13. Chapter ThirteenFiona
Chapter Thirteen
Fiona
“ F iona?”
It wasn’t a voice I heard every day, but one that I’d played in my head over and over again; it was no surprise I could tell who it was from just one word. I didn’t know what to say in response, but Aurora wouldn’t give up any time soon.
“I can hear you breathing,” she said, and I quickly realized that I’d given myself away. I cleared my throat to make up for my lack of response.
“Who is this?”
I expected her to say something rude to really drive home the point that she could see through my bullshit, but she spoke with a soft voice when she replied that I had to pull the phone away from my ear as if I could see her face through the phone.
The same unknown number stared back at me, and I returned the phone back to my ear. Asking how she got my number wouldn’t get the conversation going because she was rich, and rich people had their ways.
“It’s Aurora.”
I waited for her to say something more, to get to the point of the phone call, but she didn’t say anything after the fact.
“Okay,” I replied, breaking first. “What do you want?”
“I need to talk to you, Fiona,” her voice had taken on an air of desperation that I could tell she was trying to hide back. But it was Aurora; she had no business calling me.
“We’re already talking.”
“No, I meant face to face. Can we meet up somewhere?”
“You want to meet up? With me?”
“It’s imperative, and I wouldn’t be taking up much of your time. If it wasn’t important, I wouldn’t be calling you.”
And how she said it made me agree to meet her at a cafe on the outskirts of Laketown. It was a public place, and I figured she was less likely to try something in broad daylight and in front of so many people.
****
Saturdays were my off days, and this wasn’t one of the ways I hoped this weekend would go. I realized how overly dressed I was when I stepped into the cafe and found Aurora in pants and a black shirt, a clear contrast to my flowery dress. It was almost as if I got the impression that we were meeting up for brunch or something.
Coupled with the bags under her eyes, she looked like she had just had a night from hell. I didn’t comment on her choice of clothing or the fact that her hair wasn’t as pristine as it always looked.
What happened at the dinner party? I hadn’t spoken to Allison yet, so there was no way of telling.
“Hey,” I said and took a seat opposite her. She hadn’t ordered anything yet.
“Hey,” came the reply, in the same soft voice she used on the phone.
I looked around the room, hoping to catch sight of a camera in case I had managed to walk into a prank set, but there was nothing but the other customers who seemed far more interested in their own conversations or their solitude to care about us.
“Aurora, what is this about?” I said, looking back at her.
“Would you like to order first?”
I raised a brow in question, and she nodded, receiving my message.
“I want to start by apologizing for my actions when we first met. I reflected back on it, and realized it was rude of me to act that way, but I was too insecure at the time to know better.”
It was not on my bingo card of things I expected to happen, but I managed a nod. It was rude of her to speak to me that way, but I knew Aurora well enough - I’d like to think so - to know that there had to be something else to it.
“I need your help, Fiona,” she said finally, and I nodded because, of course, she did.
“You need my help?”
“It’s something only you can help me with.”
She said it like it was something I was supposed to find pride in. That she, Aurora, in all of her glory, has found me worthy of helping her.
“I still have feelings for Christian.”
A pause followed, a much-needed one because I needed time to wrap my head around her words and the implication that it was my help she thought would turn the ball in her favor. I should have ordered coffee or something. The most I expected was a warning to stay away from the man, not a confessional.
“And you’re telling me this because?”
“I need you to talk to him for me. He listens to you well, and if you tell him that I’m a good choice for him, if you tell him that I regret how I’ve been, he’ll believe you.”
I blinked a couple of times, unsure of what I could say to measure up to the response she hoped to get. I looked around the room again to make sure that nothing had changed since the last time I scanned around. The only change was the couple by the window were kissing now.
I turned my attention back to Aurora. “You want me to talk to Christian for you?”
Aurora nodded quickly. “I know we don’t get along, you and me, but I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t something I felt greatly about. I wanted… Honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking, but you’re really my last line right now.”
I looked closely at Aurora, wondering if, when she got the idea to ask me for help, she genuinely believed that I was going to shake her hand, congratulate her on loving Christian, put everything I’ve witnessed aside, everything Christian had said about her, and get on my feet, shake her hand and tell her to trust me completely.
Was there something about me that made her think I was easy to convince to do something as dumb as this? How would that conversation even go? ‘Listen, Christian, I spoke to Aurora today, and she still loves you. You should really jump on that.’
Putting my feelings aside, I wanted to truly understand her thoughts.
“I don’t think Christian would appreciate me talking to him about your relationship,” I told her. “Maybe you should talk to him.”
“I would have talked to him if he would listen, don’t you think?” her voice pitched up, and I raised my brows at her. Well, it must be difficult for her to control herself. She ran her hand through her hair and looked away from me. I didn’t say anything, but again, I wished I had ordered a drink when I first came in.
“I know your impression of me isn’t exactly glowing, and, in a way, I understand that. I accept it. I was wrong to be like that, regardless of how I felt seeing you with the man I loved. I shouldn’t have acted all jealous. But I can’t go back in time and take it back; I don’t even know if I could manage that. I just cannot lose the man. I don’t want to lose him.”
I sighed and buried my face in my hands. I thought about going back to work on Monday or stopping by Christian’s house and telling him about this brunch that I was certain he and Allison would have dissuaded me from attending if they knew about it. I thought about my heart breaking.
“I’d really like to help you, but wouldn’t that be considered a conflict of interest?”
“Conflict of interest? What are you talking about?”
“I like Christian,” I said, and sat straighter, feeling light at the words that had left my mouth. It felt relieving to be able to talk about it like this, even though Aurora wasn’t exactly the ideal person to tell.
“You like Christian?” she said back to me, and I nodded.
“I’ve liked him for a while, which is why I’m telling you about it so you wouldn’t feel -”
“You bitch!” Aurora thundered, standing up so quick that the chair fell to the side. Her face fell immediately at my confession. “I’ve spent all this time telling you how much I love him, and you were just laughing in your head the entire time. You like him?”
I knew she wouldn’t take to the news well, but all of her reactions seemed a bit excessive. She was calling attention to us with the way she was acting, like I pulled up out of nowhere and took Christian while they were still together. The man in question didn’t even know how I felt about him.
“I wasn’t laughing at you,” I said as if that was what was important.
Aurora stood still for a while, fist balled and her chest heaving.
I don’t know her next action, but I hoped she wouldn’t do something stupid like try to fight me. She might not know me, but I am not really opposed to fighting in the middle of a family-friendly cafe.
“I thought you were going to help me.”
“Aurora, I hardly know you. Christian is old enough to make his own decisions. And I really do like him. I’ve liked him for so long that I can’t remember a time when I didn’t like him.”
“Stop talking,” she said softly, not even looking at me. I was already on a roll, and slowing down or stopping was really out of the question. I was going to do nothing of the sort. I had to get it out of my chest, all of it.
“And I don’t want to keep hiding how I feel about him. Honestly, I have no idea what would happen if I told him, and he doesn’t feel the same way. But Aurora, I’m scared to lose him too. Aside from being someone I love, he’s someone I’ve always had by my side. I don’t think I could survive the loss.”
Was that too honest? I didn’t know, but I also didn’t care. I took a deep breath to steady myself. That was the most I’ve ever admitted to anyone about how I felt about Christian. Even with Allison, I’ve been evasive, admitting it but not really saying much about it. She knew I felt something for her brother, but love?
I scoffed at the realization that it wasn’t simply the feelings I had for Christian, which shouldn’t surprise me because if I’ve managed to hang onto it for this long, then it wasn’t an ordinary emotion.
“You’re not going to tell him that,” Aurora’s voice pulled me out of my head. I was so lost in it that I didn’t even realize she was already sitting down.
“I will,” I said, and I believed my own words for the first time. Whatever I was feeling, it would be more terrifying if I went through life without telling Christian how I felt about him. I wanted him to know how much I cared about him, and if he felt differently, like Allison said, then at least I tried.
“You aren’t going to do that,” Aurora said, and rolled her eyes. “He doesn’t love you; he has never felt like that for you. If he did, in all of the years you’ve known each other, it would have made a show, so maybe spare yourself the grief and don’t interfere in our love story.”
“It’s hardly a love story if he cannot stand the very idea of you. Listen, Aurora, from one girl to another, don’t pine over a man who doesn’t want you. It’s not a very good look, and threatening someone with feelings for said man is even worse. You’re better than this, and you don’t really need to hear it from just me. More people should say it to you.”
I didn’t wait for her to reply; I got to my feet and looked down at her. “I hope we never meet again, and if we must meet, this should not be a matter we bring up again. Everyone should pursue their interest by themselves, and may the best one win.”
I turned around to walk out of the cafe, hoping my racing heart wouldn’t fail me now. Seeing the look on Aurora’s face as I left felt gratifying. I hoped we never did see each other again, so I could remember her with that look for the rest of my days.
Outside, I stood in front of the cafe for a while, allowing the sun to hit my face. It felt like it was a brand new day for me because it’s not every day that someone gets to admit that they’re in love with someone, and that too, to the ex of the said person.
Honestly, at that moment, I felt like I could do anything. Instead of hurrying over to Christian and confessing my feelings like I was sure I implied I was going to do, I pulled out my phone and texted Allison.
Hey, wanna hang out?
Her reply was instantaneous. Like you have to ask, I have so much to tell you about dinner last night. Meet you at the Clover Club?
I couldn’t help the grin on my face as I typed my response. I knew I was going to get details of what went down at the dinner, one way or another. But having it at the time when I needed my confidence boosted, it felt like the universe was desperately trying to align in my favor.
See you in 30 mins. I’m already heading in that direction.
I grinned and started my trip to the club.