Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Mason
Telling their friends last night that the engagement was off had been the easy part. Telling their parents this morning, that was the hard part.
He’d gone to Yasmine’s house, bringing breakfast, so they could call their parents together.
Although she’d said they could do it separately, he thought a united front would be better, so their parents would know they were serious and both on the same page.
Just like they’d been about the marriage, right up until the point that they weren’t.
He'd brought breakfast because he was feeling guilty about the dream he’d had last night.
Despite the breakup and the fact he should no longer be experiencing any symptoms of cold feet, he’d had a dream about doing utterly filthy things with a certain redhead.
And felt guilty enough that when he’d woken up with a raging erection, he’d gone to take a cold shower to make it go away instead of jerking off.
Even though it seemed like Yasmine had been pushing him in Audrey’s direction last night, that didn’t mean it was okay for him to dream about another woman right after ending their engagement. He handed over the sausage and egg bites she liked so much in an attempt to assuage his guilt.
“Oh, thanks.” She smiled at him, though it wasn’t the same smile she’d had a few days ago. It was genuine, but it didn’t brighten her expression the same way.
“Breakfast tea, too.” He held up the cup tray that had two drinks on it—tea for her and coffee for him. Some of the light came back into her eyes as she regarded him with amusement.
“Are you hoping that if you feed me, I won’t fall apart on you?” she asked, reaching out with slim fingers to pull her tea from the tray. “I promise I won’t. I’m sad, but I’m not crying my eyes out sad.”
“I’m sad, too.” He didn’t even have to lie about that.
“I really thought…” His voice trailed off because he didn’t quite know how to phrase it, and he didn’t want her to feel bad about deciding to end things.
In a lot of ways, he knew she was right.
And if she didn’t want to marry him, she didn’t want to marry him, and that was that.
“I know.” Now her smile had turned sad again as she sat down at her kitchen table. “It’s not your fault, Mason. It’s just—”
“Do not say the curse.” He cut her off, pretty sure that’s exactly what she was going to say. “Curses aren’t real.”
“Okay, then you explain it, Mr. Logical. How does this keep happening to me?” She opened up the wrapper of her egg bites, raising one eyebrow as she challenged him.
“You really want to know what I think?” he asked slowly. After their talk last night, he’d done a lot of thinking about where they’d gone wrong.
Yasmine stared at him for a long moment, then shook her head.
“Let’s just call our parents. It doesn’t matter, anyway.”
She was going to keep thinking she was cursed, regardless. Mason sighed inwardly, but he doubted he was going to be able to convince her with one conversation. He’d also rather not get into a fight right before talking to their parents.
“Okay, which of our parents do you want to talk to first?”
Thirty minutes later, Mason left Yasmine’s apartment feeling like he’d been raked over hot coals.
Their friends had been understanding and supportive.
A few of them had even been encouraging.
Not so much their parents. He was glad he’d been there for Yasmine when her mother had started lamenting that she was never going to have grandchildren at this rate.
And he was glad Yasmine had been there for him when his father had started in on how important it was for a man to fulfill his obligations.
He didn’t think he’d ever forget the look on his dad’s face when Yasmine had coolly informed him that she would never want to marry a man who considered her an obligation rather than a partner and an honor, then offered her condolences to his mother if that was how she was treated in her marriage.
He’d never seen his father stunned into silence before.
That alone had been worth the discomfort of doing a video call and seeing his parents’ expressions as he disappointed them.
Mason headed back to his own home to regroup. If his parents called him today, he was not going to answer.
Unfortunately, he didn’t get the peace he was hoping for. Almost as soon as he got home and sat down, his phone rang. It wasn’t his parents; it was his cousin Asad.
Sighing, Mason answered. He had no doubt that word had already reached his cousin, and if he didn’t answer, Asad would just keep calling back until he did. Nonstop. He was annoying like that.
“Hello.”
“So, what’s this I hear about you breaking off your engagement?” Asad’s voice, filled with the perpetual amusement it always held, also held a hint of accusation. “I didn’t even know you were engaged.”
“Yeah, I was going to call you to tell you, but I never got around to it.” Which, when he thought about it, was an indication that maybe he hadn’t really believed it was going to happen.
Because Asad would definitely be one of his groomsmen in his wedding one day.
If he ever got married, which at this point was looking less and less likely. “Is your mom calling Cyrus, too?”
Asad’s brother would be another groomsman, along with the members of his team.
Why he was thinking in terms of wedding planning now that he was no longer planning a wedding, he had no idea.
Maybe he was realizing that if he’d have been more excited about marrying Yasmine, Asad and Cyrus would have been his first calls after his parents and his team.
“Probably. She was appalled I didn’t know anything about your engagement, much less you breaking it off.
” Asad chuckled. “I think your mom asked her to find out what I knew and why you weren’t going through with it.
So, Cuz, why were you getting married, and why aren’t you?
By the way, you’re on speakerphone because Morgan is curious too. ”
“Hi, Mason. I don’t have to listen in if you don’t want me to, but I am very curious about what’s going on. And Asad will probably tell me later, unless you specifically tell him not to.”
“Hi, Morgan.” He smiled. He’d found Morgan’s bluntness charming when Asad had brought her as his date to Cyrus’ wedding, and that charm remained. “It’s fine, I don’t mind you hearing, too. My parents know pretty much everything.”
He gave them a quick rundown of asking his parents to arrange his marriage, them finding Yasmine, her ‘curse’, and their realization that there was not a lot of chemistry between them.
Something Yasmine very much wanted and that he didn’t think he could give her.
They hadn’t gone into detail with their parents about that; they’d just told them that once they’d become engaged, they’d realized that they weren’t as compatible as they’d thought, and they wanted to end things rather than pushing forward.
“I was willing to try, but she wasn’t… We talked a lot about what we wanted our lives to look like in general, and we were well matched on that, but once we got into the details, it was more difficult.”
“You could have tried more romance, you know,” Asad said. His voice was light, but he wasn’t joking. “Women like the romance.”
“It wasn’t a romantic relationship; it was an arranged one.”
There was a pause and silence on the other end of the line.
Mason scowled, leaning back against his couch.
He got the impression that Asad was face-palming or maybe that he and Morgan were exchanging looks, trying to figure out how to respond to that.
Saying the words out loud… well, okay. He could see Asad’s point.
Maybe the arrangement had been out of logic and practicality, but once they were engaged, he could have tried to be more romantic.
“Fine,” he said begrudgingly. “I probably could have tried to be romantic.”
“It sounds like you two were more good friends with similar life goals than anything else,” Morgan said. “But if she wanted romance, and you didn’t, then you weren’t going to be compatible.”
“It’s not that I don’t want romance, I just...” His voice trailed off.
When he thought about being romantic, when he thought about being passionate, it hadn’t been Yasmine he’d pictured in his head. Which officially made him the worst fiancé ever. She’d been right to dump him.
“You just?” Asad prodded. “What?”
“Yasmine accused me of being attracted to someone else, and I can’t say she was completely wrong,” he admitted.
It felt like a relief to finally be able to say it to someone.
He sure as hell couldn’t tell anyone here in Pittsburgh and definitely not anyone on his team.
“But it was just an attraction. I was still willing to marry her.”
Someone sucked in a breath, and he was pretty sure it was Morgan.
Yeah, he was not coming off well here. He covered his face with his hand, sighing, because when he said it out loud, it really did sound pretty bad.
“I mean, attraction happens,” Asad replied carefully. “You can’t always control who you’re attracted to. It’s happened before, right? So, why was this different?”
“That’s the thing, it hasn’t happened before.
Not like this.” It was hard to get the words out for some reason.
A relief. But it wasn’t easy saying them.
Sharing the truth. “I think it’s because I met her right after Yasmine and I decided to get married.
You know the whole idea of ‘cold feet’? I think my brain latched onto an attractive woman because I had decided to make a big life change, and there was a part of me that balked at it. ”
“I think cold feet means that you get scared of the change and back away, not that you actively become attracted to someone else out of nowhere.” The amusement was back in Asad’s voice, but also sympathy. There was no judgment, which made it a little easier for Mason to talk about it.
“I’ve just never had an instant attraction to someone like this.
Not such a strong one. It was like, I saw her, and…
” And it was like getting hit by a lightning bolt.
Which was ridiculous. “But when something comes on that fast, it’s not going to last. I don’t want a quick hit of excitement.
I want companionship and peace and affection. ”
“And what, you think you can’t have all that plus attraction?”
“I mean, it doesn’t last, right?” He was out of his depth because he’d never experienced anything like this. “Take you and Morgan, for example. You knew each other before you got together. You didn’t have an immediate attraction. It’s something that built and developed naturally.”
“I was attracted to her, but I think I get what you’re saying. No, it didn’t hit me like a lightning bolt. But there’s no one path to happiness or attraction. Would you tell someone there’s only one way to do kink?”
Mason scowled, his forehead moving against his fingers.
“No.”
“So, why do you think there’s only one way for lasting attraction to start?”
“What’s her name?” Morgan asked when Mason didn’t reply immediately.
“Audrey. She’s David’s younger sister, which is another reason it wouldn’t work out. I can’t date my team leader and best friend’s little sister.” No matter the chemistry and regardless of what Yasmine thought.
“Uh huh. I don’t think that matters as much as you think it does.” Asad snickered. “Although, maybe don’t spank her in front of him.”
“Thanks for stating the obvious.” Sighing, Mason let his hand drop back down beside him, resting it on his couch.
“It doesn’t matter, anyway. Now that I’m not getting married to Yasmine, I’m sure this whole attraction thing is going to go away as quickly as it came.
It was a reaction to arranging my marriage, nothing more. ”
“Prove it.”
“What?”
“I’m assuming you haven’t seen her yet today. So, go prove it. Go see her and see if the attraction is gone.” Asad’s tone shifted. “Unless you don’t really think it’s changed and you’re avoiding her.”
“I’m avoiding people in general because they’re annoying.”
“You picked up my call.”
“Because you’re somehow even more annoying when I try to avoid you.”
“It is a talent I possess.” Asad smirked. Mason didn’t need to see him to know that his cousin was smirking. “But I’m just saying. Shouldn’t you at least test your hypothesis to see if you’re right? Or are you scared that you aren’t, and that’s why you’re avoiding people today?
“I’m not scared.” Because he was right. There was no reason to be worried about his reaction to Audrey, dream last night aside. They’d told their friends. Now, they’d told their parents as well. Yasmine wasn’t going to change her mind. He had no doubt his dreams would be redhead free tonight.
The fear-of-life-changing fueled attraction no longer needed to exist, and so it would be gone—or at least lessened—and he was sure it would disappear quickly.
“So, you’re going to go see her?”
“Sure. Her bakery is having its grand opening today. It’s only polite to stop by.”
“I’ll be interested to know how it goes. I assume you don’t want me telling my mother any of this to pass on to your mother?”
“Please.” His voice was pained at the thought. That was the absolute last thing he needed.
Asad snickered.
“I’m going now.”
“To the bakery?”
“Eventually. Goodbye.”
“Bye, Mason!” Morgan’s previous quiet meant she didn’t have anything to say, but she sounded cheerful enough saying goodbye to him.
“Keep me updated.”
“Bye, Morgan.” Mason hung up without acknowledging his cousin’s final words.
Asad had a good point, thought. He should go to the bakery. Prove to Asad that his reaction to Audrey was an aberration that faded as quickly as it came on.
First, he was going to do some more research into ‘cold feet’ and the various ways it manifested, as well as the science of attraction. Just because he was interested.
Not because he was worried Asad was right.
Then this afternoon, he’d stop by the bakery and prove it to himself.