After breakfast I intended to confront Ethan once and for all but Mr. Jenson’s voice stopped me. He beckoned me to his office.
When I stepped in, he was at his desk, working. For a second, I could actually picture Ethan in his place – old but still dedicated to his work.
“Juliet. What have I been hearing about you from Ethan? You went to his workplace and stayed there the whole day?” He asked as soon as I took a seat in front of him.
My smile dropped and my eyes widened as I realised Ethan blabbed about me to him.
“Why did you do that? He complained to me that he found your presence intruding and uncomfortable. What’s your explanation?”
“I-I,” I stammered and blushed. I hadn’t expected him to tell Mr. Jenson everything like a little kid would do to his parent. “I felt like he was avoiding me purposefully with the excuse of work. I tried several times to confront him about it but he dodged my questions each time. So I had no other way than to force the answers out of him.” If he was going to involve dad into this, I might as well let him know the full truth about the situation or else my actions could be misunderstood.
“I don’t know what’s going on between you two but I don’t want you to interfere with his work. Personal matters should be resolved at home. And how could you be so reckless? What if someone had recognized you and taken pictures? I thought you told me you were not ready to face the media.”
“I’m not! I’m not ready. And I’m sorry I acted careless and annoying. I promise this won’t repeat.”
“Good. Ethan is here to learn from me. I don’t want him to get distracted or disturbed by anything and I want to be a good host and guide him. From tomorrow he will be accompanying me to the company and closely observe the workings and how I manage everything.”
“Yes, I understand.” I nodded meekly.
“Good. Now if you want anything go and buy it.” He shooed me off before slyly adding,”Except for a human.”
I groaned. I doubted anyone in this house would ever let me forget that one thing I did but actually didn’t do.
Stepping out of the office, I didn’t need to check to see if Ethan was gone or not because I was sure he was.
Chasing after him was tiring. No matter how fast I was, he was always one step ahead of me. Not to mention it was starting to hurt my pride as I was not the type to chase after someone.
So I decided that I’d make one last attempt to talk things out with him and if he still chose to be childish and avoid me, then I wouldn’t pursue him anymore.
When night time rolled around, I was waiting for Ethan to show up at dinner but he did not. I took that as another sign of something not right between us.
I waited in my room, my ears perked for any sounds that would alert me of his presence.
Precisely half an hour after midnight, I heard soft footsteps from the hallway which sounded like they were getting nearer.
I got off the bed and calmly walked towards the door. When I pulled it open, Ethan met me in front of our doors. He seemed a little surprised,? probably wondering why I was still awake.
But he turned away and was about to put a hand on his door knob to open it when I took a few steps towards him.
“Ethan,” I said, grabbing his door knob before he could. His back faced me, my nose almost touching his shoulder.
He turned around slowly to gaze down at me, his scent engulfing me.
“What is it? I’m tired so I want to sleep. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” He said but made no move to leave.
I had expected something like that. But I ignored his excuse and got straight to the point, very well knowing that if I didn’t say what I wanted to quick enough, he’d just run away again. “Something’s happened between us. I’d be stupid to not notice and I’m sure you’ve noticed as well. I want to talk to you without you making an attempt to run away the second I touch on this topic.”
He didn’t say anything and continued to look at me.
“I don’t know what I did to make you avoid me at all costs. It’s actually starting to hurt me. What happened? What did I do wrong? I’ve noticed that you’ve been like this since the wedding. Did something happen at the wedding that made you start to hate me again?” He didn’t answer so I continued, “I’m telling you I really have no idea why you’re like this so please just tell me. Avoiding me is not the solution. We should talk things out like adults and see if we can come up with a solution to our problems. We were such good friends two months back.”
“Oh, so it took you two months to notice that I stopped talking to you and avoiding you? I must’ve been a pretty insignificant thing in your life if it took you that long to realize something was wrong.” His words were cold and his face gave nothing away.
I shook my head at him frantically. “It’s not like that. I was just busy with some things-”
“Like your boyfriend Keith? Don’t worry, I understand.” His words were laced with sarcasm but I detected hurt in his eyes.
I narrowed my eyes at him when he cut me. “Keith is not my boyfriend. I don’t know how he feels about me but I don’t see him in that way. I’ll make this clear for you. And you were never not significant to me. I was genuinely busy with some things and had no time for anyone, not even Olivia as she was busy with… her things as well. Now will you tell me what the problem is?”
Ethan didn’t answer but he looked somewhat relieved.
“But why would it even matter to you if Keith was my boyfriend or not? Why would it make you so upset?”
He started to look a little panicked at my questions as he avoided my eyes.
Hesitantly I stepped closer, eliminating the distance between us. He took a quick breath through his nose and peered down at me. I put a hand on his heart and felt it thumping wildly under my fingers. I thought I had imagined that sound but it really was Ethan’s heart beating fast and loud.
“Your heart is beating so fast. You are all fidgety. Why am I making you uncomfortable?”
He gulped audibly. We stared at each other until he grabbed my shoulders and pushed me back a little to put distance between us.
I couldn’t help but smirk a little. “I’m flattered to know that I can get a reaction like that out of you.”
Ethan didn’t say anything but I could see it in his eyes that he felt exposed. After a few moments he was back to his old self. There was no hint of the previous nervousness that I induced in him. Unexpectedly he started towards me.
“What’re you doing?”
“The same thing you just did.” It was now his turn to smirk. I felt like a little prey getting cornered by a predator.
My back touched my room door and I fumbled for the door knob but Ethan was quick to block me from escaping by putting his hand on it.
“Aren’t you getting a little uncomfortable too?”
“I’m not! It’s just a little hot in here,” I panted as I fanned my face. I really hated how the tables turned in just a few seconds.
He continued to watch me which was making me antsy and enfeebling my feet.
Suddenly he was closer to me than he ever was. He snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me closer. His other hand cupped me cheek and he brought his face to my ear. His nose tickled the outline of my ear sending pleasurable tickles all over my body and his warm breath fanned my neck. It felt as if we were trapped in a closed space, just the two of us. I struggled to breathe evenly, trying my best to look unperturbed at our intimacy.
After a while, he whispered into my ear. “This closeness bothers you too, right? We’re not supposed to be like this. We shouldn’t feel like this towards each other. Do you still want me to be close to you?”
And then he released me and took several steps away from me.
“Doesn’t it feel great to put distance between us? Doesn’t it make you less nervous when we aren’t close?”
I didn’t reply but he could see that my answer was yes.
Yes, it felt a lot better for my heart now that he wasn’t so close to me. I felt my heart beat slow down to normal which I hadn’t realized was beating fast before.
“Is that why you’ve been avoiding me?”
“The reason is not entirely that. There’s a much bigger reason.”