Chapter 60 - SURPRISING CAYENNE

'Cohabiting.' Cayenne thought of this word from their apartment all the way to the back to Stefan's house. She was so immersed with her thought that she didn't noticed she already arrived.

"Ayen?" Stefan called her name after opening the car door. He noticed that the taxi arrived outside the house but Cayenne didn't step out of it after few minutes. He waited for another five minutes and there was still no Cayenne who emerged from the cab. And when he got down to check on her, he found her staring into space. "Is there something wrong?"

"Ha?" Cayenne looked around and saw the house behind Stefan. "Oh. Sorry. I was thinking about something. You didn't really have to open the door for me."

"Well, I wasn't really planning to do that but you've been here for quite sometime and you didn't come out. I was a little bit worried that something happened."

Cayenne nodded her head with a faint smile. She thanked the driver and went inside the house with Stefan following behind her. "I'm sorry for what my mother said earlier." Cayenne started. "I know it was rude of her to judge you and –"

"Shh." Stefan placed his index finger on her lips. "Don't worry about that. I totally understand your mother's point. I didn't really mind it."

"Is that so? Then, thanks for understanding. Anyway, you don't really need to see her that often. In that way, we won't be piling up our lies."

"I'll follow your lead." Stefan mumbled with a smile. "Come with me. I'll show you something." He took hold of her hand and led her inside their bedroom. Stefan opened their wardrobe and showed her the newly-bought things. "Do you like it?"

Cayenne blinked her eyes twice, looking from the pile of clothes back to his smiling face. Her heart was beating so fast and she felt so giddy. The things he bought for her was more than the things she ever received from her own family. It was just too much that she didn't know how to react.

"I'm not sure if you'll like them but I bought the things that I thought would look good on you."

Cayenne opened-closed her mouth, not knowing what exactly to say. After few minutes, she took a deep breath, released it; and looked at him. "Are these things all for me?"

historical

"Yup."

"But why?" she just couldn't believe he would waste his money on her. "I mean, we are not really in a relationship and you are not obliged to buy these things. Don't you like the normal clothes that I always wear?"

Stefan was shocked with his questions at first but, he was able to recover his senses quickly as well. "I don't mean it that way. I didn't buy these things because I hate your normal clothes. I just thought that you will need these kinds of clothes someday. You can still wear your normal clothes and once we decided to go somewhere, you can choose from these things that I bought for you."

Cayenne nodded her head in understanding but it still bothered her. "Thank you for all these but, please don't buy anything for me again. I am fine with my things."

"But, I have something else for you."

"There's more? Did you just go to the mall and had a shopping spree?"

"Uh huh. And I bought so many things for you. Just for you."

Cayenne looked at him with a heart full of doubts. 'Why would he do this for me? Why will he buy me these things when he's fine with my ordinary stuff? He's not planning to use these items to exploit my rights, right?'

As if he could read her thoughts, Stefan chuckled as he reached his hand to pat her head. "Don't worry, Ayen. I am not doing all these to exploit you or force you. I just want to thank you for everything that you have done for me. You are even risking your reputation and dignity for me and I really appreciate that. You have lied to your family because of me as well and I feel so guilty about that. This is the least thing I can do for you."

"O-okay. Thank you for your consideration. I will take good care of them."

"Hn. You can do whatever you want with it." He walked to the other side of his bed and took something from his drawer. "This is for you."

"What's this?"

"Just open it."

Cayenne placed her bag on the ottoman chair at the foot of their bed before walking towards him and received the box. She sat on the bed and untied the ribbon. The box was wrapped with a silver colored wrapper which really piqued her curiosity. Her eyes went wide open when she saw what was inside the box. It was a phone! The same phone as his.

"Are you bribing me or something?" Cayenne questioned him with her squinted eyes. She looked cute and adorable with a doubtful expression.

Stefan played along with her suspicions and he leaned closer to her. "This is my payment for you to give your heart, body and soul to me."

"This is not enough. I may look ordinary to you but I'm not cheap."

"Then, shall I pay you with my life?"

Cayenne placed her hand on his chest and gave him a little push. "Enough with this silly conversation." She looked at him seriously and raised the phone in between them. "Can you tell me why you're giving this? I can understand the clothing part but I don't understand why you're giving me something I don't really need."

Stefan sat on the space beside her and looked at her. "You will need that. I know that you can still use your old phone but there's not even any entertainment available in it. With this new phone, you can install some gaming apps which you can play during your vacant time."

"Is that really the reason?"

"Another reason is for your family. We need to show them that we like each other; and getting matching stuffs will resolve that. We'll have the same phone and a couple set cover."

Cayenne picked up the cover inside the box and looked at it. Stefan pulled out his own phone and placed it beside her phone as well. The design was simple. Stefan's phone had the right side of the heart with 'LO' written under it plus, a man was sitting on a bench with a letter 'C' on his shirt. Cayenne's phone had the left side of the heart with 'VE' written under it plus, a woman was sitting on a bench with a letter 'S' on her shirt.

One could tell that the figure on each of their phone represents them and the letters represents the start of their name. Cayenne dropped her head to hide her blush but, her ears and neck gave her away.