Time with you

Pacing about in his room, Terrence's mind wandered to all the fun things he would do with Elara, causing a smile to grace his face. He hadn't been this excited in a long while.

Meanwhile, Elara, the subject of his thoughts, was sweating daggers while on a call with a certain someone.

"I can't believe you told Terra, in just that amount of time!" Elara exclaimed with a groan.

Not only did Star panic, but she also ended up contacting both Dominic and Terra. Elara suddenly regretted not answering her calls as this would have prevented this.

"I'm so sorry, but seriously, what later happened? I'll try my best to cover for you!" the annoying lady behind the phone chirped.

Elara groaned, trying to ignore the panic setting up in her on how to deal with

Terra's craziness when she called.

"You can't cover shit, it's Terra we're talking about here. She'll grind it out of me if she has to."

"Don't be so pessimistic I'm sure we can find a way! Also, what happened?"

'Really not forgetting that huh…'

"Nothing exactly…" Elara drifted off, reluctant to speak.

"Come on, girl, stop hiding it from me! What happened?! I'm so worried! I've been so worried!" Star persuaded stubbornly.

Elara sighed loudly before she replied with a quiet tone, "I'm on vacation now with Terrence so please do not tell Terra at all cost."

"What?! So your boss bestie took you out, huh? Nice," Star teasingly.

"Can you not? We're just friends ugh," Elara said annoyingly.

"You sure your boss bestie thinks the same? You know no one—"

"You did. With Dominic. So you guys in bed now?" Elara cut her off mercilessly.

"...."

"...."

"Ugh, you suck! I can't even tease you peacefully now! And Dominic is different!" Star exclaimed exasperatedly.

"How so? It's even worse—he has feelings for you," Elara giggled, happy to turn the tables.

"Oh yeah? And your boss bestie doesn't?!"

Elara rolled her eyes, "Might as well say Terra has feelings for me while you're at it."

Star scoffed, "We can all agree Terra is just fucking weird. You can't use her as a measure for others. She's an oddity, so… yeah."

"Regardless. Terrence is but a friend; I guess he's just the type to shower his friends with lots of care, like me! Why don't you ask me if I have feelings for all of you as well?" Elara chuckled.

"You're you, and he is he. Try not to let the signals float over your head just because of what you think, or you might just regret it!" Star advised.

"It'll be fine., Terrence is kinda like me; he's tired of relationships. I'm not interested in one; that's why we hit it off real quick. Chill out, Bae; there's no such thing between us. Don't you trust me? I can tell when someone has feelings for me in a heartbeat." Elara assured.

"..." Honestly, your overconfidence is making me even more worried.

Star sighed softly, "Just be alert, and don't get forced into something you don't want."

"You're overthinking it! Don't worry! I'll soon introduce you to him and you'll understand. He's not into me like that."

"Whatever you say, idiot."

"Can you not?!"

After the call ended, Elara collapsed to bed in defeat. Today was quite exhausting, from being whisked away from a business trip to suddenly having to spend a month with her angel and now Star and possibly Terra.

She trusted Star to keep her word in handling Terra but still couldn't help but worry slightly—that lady could get troublesome if not handled well.

Placing her head on the soft pillow which caressed her gently, she felt a strong lethargicness consume her and soon she drifted off to sleep.

***

Elara woke up to the chirping of birds, feeling a warm glow drift through the window and onto the bed.

She stood up with a groan, squinting her eyes at the ray of sunlight that had filtered in through the window blinds from the gaps she had forgotten to close yesterday.

Walking up to the window drowsily, she split the blinds apart, letting a large amount of light filter into the room as she observed the scenic view before her.

Various colorful birds perched on a tree, along with a few little animals scurrying across the trees, which quivered softly under the influence of the morning air.

Elara smiled softly, feeling like a Disney princess which made her lightheaded in a pleasant way.

Truly, the recipe for a great morning was knowing there was no work waiting for you!

Eh, that was much better than any view, ever.

***

After putting on her exercise clothes she stretched lightly to get herself in the mood for her morning exercise.

She didn't need to check the time to know it was around 5 am. This was one of the benefits of following a strict morning schedule.

Walking out of her room and into the gym, she was pleasantly surprised to find Terrence, who was already working out… shirtless. Although that didn't matter.

"Angel," she called out to the male, who immediately turned to face her, his serious look morphing into a smile.

If Merlin was here he would have rolled his eyes at the male's pretentiousness.

That's right, this sneaky boss of his had woken up early just to meet a certain someone. Usually, what he did at most was run a 30-minute lap after waking up by 6 am before preparing for work and instead had a full workout session on weekends.

However, knowing that Elara woke up by 5 am every day to work, a certain fellow decided to 'adjust' his schedule.

Unfortunately, Elara caught on quite quickly.

"I didn't know you worked out by this time as well?" she asked with a knowing smile.

Terrence could instantly tell he was bursted even without being told from the look but he wasn't going down that easily.

"Of course I do, you probably never noticed," he shrugged while running on the treadmill.

Walking up to the handlebar, Elara pulled off her hoodie to reveal her exercise wear, a sports bra, and leggings.

Terrence's eyes wandered a bit before moving away to avoid being caught.

"You must not do it regularly because I remember speaking no more than fifteen minutes by this time every day because you needed to catch up in your sleep," Elara ruthlessly exposed him.

"Ha…" Terrence groaned in defeat, "I really can't hide anything from you can I?"

Elara smirked, her dark eyes glimmering with mischief, "Yup!"

***

After exercising, Terrence and Elara separated once more to clean themselves up for the morning. Everyone knew brushing was necessary before exercising, but showering came right after, and that was exactly what they did.

After showering and dressing up for the morning Elara allowed herself into the kitchen only to be met by a pair of brown eyes.

Standing before her in the kitchen was a ginger male dressed in white who, from her observation, was making preparations for a meal.

With those eyes on her, staring like she was an extinct animal, a layer of sweat ran down her forehead, and she gulped.

"Hello, I'm Mr. Merlin's sister. Can I please join you?" she spoke nervously.

Well, this was awkward.