“Why?” I asked with a frown. Her reaction had scared me.
She dropped her expression and smiled as if she hadn’t looked beyond stressed just seconds ago. “Its just that she’s very tired. We had a very fun night and she must already be sleeping. Let’s not disturb her.”
“Oh,” I sat back down. “Okay.”
Heather kept looking between us and then bent down to whisper something in my ear.
“We need to talk about you and Ethan but not now, he’ll get suspicious. I’ll come back again sometime today, maybe in the afternoon and we’ll talk about what’s going on between you two. Be prepared because I’m going to interrogate you as if you’re a criminal.”
I gulped when she pulled away. Of course we needed to have a talk about what was going on between Ethan and I but even I didn’t know what it was. I was sure Heather was going to ask if I was just pretending to like him for his money. I knew she was going to be harsh on me. But I didn’t blame her. She was just protecting the people she cared about.
“Okay.” I said meekly.
“What did you say?” Ethan asked, looking at us with his eyebrows scrunched up in confusion and one ear close to us to try and hear what she was saying.
“Just things between two best friends that’s none of your business.” She retorted and grabbed her purse and turned away, hitting him with the end of her purse, intentionally or not, I didn’t know.
Ethan rubbed his cheek where he had been hit and glared at her back as she exited the kitchen.
I was still thinking about Ethan and Heather’s fake relationship that I didn’t notice that I was left alone with him again. When I realized it I quickly grabbed my tray which previously had the sandwiches but now it was just coffee that was remaining which had gone cold by now so I just decided to let it sit there for some time because what was more important for me was to get out of there without Ethan stopping me.
“Where are you going?” He asked the second I made a move towards the door.
“To my room.”
“Not so fast.” I felt a hand grab me as Ethan pulled me back and I ended up on his lap. “You still didn’t say anything about my confession. What’s your answer?”
“Ethan. We can’t do this.”
“Why? You already know now that Heather and I are just in a fake relationship. There’s nothing between us.”
“No. That’s my answer. No.” I attempted to get up but he wouldn’t let me.
“If you’re bothered by the fact that we are still fake dating then I can talk to Heather and tell her that I can’t do it anymore.”
“No, don’t do anything of that sort. I just don’t want this. I don’t want us.”
“Women are really confusing. We know we like each other and yet you don’t want us to be together. It doesn’t make sense.”
I put a hand on his chest. “Please. I have my reasons. I can’t tell you.”
He sighed. “Fine. I won’t push you. You probably aren’t ready for a relationship right now, especially not with me.”
“Something like that.”
Then he had a mischievous smile on his face. “I won’t force an answer out of you. But don’t blame me when you’ll be tempted to give me an answer.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You’ll find out. But anyways, I’ll wait for you, for when you’ll want to be with me.”
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t promise him something that even I wasn’t sure about.
While I was busy with my thoughts, Ethan took the opportunity to steal a kiss from me. It was a simple peck on the lips like before but I still glared at him for that.
“You said you wouldn’t do that without my permission.”
“Yeah, that thing applies from now on, right from this second.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m going back to my room.” I got up from his lap and he let me. I stretched my hands above me and yawned.
“Okay,? goodnight.”
“It’s morning right now,” I said, gesturing towards the rising sun outside the window.
“It’s goodnight for you. You look like you haven’t slept all night. And I think you’re going to go to sleep now.”
“You’re right.”
***
I woke up sometime in the afternoon. Everyone had already had their lunch. I was hungry and the new cook who was appointed in place of Keith fixed something up for me. I took an immediate dislike to the new cook although it was stupid and childish of me to do so. He did nothing wrong but I still held a bit of a grudge against Ethan.
It was after I had my lunch that Heather showed up shortly after. I was in my room when she walked in, without knocking or my permission but I figured she didn’t need my permission for that. She could do anything she wanted and I wouldn’t ever have the guts to question her.
She locked the door after her and I gulped, sitting straight on my bed.
“So I’m going to get straight to the point because I have a lot of other things to do so you should be happy I took time out for this.” Heather said, without any preamble.
“Okay. What do you want to ask?”
She dragged a chair to where I was sitting and sat on it, crossing one leg over the other.
“How did this happen?” She asked, her face stoic.
I took a deep breath before answering. Here we go. “I honestly don’t know. One day we were friends and then suddenly we started having… uh feelings for each other.”
“What’re your intentions with Ethan?”
“I-I don’t have any intentions with him. I just… like him.”
“You’re not pretending to like him because of his money, right?” She arched an eyebrow.
“I would never do that to anyone. I genuinely like him.” I told her honestly although I knew she won’t believe me readily.
“Why should I believe you? How are you going to convince me that, that is the truth?”
“Heather, I don’t know how to prove it. I’m saying the truth. I’m not a gold digger.”
Heather looked like she didn’t know what to say but after a few minutes she asked me something I had been dreading the answer to. “Does he know you’re Julie? Does he know your real identity?”
My shoulders sagged in defeat. “No, he doesn’t.”
“That doesn’t sound like he likes you. He thinks it is Juliet that he likes but in reality he likes a total stranger. He doesn’t even know you exist. I can’t let you toy with his heart like that.”
“I don’t plan to do that either. I couldn’t stop him from liking me but I can prevent him from growing anymore fond of me.” I didn’t know if I could do this, if I could remain unaffected by his charms and tell him that I didn’t like him to his face.
She nodded in approval. “Good. You must tell him that you don’t like him anymore. Just give him a believable reason. It would be easy that way. Just tell him that you still like Juliet’s ex, what’s that jerk’s name, ah, Vince something and you confused your feelings. He’ll be hurt but it’s the best for him as we are only saving him from a big heartbreak. You’re in with me on this, right?”
“Yes,” I murmured. It wasn’t like I had a choice.
“Suppress your feelings for him. I really hate to say this and it’s probably not my place to tell you thus but he deserves better. I don’t mean to insult you or your economical status as I was once a poor orphan who got really lucky to be adopted into a rich family but I won’t forget where I came from and so please don’t think that I’m demeaning you.”
I nodded. “I understand.” But I was hurt.
She placed a hand on my shoulder. “If you really like him, it’s going to be hard to tell him that you don’t but I’m not forcing you although I’ll be very happy if you obeyed me. Please try to understand me. I’m just trying to protect him but I’m less powerful than human emotions. If your feelings for each other are strong enough, I’m sure you’ll go against me and I can’t really blame you. The heart makes us do what we want but I’m trying my best. So cooperate with me as best as you can.”
“Okay.”
She gave a nod. “Good. I’ll leave now.”
After she left I couldn’t control my tears. What she was asking of me was hard. I was happy that Ethan and Heather were only in a fake relationship and I stupidly thought that maybe it was alright. Maybe I could be with him and tell him someday who I really was. Maybe he’d still accept and like me. But I was harshly brought back to reality. We belonged to two different and incompatible worlds. This was impossible. Even if we get together it would only be temporary. One day he’d know about everything and would feel hurt and betrayed and wouldn’t even accept me back. It would only give us tears and heartbreak.
Things weren’t as easy as I thought they were. Our problems ran deeper than what we had predicted, and the only way to survive through it was to not be together.