“Remember the other day, I mentioned about a friend’s party?” Alex asked. Lily nodded. Of course she remembered, he nearly bought her an expensive dress for it. And she gave him a smack on the face for that - a very good one too.
“The party’s tomorrow. And I promised him that I’d bring someone.” He continued. But this time, his eyes looked away, as if trying to conceal something. Lily didn’t expect him to still be hoping for her to come to this party after the other day. Maybe there was something else behind all this, but why her?
“You can go with someone else. You’re famous… you can find someone of your own level.” She said, scanning him with caution.
“Well, that’s the problem. I can’t. It’s not as easy as you think.” Alex fixed his eyes towards the plain white cloth covering the table. He seemed to be deep in thought, as if something was bugging his mind. To Lily, it was nearly impossible for someone as sophisticated and conceited as him to be having such trouble. He has everything that everybody in the world would die for. Nothing could be stopping him.
“You’re bluffing me. Every girl would kill to be kissing your feet. Unless you’ve ran into her bicycle and sent your security guards to throw her out of your property.”
Lily thought she saw a smirk on his face as she said that last sentence. She swore she would kick his knees if he ever thought that the incident was funny. Or maybe puncture his car tyre – that would be much better than causing a mere scratch. But when Alex’s face turned solemn once his eyes met hers, all the revengeful thoughts disappeared into thin air. If only the wall of ego surrounding Lily’s heart was not as thick as an ice cube, she would have probably forgiven him yesterday at the door step.
“You know, one thing I don’t like about asking girls out is that they’re always hoping for a serious relationship afterwards. And I’m not ready for that. In the end, I’ll just end up hurting their feelings.” Alex said this in a very serious tone that Lily never thought she would ever hear from a guy like him. His stern expression gave her the chills.
“So?” Lily asked.
“So, that is why I am asking you instead. Because I know you hate me, and you wouldn’t even dream of having anything to do with me. Even if I leave you one day, you might not even care.”
Lily sat there in silence. In a way, he was somehow right. She had been there, in that very place once, hoping for a fairy tale to happen. It turned out that the fairy tale wasn’t meant to be hers. And now he was talking about it from the guy point-of-view. It was as if those words were actually meant for her.
“If you can’t be committed, then don’t. Why do you have to give hopes by asking a girl out and making them feel very special? The problem with guys is that they don’t know when they should do something and when they shouldn’t.” she answered firmly. She could see very well from his stiff reaction that he disagreed with her thought.
“I never gave any hope. I treated all of them the same.” He said. Lily rolled her eyes.
She found this very hard to believe - this coming from a famous young man who was not only good looking, but also the heir of a billion-dollar corporation. And people always say that rich young men may never be able to live without a beautiful girl or two by his side. Alex did not seem like an exception. At least that’s what she had thought.
“But why is it for a month? The party’s just tomorrow, isn’t it?” she asked.
Alex took in a deep breath before saying “Because – eventually – something came up and it’ll be sought only after a month. That’s why.”
Lily looked into his ice-blue eyes. Her eyes scanned his with caution, ripping off his unknown layers trying to search for the answer. Lily hated this uncertainty. Lily disliked this feeling that he was trying to use her for his own benefit. But those eyes of his, they seemed cold and empty, but very hopeful.
“What came up?”
Alex was starting to lose patience with this girl in front of him. It wasn’t as easy as he thought, trying to convince her. He should have predicted from the beginning, knowing how persistent she had been. Not to mention her stubbornness.
“Why are you asking so many questions? Can’t you just say yes and accept my offer? It wouldn’t have been so hard with other girls, you know.”
“Well I’m sorry to say, but I think you should kill all your petty hopes of me being like all the other girls.”
For a moment they sat staring awkwardly towards each other, Alex quite on the verge of losing his temper, and Lily feeling very irritated and annoyed. She was hoping Alex would say something, but he didn’t. Fortunately, the waiter arrived with their drinks at that moment, indirectly saving the stiff situation. Both of them quickly took each others’ drinks and pretended to be busy tending them. Alex blowing off the steam from his cup of hot white coffee while Lily took a big gulp from her glass of water. Alex watched her as she did that.
“You should learn how to drink properly.” He scoffed. Lily ignored that, purposely trying to annoy him. Some people from the other tables were already looking at her with distaste.
“Hey, the people are watching you. Stop that!” he continued through gritted teeth. However, in only 30 seconds, Lily managed to empty her big glass of water without having a single drop left. She wiped her mouth briskly as she put the glass on the table and eyed Alex joyously. Alex half regretted bringing her to that place.
“I told you, I’m not like those fake girls you can buy with all your wealth and money. Before taking me as your girlfriend, you should have thought twice! Or even more, you shouldn’t have thought about it in the first place.” Lily uttered, trying to make a point. For a moment, Lily thought Alex had run out of words. He sat there nearly jaw-dropped, probably trying to contain the embarrassment of having to sit at the same table with a sloppy young lady. But then, before she could even realize it, Alex said something that made Lily regret her own words forever.
“So you’re accepting my offer? You just said it yourself.” He said with a slight smile coming on his lips. Lily gulped again, but it felt very sour this time. If she could, she would have swallowed up her own tongue for being so blunt and thoughtless.
“I… I didn’t admit anything. I was just trying to make a point. I was just giving an example.” She fumbled. Alex’s slight smile was now a huge grin. “An example? But you said BEFORE taking you as my girlfriend I should have thought twice, so that means NOW you’re my girlfriend. Is it not?” he replied contently.
“No! Absolutely not! That wasn’t what I meant.”
“Oh come on, just admit it. You’re starting to accept your fate.”
“I did not admit anything, moron!”
Alex chuckled, watching happily Lily’s reaction. Her pale face reddened with anger as she realized that her plan of trying to annoy him now had backfired. As she sat there feeling very sorry for herself, Alex called for a nearby waiter. The waiter gave him the bill for their drinks, and he handed a few notes for payment. Lily managed to notice what was inside his wallet as he did that. There was a row of credit cards of every type she had ever heard of. She wasn’t surprised if there were a lot of money too.
“Let’s go,” he said as the waiter walked away. Lily had no choice but to obey.
*
There was an awkward silence in the car as Alex pulled away from the bistro’s parking lot. Lily had lost her mood. Trying to start another brawl would just ruin her whole evening, so she decided not to mention anything about the relationship thingy yet.
“Where are we going now? It’s only a quarter-to ten.” She pointed. Her tone was flat and solemn.
“I don’t know. Where do you want to go?” Alex asked back.
“I want to go home.”
Alex slightly turned his head towards her just to make sure. She didn’t seem like she was joking. Her face was very stern and it seemed as if steam was coming out from her ears and nostrils.
“Are you mad? The concert’s not over yet. We have to pick up your sister, remember?” He reminded. Lily didn’t budge. She didn’t even say anything. The truth is; she actually didn’t need any reminders. She knew Daisy was still at the concert but she was completely deflated that she only wanted to go home that moment. She resented the sight of the guy beside her, and she didn’t even want to have any means of communicative exchanges between him.
Alex noticed the foul aura surrounding her. Even though he loved the fact that he was winning the tug-of-war battle with this stubborn young lady, yet seeing Lily in this condition was something uncommon to him. Usually, Lily would be annoying the life out of him and tried as hard as she could to be getting on his nerves. This Lily beside him right now was very quite and grim. He felt as if he was driving a hearse rather than a sports car.
“I’ll drive us back to the concert then,” he sort of suggested. But she did not immediately reply.
“No,” she finally said after a few seconds of silence. “Stop here, I need some fresh air.”
Alex parked his car by the pavement. They had stopped at the City Square area, which was not really far away from the concert. This was the busiest part of the City during the day, and the most suitable place for sight-seeing or simply hanging out at night. There were still a bunch of people walking along the area, going to wherever their destinations were.
There was a huge fountain at the middle of the square. Rows of colourful spotlights decorated the edges of the fountain wall, illuminating the movement of the water into a colourful pattern on the stone statue at the middle. Lily walked to a nearby bench and sat down. The night was cold. Winter was just around the corner. In a few days, all this would be covered in snow and ice. Now that she thought of it, Lily regretted wearing the dress instead of sticking with her t-shirts and jeans. The dress was absolutely a wrong choice of clothing for a cold night like that, not to mention the fact that she didn’t bring her warm coat with her. Even though she was actually forced to wear the dress, she should have thought about her warm coat before going out. She usually does, only that she was in a hurry because she only managed to get ready right before Alex arrived. Lily sighed as she crossed her arms together across her chest and rubbed her arms to keep herself warm.
Alex on the other hand, walked towards the fountain and sat on the low marble walls surrounding it. He sat there looking towards the clear dark-blue sky; millions of stars were twinkling in sight. It was a beautiful night despite the prickling coldness surrounding them. A few passers-by had their heads turned when they noticed him, especially a group of young teenage girls who were obviously having a girl’s night out.
Feeling quite annoyed with the excited giggles from the group of girls who apparently had stopped nearby to make sure if it was really the Alex Carl Beddington, Alex lowered his gaze towards Lily sitting on the bench across the square. She was sitting there, looking very grim and pale as ever, and hugging her knees tightly to fight the coldness. Alex stood up and started walking towards her.
Meanwhile, Lily was resenting her own decision to stop by the City Square for some fresh air. Fresh air my arse, she thought. Everything that happened so far was like going against her in a way. From the dress to the weather, everything seemed like they hated her. The only reason she didn’t budge was because of her thick ego and pride. She didn’t want to lose face towards Alex. She didn’t want Alex to see her being weak and helpless. But then again, she thought, she’d rather live a little longer rather than sit herself to death on that bench just because she didn’t want to start a conversation with the moron.
Lily had decided to leave and return to the concert by foot, when suddenly, a thick dark-brown jacket landed on her back and caught her with surprise. Lily looked up and saw Alex standing right in front of her, jacket-less now, trying to place the jacket properly on her.
“What were you thinking? Wearing this stupid dress in a weather like this without putting anything over it. Were you trying to look pretty or something?” he uttered. Lily stared towards him, feeling very shocked but irritated at the same time. She wanted to fight back with something, but no words came. She only felt a little warm now that the jacket was securely over her. She tried not to care about the fact that it belongs to Alex. She just needed the warmth.
*
To Be Continued...
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