Ethan dropped me off at the front steps and before I had the chance to unlock my seatbelt, he was already at my side, opening the car door for me which I found was extremely weird. He was being too much of a gentleman. It was almost unbelievable.
He then left in the same car, claiming he had some business to attend to. He made no rude comments about how I didn’t make myself useful in any way.
I was done being a woman without anything to do. I had something to do now, and it was college. I would be starting my classes from the very same day and so was Olivia. We would be occupied for most of the morning and the afternoon after lunch. We didn’t want anyone to know about it so we would be doing it in the privacy of our respective rooms with the doors locked. Everyone would be busy with their own work anyway.
I decided to check up on Keith before I got started and apologize to him about earlier and on behalf of Ethan but he wasn’t there, so I made a mental note to do that later when I catch up with him after the lectures. For the rest of the morning and the afternoon, after lunch I was in my room with various books surrounding me and taking notes.
At around four, I finally closed the laptop and stretched my arms. It felt good to do something familiar.
I bounded down the stairs to search for a small snack to satisfy my growling? empty stomach, and also to apologize to Keith.
When I entered the kitchen, Samara was there cleaning up.
“Hey, where’s Keith?”
Samara looked up from scrubbing the counter. “He’s in his room, taking a nap. He should be up by now.”
“Oh, where’s his room?”
Samara gave me directions to Keith’s room. I didn’t know cooks had their own rooms in here. It was probably because I almost always saw Keith in the kitchen that I started believing that he lived there which was silly of me.
I knocked on his door and he instantly opened up. He looked surprised to see me.
“Juliet, what’re you doing here?”
“I wanted to apologize to you.”
“For what?” He asked looking genuinely confused. That meant he held no grudge against me for this morning. This was relieving as well as frustrating to me for some reason because I saw how sad he was when we left and he was just being too forgiving.
“For the morning thing. I’m so sorry I left with Ethan for breakfast and didn’t eat what you made. I’m truly sorry.”
Realization dawned on him and he shook his head frantically. “You don’t need to apologize. It’s nothing. You get to decide where you want to eat and where you don’t.”
“Thanks for understanding. But apparently Ethan doesn’t know that I get to decide for myself. I’m sorry for his behavior. He was extremely rude to you and you don’t deserve it.”
Keith shrugged. “It’s alright.”
“Shall we sit somewhere and talk for a bit?”
Keith seemed to contemplate my offer. “Are you sure it’ll be alright with Ethan?”
“Of course. Why would he even matter in this?”
Keith closed his room door. From the peek I got inside, the room wasn’t big, probably just a tad bigger than my old apartment’s rooms.
We started walking. “What happened this morning seemed to speak otherwise.”
“It was nothing but Ethan being his usual annoying self.” I said. “He needs to learn some manners.”
“It looked like he was practically begging you to go with him. I can’t blame him. You’re someone anyone would want to be with.” He stated and walked a little closer to me enough for our arms to brush but they never did.
I blushed and looked away. “How’s your family?”
“They’re alright. Where were you all morning and afternoon?”
“Oh, I was just in my room.”
“Doing what?” He asked and then his eyes widened. “Did that sound? demanding? I’m sorry.”
I chuckled. “It wasn’t demanding. You’ve got to stop overanalyzing everything you do and say.? And nothing, I was just lazing around.” I couldn’t trust any more people with my secret. The less people who knew about me, the better.
“Don’t you have college?”
“I’m enrolling next year,” I lied.
He nodded. We finally reached the garden which looked more beautiful than the last time I saw it. We took a seat on a nearby bench. I remembered I didn’t grab a snack. Oh well, I’d just have to grab one after Keith has to get back to work.
“Keith, do you have a girlfriend?” I asked as a conversation starter.
“No.”
“Why would a guy like you be single?”
“Well, I have my eyes on this one girl and I think I like her.” He looked down and I saw his cheeks redden.
“Really? Who’s the lucky girl?”
Keith stared at me. “I won’t tell you.”
“Why not?” I shoved him in his shoulder. “Tell me! What’s her name?”
He shook his head. “I’m not telling you anything, but if you must know something it’s that not long back she left me to be with another man.”
“Really? Wow, why do you even like someone like her then?”
“Hey, she’s really nice and beautiful. She’s a really good friend of mine and I’m not too sure about my feelings for her but when she left with the other man, it did hurt a little.”
I felt weird. Why was I feeling like he was talking about me? Surely he didn’t have feelings for me? I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. “I’m sure she didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“I know,” Keith smiled. “I just want her to know that she’s the reason I look forward to cooking, more than I ever did before.”
“How?”
“Before she came into my life, I used to like cooking. But she made me fall in love with cooking. I used to just think of it as a source of income and tried to perfect my cooking, but because of her I strive to learn more about this art. I no longer think of this as a mere source of money. I was quite passionate about it but overtime it kind of faded away, she brought my passion back without doing much.”
“That’s great. Uh, I’d like to help you cook dinner tonight.”
Keith nodded.