Olivia and I had celebrated my win with two buckets of delicious ice cream each and a movie marathon of our favorites till the early hours of the morning. After that we had retired to our respective rooms to get some sleep.
At the breakfast table, things were awkward. It was just the four of us. Apparently, all of us had woken up a little too late and were having lunch instead of breakfast.
I had my reasons for waking up late. I was celebrating with movies and unhealthy food and hence, had gone to bed late. However, I was curious as to why the two businessmen had woken up late. They had nothing to celebrate and yet they had woken up late for probably the first time since my stay here.
From what I knew of them, they were very strict about their schedules and wouldn’t ‘waste’ time sleeping.
Ethan looked handsome and for once he was not in his business attire at the table. The dark circles he had a few days ago had disappeared and he almost looked happy. How could he though? If I had lost, I wouldn’t have been able to look him in the eye for probably my whole life.
As the awkward silence between the four of us started to suffocate me, I cleared my throat and glanced at Ethan with a smirk on my face.
“So how does it feel like to lose, you loser?”
Olivia nudged me in the shoulder with her hand. “Don’t be mean to him. We meant it when we said that you two should act like civilized people around each other. What happened yesterday wasn’t childish enough for you?”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Fine. You’re no fun.”
Ethan looked up and gave me charming smile. I was taken aback. It? almost? looked like a real smile.
“You would know better as you’ve failed your life. I’ve achieved so much in my life. I don’t mean to brag, but if I start to list off all the things, it might take a while. Losing this children’s game means nothing to me. It might seem like a big deal to people like you because this is probably the first thing you’ve actually achieved. So, sorry but I cannot give you the satisfaction of seeing me upset when actually I’m not.” He said, getting up. “Excuse me but I have to go and work unlike some good-for-nothing people.”
Yup, that was definitely his go to statement whenever he lost something to me.
I glared at Olivia. “You didn’t say anything to him. He was mean to me.”
“This was not what we had in mind,” Tristan mumbled. “You guys are impossible.”
***
“What happened to you guys?” Keith asked as he chopped vegetables for lunch. It had been four days since want happened and Ethan and I had ignored each other at breakfast, lunch and dinner. We rarely encounter each other in any other place.
This didn’t go unnoticed by Tristan and Olivia and the two had been pretty much forcing me to be ‘friends’ with him. Like that would ever happen.
The other cooks were working on other dishes and I was sat on the kitchen counter, munching on chips as I watched Keith cook. I wasn’t in the mood to cook today so I just settled for watching him cook.
I shrugged. “You noticed?”
“Well, yeah. It was pretty much obvious from the first day that something huge had happened.”
“Yeah, I mean we were forced to put aside our differences and start anew. Get to know each other and stuff like that. Clearly Olivia and Tristan don’t seem to catch up onto our clear disinterest.”
“So you’re ignoring each other.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to try to be friends with his stupid face.”
Keith chuckled. “Don’t say that out loud. If he heard you, you’d be dead.”
“Do you really think he’s scary?”
“If he’s angry, then he’s scary.”
“He’s not scary to me at all. What did he do to you?”
“He never did anything. There are just some people, you know, those who don’t actually do anything but still seem scary. He’s like that for me.” He chuckled.
***
“I’m so excited for your birthday! Your twentieth birthday!” Charlotte gushed at the dinner table, grinning at me. It made me doubt if she was really a fifty-five year old woman. Alistair nodded and patted my head. Olivia looked up to meet my eyes and Ethan looked as if he hadn’t even heard her.
“Yeah…” I trailed off unsurely.
“We were so upset last year at your nineteenth birthday because you still hadn’t returned for a whole year and we missed your birthday. We missed almost two years of your life, Juliet. Don’t think we’ve forgiven you for that. But I’m really happy that I can at least celebrate your twentieth one with you. It would be your best birthday ever. I’ll make sure of it,” She said and instantly knew I wasn’t going to like that one particular day. It was weird how even my real birthday was in a few days. All I had to know was when exactly was Juliet’s birthday.
“You don’t have to make it extravagant, please. I’d like something simple,” I told her.
“You’re going to love what I’ve planned,” Charlotte promised. I smiled at her reluctantly.
After dinner, I grabbed Olivia and dragged her to the guest room where she was staying.
“I want you to find out when exactly Juliet’s birthday is. Just ask Charlotte casually. And also ask what she’s planning and if you could help her with it, okay? Just try to prevent her from doing something that would involve me revealing myself to the world.”
Olivia nodded. “I wanted to talk to you about the same thing. Should I go and ask her now?”
“No, it’s late. She might get suspicions. Ask her tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Olivia nodded and I left her room to go up to my own.
I hadn’t checked my old phone for a while so I carefully took it out from under all the makeup products that were piled up in one of the drawers. I switched it on to see that I had over three recent missed calls from Mrs. Odin.
Deciding to give her a quick call, I checked to see if I had properly shut my room door and walked out towards the balcony just to be on the safe side.
She picked up after four rings.
“Julie?” Her fragile voice sounded from the other end and I smiled.
“Hi, Mrs. Odin. How are you?”
“I’m fine but where are you girls?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Okay, but I hope you two are safe. It has been too long since you two went off to God knows where.”
“Did we lose our jobs?” I asked worriedly. I didn’t want to lose the one job which had supported me till now.
“No, honey. Never. Well actually just temporarily. I’ve hired three workers to look after the café for a few days until you return. I just thought you’d be back before your college starts again after summer break. Aren’t you going to come back by then? There are hardly ten days left for your college to start.”
Shit. I had totally forgotten about college. There were less then ten days more of summer break and I couldn’t afford to be absent for too many days.
“I don’t know yet. I’ll let you know when we’re coming.”
“Okay, take care.”
“You too, Mrs. Odin. You don’t sound too well.”
“Nothing to worry about. I’m just feeling a little weak these days and have a little fever.”
“Okay. Take your medicines timely and say hi to Mr. Odin for me please.”
“Sure, dear.”
I hung up, my mind was whirring with many thoughts. On one hand I was worried about my real identity being revealed and on the other I had my normal life to worry about. What about college? What about the rent I was supposed to give by the end of the month? What about my old and small apartment? What about my belongings there?
Thinking about my old life, I realized I wasn’t so sure about going back. That was not good, at all. I was getting more and more comfortable here which would make it harder for me to adjust to my old life when I’d finally be able to go back. More than me, Olivia would be the one who would find it the hardest when we’ll suddenly be back to our old selves.
I had no idea what I was going to do next. There was no way out of this mess. So I did the only thing one can do when there was no way out. I slept.