“Hey,” Zayn’s face didn’t give anything away as he watched Rina walk further into the room. “We were just waiting for you before we took our leave. Are you ready? I have to get into the office as soon as possible.”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “I just need to grab my purse and my shoes.”
“Great. Meet us downstairs.”
William got up first, then stepped aside to let Zayn through. He ruffled Rina’s hair on his way out, not bothering to answer her questions, before heading downstairs.
“Are you leaving already,” Susan asked in the living room when she saw them coming down the stairs. She only came to the villa when Zayn told her to, and now that he was leaving, she could return to the mansion, where she lived with Zayn.
“Yes, Su,” Zayn replied. “Please lock up on your way out. You know the drill.”
They waited for Rina outside, before pulling out onto the road in two separate cars, Rina and Zayn in one, with William coming behind them.
“I had a relaxing weekend,” Rina smiled up at Zayn. “Thank you for forcing me to do this.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call it forcing since there was food, and a lot of warmth, not to mention the other overwhelming circumstance that brought us into this. But it ended up being fine at the end of the day, I have to admit. We got to have that talk, even if we didn’t particularly arrive at any conclusion.”
“After the fashion show,” Rina was quick to say. “Don’t you have to focus on it as well, with the PR and all of that? You are equally a part of this since you are our main sponsor.” She said it in one breath and had to heave her chest the moment she was done.
“Okay.” Zayn found it funny that she got all worked up each time he brought up the issue of their wedding, but he was sure that was going to change after the fashion show. “What are your plans for the weekend?”
“I was planning on going to see my parents,” Rina answered. “I haven’t seen them in a while, and with all the fuss about the fashion show, I don’t think I would be able to see them in a while. So, I might as well just get it done with.”
Zayn nodded, relieved he hadn’t asked her to travel with him. It irked him to think that William was right. When they were younger, they had this little scoreboard where they argued about who was smarter than the other by solving tasks through physical strength, smartness, and emotional intelligence. Although Zayn had always won at the end of every month, it was always such an intense battle, and it made him want to do better each time William got a task that he failed.
“What do you need for your trip? Are you going to be driving there? I could ask…”
“I don’t want to depend on you, Zayn,” Rina said. There! Finally! She got it out. These past weeks had been spent inside her head, trying to find a way not to feel too entitled to all the attention Zayn showed her, knowing that he could take it back as he pleased. Yet, it wasn’t the easiest of things when he made it hard by doing nice things for her, like getting her a car and bringing her to his villa.
“Depend on me?” Zayn repeated, the words sounding so foreign from his lips. Hearing him say them made Rina realize how stupid it was for even thinking about it in the first place.
“Never mind,” she murmured, swallowing everything she’d wanted to say.
“You can’t do that.” Although Zayn didn’t use any force in his tone, Rina felt the subtle threat in those words. He hated it when people did that withheld information from him after spurring his curiosity and making him interested. It would have been better if she hadn’t said anything at all.
But Zayn always wanted to know what she was thinking at every point.
“Tell me,” he urged her, not looking away from the road.
“It’s really nodded,” Rina pushed.
“But it came to your head, and that matters.”
These were the kind of things Rina was talking about. How did he want her to react when he said things like that?
“Zayn, when we get married, we agreed that there aren’t going to be any feelings attached, right?”
He nodded. “Feelings only make things messy. And besides, I don’t believe in love. Do you?”
That question caught her off guard. If Rina had been asked that question a year ago, she would have said a resounding yes without thinking about it. But now, things had changed. With what Finn had done to her, and how he had gone ahead to be with Kayla in the twinkle of an eye, Rina was beginning to question the whole notion of love.
Still, she didn’t think she would ever come to a point where she didn’t believe in love.
But hearing Zayn say the easily, like a preconceived notion he didn’t need anyone to help rebut, Rina now understood the state of things, and where she stood in Zayn’s life. When he said he wanted their marriage to be completely devoid of feelings, he hadn’t said it solely because of the messiness. He said it because he couldn’t even conceive the idea of being in love with her.
No matter what happened between them, nothing was going to change. And the sooner she accepted that the better it would be for her and her heart.
When they got to her cottage, Rina had made up her mind. She turned to face Zayn. “You said you spoke to Joel, right? Did he immediately delete the idea of going out to see the movies with me?”
“Why?” Zayn was confused. Where exactly was this conversation headed?
“Nothing,” Rina shrugged. “I just think seeing a movie with him right now wouldn’t be such a bad idea. And I also think we should review the recently changed clause about us seeing other people when we get married.”