Daft

Marco's POV

I must have looked a mess from the worried look on his face. I was surprised to see him but somewhere deep in my heart, I was glad. I had been secretly wishing that he cared for me enough to come see why I hadn't come to the office and I didn't know if this visit was it but I was glad.

But why was he sitting in the car.

He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. He covered the distance between us in seconds and I was engulfed in his scent. His eyes were on my face, searching, and all I wanted to do was crawl into his arms and cry. And that was what I did before realizing what I was doing. I wrapped my hands around his back and buried my head in his chest, letting the tears that had been stinging my eyes fall and soak into his shirt. I didn't care that we were on the street and there were a million eyes on us, all I knew is that I needed a hug and I was getting it from someone I wanted.

He had gasped from surprise at first but then his hands had wrapped around me too, dragging me closer. He hadn't said a word but I was consoled. I was already feeling better in his huge arms and I didn't want to leave. He rubbed little circles around my back, helping me reduce my heavy tears to mere sobs. I could hear his heart beat in his chest. It had been erratic at first but had slowed down and seemed to be beating in sync with mine.

We stayed in that position for some minutes before embarrassment hit me and I pulled out.

"I'm sorry about that" I looked at his face and all I could see was worry and care.

"About what?" He asked in a low voice like he didn't want to be too loud all else I might development ear problems.

"About your shirt" I said quietly too. He rolled his eyes and even in my gloom, I found it sexy.

"Before worrying about my shirt, we need to talk" he said and before I could protest, his hand was on mine dragging me to his car and then like someone who remembered something, he stopped and turned.

"I'm sorry, I didn't even ask if you were going anywhere" he said still looking at my face.

"I wasn't actually" I said fighting the sadness washing over me.

"Okay, good" he said softly and gently pulling me again.

We got in the car and without a word, he began to drive. The sun had gone down and the city was filled with light coming from different sources. But I was too distracted to focus on the lights. Pedro still had my hand in his even as he drove. He used his second hand to do the driving and gear changing. I turned to look at him at any chance I got and I always found him looking at me, the worried look still on his face. He drove till we were almost out of town then he stopped in front of a restaurant. It was well off the road that the busy noise of the streets were now a distant buzz. The place was lit and from the outside one could see it was empty.

He must have seen the confused look on my face and squeeze my hand to reassure me. We came down and he led me inside. The place was beautiful and I was surprised it was empty. A young man of about twenty three was at the counter. He came to take our order as we sat down but Pedro had told him we weren't ordering yet. He walked away, a disappointed look on his face.

"I want us to talk first before having anything" he said as if to explain himself.

"It's okay" I replied and gave a weak smile.

He didn't say anything else but from his face I knew he had a lot of questions he didn't know how to ask. After a few minutes, he ran his head over his tired face before speaking.

"I know... It's probably non of my business. Or you might think that I am intruding on your personal space but....." He stopped but I wanted to hear what he had to say so I didn't say anything till he continued

"I just want to know what's going on" he said finally.

I looked down at my fingers not seeing them at all. I hadn't spoken to anyone asides Rodrigo in the last week. I had couped up in my room from the moment I got back from the hospital and had refused to talk to anyone, only coming out in the evenings to hang out alone in Dad's old food truck.

I didn't know what else to say so I let it out.

"My mom passed a week ago"

I saw surprise, shock, worry and sadness cross his features.

"I'm..... I'm sorry about...."

"It's fine" I felt the tears coming and I fought them back in.

We sat in the sad silence for a while before he broke it.

"What... happened?"

I didn't trust myself to remain dried eyed if I spoke so I just stared at my fingers.

"I'm.... sorry. I know how you feel" he said and when I looked at him, all I saw was genuine care. I smiled and this time I was the one to hold his hand on the table.

"It's fine. She was sick, kidney failure. Got a new kidney transplanted but her body rejected it a few weeks later and that was it" I said sadly proud of myself that the tears didn't fall.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Are you a doctor? Or can you raise the dead?" I replied in a weak effort at a joke. He didn't smile.

"I would have been there for you" he said and I finally felt a tear drop down my cheeks. He frowned, worry written over his face.

"Did I say something wrong?" He asked raising his hands to wipe the stray tear.

"That's the sweetest thing anyone has told me for a while now" I replied, the tears flowing freely now. He kept wiping them till his hands were wet too.

"So you are trying to say I'm sweet" he joked and I couldn't help but laugh in between sobs. He smiled too.

"I'm trying to say you've barely known me for a month and you've shown more concern than I would have asked for. And to think that you are just my boss"

I felt him cringe like my words had stung him and when I looked at his face, the caring look was gone. In it's place was a frown and a hard look I couldn't decipher.

"Yes, I'm just your employer" his voice was cold and I got a hint of hurt in them. I didn't say anything though. I didn't know what to say.

"When's the funeral?" He asked after a few minutes, the Icy tone still present.

"The day after tomorrow" I replied still confused at his sudden change.

We sat in silence again till it became unbearable.

"Are you angry?" I asked searching his hard features.

"No" he simply replied.

"You look pissed..."

"Do you think any employer would go through the trouble of finding the house of his employee just because he missed work for a couple days, or do you think I do this for everyone?" His voice was hard and I got more confused. I couldn't make sense of why he was angry or his words.

"Forget it" he said finally and looked away, hurt on his face. I felt my heart break. He had actually come to check up on me and I had somehow managed to piss him off.

"I'm sorry" I muttered fighting a fresh bout of tears.

Get it together you wimp!

He looked at me and the hard look was gone but his face was expressionless.

"It's fine. Let's have dinner"

"I'm not really hungry" I replied.

"You look like you ran into a vampire Marco, I'm sure you haven't been eating. I want you to eat" he said in a tone that implied that he wasn't asking.

In truth, I hadn't had anything to eat for a week and I was feeling faint. I didn't have any appetite but I didn't want to offend him further so when the boy returned to take our order, I ordered a tuna sandwich and orange juice. Pedro had the same thing.

We ate in silence, slowly. He didn't eat much but forced me to finish mine. After that he paid and led me back to his car. This time, he didn't hold my hands which I didn't expect to get me sad but it did. The meal had left me in a better mood though. I wasn't all tears and sobby anymore.

The car ride was also silent except from him cursing at the other road users whenever they did something that pissed him off which turned out to be almost everything.

"Are you going to fire me?" I asked eventually

"What?" He asked looking at me like I had said something stupid.

"Are you going to fire me?" I asked again, louder this time.

"If I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have driven all the way half across town to get it done" his voice was still cold and I was getting angry too.

"Stop the car" I said looking out of the window.

"Why?" He asked

"Because I don't want to be in this car with you anymore" I knew I sounded whiny but I didn't care. If he was going to be angry at me for a reason I didn't know, then I would rather walk home than allow him keep talking to me like I was his cleaner.

"And why is that?" He asked, his tone low and amused. I shoke my head to let go of the thought of how sexy that was.

"Just stop the car"I said my voice rising a bit.

He looked at me for a few seconds before looking back at the road.

"No" he said curtly and continued driving.

"If you don't, I'm going to scream" I said as defiantly I could even though I knew I probably won't scream

"Scream then" he said not taking his eyes off the road this time but I got a hint of amusement in his tone.

"You think this is funny?" I asked now really angry.

"You acting like a child? Yes, it's hilarious" he replied chuckling a bit and I could have been smitten again if I wasn't so angry.

"I'm not the one who has been yelling curses at other drivers just because I'm angry at God knows what" I said and he stopped laughing and turned to face me, slowing down the car.

"Angry at God knows what? I'm not the one who's fucking daft!" He yelled

"What the hell are you talking about!" I yelled back.

"Why don't you get off the road and kill yourselves!!" A man in a truck yelled as he drove past.

"Fuck you!!" Pedro yelled after him.

All the yelling left us exhausted and we sat in silence till he pulled up in front of my apartment. I wasn't angry anymore but I didn't know what to say.

"Thank you for today. I was feeling down and now I feel a lot better" I finally said.

He didn't say anything and just nodded without looking at me. I waited for him to say something and when he didn't, I opened the door.

"Marco...." He called as I was about to get down. I turned and met those hazel orbs on me.

"You can get back to work whenever you want, take your time. I won't fire you" he said and I smiled. At least that was a huge relief.

"And...." He continued.

"Goodnight Marco" he said and I felt like the wasn't all he wanted to say and when I waited for a few more seconds without him saying anything else, I responded with 'goodnight' and got out of the car.

He didn't drive off until I was inside the stairway.

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