It was lunchtime now and I was sitting on the couch. Ethan was going to come home for lunch anytime now and I was dreading what I was about to do.
I didn’t really want to do it this way but the only way Ethan would be convinced is if he saw it for himself.
When he did walk in, I immediately sprang into action. I grabbed Vince’s hand and laughed at what he was telling me.
I had called him right after Ethan had left and we decided to go out for lunch. He was going to pick me up but I told him to wait for a bit so that Ethan would see me with him. Of course I didn’t tell him the reason.
“We should go now. I’m hungry.” I told Vince and he agreed.
We began to move out but met Ethan halfway.
He looked surprised as he eyed my arm around Vince’s. “What’s going on here?” He asked. “What’re? you? doing here?” He turned to Vince and spat it out acidly.
“We are going on a date,” Vince said smugly. I opened my mouth to relent but thought better of it. I didn’t necessarily told him it was date but Vince seemed like the type of guy who read too much into things.
“What?” Ethan scoffed. “What makes you think Juliet wants to go? Don’t you remember the last time she rejected you for a date?”
“That was just a little feud couples have sometimes. Today she called me herself and asked me out on a date.” I could practically feel Vince’s head grow to two times its size.
“Yeah, I did. Now if you’ll excuse us.” I said and tugged on Vince’s arm to lead him out.
“Wait,” Ethan grabbed my other hand. “What is this, Juliet? What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing’s wrong with me. I’m just going for lunch with my boyfriend. What’s wrong with that? I don’t want to be late so we’ll leave now.”
I didn’t wait for his reply and soon we were in Vince’s car with him driving me to a restaurant.
I was planning on making the lunch ‘date’ short and quick but it was impossible when Vince ate like a snail with five minutes of him talking between every bite. He also had a lot of questions about why I contacted him for lunch.
“So what’s up with you and Evans? And why did you call me your boyfriend when I obviously am not? You started liking me again, didn’t you?” He smirked.
Those questions were definitely not what I expected. What I expected was two hours of him boasting about himself.
“What?”
He dropped his shitty personality. “Juliet, I’m not blind okay? There’s definitely something going on between you guys. It looks like you two like each other and you called me to make it seem like we are dating in front of him and he was jealous. I just don’t understand why you did that and why this is happening between you two when Ethan is dating Heather.”
I was completed shocked. Vince wasn’t supposed to be so smart to figure something like that out. He was supposed to be my dumb ex who was still clingy and annoying.
He laughed seeing my expression.
“Who was that person all that months ago, who came home to take me to out for dinner and acted like a total dick?” I asked.
“Ouch,” he winced. “It’s just fun to act like a dick and see how much you annoy people. Seriously, it was just a joke for me and I just wanted to see if you were still the same Juliet who fell in love with me. I mean if you were still the same you would’ve come running to me in an instant. Despite how smart you were in studies, you were quiet stupid to fall in love with me. You thought you could change me. No offence. I was a womanizer. You should’ve known better.”
I made a sour face because he was insulting me when I did not even do those things.
“Now spill,” he said and I knew what he was talking about.
“I’m not supposed to tell you.”
“You can trust me. I know I’m asking for a lot when I cheated on you with your best friend, that too on your birthday but as a friend, you can really trust me.”
I hardly knew Vince but I felt like I could talk to him about this. Not about this whole situation but just a part of it.
“Heather and Ethan are in a fake relationship and-”
I was interrupted when Vince fist pumped the air. “I knew it.”
“How? We three are the only ones who know.” I was once again baffled.
“Like I said, I’m not blind. I knew Heather’s mom was threatening her to marry her off to a man of her choice and then a few days later she suddenly has a boyfriend that she’s in a ‘serious relationship’ with and that too Ethan. It was too obvious and the way Ethan and Heather acted around each other felt too robotic and rehearsed. It didn’t seem genuine.”
“Wow.” Was all I could say. Vince was completely different from what image I had of him in my head. “Nice observation skills.”
“Thanks. Now continue on with what you were saying.”
“Okay so Ethan and I… like each other. But I don’t want us to be together.”
He looked at? me incredulously. “That shit makes no effing sense.”
I sighed. “I know it doesn’t. But I have my reasons. I can’t tell you about it. I can’t tell anyone about it.”
“Okay.” He seemed to mull over it as he finally took two bites without having five minutes conversation between them. “But I think if you two really like each other then you should be together. Love is beautiful. Nothing should be in between two people who love each other.”
I choked a little on my food. “We aren’t in love. We just like each other.”
He waved a dismissive hand at me. “It’s the same for me. It’s only a difference of ‘ov’ and ‘ik’. Still the same thing.”
“It’s not. Anyways that’s why I thought that if I make it appear as if we’re dating then he’ll forget his feelings for me and it’ll be good for the both of us.”
“Okay. So I’m getting used for this, huh?” He asked, taking a sip of his wine.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know how else to reject him. I’m not sure I would’ve been able to reject him if not for this.”
“Fine. I’ll be your pretend boyfriend for a while.”
“You will? Thanks. I think I might need you to be my boyfriend for a few more occasions.”
“Hey maybe I should throw a party and we can go around flaunting our relationship and enjoy Ethan burning up in jealousy.”
“What? No.”
“Yes, I’ve decided. I’m throwing a party and no old people are going to be invited because they make any party boring.? I’ve got a ton of friends I need to catch up with anyway so yeah. And to make it interesting, it’ll be a masquerade party.”
“I’m not going. And I’m sure Ethan won’t as well. So you can have a party with yourself.”
“Oh come on, it’s a perfect opportunity for us to show Ethan that you don’t like him. And if I tell him that you’re coming, he’s definitely going to show up.”
My shoulders sagged at his enthusiasm. “Okay, fine. Do whatever you want.” Vince seemed like the kind of guy who always gets his way so I thought it was pointless in arguing with him. And he was right. This party might be what I needed to make Ethan move on. If he saw that I was very happy with Vince, maybe he’d really believe me.
“Now that’s what I wanted to hear. I’ll tell you about the timings later on. Make sure to dress your sexiest.”
“Make sure to dress your ugliest,” I shot back. “Oh wait, you couldn’t get anymore ugly than what you already are.”
Vince gasped. “How dare you? I’m just helping you and you call me ugly.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “What else do you expect from your ex?”
“Wow. I’m really amazed at just how much you’ve changed.”
“Well, you too I hope. Do you still go around cheating on your girlfriends?”
He shook his head. “Nah, I learned my lesson from you. After you were gone, I blamed myself for everything. It was all a depressing teen drama for a few weeks after you left and after that I didn’t cheat on any girl. All the girlfriends I had had after you were happy with me and we broke up for reasons which were not cheating. So you did change me after all.”
We talked a little more about other things and I finally got fed up of him eating like he had all day, which he probably might have but I didn’t so I told him to hurry up or I was going to leave him there. That little idiot then dangled his car keys and asked if I was taking the public transit or walking home, either of which might result in me getting recognized and mobbed so I just threw a glare at him and sat down with my plate empty and watching him eat. He did hurry up a little after that. A little.
When he dropped me home, I realized I had made a new friend who I had judged too quickly. This made him the second person, the first being Ashley. I assumed the worst in both of them and they both turned out to be the opposite. I gave myself a little scolding for judging people like that on my way to my room but it wasn’t my fault that their first impression wasn’t all that good.
I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I didn’t see the figure standing right in front of my room until I had caught sight of him from my peripheral vision.
This was the second time Ethan had scared me off unintentionally today.
“Why’re you not at work?” I asked as soon as I had calmed down.
“I decided to work from home after lunch.”
“Oh, okay. Uh, I… I have some work to complete so… I’ll go.”
I gestured for him to move away from the door but he didn’t budge.
“I think you owe me an explanation.”
“About what?” I decided to play dumb.
“You know what. Why did you go on a date with Vince?”
“Ethan, I like Vince. I’m sorry I sort of, led you on. I was just really confused about my feelings and I mixed it up with some stupid attraction I had towards you. But now I have a clear head. The person I like is Vince, not you.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean? You like me. I can see it. Why are you lying?”
“Let’s not make this any hard for the both of us. Like I told you before, I like Vince. I confused my feelings for you and him and-”
“That’s bullshit. You know what kind of person Vince is. Why would you like that bastard?”
I put a hand on his chest to put some distance between us because I realized we had gotten a little close and some distance would make me keep a clear head.
“That’s my boyfriend you’re talking about. I won’t stand here and listen to you talk shit about him. I said I’m sorry for leading you on. Now if you’re going to act like a dick about it, then you don’t deserve my apology.”
I didn’t know how I kept looking at him when my words were hurting him so much.
“H-how could you do this to me? I like you. You think my feelings are an on-off switch? I can’t just stop liking you.” He sniffled. “Is this about me dating Heather? If so, please tell me. I’ll break up with her right now. Please tell me what I did wrong.”
I swallowed back the lump in my throat as tears formed behind my lids. I blinked back to keep them at bay.
“You did nothing wrong, okay? I know it’s going to be hard for you but try to get over me.” I said managing to make a pitiful face. “I don’t feel anything for you.”
A tear escaped his eye at my words and I knew I had done some serious damage to his emotions. It wasn’t a little crush he had on me. It were deep and passionate feelings for me. He truly liked me a lot.
“Bye.” I said and turned around to open the door but was engulfed in a tight hug from behind.
“No, you’re lying. I know you’re lying. I don’t know what for but please Juliet you don’t have to do this to us.”
“Ethan… what… you… stop it.”
I went to pry his arms off me but he grabbed my shoulders and turned me towards him before crashing me into his chest again. I felt wetness at my shoulder and I knew he was crying.
I didn’t know how much I could control my tears anymore so I pushed at him.
“Let go of me!” I yelled at him and used all of my force to push him away.
He crumpled to the floor as he lost his footing and I took the opportunity to slam the door on his face and then I finally let the tears flow freely down my cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered at the closed door.