First Night

Who knows what could happen when living alone with a man... apparently nothing.

Lillian passed a couple of hours reorganizing the items she had just unpacked and exploring every inch of her new room. Her favorite part was definitely the bathroom, where the enormous tub sat, beckoning her to soak in the possibilities of it's warm soapy water. She still had some unopened herbal bath salts she'd received from a friend around Christmas, and she was eager to try them out in this magnificent tub. But, she convinced herself it was too early to be indulging in a nice warm bath. She still hadn't had dinner yet and wanted to explore the apartment a little bit before relaxing into a pre-bedtime soak.

She hadn't heard any noises in the hallway since Andrew left to his home office a few hours prior. Slowly, twisting the handle on her door and unlocking it open, Lillian peaked her head out into the upstairs hallway, looking for any sign of life. It was shocking to her how dead the place felt, empty and cold despite the few accents of decor here and there.

She tiptoed her way to the stairs, careful not to make a sound, and proceeded down to the lower level of the stark black and white apartment. It was mostly an open space floor plan, typical of many modern apartments, with the main dividing walls making up the cabinetry of the kitchen.

As soon as she saw the kitchen Lillian felt an empty pang in her stomach.

I was so busy earlier that I forgot to eat lunch. I guess it's about dinner time now.

She looked over at the clock on the wall to see that it was already half past seven.

D*mn, I can't believe it's already that late. It should be okay if I eat what's in the kitchen, right?

Lillian opened up some cabinets to find emptiness staring back at her. She opened a few more, but found nothing but pots and pans and other seldomly used kitchen equipment. Not ready to give up, she opened up the rest of the cabinets, which only ended in disappointment.

It's alright, Lillian. There's sure to be something in the fridge.

She opened the hightech looking fridge, and was shocked just to find a few tupperwares inside along with a shelf full of sparkling water and wine. The freezer was even emptier, with just a drawer of ice cubes inside.

How on earth does the CEO live his life? Does he just eat out every meal? That can't be healthy.

Lillian took out the few containers of food from the fridge and opened them up to see what was inside. She found some steamed sweat potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, and sweet potato cake... "Why is it all sweet potato?" Lillian let out a sigh and pulled out her phone to see if there were any places around she could order take out from. She found a gastropub just down the street that had roast meat on the menu that could go well with the sweet potato in front of her.

Before placing an order, she paused, thinking about her quiet roommate upstairs. She went up to his office and knocked on his door.

No answer. She knocked again a bit louder, but still there was no answer. Carefully, she decided to open the door slowly to see if anyone was inside the room. To her surprise, Andrew had headphones on and appeared to be in a video conference with someone on his laptop. He looked up, noticing her enter the room and silently held out his hand, pointing at a small sofa on the side of the room for her to sit.

Whatever the meeting was about, she couldn't tell, as it sounded like they were speaking in some European language.

Maybe German? Lillian thought to herself as she waited patiently on the sofa, staring at wall of accolades in front of her that celebrated the successful CEO she had now come to be living with. She felt her stomach begin to growl, as the minutes passed by, unsure whether or not it was okay to leave after having accepted a seat on the small black leather sofa not too long ago.

Finally, Andrew Geldan finished his call and closed his laptop, then looked over at Lillian sitting on standby.

"Have you finished unpacking your things?" He asked Lillian as if continuing with his next business agenda.

"Hmm? Ah, yes. Though my clothes might get swallowed up by the humongous closet, haha," Lillian chuckled nervously before she got to her main point. "Actually, I was going to order food since there doesn't seem to be much in the kitchen at the moment. Would you like anything?"

"I'm fine, thank you. I had a cup of coffee not too long ago."

"Aha, a cup of coffee. Is that so." Lillian forced a smile, to ease the awkwardness she was feeling fill up the room.

How the h*ll is this man full off of a cup of coffee! Is he not human? Maybe he doesn't need to eat?

She sat there studying the man in front of her. Waiting for some sort of reply. His seemingly expressionless handsome features left him looking more like a living statute than a normal human. His dark brown hair was brushed and styled to the side without any strand of hair out of place, his long dark lashes perfectly framed his deep brown eyes, and his unmoving lips looked as if they had been carved by Michelangelo himself.

"Is that everything?" Andrew said flatly, pulling Lillian from her thoughts.

"Y-yes. I'll be going then." She awkwardly stood up from her seat and gave him a polite head nod before leaving the office.

Thirty minutes later Lillian went to pick up her food after having figured out the front door to the apartment, but getting back in was another story. It dawned on her that she still had yet to be given a key to the apartment and she didn't understand how to get back in through the built in layers of security of this luxury building.

She waited outside for a bit, seeing if anyone else going inside would let her into the lobby at least, but the way she was dressed, it looked doubtful she knew anybody inside.

Standing outside in her off duty sweats, she cursed as she worried her food was going to get cold. She unlocked her phone and scrolled down to Andrew's number, still unsaved in her contacts. After another minute of trying to figure out how to get back inside, she decided to call, hoping he'd pick up.

*Click* "Hello, Lillian Grace. Why ar-"

"Hi, I'm downstairs, waiting outside the building. Do you think you could let me in?" Lillian cut off through clattering teeth as the freezing night wind came breezing through her light jacket. She had only put on a thin layer, thinking her trip out and back wouldn't take more than a couple minutes, but by now she had been standing outside for at least 10.

"Understood, I'll be right there." *Click*

Some snow flurries had begun to fall, when Andrew called her name from the glass doors and lead her back inside. He handed her an electronic key and a piece of paper with the door code as they arrived back in the warm apartment.

He was about to go back up to his office when Lillian spoke up as she was unpacking her food. "It looks like the portions from this restaurant are quite large. If we heat up some of the sweet potato from the fridge, it'll be enough for two people. Why don't we eat together?"

"You don't need to go out of your way for me. As I said, I already had coffee a couple of hours ago." He replied cooly.

"To be honest..." Lillian grabbed the fabric of her hoody pocket as she questioned whether or not it'd be alright for her to make a selfish request. "I don't like eating alone, and since it's our first night as roommates, I think it'd be nice if we shared a meal together."

Andrew took a moment to process his fiancée's suggestion before responding. "Alright, but can we eat it in my office? I still have some work to be done."

"O-of course! I can meet you up there in just a few minutes!" Lillian jumped up a little and smiled her first genuine smile in front of her unlikely roommate, then went to prepare their meal.