He blinked several times. “Am I dreaming?”
I pinched his cheeks and he shook my hands away. “You aren’t, prince.”
“Prince?”
“Yes, my prince.”
He shook his head. “Hold up. Last time I checked, you were dating Vince! Now I’m suddenly your prince?”
“I’m not dating him. I was just pretending to date him in front of you.” I clarified.
“Pretending? That pig was going to kiss you at that party but I interrupted your romantic moment.”
I shook my head. “He was just making it seem like he was going to. He just wanted to see if you’d get jealous.”
“Well I did. Mission accomplished. So what?”
I sighed. “And he just wanted to make you believe that we were dating.”
“But why did you do that? What was the reason?”
I didn’t answer because answering it would mean that my secret would be out and I wasn’t going to do that until next month.
“Well?” He urged.
“I’ll tell you some other time. Please, trust me.”
“Juliet, if you wanted to play you could have asked for a toy. Can you please not play with my feelings like that?”
I heart broke at his plea. “Ethan I know it sounds like I played with your feelings but I really didn’t. I didn’t have a choice. I was compelled to do it.”
“Then tell me why and what for! Unless I get a valid explanation for what you did, how am I supposed to believe you?? How can you expect me to trust you when you don’t trust me?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Let’s talk only when you’re ready to explain yourself to me.”
“No, Ethan. I-wait-”
“Did you have lunch yet?” He interrupted me.
“No, I didn’t.”
“You must be hungry. Go and eat your lunch. I need to get back to the office.”
With that he picked his files and left.
I sighed. Clearly it hadn’t gone the way I hoped it would. I pulled my phone from my pockets and called Heather to explain the situation to her.
“He’s asking for an explanation? Don’t worry. I’ll make things okay.” She assured me.
“But I don’t want to lie.” I said, remembering the bigger lie I was living. “Not again.”
“Then tell the truth.” She suggested.
That made me shut up. “I’ll tell him the truth after a month. What are you possibly going to tell him that would make him forgive me?”
“I said I’ll take care of it.” There was a long pause as she took deep breaths.
“Heather, are you okay?”
“Yeah… I-I’m fine. Look Julie, I’m already a lot stressed about something so I just… just don’t worry about you and Ethan. I said I’ll make things okay so just trust me. I’m hanging up now.”
She hung up right after that and I couldn’t help but think that things were not right. Some trouble was brewing and I didn’t know if it included me or not.
But I decided to trust her and wait for some miracle.
***
Sure enough, after dinner I was pleasantly surprised when I found Ethan knocking on my open door.
I eagerly asked him to come inside.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Was the first thing he asked.
“Tell you what?”
“About Heather. That she told you to stay away from me.”
“Did she tell you that?”
“Yes. She called me and said that she told you to do that because she feared that if we get together then I’d ask her to stop our fake dating and then the media would go crazy and she was just not ready for it.”
Well Heather kind of told him half truths. She took all the blame and honestly it was rightfully hers. Nevertheless, I was happy and grateful that she took control of the situation.
“Oh,” I said dumbly. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize. You were just doing what Heather made you do. You did nothing wrong.”
“You didn’t say anything to her, did you?”
“Nothing much. I just ranted an hour about how much I went through because of her and I told her to stay away from my business and whomever I wanted to date. I told her I didn’t want to fake date her anymore and then she said that she was planning on announcing our breakup soon anyway.”
“Did she perhaps not sound okay?” I asked, remembering how she sounded over the phone call.
“I don’t know. I was just so mad over all this matter and she seemed disinterested in what I had to say. I don’t blame her much. She’s been through a lot in her childhood and her adoptive mother isn’t good to her so I do kind of empathize with her and understand why she’d do that.”
“Yeah.”
There was a long silence.
“So… do you forgive me?”
“I don’t know. I know it’s not your fault that you behaved that way but do you just do what your friends tell you to do without a single thought? Like didn’t you care at all about how it would hurt? me?”
I opened my mouth to deny it but he held up a hand to stop me.
“I know the thing about chicks before dicks and other similar phrases for it but am I that… unimportant to you? You say you like me yet you don’t hesitate to hurt me. Tell me how I’m supposed to trust you again? It might not look that big of a deal but I’m really careful about giving my heart to someone and you’ve already nearly broken it. You know what is worse that unrequited love? It is when your feelings are played with by the one you like. I felt worthless during the time you decided to ignore me. I felt like I wasn’t likeable. I know you might think I’m overreacting but I want you to know that this is the first time that I’ve liked a girl so much and so I’m sensitive. Sure, I’ve had crushes on other girls in my school and uni but I was so focused on studying that I knew that nothing would come out of confessing. I knew that my crushes and I would go nowhere. But you’re someone I think I can have something beautiful with. I can feel it. So I’m sorry but I’m still on guard.”
I nodded. “I understand.? I will prove my sincerity to you.”
He smiled softly at me.
“But what happened… it didn’t change your feelings for me, did it?” I asked fearfully.
“It didn’t. I think the time away from you only strengthened them. I don’t think I’m going to not like you for a long time now.”
I smiled in relief. “Did you have dinner?”
He nodded. “Did you?”
I risked taking his hand in mine. “Of course. Let’s eat all of our meals together with my family from tomorrow so I know you’re eating well.”
“Sure.”
“I’m glad you’re not drunk today. You shouldn’t drink so much because of me.”
“Um… I’ll let you in on a secret. After a few couple days of drinking because of you… I started drinking to see you. You always let me in your room to sleep next to you. I think that became the main reason for me drinking. I’m sorry I sound like a pervert or a peeping Tom. I swear I didn’t do anything to you in your sleep except cover you with the duvet whenever you threw it away.”
I chuckled. “Thanks for keeping me warm. Not only with the duvet but your presence next to me.”
He once again gave me a small smile. “You’re already trying to win me over with those words.”
“This time, I’ll be the one to pursue you.” I promised.
“I feel special.”
“You are special. So so special to me.” I admitted. It felt good to finally tell him that.
His cheeks tinted red and he cleared his throat. “I think I should get to bed and so should you. Goodnight.”
“Do you want to spend the night in my room?” I offered after a moment’s shyness.
His cheeks reddened even more. “I-I think it’s best if I sleep in my bed tonight.”
“Okay, goodnight.” I said, waving at him although I was a little disappointed and it must’ve shown in my voice and face.
“Believe me, I want to sleep next to you but after what you told me today I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep with you so close to me.”
If I was disappointed before, I was surprised now at his bluntness. “Okay.” Was all that I managed to say.
He waved at me and almost ran out of the room.
I chuckled at his actions and how happy he seemed now, a stark contrast to his mood these past few days.
Ethan had bared his heart to me and I had treated it cruelly causing him to put up walls around it and I was determined to break then down one by one without allowing anything to hurt him again because of me.
The thought vanished with my smile when I remembered that I was hiding a secret from him that could completely break his heart this time.