Author's Note: This will be a slow burn type of romance/drama with more emphasis on the love rather than sexy times. If you're looking for more of the sexy times this may not be your cup of tea.
End of Part VII
We watched the rest of the movie without much talking and, thankfully or un-thankfully depending on how you looked at it, no more teasing each other. As the movie ended, I looked down and found Belle fast asleep half leaning on me. She stirred slightly as I picked her up and carried her to bed.
Part VIII
It was midway through the next week when Belle and I ended up at the grocery store after I got off work picking up a few things we needed since we were too lazy to do any shopping over the weekend. As we crossed the main aisle across the front of the store, I noticed a tall pallet of beer that apparently merchandisers were building a feature out of. Belle was walking to my right as I pushed the shopping cart and closer to the would-be feature being built.
As we neared the pallet that was taller than I was I caught a glimpse of the corner stack starting to move. Before I could even think about it, I pushed the cart forward and jumped in front of Belle using one arm to herd her behind me and my other to catch the stack that was starting to fall.
"Belle get back!" I said as I caught the top of the stack with one arm and brought my other around to help keep it from falling. A few seconds later a couple of store employees saw what was happening and helped me down stack the collapsing stack.
"Here's your problem." I told them as we got to the bottom indicating where the cases were hanging over the edge of the pallet. Once we got the stack broken down, I turned to Belle.
"You ok Love?" I asked.
"Yeah, just startled." she replied. I was about to ask why she was giving me an odd look when the store manager popped up.
"Are you two ok?" he asked.
"We're fine just a bit startled that's all." I told him.
"I'm terribly sorry about this." the manager said. "I'm going to rip these beer reps a new one here in a bit. Whatever you're getting today is on the house."
"I wouldn't feel right getting a week's worth of groceries for free, but I will take a couple of sandwiches from the lunch counter how about that?" I said.
"I can do that." the manager said. "And again, I'm terribly sorry."
Belle and I finished our shopping before getting a couple of subs from the lunch counter to take home. Once we got home and put everything away and sat down to eat. Belle said little during the rest of our time shopping and even during the ride home.
As we dig into our subs I said, "You ok Love? You've been really quiet."
"You saved me." she said timidly. "You risked your life to protect me. Nobody has ever done that for me before."
"Of course, I did." I said. "There was no other option."
Giving me probably the most affectionate and endearing look I had ever seen she said, "You're my hero." The butterflies that had subsided over the past few weeks as we grew closer were back in full force as Belle had never said anything like that to me before.
We said little as we finished eating and after cleaning up as per usual, I cut the TV on to find a movie while Belle went to put on her night clothes. Belle re-appeared wearing one of my blue oxford shirts and sat down next to me on the sofa and leaned into me.