The Carrero Heart - Beginning (Friends to Lovers)

“I miss you more... Did you just get in from school? Bit early for you isn’t it?” He asks softly, immediately homing in on the fact
I’m calling him an hour earlier than normal; always aware of minute details like that and it makes me miss him more so and his
attentive presence.
“Yeah, I have things to work on for the show that are better done here.” It’s not a complete lie.
“Ah, I see. How’s it going, are you almost ready for it?” he sounds a little distracted and I can hear the hustle bustle of a busy
environment.
“So, so. I’ll be running around like a headless chicken right until the show is in full swing, I think. I’m trying not to think beyond the
right now or I might freak out.” Closing my eyes and curling up, cuddling a cushion to try to envision him. I so badly need an
Arrick Carrero hug about now.
“You will be fine, baby. I have every faith in your abilities and your show will be a knockout. I can’t wait to ... Hold on.” Arry
answers someone in the room with him, covering the receiver so it’s muffled, and I can hear what I assume is his PA Amanda’s
voice in the background and immediately eyeroll. She tends to interrupt whenever I call him, and it irritates me. I miss him like
mad and I just want one call where I have his full attention without her feeling like something more pressing should be discussed.
“Sure,” I mumble to no one in particular as his cell is clearly not attached to his head. I listen to the muffled sounds of Carrero
Corp and try to picture it in my head instead. I’ve been there a million times now, even in Arrick’s office more than once. Naughty
boy had me christen his desk one lunchtime when I took him some food.
I smile at the memory and feel a little less sour about his straying attention. He never really changed from the first months of our
relationship and he still has just as high a sex drive as he did back then. Sometimes I revert to not wanting it, to not being
touched and sometimes the dreams and memories creep in and shake me up. But Arry has never changed from being
understanding and supportive in that way too, and effortlessly seems to know what I need. Be it a hug or distance, or to just hold
onto me through a bad dream and lull me out of it with soft words. I couldn’t imagine having anyone else love me in the way he
does, and it just makes me want him home more achingly in this second.
“Sorry, baby, we have so much shit going on here these past months. My schedule is crazy, and I never get a minute alone.
What were we saying?” He sounds tired. I can picture my tired Adonis, his eyes a hazy brown with flecks of green and that cute
cropped hair ruffled messily. He has his brothers’ habit of messing with his hair when he’s agitated or tired.
“My show, but can we switch to another topic as it is just stressing me out. Talk to me about anything else.”

“Okay, but you’ll be fine. ... I’m coming home the night before, so I’ll be in bed with you to keep you calm and help you before the
grand reveal. I can be your muscle, or you know, your assistant or some shit.” That tone in his voice hints that he is smiling and I
eyeroll.
“You are my muscle, and I won’t need to do much on the morning of the show as we are setting up the night before. You can just
focus on distracting me, giving me a lot of reunion sex, and putting a smile on my face before I have to endure what is potentially
the start ... or end... to my fashion career.” I gulp this time, despite trying to hide my fears.
“It’s going to be the beginning of huge things for you; I’ve seen your sketches remember? I know you’re talented. I may not be a
fashion designer, but I know what’s good, and we do work with a lot of your type for our campaigns. Enough that I can see
someone standing out with skill.” He’s schmoozing me, like he always does, and I’m grateful.
“Stop! ... It’s a done deal, you’re getting laid on your return, so you don’t have to chat me up.” I giggle at him, lighter, less
suffocated with my own moods.
“I already know you’re a sure thing... I’m being serious though, Sophs. You’re crazily talented, so stop stressing out about this
show.” His soft sexy voice removes the last traces of my anxious turn and I spread out across the bed, rolling to his side in hopes
of any lingering Arry scent, but Janetta has changed the bedding again. I sigh and inhale floral laundry powder instead.
“Just tell me you will be there... Without a doubt, and I’ll feel better.”
“I’ll be there. Couple more days and I will be right back beside you, where I belong.” He responds genuinely.
“Okay. So... What are you doing tonight?” I try to change the subject so the anxiety in my stomach will disperse.
“Meeting Nathan, Jason, and Christian to go have some man time, only... Somehow whenever Christian is there, it ends up
feeling like a bunch of women having a girl’s night out. He really does raise the tone from beers and pizza, to cocktails and steak.
What about you? No plans with anyone from school? You never mention them or seem to want to make any?” Arry pushes softly
and I tense right away.
“I like my quiet time after school, I see them all day. I guess I just feel tired and like to come home and chill out. An early night
after I do some of the sewing I need to do and maybe a movie in bed... You know me... Munchies and a movie and sleep, three
of my four favorite things.”
Arrick laughs softly, deflection successful and I let go of the breath I’m holding.

“Let me guess... Me being the fourth? Or is it sex ...With me?” He laughs again, only this time huskier and a hint of sensual
flirting. Arrick can switch on the sexy whenever he feels like it and we are not opposed to sexting and dirty calls nowadays, in
fact they have become necessity with his frequent absences and I finally got good at them.
“Actually, I was going to say shoe shopping” I answer in a blasé way and then giggle.
“Yeah, sure you were. You have been known to sacrifice many a shoe shopping trip for an extra few hours rolling about my bed,
baby. I have no doubts about your love for some Arry between the sheets, and your thighs.” He laughs this time, probably at his
own cringeyness and how pervy that sounded. I can’t stop the eyeroll that almost dislodges my retina.
“Ewww, stop... I may have to break up with you, you weirdo.” I grimace properly, a little shudder and thank my lucky stars he is
not normally someone who gives out such sleazy lines.
“Ha, ha, I’m sorry, but we both know it’s fact. You helped me regain my Carrero Casanova crown and reminded me just how
much I love sex, especially sex with you... Hold on.” he cuts off again, to another mumbling female voice in the background and
this time I hope she heard every word of my man chatting me up and talking about sex with me. She needs to give him some
breathing space when it’s clearly his girlfriend on the phone.
I sit for a moment and ponder what she looks like, having never actually met her. She sounds young, maybe. I somehow have
managed to visit his office or Carrero house whenever she is either elsewhere or not there at all. I have never actually crossed
paths with her, beyond talking to her on the phone once or twice. Arry made me take his cell and dictated something, while he
showered or brushed his teeth. Or that one time he was peeing, and I was in the bath and he made me recite his to do list...
Instead of, you know, calling her after he emptied his bladder.
“Sorry, baby, I have to go. The suits for my next meeting are in the conference room already and Jake is already glaring at me
through my office window because I’m still here.” He sounds irritated, I guess because his brother is standing outside his office
trying to intimidate him and as much as it may be worked when Arry was younger; it does not work now. I can almost imagine
him sticking his feet on the desk and smirking while birding his brother. They are still so juvenile towards one another, especially
at work, which you would think demanded a professional persona.
“Okay. Call me later, I will be up for another few hours. Arry... I love you.” I cradle the phone as humanly close to my ear as I
can, willing him to crawl inside my head and stay there for the next hours of missing him.
“I will, I’ll call you before you go to bed, like I always do. I love you more, Mimmo. Much, much, more. Can’t wait to come home
and wrap you up and smother you to death with kisses. This trip has been more monotonous than all the others and is dragging

like crazy.” The noise around him intensifies and I guess he’s walking out of his office now.
“Ditto... I guess because it happens so much, they feel longer and longer every single time, especially when you were only home
a couple of days. Bye, handsome.”
“Goodbye, beautiful, and yep... You’re right about that. Laters, Princess.”
Arrick hangs up and I’m left holding my cell to my ear, sighing heavily, and staring into space for a minute before the smell of Coq
Au Van comes wafting at me from the other space. I guess Janetta is laying the table in the kitchen, with my food, which also
signals her getting ready to go to her own home down the hall. She comes back after I eat to clear up the dishes and put the
apartment to rights before I go to bed and she also leaves me supper.
I love having her so permanently close by as it means she can leave when I want alone time and doesn’t have to hang around
when there is nothing for her to do. Arrick worked out a great deal with her so she can still tend her own home and husband in
between tending to me and always on hand even late at night. She doesn’t work for the money as they really are pretty well off
and have a modest apartment in our complex, but she does it for the love of caring for people she told me. Her own kids grew up
and moved away and she misses family life.
She comes at seven am when I’m in the shower and makes me breakfast, irons whatever clothes I lay out on my bed and
generally makes the place less lonely when I get up. She only does this when he’s not home though, as Arrick likes to cook for
me in the mornings and I don’t mind ironing my own clothes while watching him.
God, I miss him.