Eavesdropping
“Where have you been?” Battling my lashes a couple of times, I remained silent for a while as the authoritative voice of Simon thundered. He got up from his seat and walked closer to where I stood, and tension gripped me with every step he took.
“I sent for you about seven minutes ago. Why are you just coming now?” he said as he looked at his wristwatch to confirm the time.
“Oh, I was actually in the bathroom taking a shower when Amaya came in to let me know you sent for me. I had to finish up very quickly and then come right away, my king. I am really sorry for the delay.”
“Hmm, I see.”
“Yes, my king.”
“Well, you do not have to apologize. I do not need it,” he said, and I breathed out a sigh of relief. At least for once, things weren’t going to be so bad, especially given the fact that Simon wasn’t someone who would let go of such things so easily.
“Oh, thank you so much, my king, I…”
“You will, however, be punished for it. You do have to face the consequences for your actions.” Wow, I spoke too soon. How could I even think that he was actually going to let me go unpunished for committing even the littlest of sins? I scratched the back of my head in nervousness as I thought hard about what kind of punishment he probably had in mind. Memories of the previous punishments he had given me flashed through my mind, and I was filled with horror. If he so much as even thought of bringing back one of those old punishments, I would probably just faint or something.
“My king, I am really sorry. I honestly didn’t mean to do that. Please just forgive me. I don’t think I can handle any pu…”
“Kiss me.” I stopped talking, and one of my eyebrows subconsciously raised in confusion as I tried to get my brain to understand what was really going on. I needed to be sure that it really wasn’t just me constantly losing my mind every single time I was with Simon at this point.
“Huh? I should, um, k-kiss you?”
“Yes.”
“My king, I…”
“Now! Trust me, you do not want me to repeat myself on it,” he said, and the image of the loving and possibly changed Simon was already out of the picture. This time, he sounded more firm and stern. Normally, a kiss would make you feel all nice and fuzzy inside, but with how Simon had just presented it to me as a punishment and with such an expression, it didn’t make me feel good one bit. I stood on the spot, a bit confused about how to go about this so-called punishment of mine as he stood emotionless in front of me.
After thinking for a short while about how to even move from where my feet had been glued, I quickly proceeded to kiss him before he flared up or something. He had both his hands inside his pants pockets, and so the moment my lips touched his, I felt terribly awkward. The kiss didn’t last up to five seconds before I quickly removed my lips from his. I lowered my gaze back down, but the moment I looked up to see his expression, I caught a glimpse of a red-colored dress peeking from the door. I traced the dress from the bottom to the top to see that it was Veronica standing there. I couldn’t see her face, but from her peeking auburn hair, which was obvious from where I stood, I could already tell that she was the one standing by the door.
I was surprised to see that she stood there and didn’t actually come in. On a normal day, the impulsive Veronica would have instantly charged at me as soon as possible, but this time she didn’t, and it actually made me wonder what exactly was going on in her head. I looked up to see whether Simon had also noticed her, but he just stood there without any expression on his face. The room was uncomfortably silent, so I thought the best thing for me to do was to leave.
“Um, I think I’ll be on my way now, my king,” I said, bowing curtly and trying to make a run for it. However, Simon, of course, instantly stopped me on my way.
“And where do you think you’re going? Did I ask you to leave? Even better, have you even asked for the reason why I sent someone to get you in the first place?” he asked, and I bit my lip nervously. He walked over to his bed and sat on it, all while maintaining very stiff eye contact with me. While all this was going on, Veronica still remained silent where she stood, and for the first time ever, I actually prayed for her to just come in or cause any sort of drama whatsoever that would get me free from this awkward situation. All through, Simon was backing her from where he stood, and so I obviously didn’t expect him to notice her, but at least she could have just entered or done something to gain our attention.
I looked over at where Simon was seated, but his gaze didn’t leave mine still. He kept looking at me so intently that it got to the point where I even had to look back to see if there was actually someone behind me or something. The room was terribly silent, and it bothered me even more that I could hear my heart beating and the sound of myself gulping nervously. After a couple more minutes of discomfort and very unfriendly glares from the peeking Veronica, Simon finally spoke up, and that was when I could finally breathe properly in the room.
“So, how do you feel now?” He said with a smirk on his face, and so many thoughts just went through my mind as I watched him. He had such a cold expression on his face that completely contradicted all he was saying, and so it was so hard for me to deal with such mixed feelings.
“Sit down,” he said, and it actually took me a while before I finally heard and understood what he said. I looked around for where I was going to sit, and after scanning through the room, I decided to go to the chair by his desk. I was halfway seated when he stopped me.
“Stop!” I looked up to face him, and he shook his head very lightly.
“Come here.” At this point, I didn’t dare hesitate to do as he instructed, so I walked closer to where he was seated on the bed, only for him to pull me down to sit on his lap. I exclaimed from the impact, as I obviously did not expect him to do that. However, he instantly shushed me as I finally settled in his arms.
“Now you are going to sit here and not say a single word, am I clear?”
“Yes, my king,” I responded nervously, and he nodded. He took out his phone and then started going on it while I remained seated on his lap without saying a single word. As this went on, I honestly felt like Veronica would take it as a cue to leave, but she still remained there like a statue, and this further got me even more worried. What could she be thinking, and why did she not find the whole situation weird enough to leave?
Just as he had ordered, I didn’t say a word while Simon scrolled through his phone, but it didn’t take long afterward for him to sigh and then say, “Oh my goodness, Veronica, you’ve been standing there for almost ten minutes. What in the world are you actually doing exactly?” She flinched in fear from the door, and even I myself was quite surprised at this. So all this while, he knew she was standing by the door, and there I was thinking he had absolutely no idea of her presence.
“Come in, Veronica. I don’t know what you are doing, but just stop with it already. Get in here,” he said, and she quietly made her way in.
I tried getting up as she made her way in, but he grabbed onto my waist and held me back in place. She entered the room, and a hateful glare was plastered on her face towards me as she looked at our sitting position.
“Veronica, what were you doing there? The other time you were the exact same person calling out Ashley for eavesdropping on us, and now you are doing the exact same thing you were going on and on about, huh?”
“I… the thing is that I… um, actually I…”
“Save it! Don’t even bother saying anything.”
“I’m sorry, it’s just that I was on my way here and when I heard the two of you inside, I just couldn’t help myself. Please do not be mad at him,” she pleaded, but he didn’t say a word to her. As soon as she was done with what she had to say, Simon just shrugged his shoulders and then turned to face me. I looked from him to Veronica and back to him again, as it seemed like both of them were actually staring at me at the same time.
“Why are you apologizing to me? This is the person you should be apologizing to, actually,” he said, pointing at me with his head.
“What? Her? Why should I apologize to her when this is your room?”
“So why did you flare up the other time since it is my room? Huh?” he asked, and this instantly rendered her speechless.
“Now, whether you like it or not, you are going to apologize to Ashley right now.”
“What?”
“You heard me right, now!” he ordered, and she bit her lip to contain the anger already built up inside of her.
“Sorry,” she said, and then rolled her eyes in annoyance.
“Nope, that’s not an apology! You don’t just say it like she’s begging you for it and quit with that attitude of yours. Now apologize like you actually mean it,” he said, and she turned to face me with a smile on her lips, but danger written all in her eyes.
“I’m sorry for eavesdropping on your conversation with Simon, please do forgive me, Andy.”
“Ashley, my name is Ashley,” I said in a very quiet tone, and she glared even more.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re excused, I just wanted to correct you on it. My name is Ashley, not Andy.”
“Of course. Why thank you, Ashley. My bad.”
“You are welcome.” She bit her lip one more time and then fake smiled for a very brief moment.
“Anyways, I actually wanted to speak to you about something. Please, could I have a minute?” she said, returning her focus back to Simon once again.
“Oh sure, what do you wanna talk about?”
“Oh, um…” She pointed at me with her eyes, and Simon didn’t even bother trying to understand what she was referring to.
“Actually, I was thinking she would actually excuse us since you know,”
“No! Why would she leave? If you have anything to say, just say it. She isn’t disturbing you now, is she?” I tried containing my laughter as each second passed with me in the room with them. Simon’s face held a very relaxed but cold expression, while Veronica’s was like a bottle filled with compressed air; it almost seemed like she was going to explode any time soon.
“Listen, Veronica, if what you have to say is really that important, then just say it now, or try to come back when I’m less busy. And that might be quite rare to see with how much work we have to get done in the kingdom this season. Your choice,” he said, and she chuckled nervously.
“Um, I think I’ll just meet you about it later. It’s not too serious, thank you,” she said, and Simon returned his focus back to his phone. She turned to face him one more time, but he was not paying any attention to her as expected. She gave me one more distasteful look before finally leaving the room.