"So, that went well." I say with a subconscious smile on my face, stepping inside our room.

The click of the lock sounds in the room as Ethan comes up and presses a kiss on my head before walking ahead and taking off his jacket. "It went better than well."

I sit on the edge of the bed and bend down to get rid of my heels, but before my hands could even touch them, a hand wraps around my ankle. I flutter my eyelashes to find Ethan kneeling before me.

He doesn't look up at me when he whispers, "Let me."

While he works on removing my heels, I take the time to look at his handsome face. His eyes which always look like molten chocolate are staring intently as his fingers work on the latch as if trying his best not to mess up, and the thought makes me smile softly. But when I look closer, I find myself frowning.

The usual lightness to his features is missing. There's a slight numbness to his expression, almost like he's trying to control his emotions from reflecting on his face.

I sit there silently watching Ethan, trying to understand what's going on, but a notification from my phone interrupts my thoughts. Reaching behind, I grab Ethan's suit jacket as I remember handing over my phone to him when we went to the dance floor. Just as I take out my phone from his pocket, both my heels are off my feet and Ethan places a kiss on my knee before getting up and walking into the bathroom, silently.

Looking at the now-closed bathroom door, I think about what could have put a damper on Ethan's mood. Every imaginable situation runs through my mind, but none of them is plausible enough for him to ruin his mood at his brother's wedding.

Was it something I said? Something I did?

I practically met everyone Ethan's ever known today, so it's kind of hard to remember everything I did or said.

Wait a minute.

I met everyone from Ethan's close family and friends and every time I was introduced as Ethan's girlfriend. What if he didn't want to introduce me as his girlfriend yet? We've never talked about meeting families or, in his case, practically the whole town.

He didn't seem upset when everyone kept asking us about our relationship, though. Just as I start to calm down, another thought hits me. Obviously, he'll not say it in front of his whole family.

Oh, my god. Is this what it is?

Before any more thoughts could invade my mind, my phone rings with another notification. I close my eyes because of the frustration that fills me. I'm already over in my head and this constant noise of notifications isn't helping. Sighing, I unlock my phone to notice two new messages. One was a reminder of my flight and another one was a message from my mom asking about the said flight.

My flight to New York.

I still haven't told Ethan about New York or the gala.

So, there's that.

I've tried, though.

I've tried so many times, but the last month has been a complete bliss and I just couldn't bear to be the one who would burst our bubble. Especially since the needle would be my past. That was the past that I supposedly let go of when I chose Ethan, but here it is again, dragging me back to New York.

My guilt-ridden thoughts are interrupted when the bathroom slides open and Ethan steps out in sweats and a t-shirt. My eyes trail over his face, and I realize he looks a little more relaxed. Like he's come to a decision about the internal battle going on.

Deciding that we should really talk about it, I speak up just as he calls my name, too.

"Iris."

"Ethan." We both say simultaneously.

I look at him to find his eyes intently focused on my face. "You go first."

"You look worried about something?" I start, hoping to go slow, but then, the look on his face makes me dive headfirst into a ramble of sorts.

"Look, I'm so sorry. I really shouldn't have done that." I get up from the bed when I notice the frown on his face intensifying.

"Yeah, you shouldn't have." He sighs, and just like that, the crack in my heart deepens. He really didn't want to introduce me as his girlfriend.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know it would be such a big deal to you." I walk closer to him. If I could, I'd probably introduce him to everyone I know as my boyfriend, but I understand why he doesn't want to do that yet. It's all still new and I haven't really proved myself to be a 'keeper'. But all the explanations in the world can't stop the hurt from reflecting in my eyes.

"Big deal?" He exclaims, incredulously. I take a deep breath, trying to look at all this from his perspective before speaking again, but again, our words clash with each other.

"No, I mean I get why you wouldn't want to introduce me as your girlfriend yet."

"Of course, it's a big deal to me. You're going back to fucking New York."

It takes a second for his words to register in my brain, but when they do, my eyes widen to the size of fucking saucers.

"What?" I say lowly, almost too low for even myself to hear. "You know about New York?"

I look down and my eyes focus on the marble floor of the room as I try to make sense of the scenario.

"Obviously, if we had it your way, I wouldn't have known until you're already on the plane." He scoffs, running his fingers through his hair, frustrated.

The taunting nature of his words doesn't sit right with me, but all I can think about is, "How? How did you know?"

"There's only one possible explanation I can think of." I murmur, thoughts running wild in my head. Looking up, I meet his eyes with furrowed brows. "Did you go through my phone?"

And then he chuckles. He actually chuckles as if finding all this infinitely hilarious.

"Wow." he murmurs, disbelievingly, and turns around before facing me again. "I always knew your defense mechanism was fucked up, but I didn't know it was this bad."

"You hid such a huge thing from me for more than a month and here you are, accusing me of going through your phone and completely misdirecting this conversation."

His words fall on me like a bucket of cold water. I don't know how I went from guilty to accusing in minutes, but here we are. I'm the one in the wrong here.

"No, I wasn't accusing you." I totally was. What the fuck am I doing? "I just need to know, how you know about New York?"

He walks closer to me and releases a deep sigh, physically calming himself. "The morning after my birthday, you asked me to check your phone for messages." Those few words are enough for me to piece it together. Later, when I looked at my messages, there was a very clear message from mom about my trip to New York.

Oh my god, I am so fucking stupid.

"There was a message from your mom and I read it. By mistake, but I read it." He tells me, unfolding his arms in a 'here it is' gesture. "And then, today when you gave me your phone, the notifications about the flight wouldn't stop."

I walk backward, sit down on the bed, and look at the folded hands in my lap.

Okay, so he knows about New York and I guess that's supposed to make my job a little easier because, on the bright side, I didn't have to tell him myself.

I look up at him again as another question starts swirling in my head, "If you knew, why didn't you bring it up sooner?"

He walks over and sits beside me on the bed before grabbing my thighs and turning me so that we're face to face.

"Because I didn't want to force it out of you." He starts, softly. "If I asked you right away, you would've told me everything but not because you wanted to, but because you had to."

Leaning forward, he softly tucks a stray piece of hair behind my ear."I didn't want to put you in that position."

While the feel of his fingers on my skin calms me down, I can't help but say, "Then why did you?"

"What do you mean?"

Pulling back slightly to look at his face, I say, "You just said you didn't want to put me in that position, but here you are doing it, anyway. We're exactly in the position you didn't want to put me in."

Ethan closes his eyes in what I assume is frustration, before opening them after a deep breath. "What was I supposed to do? What did you expect me to do if not confront you right before you're about to leave?"

He stands up abruptly, and I suddenly miss the warmth of his hands on my thighs. Running his hands through his hair, he looks at me like he can't believe all of this is happening, "Did you want me to let you run to New York and just sit here, wait for you to tell me after maybe like three fucking months?"

He did not just say that. In a fit of anger, I stand up against him. "Run? Run to New York?"

He meets my angry stare head-on. "What else is it? I mean, I can't think of any other reason you wouldn't tell me?"

"Oh, really? This is what you think is happening? I'm fucking running away from you?"

He shrugs, and that just pisses me off even further. "That's exactly what I think. You probably got overwhelmed with all that's been going on between us and everything that you're feeling. So, just like last time, you're running away instead of confronting your fears."

Okay, I agree. I ran and hid from everyone last time, but I don't think that gives him the right to bring it up in an argument.

The energy in this room is pulsating and not in an 'I'm going to jump his bone' way, it's more like 'I can't fucking believe this' guy.

Tucking my hair behind my ears aggressively, I subconsciously take a step closer to him. "Maybe I wasn't fucking running. And maybe, just maybe, I hid all this because I didn't want to spoil the good fucking month we've been having. It's your brother's wedding."

"What did you want me to do? Tell you how fucking manipulative my mother is while your brother is reading his vow? I mean, that woman is literally using me for her picture-perfect image. How am I supposed to explain that to a guy who has the best family?" I don't realize how loudly I'm speaking until it becomes hard for me to breathe.

Ethan's eyebrows are touching his hairline, and all of it is clearly too much for him. "You're seriously telling me I won't get it?"

I instantly regret my words, because I didn't mean it that way. In fact, the only person who I think would understand the situation is Ethan. I rub my forehead when I realize how out of hand this is getting. Closing my eyes, I tell him, "That's not what I meant."

"No? Because that's clearly what I heard."

Okay, this attitude and taunting tone is not helping.

"You know what?" I cover my lips with my folded hands as I contemplate what I'm about to say. "Let's not. Let's just not. I mean, I'm clearly not good at this."

Once I've spoken, I come to realize how much fucking truth my words hold. I'm not good at this. Clearly, relationships aren't my cup of tea. I thought maybe I can do this. I thought maybe my past doesn't control me, but I was wrong. It'll always be a part of me. The fears and issues that I got along the way will always stand in my path.

"Maybe this," I gesture between the two of us, "wasn't really the brightest idea."

It's like my words break Ethan from the angry, pissed-off trance he's in because a moment later, after collecting himself, he takes a step closer to me. Our chests are only a breath away as he stares into my eyes with disbelief in his own, "Don't do that."

"What?" I almost yell, frustrated.

"The thing where you back away at the first sign of trouble."

His words hit me like a punch to my gut. Is that what I did? A frown takes over my face as I look at Ethan, waiting for him to elaborate.

"One hard step and you recoil, but that's not how things work. They're gonna be fights, up and downs and there will be arguments, but we gotta push through them. We talk, Iris. That's how we make it work. You make a mistake, I help you move past it. If I make a mistake, you scold me," He smiles teasingly, making me chuckle. "and then help me past it. That's how relationships work. You can't just move away as soon as the first bad thing happens."

The raw emotion in his eyes is making me re-think about everything. I don't even know anymore. One second ago, I thought that maybe ending this is the only right way to go, but his words make sense. I can't just run away again. How did we get here? Just earlier this day, I was wondering if I'm in love with this man and now, here I am, telling him how us being together isn't a good idea.

"I don't know." I push back my hair, almost pulling at my roots. "I don't know, okay? Look at us. Look at what I've done."

"It shouldn't be this hard, right?" Resigned, I fall back on the bed. "I don't know how to do this."

Sighing softly, he comes to sit beside me and turns me towards him. He tucks a piece of hair behind my ear and looks at me with the softest eyes, "Nobody knows how to do this. We kinda figure it out along the way."

"But there are some significant steps, so how about I talk you through them? Sounds good?"

I smile faintly as I notice the tender look in his eyes. "Sounds great."

I can't help but look at Ethan with adoration in my eyes as I think about how I literally considered breaking up with this guy not even minutes ago and here he is, walking me through my struggles. Something in my chest jumps a little thinking about all the efforts he's putting in for me, keeping his anger and frustration aside as soon as my fears take the front seat.

"Step one is communication. We gotta talk to each other about our feelings and the situations we're in."

Talk it out.

Shouldn't be that hard, I guess. Taking a deep breath, I dive into the explanation of it all.

"So, my mom called me the day we went to the amusement park and asked me to come to this charity gala thing that happens every year in New York." I can literally see Ethan put the pieces in place. My mood was terribly sour after the call and now he can understand why.

"And you obviously don't wanna go." He fills the space.

"Obviously, but I kinda don't have any choice because if I don't, she's gonna land here in LA the very next day and probably, create a huge scene."

"How can she control you like this?" Ethan asks as he places his hand back on my thigh and instantly, I feel like it belongs there.

"So, when I was choosing colleges, my mom wanted me to stay in New York, but I wanted to be as far as I could. She only agreed to let me come to LA when I agreed to go back to New York whenever she asked me to, exclusively for her huge events."

"Because my parents are kinda like a huge deal back in the city and, god forbid, the Reeds don't attend the most talked about night of the year," I roll my eyes at the pretentiousness. "And if they go, they have to present this perfect family and if I'm not there, it's not a family picture, you know."

"Can't she make any excuse for your absence?"

"She could but then how would she get the chance to re-kindle my long-dead relationship with Chase." Saying his name leaves a bitter taste in my mouth but when I look at Ethan, he looks ten times more annoyed than I feel.

"So, that's what this is about?"

"Precisely."

Ethan's expression finally relaxes when he understands the picture but I can tell that there's something that's still bothering him and I'm proven correct in a second when he asks me his next question, "But why didn't you tell me?"

My reply is instantaneous. "I didn't know how to."

"I mean, ever since the day before the amusement park, we've been so happy, and I just couldn't spoil that for you." I look down in my lap, focusing on his hands on my thighs as guilt floods me. It wasn't anyone else, but me who rained on our parade.

"Hey," Ethan softly grabs my chin and raises my face before looking into my eyes, "no matter how happy I'm in my life, I'll always wanna know about what's going on in yours because a huge reason for my happiness is your happiness."

I look at the guy sitting in front of me with amazement. How did I get so lucky?

Figuring out that I'm too overwhelmed to speak, Ethan grabs both of my hands before raising them to his lips and placing a kiss on them. Standing up, he walks towards his nightstand and picks up his phone, making my brows furrow.

Twisting in my place to face him, "What happened?" I ask, confused.

"Just a sec."

After a minute, he places his phone back on the nightstand with a satisfied smile on his face, "There, done."

"What's done?"

"My flight to New York is booked. We're going to meet your parents." He tells me like it's the most obvious thing in the world. He smiles at me with a soft look in his eyes, "And Reed, if I could I would yell from the tallest building that the most beautiful girl in the world is my girlfriend."

Again, how did I get so lucky?

⤎❁⤏

Hey guys! I hope y'all are doing amazing! What did you think of this chapter? 

I considered leaving this chapter on a cliffhanger without resolving their fight but that felt cruel considering you guys waited so long for this update. So, here you go, a little treat from my side.

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