coffee shop. That was his theory." She answered softly, glancing up at him briefly.

Leon let out a sigh, and Zara eventually looked at him. He was thinking over what she'd said, and she could almost hear the cogs turning in his head. He huffed and smiled finally.

"He's probably right. Usually is." Leon mused, then turned to her. "I had only considered that it was all post accident. When I first saw you, I just thought you were so beautiful and it melted my heart when you smiled at me." He admitted with a shy smile. "You know how I feel about you."

His voice was low and sincere. She knew what he meant, but didn't voice it out loud. Although she wasn't sure why, she guessed that there was a reason and didn't think she needed to open that can of worms right now.

Instead, she practically jumped into his lap, straddling him and nuzzled into the crook of his neck and shoulder with her arms around him. He laughed happily and returned her embrace tightly. They stayed that way for a while, but eventually Zara's knees began to ache and she had to move. Hopping off him to sit beside him, he put his arm around her to keep her close. She leaned her head against his shoulder, appreciating the feel of the muscle on her cheek.

"Are you hungry?" He asked suddenly and she realised that she had inadvertently ditched Aaron in the middle of making dinner with him.

"Uhh, yeah. I kind of left Aaron when we were halfway through cooking." She admitted with a frown.

Leon chuckled and guided her to stand up with him. With his hands on her shoulders, he directed her into his kitchen, just next to the fridge. He stopped, and turned her to face him. She blinked up at him, wondering what he was doing. Leaning down, he kissed her, and she could feel him smiling.

Once he pulled back, he flashed her a broad grin before he opened the fridge.

For the second time today, she started cooking dinner, but this time, she finished…