“Good morning,” Ophelia forced herself to say. She could not peel her eyes away from him. She was sure that the female workers who worked with him would be delighted to see him every day. They could feed their eyes, and even though she very much knew before now that he was a good-looking one, she could not bring her mind to accept that he was that good-looking and going out of the house like that.
“Ophelia?” he said, snapping his fingers in her face.
She jumped out of her thoughts startled and faced him. “Yeah?” she said, trying to play it off. She was just thinking about things and not about him. Why did he have to look so good? First thing on a Monday morning?
“I was asking if you have any hangover symptoms.”
“Yeah, my head hurts a bit, but I am sure that when I get out into the sun I will feel much better,” she said, taking a spoonful of the oats in front of her. She was going to eat to distract her from the body she had been gawking at.
“Okay then,” he said and disappeared from her sight.
She let out a breath that she did not know she was holding and sat up straight. She did not like that he left, but the image of him kept playing in her mind, and no matter what she tried to do, she could not get it out. He emerged a few minutes later with a glass in his hand.
“Drink this instead,” he said, taking up her coffee and replacing it with the cup he had brought out.
“What is this?” she asked, taking up the cup and smelling it.
“Lemon and ginger,” he said, like she was supposed to just know.
“Thank you,” she said, taking a sip. He sat down opposite her and began eating. She did not know if it would be better if he sat at her side instead of in front of her. She would be embarrassed to turn her neck to stare at him so she was sure that by her side was better. She cleared her throat, and he looked up at her.
“You look extra fancy today; are you going somewhere?” she asked, trying to look down at her cup.
“To work?” he asked, confused as to why he was asking where he was going. He was going to be at her office first and then go to work as usual. “But first I would be accompanying you to work.”
“Accompanying me to work? Why?”
“It is your first day back, and I am sure that having me go with you would send a good message. Our families are worried that people would look down on me because you would be progressing in the business world while I get stuck here, but I am sure that if I showed that I support you, there would be less noise.” He said this was the solution to all of the problems.
“But you don’t need to go with me to work.”
“I want to,” he said. Ophelia fell silent as the wheels in her mind began to spin so fast she was afraid it might pop off.
“Do you like me?” she asked, causing him to spray off the coffee he had in his mouth all over the place. She acted like he had not just put on a show for her and continued staring into space. “Do you like me?” she asked again, not taking her eyes off the artwork that stood in the distance.
“Why would you ask that?” he asked, taking a napkin and cleaning off the corner of his mouth.
“Because I want to know, why else would I ask?” she said, taking her eyes off the panting and then onto him.
“I already told you that I do not believe in things like love and like in relationships,” he said, like that was an answer to her question.
“Just because you believe that it does not exist does not make it not exist,” she said, pressing her lips together.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” he said dismissingly.
“Am I though?” she asked, blinking and looking at him. “Am I getting ahead of myself?” she said again. She was repeating herself in case he was not sure what she meant.
“Yes, you are,” he said, taking a deep breath and taking his coffee. “I mean, you are reading too much meaning into a harmless gesture, even though I already told you the meaning of that gesture,” he said, dropping the cup to the table. “If you do not want me to come, you have to just say so. No need to make assumptions,” he added.
Ophelia shook her head; he was getting her all wrong. “Your actions and words do not match, and that is why I asked.” She wanted to tell him that she was asking so she could know how to sort her feelings, but she could not bring herself to tell him that after how much she had boasted, he had done the bare minimum and she had somehow found it all attractive.
“Those actions are just the things you asked me to do,” he said, tilting his head and then adding. “From all the books you made me read?” she nodded as she began to understand him. Of course, those actions meant nothing, and she was beginning a lot by reading too much into him, making a hangover cure for her, buying clothes and matching bags, and going to her office to drop her off as well.
“Of course,” she nodded, and he nodded as well. “But you have not answered the question,” she said, looking up at him.
“What question?” he asked, acting like he did not know what she was talking about.
“Do you like me?”
“No”
The words felt like a sharp knife thrust into her heart and then pulled out again. “Okay,” she forced herself to say before standing up and downing the entire of her cup. “Let us go to work separately; you go to yours and me to mine. I think it would be better that way.”