I just stared at him, wide-eyed as I was too afraid to do anything. Just as his lips were about to touch mine, he lost his footing and we both crashed down. We were at the edge of one of the stairs after all.
I was the unlucky one as I fell on my back. What made it worse was Ethan landing on top of me. He immediately scrambled to get off of me.
“Are you okay?” He asked as he sat up straight and stared down at me.
“I hope so,” I grunted.
After I recovered from the fall, we burst out laughing for no reason.
***
I woke up the next day with a smile on my face. I was reminiscing all the fun moments I shared with Ethan.
That was when Olivia came storming in my room.
“Where were you last night?” She asked, pointing a finger at me.
“Why do you want to know?” I asked as I swiftly rolled out of bed and fixed my shirt.
“I told you I was going to tell you everything about my date with Tristan. But when I returned I couldn’t find you anywhere. Where did you run off to in the dead of the night? I almost thought you ran off and left me here alone,” Olivia rambled.
“I’m sorry. I just went out for a bit.”
Olivia suddenly turned suspicious. “With whom?”
“I never said I went out with anyone.”
“Save us both some the trouble and stop lying. Tell me the truth.”
I pouted. “Fine, I did hung out with someone.”
“So it was a date?”
“I never said it was a date!” I protested.
“So when I say I’m hanging out with Tristan, it’s suddenly a date with him and when you hang out with someone it’s just a hangout? Not fair.”
“Shut up. It was just two friends having fun.”
“Ooh. I like the sound of that. What kind of ‘fun’?”
I just gave her a flat look and threw a pillow at her head. “It could’ve been a girl for all you know.”
“Then tell me who you hung out with. Was it Keith?”
I shook my head.
“So it was Ethan.”
I nodded slowly.
“What did you do… at night?”
“We went to watch a movie because he wanted the whole living-among-normal-people experience. But there weren’t many people around so he didn’t exactly get the feel.”
“Oh.”
“Well, what about you? You were dying to tell me about your date.”
“Yeah, about that-”
I cut her off. “Never mind. Let me freshen up first.”
After I had brushed my teeth, took a shower and had my breakfast, I sat with Olivia in my bedroom. We were going to start our classes about half an hour later so we had enough time to discuss her date.
We sat on my bed Indian style and then Olivia finally started filling me up on last night’s happenings.
So basically they had gone ice skating because in one of their many late night conversations she had expressed her desire to go ice skating someday with someone. Olivia had never gone ice skating, neither had I for that matter. So Tristan tried to teach her. But what she didn’t know was that he didn’t know how to ice skate himself. When she told me that I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
So they spent about two hours just falling with each other and sometimes on each other. But they had a lot of fun. I could see it in her eyes. She was reminiscing her time with him and she looked genuinely happy.
Then they had a warm dinner at a nice quiet restaurant which took up nearly another two hours because they couldn’t stop talking. I wondered what they talked about so much.
“So after dinner, he dropped me off here and as a thank you for a wonderful evening, I went to kiss his cheek but-”
She bit her lip, building up suspense. Oh hell no she didn’t.
“But?” I prodded.
“It was a mistake. He moved his head at the wrong time and in the wrong direction so I ended up kissing him on the lips.”
“You kissed him? On the lips?”
She nodded. “I swear I didn’t mean to. It was an accident.”
Yeah sure it was an accident. I didn’t believe that. I knew Tristan harbored feelings for her and when she went to kiss his cheek, they ended up kissing? That was a smooth move on Tristan’s part. I knew it was intentional.
“Olivia, you don’t like Tristan that way, right?”
She shook her head immediately. “We’re just good friends and that date meant nothing. Even the kiss didn’t mean anything. Tristan doesn’t go for girls like me.”
“Girls like you?”
“Yeah, did you forget that we work at a café and are total commoners?”
“I didn’t forget. But did you tell him about us?”
“No.”
I nodded. “Good. But make sure such… accidents? won’t happen again.”
She nodded.
I felt a little bad for Tristan. I knew the guy liked her but they just couldn’t happen. He barely knew anything about her and who knew if he still would have feelings for her after he learns who she really was. We had told everyone that Olivia lived in another country and had come here for college. We also made it seem like she was quite wealthy.
But it was nothing but a big, fat lie. Although Olivia’s family was well off, she wasn’t. She didn’t get along with her family. They were against what she wanted to learn. Her family was a family of lawyers and they wanted her to carry on the legacy. But she didn’t want to study law and since then her family had cut off all ties with her. She does talk to her mother once or twice a month but it doesn’t end on a good note. It always ends with Olivia yelling over the phone that her mother couldn’t never convince her to study law and that she’d do whatever she wanted.
So basically she was broke right now, along with me as we temporarily lost our jobs at the café.
“Are you planning on hanging out again?”
“I’m not sure. If he has time, maybe we would, maybe we wouldn’t.” She shrugged but didn’t meet my eye.
“You did tell me that nothing is going on between you two and that’s good but do you think you can hang out just a little bit less with him?”
“Why?” She asked after a moment of silence.
“You know, just to be on the safer side and ensure there are no feelings involved.”
“I did tell you that I wouldn’t let anything happen again. So trust me on this okay?”
“I do, but please just don’t hang out with him so much.”
“What are you not telling me?”
I contemplated on whether to tell her about Tristan’s intentions.
“Tristan kind of likes you.”
She looked at me incredulously and then burst out laughing. “No he doesn’t.”
“He does. He told me himself.” I said seriously.
“I’m pretty sure he was just joking around. He does that a lot. He’s a pretty funny guy.”
“No, he was serious.”
“He’s a playboy, Julie. Those are not my type. I like easy relationships which are noncommittal and although it looks like he prefers the same, I don’t want to be involved with him and get my heart broken. He’s special. A dangerous kind of special.”
“He’s not a playboy. He just has a… dirty mind. Although it’s not my place to tell, I have to. He had a girlfriend and he was in a serious relationship with her but then shit went down and he found out that she was with him for the money and fame. They were together for a long time. He’s a serious relationship kind of guy.”
“Then you don’t have to worry because he totally isn’t my type.”
“Okay, if you say so. Just… don’t break his heart, because his feelings are genuine and probably even strong now.”
She gulped but nodded. “I can’t promise you that, but I’ll try.”