Ophelia blinked rapidly; her brain was trying to tell her to say something, but her mouth could not process what she was to say. She gulped and tried to close her mouth that had been left open, but nothing worked. It was as if her brain had gone frozen and her body was working without it.
“Ophelia?” Cade said, snapping his fingers in her face. She blinked and snapped back to reality.
“What did you say?” She murmured, almost chewing on her finger.
“I said I like you; that is what I want to say.”
“That’s impossible,” she said, beginning to pace the entire floor. “That cannot be,” she added, and he shook his head.
“I do like you,” he said as if to make sure that she heard what he was saying to her.
“You like me?” she said again, sitting back on the stool and then jumping off it and then pacing around again.
“You are going to bore a hole into the floor,” he said when he did notice that she was pacing around more than someone should.
“I don’t care,” she muttered, stopping suddenly, turning to him, and marching towards him full of rage. “You like me?” she asked, stopping before she could collide with him.
“I do,” he said. She stared at him as though she was supposed to extract the truth from him.
“If you do, then why the hell would you treat me like trash?” She muttered, taking a step back and biting off her finger aggression.
“You will hurt yourself,” he said, holding her hand. She looked down to see his hands on hers. She did not know when he had taken a step toward her and closed the silence between them.
“You are too close,” she whispered with her eyes still staring at his hand on hers.
“Should I step back?” He asked, his hand lingering on hers as if he were about to drop her hand to her side.
“No,” she whispered, and then raised her head, staring at his face. “What the hell am I saying?” she murmured, closing her eyes and shaking her head violently. “Yes, please take a step back.” She did not want to think with her heart and end up making a mistake.
He took a deep breath and took a step back. “I do not understand what is going on; just a few days ago you were telling me that you do not like me, even when I asked you. You went on this trip, and now that you are back, you are confessing that you like me. Do you think this makes any sense? Even someone with the highest IQ ever would never understand this; this makes no sense,” she ranted off.
He wanted to talk, but there was no way he was going to interrupt her. “Is this some kind of prank just so you can make fun of me? Did you and Harper plan this just so you can make a show of me?” she said.
Cade could not understand the way her mind worked, but he was not complaining; her extra mind work was one of the reasons why he fell for her in the first place. He gulped down and stood there staring at her like he was a child who was getting reprimanded for a sin he had committed.
“Why are you not saying anything?” she said in a high tone, turning to him. “Is it true?” he could hear the panic in her voice as she topped and swallowed. “Say something.” This time she was practically shouting at him.
“Do you want me to speak now?” he asked. His voice was soft, and there was no way she wanted to keep fighting with him; he had successfully turned away her anger.
“Yes,” she said, trying to pretend that she was still as furious as before.
“First things first, no, I did not plan with Harper; I don’t even know how you would think that sort of thing about me,” he said, looking around. She wanted to tell him that she did not mean it, and that was just one of the things she had said in anger. “How do you think I would plan with the enemy?” he continued.
“I get it, and I am sorry,” she said, realizing that she should not have said something as cruel as that to him. “I was wrong,” she added, and he nodded.
“Secondly, when you confessed to me the other day, I was a coward.”
“That is exactly what you are,” she chimed in with an annoyed expression on her face.
“Are you going to let me finish?”
“Carry on,” she said, clearing her throat.
“I was a coward, and it was not because I wanted to be; it was just that I had said over and over again that I was not going to fall for you because I do not believe in love, but sincerely, I think I had fallen for you before the marriage was even finalized,” he said and bent his head. “Maybe on the first day we met,” he added, and she was tempted to laugh at him.
“You really are a jerk,” she murmured. She turned on her heels and walked out without sparing a glance back at him.
“Ophelia!” he called, going after her.
“Don’t you dare come after me,” she said, turning to him before turning back and trying to increase her pace so she could be out of there as soon as possible.
“But we are talking,” he said, and she stopped.
“Talking? Talking? You call that talking?” She scoffed at him and rolled her eyes. “That just shows you being the selfish jerk you are and trying your best to paint yourself as the good guy.”
“But I do not see the issue here…”
“Exactly,” she chimed in, cutting him off before he could finish the statement. “There is absolutely no way you would ever see anything wrong here,” she added, turning on her heels and walking away.
She stood by the door, a confused feeling washing over her; she had no idea why she had stormed away, but she just thought it was the right thing to do. He had confessed to her, so why was this so hard for her to just accept? It felt strange and as if he was just saying that so he could take advantage of her.
“You must think I am easy.”