“Olivia!”
I gripped at my chest, feeling my heart pound loudly as I started recovering from the near heart attack she caused.
Ethan sat up straight, fumbling behind me to put on the shirt he just took off.
“I-I just wanted to talk to you.” She avoided looking at us.
“Okay, I’ll be out in a second.” I straightened my clothes.
She nodded and left.
“Can’t you two talk tomorrow? It’s twelve right now. What is she doing roaming the mansion at this time?” Ethan asked.
“I need to talk to her right now. I didn’t tell her that I was dating you. I’ll be back.” I went to get up but he pulled me back and buried his face in my neck.
“Come back soon.”
I smiled. “I will.” I promised as I caressed his hair.
“Okay. I’ll try not to fall asleep. But I’m just so tired.” He pulled away and I got up.
“You should go to sleep. I think it’ll take some time with Olivia.”
This was not how I was planning on breaking the news to Olivia. No doubt she’d be mad at me.
I stepped out and saw her leaning against the wall at the end of the hallway and near the stairs.
I walked up to her, suddenly sensing her coldness even before she spoke.
“Olivia.” I said to get her attention.
She turned around and took me by the hand, dragging me into the first empty room she could find. “Explain.”
“I’m dating him. I was planning on telling you but we just weren’t on good terms. I thought you wouldn’t care even if I told you.”
She let out a sarcastic laugh. “What is this? I clearly remember you telling me- no, more like? ordering? me to not date Tristan. You told me we had no future together. You told me to stay away from him even when you knew I liked him and didn’t think of it as a fling.”
“Olivia, listen to me. I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t want to fall for Ethan. But it just happened. You don’t know how hard it was for me to stay away from him. I tried as much as I could but in the end I couldn’t do it.”
“Wow you’re such a fucking hypocrite. You told me that under no circumstances am I to see Tristan, that no matter what we can’t be together, that he won’t accept me and it would only lead to heartbreak. I can’t believe I listened to your bullshit and destroyed something so beautiful between him and I.” Her eyes moistened and I didn’t understand why she was overreacting so much again. I sincerely apologized. What more did she want from me? And if she liked him so much then she could just get together with him even now. What was the problem?
“Look, I’m sorry and all but don’t you think you’re being a little too harsh on me. It’s not that big a deal. You like Tristan, right? Then go ahead, be with him. I’m now telling you to do whatever you want. So stop crying about something so stupid.”
“It’s not stupid for me. As usual you’re just been a dumb bitch who only cares about her own problems and doesn’t have an inkling about the mess she has created in someone else’s life.”
“Okay now you’re just been overly dramatic. I didn’t let you date Tristan, oh wow what an apocalypse.” I spit out.
She sniffled. “You’re being insensitive.”
“No, Olivia. You’re being childish and stupid. Like always. And why were you outside my room, staring at us like a creep in the middle of the night.”
“I wanted to make sure you didn’t run away, leaving me behind here.”
“Oh, don’t worry. Doing that sort of thing suits you.”
“Does he know?” She asked, ignoring my jibe at her.
There it was. The chip in my blooming relationship with Ethan. The thing that could break us beyond repair.
My silence was answer enough.
“Are you fucking serious?”
“I’m going tell him soon.”
“Why didn’t you before you started seeing him?”
“I trust him but I’m not sure if he’ll understand. Don’t forget our true places, Olivia. If he gets to know, he might throw us out.”
“You’re so selfish. You’re not telling him so that you can stay here longer but don’t you see that he’s only going to get hurt the longer you wait. You can’t do this to him. I say protecting him is more important that this fucking thing we have going on.”
“I know! I want to protect him and I am going to tell him. I just need a few days. I’m going to make sure he knows that my feelings are real and then I’m slowly going to break it to him.”
“You’re clearly not thinking about all the possibilities. What if when he knows you’re just some poor college student who looks like Juliet, that he decides that he doesn’t want to be with you? Is he really going to choose you after knowing you’re not some princess with loads of money?”
“I’m not insecure like that. I know Ethan enough to know that he’s not after money when he decides to date someone.”
“Well aren’t you being a little overconfident?”
I shook my head. “I’m past all those insecurities. I know exactly what kind of a person he is and I know that money doesn’t matter to him. I don’t know about his parents and they might even tell him to break up with me after and he might even give in to them but that’s because he’s a good son and listens to his parents. That’s good. One’s parents should be the most important. And in that case I can’t do anything, I’ll have to let him go. But my point is, he won’t be the one to break up with me over money. The reason might be trust and that I deceived him, but never my financial background.”
She shook her head. “Just tell him before it’s too late. I don’t want other person’s life ruined by you.”
“Can you tell me whose life I ruined and how?! Because I can’t figure it for the life of me.”
“I’m leaving.” She said before walking towards the door. I didn’t watch her as she opened the door.
The next thing I heard was her gasp.
“Juliet, it’s Ethan.” She whispered.
My heart dropped at her words. I slowly walked towards the door, her figure blocking my view.
But when I reached her, there was no one there.
She turned and smirked at me. “Oh look how scared you are right now.”
“Olivia! That wasn’t funny!”
She didn’t say anything and walked out, shutting the door behind her.
I took a moment to calm myself down and after I was sure my heart was beating at a normal speed, I made my way to my room.
Ethan had fallen asleep and I couldn’t get a wink of sleep even when I was so tired because of the massive guilt eating at me from the inside, thanks to Olivia.
***
My dad had called us both to his study right after breakfast. We knew better than to be late.
Once we were sat in front of him, he stopped typing on his laptop and regarded us with a disappointed look. But it was good that he looked calmer now than what he looked like last night.
“Tell me where you two ran off to yesterday.”
“Uh, dad. He just took me to a water park for fun. I’m sorry no one was told about where we would be.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? It’s not like I was going to forbid you from going.” He spoke, directing his words at Ethan.
“I know. I just thought it wouldn’t take much time so I didn’t think to tell you. I didn’t want you to worry about her unnecessarily. I thought we’d go and be back in no time.” Ethan said.
“Then what happened? What took you two so long?”
“We went on all the rides. And we ziplined. Ethan was ready to take me home around six but I was very hungry so I told him that we should eat first.” I said. “It’s my fault that we were late.”
“You came home at eleven. Does it take you five hours to eat?”
“No, I told him to drive to a nice place so that we could eat while enjoying a beautiful view. And then time just flew. We talked and ate and talked some more.” I replied as vaguely as I could.
“But still it was very irresponsible of you two to not tell anyone.”
“I told my assistant to tell you if it got a little late,” Ethan said quietly.
“Would it have hurt your mouth to tell me on your own?” Alistair turned his gaze on him. “And I need to talk to you about what you’ve been doing with my daughter these days. Juliet, step out.”
“Dad, just don’t kick him out. He still has a few weeks of training left.”
“More like a few days, isn’t it Ethan?”