“A-are you okay?” Olivia asked me, waving her hand in front of my face as I sat staring off into space.
“Huh? What?” I asked, not entirely hearing or comprehending what she said.
“I asked if you were you okay? You look pretty shaken up,” She observed.
I was brought back to the real world. Holy crap. What had I done? That wasn’t supposed to happen. I didn’t mean to expose Ethan like that in front of about a dozen people.
I was so stupid. I shouldn’t have done anything in the first place. I had taken it too far. Granted the towel slipped by mistake and it was probably Ethan’s fault that he didn’t tie it tight enough.
But I felt like I was largely at fault here. If I wouldn’t have done what I did, it probably wouldn’t have happened and my eyes would’ve still being innocent and not exposed to a heart attack triggering sight so precipitously.
“Julie!” Olivia suddenly yelled.
“What?” I asked with widened eyes, not expecting her sudden outburst.
“You’ve been spacing out? What happened? You okay?” She asked for what felt like the hundredth time.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” I answered absentmindedly.
“Really? Now tell me what’s wrong? What happened?”
I contemplated whether I should tell her or not. I didn’t want Ethan to feel like I did that on purpose and now I was telling everyone about it.
“Something happened. Something huge happened.”
“What? You’re scaring me. Did anyone find out about us?” Olivia? gasped when I didn’t reply. “Oh my gosh, someone did find out, didn’t they? Who’s it? Holy shit, we have to get out of here. I should’ve listened to you! I’m so stupid.”
“Gosh, calm down. No one found out. We’re safe.”
“Then what happened?”
“I had planned on stealing Ethan’s clothes while he was in the shower and locked his closet. And then he burst into my room with him in a towel because he didn’t have any clothes to wear and I had accidentally thrown his out of the window, because? you? didn’t catch it. So I ran away from him and he ran after me and we ended up in a room full of people who I assumed were the ones Ethan was supposed to meet. We both fell down because he bumped into me from behind. And when he got up, his towel slipped down from his waist and… and we all saw that? thing.” I shuddered as the image flashed into my mind without permission. My cheeks heated up. I couldn’t shake that image out of my head.
“What?!” Olivia’s eyes were wide as saucers. “You saw him fully naked?”
I winced at her words. “Yeah, and all the twelve plus people saw it too. It happened in front of everyone.”
“Oh. My. God. Ethan’s going to kill you!”
“Thanks, I didn’t know that,” I deadpanned.
“Where is he now?”
I shrugged. “How am I supposed to know? He must be in his room. I know I would be if something like that happened to me.”
“What’re you going to do now?”
“I don’t know, pray that he doesn’t kill me?”
“With your luck, I won’t be surprised if I got to hear that you were found dead in a ditch or an alley.”
“Such a good friend you are,” I stated sarcastically.
“I’m just not trying to give you false hopes of survival.”
***
I had been dreading lunch. All day I had holed myself up in my room, engaging myself into anything and everything that would keep me from coming out of the room. I played with Rebecca most of the time, doing her hair as best as I could and allowing her to do the same, having a tea party with her and her Barbie friends without any tea and lulling her to sleep with a lullaby.
But once lunch rolled around and Samara came up to inform me that everyone was waiting at the table for me, I had no choice but to go downstairs and survive thirty minutes of lunch without any awkward encounter with Ethan. If I was lucky enough, maybe he already had lunch and wouldn’t be around.
Rebecca was taken by Rachael into her own room so that a maid can watch over her and see to what she needed.
I hesitantly headed for the table where I knew Ethan would also be present.
It was a huge rectangular table and the four – well, now six seeing as Tristan decided to join us for lunch were huddled up together in the middle, leaving plenty of empty seats at the table. Antonio, Tristan and Ethan were sat together at one side of the table with Rachael and Olivia sitting opposite Antonio and Tristan respectively which left the seat opposite Ethan for me. I could sit at the far end or any other seat other than anywhere near Ethan but that would look odd and make me look like an idiot. Plus, I didn’t want anyone knowing what happened a few hours ago. I could sit next to Rachael or Antonio but Rachael wouldn’t like it because in the little time that I’d known her, I know enough that she likes order and design in every aspect of her life.
So I slid in the seat opposite to Ethan and next to Olivia.
The food had just being served and we all dug into it. It wasn’t as awkward as I thought it would be. Tristan kept us entertained about some things that happened in the office that day and some witty remarks here and there. Other than that, it was a silent lunch, well until Antonio decided to open his mouth.
“So Ethan, you finished that meeting that was supposed to happen today?” He asked as he stabbed his chicken with a fork. “Wrapped up pretty fast. Usually your meetings last for two hours.”
Ethan cleared his throat. “It didn’t happen. It’s rescheduled to take place tomorrow.”
“Why?” He asked and I held my breath. What if Ethan blabbed about the events and everyone would yell at me for my immaturity?
“There was a minor problem. Nevertheless, it made me realize that I shouldn’t hold any meetings at this place ever after,” he said shortly.
The whole time he had refused to acknowledge my presence and I gladly did the same to him. I couldn’t help but steal glances at him every few minutes to see if he was furious with me. His face gave nothing away and he had a pretty blank face on the entire time.
“What kind of problem?” Antonio questioned further, not getting the hint that Ethan didn’t want to talk about it by the sharp tone he replied to Antonio with.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it very soon,” He assured and I gulped. He was indirectly telling me that he was indeed going to get back at me.
“Oh, and by the way, how did your clothes end up in the garden? The gardener gave it to me and said it fell down from a window.” Antonio asked confusedly and Olivia choked on a piece of chicken and everyone turned to stare at her.
“I accidentally swallowed a chicken bone,” she explained, grabbing her glass of water and downing it in seconds.
“There will be other more delicious things you’ll choke on in the near future,” Tristan announced which caused Olivia to splutter out the water she drank, all over Tristan. “Thanks.” He said, pulling out a handkerchief and wiping his face. “And I’ll tell you there will be other delicious things you’ll swallow in the near future.”
“Tristan!” Rachael gasped. “Shut up. We’re all eating, if you haven’t noticed!” She shrieked.
“I’ll be eating something more delicious too in the near future,” He muttered.
“I think I’m going to be sick.” Olivia pushed back her chair and sprinted to the nearest bathroom she could find.
“Can you not be so dirty minded?” Rachael scolded. “We don’t need to know what private things you’ll do in the near future!”
“Okay, okay. And if you weren’t as dirty minded as I was, you wouldn’t understand what I was talking about. So don’t accuse me of having a filthy mind when you yourself have one,” Tristan shot back.
“People never change,” Rachael sighed, shaking her head. “Let’s all just eat in silence.”
Antonio and Ethan looked unfazed by Tristan’s inappropriate remarks. They probably must be used to that by now.
I quietly resumed eating and so did the others.
“So as I was asking, how did your clothes end up there?” Antonio asked after a few minutes of silence.? Why? can’t? he? just? let? it? go?
Ethan shrugged. “No idea. But it’s totally not a manic girl who thought it was funny to lock my closet and steal my clothes to throw them out a window.”
“What?” Antonio asked, perplexed.
“Nothing.”
Conversation pretty much died down after that. It felt like I was taking forever to finish my lunch. I just wanted to get away from here, more like get away from Ethan before we get into an awkward encounter.
I’d said it too soon because just as I reached for the salt, another hand shot out to grab it. We both paused just as we were going to grab it. Our eyes connected for the first time during lunch and I saw a hint of irritation lace his beautiful features. Wait,? what?
Ethan slowly retracted his hand back to let me have the salt first. I grabbed it and sprinkled some on my dish before placing it on the table and pushing it towards him.
Soon enough lunch was over and everyone went about their business. I didn’t see Ethan well until dinner and even then we avoided each other like the plague.
I wanted to say I was sorry. I wanted to tell him that I didn’t mean to do that and that I felt horrible for doing that.
I didn’t see Ethan for the rest of the day, except dinner where we avoided each other as usual.