Chapter 13 #2
“Oh, trust me,” Juliette said between laughs, leaning forward with a wicked grin, “after last night, I think we can all confidently confirm he’s very interested in women.”
Amara immediately frowned and shoved her lightly on the shoulder.
“Shut up.”
“But it’s not a lie,” Juliette said between laughs.
Amara groaned in embarrassment and dropped her face into her hand for a second before muttering, “Well… all his functions are clearly intact.”
Jasper immediately waved a hand through the air.
“Alright, alright,” he muttered. “So that theory is officially out of the question.”
Still drunk, he leaned back deeper into the couch, rubbing his jaw as he tried to think.
“But now I’m even more confused,” he continued slowly. “He married you despite believing he wouldn’t be able to sleep with you. And now that misunderstanding is gone…” He frowned harder. “Why did he marry you in the first place?”
Juliette nodded immediately.
“That’s exactly what I’m thinking.” She turned toward Amara with a serious expression. “I don’t think pity alone could make someone marry another person. Feeling bad for someone is one thing, but marriage?” She shook her head. “No. That’s too much.”
Amara lowered her eyes to the glass in her hands, quietly tracing the rim with her finger.
“I honestly don’t know,” she admitted softly. “But he told me he married me knowing everything. He said it was completely his choice.”
Juliette narrowed her eyes slightly.
“Did he tell you he liked you?” she asked carefully. “Or that he loved you?”
Amara fell silent.
For a few seconds, only the sound of the television playing softly in the background filled the room.
Finally, she shook her head.
“No,” she answered quietly. “He didn’t exactly say that.”
She leaned back against the couch with a tired sigh before continuing.
“But… he told me to come back home. He told me to pack my things and move back in with him now that the misunderstanding is cleared up and…” Her voice became awkward. “Now that we’ve slept together.”
Juliette’s eyebrows immediately shot up.
Amara leaned forward suddenly, lowering her voice as if confessing something unbelievable.
“And he’s being ridiculously clingy too,” she whispered. “Before we separated, he was never like this. He was always distant and cold. But ever since the divorce…” She frowned in confusion. “He keeps touching me, getting close to me, trying to kiss me all the time…”
Her cheeks flushed faintly as she complained.
“It feels weird.”
She let out a frustrated groan and dragged both hands through her hair.
“It’s like something snapped in him overnight,” Amara said with a helpless look. “He always acted restrained before, but now that he knows I’m healthy… suddenly his libido woke up like it’s been sleeping for years.”
Both Jasper and Juliette burst out laughing.
Amara looked completely exhausted as she dropped backward against the couch dramatically.
“Aaahhh…” she groaned loudly, pressing a hand to her forehead. “I’m so tired. My head hurts.”
Juliette immediately laughed and reached over to pat her knee.
“You know what? Stop worrying about it so much,” she said gently. “At least now you can calm down. The misunderstanding is over, and you don’t have to keep stressing about it every second.”
Then, as if suddenly remembering something, Juliette slowly turned toward Jasper with a mischievous smile spreading across her face.
“So…” she dragged out teasingly, “what’s going on with that married woman who keeps staring at your body like a starving predator? Did you run into her again today?”
The second she mentioned it, Jasper looked physically pained.
“Oh my fucking God, stop it,” he cried out dramatically.
He dropped his head back against the couch and covered his face with both hands as if suffering from deep emotional trauma.
“That woman is the horror of my life,” he groaned. “Why does this kind of thing only happen to me?”
His words were badly slurred from alcohol, and his body swayed slightly where he sat.
“I swear,” he muttered miserably through gritted teeth, “I’m being hunted.”
“You know what? I’m getting rid of her for good today,” Jasper declared while slouching deeper into the couch. “This is seriously getting out of hand. I’m tired of her trying to grab me every single time I’m anywhere near her.”
His words were slurred badly from alcohol.
With clumsy movements, he fumbled for his phone and nearly dropped it before finally managing to unlock it.
“I need proof,” he muttered.
His shaky fingers opened the camera app, and he suddenly pointed the phone toward Juliette’s face.
“Wait, let me take a picture of you.”
Juliette immediately shoved his arm away.
“Absolutely not.”
Jasper squinted drunkenly at the screen before making a disgusted face.
“You look ugly right now,” he complained, his nose scrunching dramatically.
“What?!” Juliette yelled, smacking his shoulder while laughing.
Still grumbling, Jasper lazily turned the camera away from her and toward Amara instead.
Amara was sprawled against the couch with her head tilted back against the cushions. Her hair was spread messily behind her, her cheeks flushed pink from alcohol, and her lipstick was slightly smudged.
She looked exhausted.
And somehow, that messy, tired look made her even prettier.
Jasper’s eyes immediately lit up.
“Oh,” he muttered happily. “This one will work.”
A crooked grin spread across his face as he snapped the picture.
Before Amara could even react, Jasper had already opened Instagram with clumsy fingers and uploaded it with a ridiculously cheesy caption.
‘Who wouldn’t want to stay home with a beauty like this around?’
The second Amara heard him reading the caption out loud, her eyes opened.
She stared at him in disbelief for a few seconds before rolling her eyes so hard it looked painful.
“Please come back to your senses,” she groaned. “What the hell is wrong with you? That caption is awful. I’m literally about to gag.”
But Jasper only grinned proudly at himself.
“You can sacrifice a little dignity for me,” he declared.
Then he tossed the phone carelessly onto the couch beside him and leaned back with satisfaction.
“Now let’s see how much she chases me after seeing I already have a girl at home.”
Juliette snorted loudly.
“You idiot,” she laughed. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just get an actual girlfriend?”
Jasper immediately looked offended.
“Do you think I haven’t tried?” he shot back.
That only made Juliette laugh harder. She nearly doubled over clutching her stomach while Amara shook her head helplessly beside them.
After a while, Juliette let out a long exhausted sigh and slowly pushed herself to her feet.
“Alright, I’m leaving,” she groaned tiredly, stretching her arms over her head. “I’m so exhausted I can literally feel my bones breaking.”
She grabbed her bag from the table.
“You two deal with the rest of this disaster yourselves.”
Still laughing quietly to herself, she walked out of the apartment and left.
The room became quieter after she was gone.
A few moments later, Jasper suddenly made a horrible face.
His expression twisted in disgust before he pressed a hand over his mouth.
“Oh no,” he muttered weakly. “I’m about to throw up.”
Before Amara could even react, he abruptly shot to his feet and stumbled away unsteadily.
“Jasper—”
He disappeared down the hallway immediately.
Amara frowned in confusion and quickly stood up.
“Hey, are you alright?” she called after him.
There was no answer.
Worried now, she hurried after him.
When she reached his room, she found him stumbling back out from the bathroom, barely able to stay upright. One hand was pressed against the wall for support while the other dragged through his messy hair.
He looked absolutely miserable.
Jasper staggered toward the bed, trying to sit down, but his balance completely failed him halfway there.
Amara quickly rushed forward and grabbed his arm before he could fall.
“Careful,” she muttered.
His body weight nearly collapsed against her as she struggled to help him onto the bed.
“You drank way too much,” she scolded softly while helping him sit properly.
Jasper only groaned weakly in response.
Once he was finally stable enough, Amara carefully helped him lie down on the bed. He immediately sank into the mattress with a tired breath, his eyes half-closed as she adjusted the pillow beneath his head.
On the other side of the city, Manhattan was drowning in the chaos of evening traffic. Horns blared nonstop while endless rows of headlights stretched across the road. Felix gripped the steering wheel tightly as he drove through the packed streets.
In the backseat, Elias sat with a cold expression, flipping through a stack of files one after another. Papers rustled softly in the quiet car as his sharp eyes moved over contracts and signatures, focused on finishing work before the night ended.
The car slowly rolled to a stop at a red light.
At that exact moment, Felix’s phone pinged with a notification.
Without thinking much of it, he reached for the phone with one hand and tapped the screen casually. But the second the image opened, his entire body went stiff.
“What the hell?” A shocked gasp slipped out of his mouth.
The sound immediately made Elias look up from the files.
His sharp gaze lifted toward the rearview mirror, locking onto Felix’s face. The color had practically drained from him.
Elias frowned. “What the hell is going on?”
Felix quickly looked away, clearly flustered. “It’s nothing, Mr. Creed. Don’t worry about it.”
He hurried to swipe the notification away and lock the phone, but before he could—
“What is it?”
Elias’s voice came out sharper this time.
Felix’s throat bobbed nervously.
For a second, he hesitated before finally unlocking the phone again with shaky fingers. A nervous laugh escaped him as he held the phone back toward Elias.
Elias took it from his hand.
The second his eyes landed on the photograph, the air inside the car seemed to change.
It was Amara.