Chapter Twelve

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Alyssa

Saturday. The day I've been looking forward to. I was getting ready to leave for Nathan and I's date. I already had my outfit on and applied some makeup myself. After all the times I got beat up, I had to learn how to apply a decent amount of makeup to cover my bruises so I'm practically a professional makeup artist.

Nathan and I spoke very briefly today. He just told me that we were leaving by 7pm sharp and it was currently 6:58pm. He would be here in roughly two minutes. Truthfully, I was very excited to be going on a date with Nathan. It was going to be my first ever date and I wanted to look perfect. Just as I black ankle strap heels, I heard a knock on the door.

That must be Nathan.

I hurriedly moved to the door to open it. As I suspected, Nathan was standing there looking good in his black suit and a dark blue dress shirt underneath. He didn't have a tie on, that would have been too formal anyway, instead, he left the first two buttons open, giving him that casual yet classy look.

Did I say good? I meant wonderfully handsome.

I fiddled with my fingers as he thoroughly examined me. The way he stared at me made me self-conscious. Did I look okay? Am I up to his standards?

“Nathan, is anything wrong?” I asked when I couldn't take the suspense anymore.

“N... No.” He cleared his throat. “You look gorgeous, Alyssa.”

My cheeks colored at his compliment. Did I look that good? “Thank you.”

“Are you ready to leave now?”

“Yes.”

I shut the door to my room and followed him to his car, passing Oliver who was so proud of the outfit he chose. The drive was quiet. Nathan was stressed. I could tell by the way he kept his eyebrows together and gripped the steering wheel.

I wanted to ask him throughout the ride but I couldn't just get the words out. It really wasn't my business but I still wanted to help.

Maybe it's work. I guessed, noticing the bags forming under his eyes and how tired he actually looked.

Has he been sleeping well these past few days?

If I had noticed earlier, I would have told him to rest and postponed the date. But not it was too late. We had arrived at a high end restaurant with expensively dressed people tripping in and out of it. I definitely didn't belong in a place like this.

I'm already feeling nervous.

The maître d' greeted us almost immediately, directing us to the table Nathan reserved. Like a gentleman, he pulled a chair out for me before taking his.

A waitress came over with a bright smile, a notepad in her hand. “Hello, my name is Hannah and I'll be your waitress tonight.” She said. “What can I start you off with?”

“Are you okay with wine?” Nathan asked me.

“Wine's okay.” I replied.

“Some red wine please.” He told the girl who wrote it down, telling us she'd be back soon.

Once I was alone with him, Nathan was staring at me. Well, looking in my direction but his attention was elsewhere. Something was definitely bothering him.

“Nathan, is everything alright?” I finally asked.

That seemed to snap him out of his trance. “Hm? Yes, I'm fine.”

“You're a bit distracted.” I stated.

He let out a breath, rubbing his eyes. “I'm sorry about that. There's a lot on my mind right now.”

I nodded with understanding. I always have a lot on my mind. “Is everything okay at work?”

“Everything is fine, Alyssa.” He placed his hand on mine that was on the table reassuringly. “Don't worry.”

“You know you can talk if anything is bothering you, right?”

He sent me a little smile. “Thank you, Alyssa but it's okay.”

He was lying. Somehow, I always knew when people were lying and right now Nathan wasn't telling the truth.

Soon after, Hannah, our waitress, returned with our drinks and we ordered our food. I got a salad, not because I was watching my weight, I just wasn't so hungry, while Nathan ordered an escargot salad. I didn't even know that was a thing.

Who puts snail in a perfectly good salad?

Our meal was quiet and a bit awkward on my part. Is this how dates usually are? If so, I don't think I want to go on any more. If I wanted a quiet and awkward dinner, I would go to Christopher's house, at least they spoke to each other.

The same person who told me he was going to explain everything to me tonight isn't saying anything at all. Great.

Sick and tired of the atmosphere, I decided to start a conversation. “So, your company, what does it do exactly?”

The man I was talking to, looked up from his food probably not expecting my question. “It's a tech company. We make phones and stuff.”

Oh wow, I did not know that.

“That's pretty cool, what are you working on now?”

“Well, we're working on a new phone, to be released after Christmas.” He explained. “We're calling it GForm I. Right now we're putting the last few touches on it and making sure it's safe and secure so you don't switch your phone on one day and find out everything is gone.”

From there we started talking about other things but he didn't quite mention any of what he was supposed to explain to me. I wanted to know about Oliver's mother. Does she see her son? Is she alive?

The only person that can answer those questions seems to have forgotten about them.

I wanted to remind him but before I could, his phone rang. Upon looking at it his smile dropped and he excused himself.

When he came back, it was obvious that he had reverted to the grouch that I started the evening with. Hating the awkwardness that was making its way back, I asked him, once again, if everything was fine?

He took a deep breath before replying. “I'm sorry about tonight, I'm a little distracted.”

“It's alri...” He interrupted me.

“It's not alright, Alyssa. I'm making this night unbearable for you. I did not want it to be like this.” He paused, running a hand through his hair. “I wanted tonight to be romantic but everyone's putting pressure on me and...”

It was my turn to interrupt. “Who's putting pressure on you?”

He took another deep breath. “My father. There's a contract you're supposed to sign. It's so that we conclude that the wedding will happen. You're still deciding if you want to marry me or not and I don't want to force you to do anything.”

“I'll do it.”

“What?”

Yeah, what? We never decided on that.

“I'll marry you, Nathan.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, what do I have to lose?”

He quirked an eyebrow. “Your freedom as a single lady?”

Did I ever have that to begin with? “I never liked the freedom anyway.”

“This isn't a joke, you have to be absolutely sure. Once you sign the contract, there is no going back.”

I nodded with a reassuring smile. “I'm sure.”

He smiled softly. “Thank you.”

“It's no problem at all.”

He got up from his seat and I stood with him. "Contract or not, I want to do this right." He pulled something out of his pocket. A ring box.

Oh My...

“Alyssa Jordan,” He started, slowly getting down on one knee next to me. “Will you marry me?”

This is it. You have to decide now. Yes or no. No turning back.

I could feel everyone's eyes on us, waiting for my answer. Did Nathan have to do this here? In front of all these people?

Any time now. My subconscious reminded me.

Oh, right. “Yes, I will.”

I nearly awed at his grin. I would have if not for the fact that Nathan had pulled me up, trapped me in his arms and placed his lips on mine.

WTF is happening?! Nathan kissing me, what should I do?

Kiss back you idiot.

Oh, yeah.

I cupped his neck, opening my mouth for his tongue to slide in. You know usually when Nathan touches me, those goosebumps that break out on my skin. Well combine that with a weird feeling in my stomach and chest and you have what was going on with my body at the moment.

This was my first kiss and I couldn't ask for a better one. Filled with passion but sweet and romantic. The perfect kiss.

I pulled away, hearing the claps and cheers of the people around us, my cheeks coloring when I realized that we practically just made out in front of them.

Why are they clapping?

They think this is real, duh.

Right, they thought that Nathan and I were a real couple that were in love and about to start their lives together.

“Thank you, Love.” I heard Nathan whisper in my ear. I sent a nervous smile in return. “Ready to leave?”

Oh no, he still had some questions to answer.

“You said we were going to talk about something tonight.” I reminded him.

His eyebrows raised in realization. “Let's go for a walk.”

I nodded, letting him lead me out of the restaurant. I heard him tell someone that we were going for a walk in the garden and the person simply nodded.

The garden was a beautiful place. There was a pond illuminated by the moonlight right at the middle. They had rose bushes, tulips and other flowers I couldn't bother to identify.

We had just passed a sign saying 'Don't pick the flowers' when Nathan had plucked a rose from its bush.

“Nathan!” I admonished him quietly. “The sign said...”

“Shhh, live a little.” He pulled me along, making sure that we were alone. “So what do you want to know?”

“Oliver's mother, what happened to her?”

He sighed. “She left.”

My eyebrows came together. “Left? What do you mean?”

“When I was twenty two, in my last few months of college, I was dating this girl, I loved her and I thought she loved me too.” I could hear the pain in his voice as he spoke. “One day, during a holiday, I got a call from one of the hospitals saying that a woman just had my child. I was so confused, I hadn't seen Jodie for a few months and she couldn't have been pregnant but I still went to check it out. After a paternity test, it was confirmed, Oliver was my son.”

“Where is his mother, Jodie now?”

“I'd love to know that too. After giving birth, she just disappeared. The hospital had no idea where she went, her mother refused to tell me anything. Turned out that for the months I thought she was on tour for her modeling career, she was with her mother, pregnant and she didn't even tell me.” His hands clenched into fists and my hand was in one of them. “She decided to abandon Oliver, I'm not even so upset that she left me like that. Did she even consider that the boy would need her? She just decided to be selfish and leave.”

“Nathan, you're hurting me.” I told him, wincing at his hard grip on my hand.

His face and voice softened considerably hearing what I said. “I am so sorry. I didn't mean to.” He caressed the hand, soothing the pain. “I'm sorry, I got angry and...”

“It's fine Nathan. I understand.”

He let out a sigh of relief. “I just hate thinking about it.”

“I'm sorry for bringing it up.”

“It's right that you did. I probably wouldn't have ever mentioned it if you hadn't.” He admitted.

“Let's make this fair, I asked you something personal, why don't you ask me?” I offered.

“Okay.” He thought for a while. “How did you really get those bruises that took you to the hospital?”

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