I'm not her - He knows (9.)

"What are you doing here anyway?" She blurted out when the silence between them was too long.

I'm sitting down, about to massage your neck," he replied, sitting closer to her without letting his smug smile disappear.

 

"You haven't changed at all, you know that?" He started to face her. His warm breath began to caress her cheek pleasantly. Anna was so out of it at that moment that she didn't move, and she had no idea how to breathe. Her lungs seemed to have forgotten the activity, her heart, on the other hand, was making itself known too much.

"I'd...be...glad...if you stopped fooling around," she spoke hoarsely, swallowing dryly.

 

Damn it, Anna, get a grip! You're acting like you saw him the first time! For God's sake, don't tell me that guy still has that effect on you. Wait a minute, though! He probably does, doesn't he?

"Still the same," Michael spoke in a deep tone close to her face, soothing the mocking voice in her head.

"It's just the color of your hair that doesn't suit you." He stroked her cheek with his fingertips, causing Anna to be completely out of it. Her head almost seemed to forget what had once happened and gave her a false moment, but it only lasted until Michael said the next words.

 

"I'd like to apologize." Anna blinked in confusion, and that helped her to at least partially recover.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She really wished her voice sounded normal at that moment, but it was just the opposite. It was low and croaky.

"I didn't know what happened to you. If I had known..." That sentence woke Anna up completely, and without letting him finish, she quickly jumped in.

"It's okay. Could you please hand me the cane? I have to go to the bathroom." With that, she took his hand, which was still touching her cheek, and pulled it down.

 

She couldn't help but wonder as she walked back into the room from the bathroom, now sufficiently composed and human-looking. The room was tidily straightened to its original state. Anna looked around in surprise.

"Ah, you're here already? That was fast." Her gaze shot toward the window where he stood.

 

"What would you like for breakfast? Because I was at the bakery across the street early this morning and I bought some pies and strawberry donuts, they were still warm. Would you like some?" He continued without looking at her the whole time. He held the frame in his hand. Anna only now noticed the sadness written across his face.

"Maybe later," she huffed, taking two labored steps forward, trying to fight off the feeling of anxiety that was beginning to take hold of her.

 

He knows! her mind screamed at her.

''You should eat something. You haven't eaten anything since yesterday." His tone of voice still hadn't lost its gentleness, which made Anna harden into what she feared at the moment, but at the same time wished it would happen.

"I don't feel like it right now. Shall we go? I need to open the shop and check on yesterday's sales." She tried to sound off on the subject, but the next moment she realized she had failed.

 

Michael's sentence shattered all the ice dams she had so laboriously created in herself before she came here.