The Carrero Heart - Beginning (Friends to Lovers)

Arrick’s POV

~ Sophie, Natasha, and porn ~

There’s a choice of things Sophie normally orders from the menu, all her must have’s, from her favorite Chinese. Food has always been the way to her heart, and I am pulling out the stops after my flowers nose-dived, literally, out her bedroom window.

She knows how to make me suffer and I hate fighting with her.

She’s sitting herself at the table, eyeing up the familiar containers and I hold my breath for a moment. Watching her, a smile spreading across my face as I see her expression soften a little. That pretty little dainty face, dimples appearing as she stifles a smile and ends up smirking subtly. I think it’s working. My sassy little hellcat looks less ferocious and maybe I can relax a little if she simmers a bit.

Dark hair and dark looks, glancing up from across the table and I try not to watch her too intensely as she starts eating her food. I miss her natural blonde, but this is growing on me. She could pull any hair color off, she has a face that could even pull off a shaved head.

“Still pissed at me?” I nudge her foot under the table with mine in a bid to get a response from her. If she pushes back playfully then I’ll know she isn’t still as mad, and we are starting to get past her all-day sulk. I can’t help smiling at her little pouted glare, the little sigh as she tries to convey that I am not getting to her, and how she tries to keep her eyes on her food to ignore me. She can only hide so much from me and I know the food has softened her enough to be open to a little forgiveness. Knowing her so well has its perks; I can win her around with effort, and sometimes by pulling out all my Sophie tricks in my massive arsenal.

“Maybe.” She answers flatly, mood still simmering but she doesn’t react to my foot shove and I sigh too. She can be hard to crack when she’s hurt, and I guess kissing her then brushing it off is more than enough to be upset over. If it were the other way around, I guess I would be more than mad, I would be crushed, so I get why she’s ignoring me. I just can’t tell her that all I’ve thought about since, is kissing her again. She doesn’t need to know that all I do nowadays is try to figure out what the hell to do when it comes to her. If anything, she messes me up in the head more when I’m with her nowadays than when we were apart, and I can’t ever seem to catch a break from the constant emotional turmoil.

I watch her for a moment, tucking into her food with that little tiny frown on her brow, the little turn up of her top lip as she pouts and sulks and its distracting. I funnel my own food into my own mouth in a bid to try and ignore how much this is getting to me. Push down the knot of anxiety and heaviness. Sulky Sophie always makes me anxious, nervy, and tonight I seem to be hypersensitive to her. I guess it doesn’t help that all I see when I look at her now is that mouth and how good kissing her felt last night. My head already having a hard time over my feelings and kissing her has sent me into overdrive. I’ve kissed a lot of girls in my lifetime and none come close to what she made me feel. It was more than the actual kiss, her technique, her mouth. It was the entire experience, it blew me away, and all it has done is left me even more screwed up in how I feel about her. I seriously need to stop this shit.

We’re interrupted by the buzzer and I check my watch, confused at who would be showing up this late in the evening without a heads up. Most of my friends know I was going to be travelling back from home today, so wouldn’t show up without calling me first. They know I like my down time.

I catch Sophie’s eyes flicker to me as I slide up and head across the floor to the intercom panel by the elevator. Annoyed that we have an intruder, just when I am starting to try and fix this mess with her. I let her sulk all day to get the worst out of her system and now, when I am pulling out my arsenal of Sophie softening, someone shows up to fuck with my plans.

“Hey, who is it?” I mumble into the intercom, hoping it’s a delivery, or someone who won’t be sticking around. I really need to get things back on track with Sophs and now she is mulling rather than raging, I can finally talk to her properly. You need to let her be sometimes, or it’s like talking to a brick wall and she only throws verbal knives at you. Sophs needs finessing and special handling.

“It’s Natasha. I came for some things, and maybe a chat.” The gentle tone is the last thing I want to be hearing right now, like a sucker punch to the gut, and I glance across at Sophie’s back nervously, in two minds about what to do. They don’t get on at the best of times and that was before all of this. I really need to fix shit here before I add Tasha to this equation, but as I still have her hanging on in my life without a clue what to do with her either, then I’m fucked.

Shit

“Sure.” I answer and press the buzzer, knowing I have no choice. I’m still trying to figure things out with her at the same time as figure things out with Sophs, the last thing any of us need right now, well, me, is tears and drama when my head is already struggling to function as it is. If I tell her she can’t come up, she won’t leave, and if I leave with her, Sophie will get upset and probably never talk to me again. I can’t win in this.

I take a deep breath to calm the crazy nerves that explode in my gut and suddenly feel pretty darn afraid that Sophs is going to react badly. She’s already pissed, and she’s volatile when she’s like this, unpredictable. She’s good at blowing like a bomb when cornered and I would say this was pretty much an all-time cornering, on my part.

I walk back to the table and hover beside her as I try to find the words that won’t set sulky into storming again and hesitate. Chewing on my bottom lip as nerves get the better of me and my stomach and all my organs nosedive into my sneakers. She looks innocent and defenseless, but my girl is a hurricane in a teacup when she wants to be, and she knows how to make me suffer.

and angry look on her has me instantly worried that she is going to seriously flip her shit. Memories of Sophie lash outs, tears, and tantrums, from her younger teens flit through my mind and I wonder if she has more fight in her than I have witnessed, or ever had to control. I crouch down beside her and scoop her hand in mine, enveloping that dainty warm softness that always seems so fragile, in a

not throw your dummy out, for like one night. Even if you’re still pissed at me.” Practically pleading, knowing Tasha is almost here. This could all kick off badly and I am in no state to deal with a cat fight. Sophie would annihilate Tasha and in that I wouldn’t

her face, confused and wary, yet still pissed. Not a good combo on her. She pulls her hand away and I sigh slowly, edgy, knowing deep down this heavy ache is anxiety at an all-time high. This is not going to

my cool, that flicker of rage in her face makes my stomach drop further, and honestly, for the first time in my life I actually wish Natasha would not come up and leave me to work on getting Sophie back to sunny. I can handle Sophie when I’m left alone with her. I cannot handle Sophie when she throws a shit storm around other

think I’ve noticed how many times she has done this over the past two years and all the stupid fights it caused. I

hope I sound endearing, appealing to her softer side

beautiful. For

towards me right now. My girl can definitely pull off sass. She’s a born natural and if I wasn’t shitting a brick with the drama heading my

know it and interrupts my last-ditch attempt. This is going to be the death of me, I can feel it and

a movie!” Sophie raises haughty brows, pointed snappy tone and saunters off wiggling her butt towards the couch. I literally have to tear my eyes from that view and shake myself with a ‘what the fuck are you doing?’ My whole face tense as I watch Sophie’s ass and try not to think about the fact that when faced

the hell did that come

Shaking myself and watching her get comfy on the couch, while trying to stop myself from over analyzing the fact I legit checked out her ass; it’s thrown me, and I am trying to get my

is wrong with me tonight?

Natasha. Natasha’s in the open space before I even get a chance

dodge more than a chaste brushing of lips, glancing over my shoulder to make sure Sophie isn’t watching. I feel guilty as shit and I no longer know for which girl or what reason. This is the same thing that happened

looks at me oddly, I think she senses or sees how weird I am being, not that it’s hard. I try for a smile, take her jacket and practically haul it off her in my eagerness to get away from this dark corner and back to showing Sophie that nothing is going on over here. I can practically feel her rage emanating this way and I take a slow steadying breath and try to stay in control

walks ahead of me, leaving me with her coat and bag and I mutely follow. Eyes scanning the brunette on the couch who looks, even from this angle, like she wants to impale someone with her chopsticks and the nerves and tension inside of me only get tighter. Natasha

clear as day. Barely concealed venom

Great!

this towards her. Generally, Natasha is a sweetheart who very rarely has a bad word to say about anyone and she certainly didn’t ask for this messed up triangle of the heart. Sophie visually gives me a huge ‘Fuck off,

controlling her, it’s something I always loved about her, at the same time as being infuriatingly frustrating. And it is now biting me in the ass and she’s back

great. My

showing up like this while you two are obviously eating. I just needed some of my things, and I hoped to have a little time with Arrick?” Natasha is mumbling something to Sophie, but I am lost in trying to communicate with her from back here. I dump Tasha’s crap on the chair and try like crazy to find some calm inside of me; some zen to get

I literally feel all ounces of calm and control fly out the window and hope this death will be quick and painless. If these two start, then I will need to protect Tasha from Sophs, and I don’t know if I’m even up to the task of taking her on tonight. So god damn tired and I taught her everything she knows. Now seeing the error in teaching her how to disable someone with a few kicks and well-placed thumbs. I stare at the ceiling for a moment and wonder if

doing. She never bothers talking to Sophie if she can help it but seems intent on acting weird and flirty with her tonight. I feel like I’m in an alternate reality with her overly, sickly

ehhh. No! I need a fucking

sophisticated, and your makeup is gorgeous. Maybe you could give me some tips with mine before I leave. You look so pulled together.” Natasha is still talking, and I wander to my kitchen in a bid to find booze, something a hell of a lot stronger than coffee. Trying to ignore her weird behavior and blame this on some full moon lunar crap, or something equally odd. I decide I am going to drown the bizarre with alcohol, and at least it won’t hurt as much if Sophie flips out and throws me off

save me from harm. Natasha looks like she is trying to get a date and Sophie looks murderous, like she might turn into the newest New York hacker if Tasha keeps this

even if I don’t rate wine much, especially not red, and hold

and in the electric light I can see she is pretty dressed up compared to normal. She’s wearing heels and stockings by the look of it and I wonder what gives. She only wore them once, on my birthday the first few months we dated. If she thinks she’s staying for sex, she can forget it. Sophie would never talk to me again and I wouldn’t do that to her. Couldn’t, not with her here. I never even did it when she