Ophelia paced around her room; she could not believe her ears. She wondered why she felt so angry and violated to hear him say that he liked her when that was what she wanted. It truly did not make sense, but that was how her mind decided it wanted to work at that time.
She sat on her bed, pressed her forehead with her fingers, and closed her eyes tightly. This was not how any of this was supposed to go. She did not know how it was supposed to go, but this was not it.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a knock on the door. “I know you do not want to talk to me,” his voice rang through the door.
She held in a breath inside her cheeks and stood up. “I know you are angry, but I do not know why, even though it seems like I should know why, and it is killing me not to know,” he added.
She began to walk to the door, trying to make sure her feet did not make too much sound as they touched the ground. “We can talk about this any time you are ready, but please do not take too long,” he said.
“I am making dinner now; I would ask the staff to send up your dinner to your room so you can have something to eat,” he continued.
She turned so she could look at herself from the floor-length mirror she had put in her room. She looked at her image with a disgusted look on her face. “How can you be so cruel?” she mouthed to herself and took a deep breath before unlocking the door and pulling it open.
Cade stood there with a puzzled expression on his face. He had come to apologize, but he did not understand why she was opening the door.
“Hi,” he said, nervousness streaming from his entire being. It was a rare occasion to see him portray this kind of emotion, and she thought it looked cute on him.
“Hi,” she said back at him, turning her face away from him. She did not have to look at him; she could not tell what would happen to her if she did.
“I just came to tell you that…”
“I heard you already,” she chimed in, cutting him off before he went on and on.
“Oh, you did,” he said, lifting his feet from the ground one after the other.
“I will have dinner with you; I do not think there is any need to have the staff bring it in,” she said.
She was still going to fight for them to have a good image for as long as possible, even if it never worked out for them. The staff already probably thinks that their relationship is a sham.
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” he said, unable to hide the excitement he felt from hearing that.
“Can I at least change my clothes?” she asked, looking down at herself.
“Of course, I need to get started on dinner,” he said. He intended to leave, but he could not move his feet. It was as if it were glued down there.
“You get started, and I will join you shortly to help out. I guess we can talk like civilized people after we eat,” she suggested, and he nodded.
She slowly backed up into her room, her hand on the handle, as she gently closed the door and held her chest with her empty hand. “What is going on? What is this?” she asked herself as she stood still.
She leaned into the door to hear if he was still there, but no luck as it was quiet. She turned around and went to her closet so she could get changed.
Cade released a breath as she stepped into the kitchen. He had not even known that he was holding his breath for so long until he let go of it. He stood there looking at the ingredients he had brought out.
He decided that if they were talking, he would come clean about it all-how he was in a one-night stand and how she looked so similar to the girl-what happened between himself and Harper during the trip, and how much he wanted them to be together.
“We need to tear up the contract,” he nodded to himself and began to cut up some vegetables. He decided to make one pot of rice because he did not want to have to spend all the time cooking. After all, they were too tired to have the discussion after.
Ophelia came down a few moments later. He was already cleaning up all of the dishes that he had used to prepare the meal.
“You should have let me clean that up,” she murmured as she stood by the counter separating the kitchen sink from the door.
“Why would I do that? I made the mess, so I should clean it,” he murmured, not turning around. He had known when she got there, even though she had been too quiet.
“Because you made that mess by trying to cook for us,” she said, rounding the counter slowly.
“Yeah, but I made the mess,” he added, still maintaining the low voice.
“But shouldn’t we share the responsibility?” she asked, stopping behind him.
“I don’t think that might be necessary,” he said, suddenly turning. She wanted to create space between them, so she took a step back, but her legs somehow got tangled up in each other, and she stumbled back.
She was hoping to reach the floor but his hands held her waist and pulled her to him. She stared at him with a shocked expression on her face. Her hand travelled up his face as she gently stroked her fingers across his face.
“Very handsome,” she murmured, holding his face and still staring at him.
“What was that?” he said, slowly trying to pull her up so she could stand straight.
“I said you are very handsome,” she said, her tone changing.
“Let’s get you up right now,” he said, pulling her, but she pulled him down to herself.
“Wait! I want to look at you more.”