A Love Tragedy

Chapter 15

“I can’t stay long, my father needs a ride to his appointment.” Vincent stated as he took his seat next to Michaela on the couch.

“This won’t be long. I just want to make sure about what we’re doing because you guys aren’t being careful.” I leaned forward while I addressed them. I didn’t want to have anything to do with their relationship but they forced me into it so I wanted to make sure that we did it properly.

“I know we messed up but that was only a one time thing, it won’t happen again.” I didn’t trust Vincent’s words right now but I didn’t care. It wasn’t my neck on the line.

“Just remember that if you guys mess this up then it will be your relationship that you might be jeopardizing.” I warned them. Hopefully they actually took my warning seriously.

“We know. We’ll tell you everything you need to know from now on.” Michaela sounded sincere enough and something about her made me want to believe her but I still had my doubts.

“Good. Let’s discuss the up coming events.” I suggested.

“The Bay Ball?” At least Vincent was clued up about that. Why wouldn’t he be? The Bay Ball generated millions for the towns on the coastline and he was an economics student so he had to have known about it.

“Yep. Our families were invited so are you going to be there as well?” Maybe Vincent got invited to the event somehow.

“No. Only the richest families are invited unfortunately.” It was a longshot to think he was invited but at least they could continue planning now.

“Okay. Both mine and Michaela’s families are going to be there so we’re going to have to be a little… intimate. Are you okay with that Vincent?” Vincent turned to Michaela for an answer but she had an innocent look on her face refusing to give him an answer.

“If you have to be then it can’t be helped. I trust her.” He lifted her hand in his then gave it a soft kiss evoking a smile out of her.

“You said ‘events’, are there more than one?” Michaela asked.

“Yes. Henri mentioned that he wanted to do some small launch for my book and he knows about Michaela and I somehow. Any ideas how?” I asked them.

“Henri and I hate each other so…” Vincent shrugged his shoulders confirming that someone from the Andrews family probably told him.

“He chats with Naomi so she might’ve told him. Is that a problem?” Michaela’s innocence wore off the moment she mentioned her sister’s name. I didn’t know why but Naomi was hell-bent on ruining this whole charade.

“It’s not really a problem. Henri might just want Michaela to come to some events with me.” I informed them.

“I still don’t see a problem.” The confusion on their faces was evident. Was I really going to have to spell it out for them?

“Some events might include journalists or bloggers or some form on the media. It might become public knowledge that Michaela and I are in a ‘relationship’.” Their confusion immediately turned into alarm. They clearly hadn’t thought that part through.

“What if she doesn’t go to the events with you?” The desperation in Vincent’s voice began showing itself.

“That would raise unnecessary suspicion from our parents.” I pointed out.

“What if I say that I had work to do? Or I was busy?” Michaela joined in on the desperation now.

“And miss your boyfriend’s big break? Our parents wouldn’t allow that under any circumstance. You’d either have to be in hospital or out of the country to miss it.” Those were some realistic suggestions.

“I also said that there might be so there is a possibility that it won’t be a big thing. All I want to know from you guys is if you are prepared for it?” Both of them looked panicked as they turned to face each other.

“I think we’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there then.” Vincent suggested. It was understandable but they needed to figure this out soon because Henri was dead set on publishing this book as soon as possible.

“Fair enough. That’s all I wanted to talk to you guys about but make sure that both of you come to some sort of agreement about this whole situation and think about ending this whole arrangement soon because it’s clear that you guys can’t maintain it for much longer.” I instructed them.

“Definitely will.” Vincent released a sigh then stood up. “I have to get going so see you Hunter. I’ll talk to you later babe.” He gave Michaela a quick kiss then headed out the door.

“Do you want me to take you home?” I asked Naomi once we were alone in the lounge.

“You kicking me out?” She raised her eyebrow. Her panicked state a few moments ago seemed to vanish the moment Vincent left and now she was a completely different person; a more confident one.

“You’re welcomed to stay. I just have some… work to do in my bedroom.” I wasn’t really sure how to put it. The questioned look on Michaela’s face confused me for a second before I realized why she was staring at me like that.

“I didn’t mean anything like that.”

“Are you sure? A young man trying to get rid of his friend so that he could ‘work’ in his bedroom even though he doesn’t have a job, what else could he mean?” A couple of chuckles escaped me as I looked at Michaela and stood up.

“I need to go through Stella’s things and figure out what I want to keep and what I’m giving away to charity. I also need to find a picture of us to use as a cover for my book.” I explained.

“I’ll help you then.” Michaela stood up and shrugged. “I only have to be home by 7 so I have a couple of hours to spare and I want to find out more about super Stella.”

“Super Stella?” I asked as we walked together up the stairs.

“You make her sound like some sort of goddess.” A goddess? Definitely. The good kind? That was still up for debate.

“She did stab me once.”

“Only once?”

“Whatever.” I lightly shoved her before we entered my room with quirky smiles on our faces.

“You didn’t mention that Stella’s things consisted of 5 boxes.” Michaela pointed out as she sat on the bed. I placed the boxes on the floor next to the bed then picked up one and placed it between myself and Michaela.

“You volunteered so no backing out now.” I opened the box then began taking out the clothes in it.

“They gave you her clothes?” Michaela quizzically asked me.

“It’s actually my clothes that she borrowed and never gave back. She wore more of my t-shirts and hoodies than I wore.”

“My sister still has one of your hoodies and t-shirts at our house.” And my mood instantly soured once again. Why did she have to bring up her sister?

“She can keep it.” I replied then put the clothes back in box.

“What are you going to do with that?”

“Donate it. It looked better on Stella anyway so maybe it will suit someone else.” I put that box on the other side of the bed then pulled up another one to sort out. We continued sorting through the boxes and separating what I really wanted to keep and what I was going to give to charity. The conversations and stories went back and forth between us with both of us trying to get one up on the other but sparked laughter when we failed.

“Your father is going to kill me.” I told her as I picked up the last box.

“No he won’t.” Michaela replied then took a sip of her steaming coffee.

“Easy for you to say, you’re his daughter.”

“I know he won’t kill you because you’re going to talk your way out of it just like you did when my parents picked us up for lunch a couple of weeks ago.”

“What am I going to tell him this time? Sorry I’m bringing your daughter home so late Mr Andrews, she was helping me sort through my dead fiancé’s things in order to find a picture for my book that is going to start production tomorrow?” On second thought, that’s actually not such a bad idea. Honesty is the best policy it seems.

“Yeah, tell him exactly that.” Michaela agreed. “So the deadline is tomorrow?”

“The deadline is in…” I checked the digital clock on my nightstand before continuing, “13 hours

actually.”

“And you left it until today to choose a picture?”

“In my defense, I didn’t think I’d need to do this so soon. Henri is the one rushing this for some reason.”

“You’re hopeless. Let’s just find a picture.” Michaela set her cup down on the nightstand then began unpacking the last box. I moved the snacks we had brought up from the kitchen so that we didn’t make even more of a mess on my bed than what we already had.

“Wow, Stella had impressive makeup.” Michaela said once she opened Stella’s makeup bag.

“She hated wearing makeup, said it took too much time to put on just for it to be washed away at the end of the day.” I took out the rest of the items; mostly nail polishes, perfumes and a few trinkets. I finally found what I was looking for at the bottom of the box. Three photo albums that hopefully contained a picture of Stella and I that I could use for my story.

“Can’t say she’s wrong there.”

“Why do you girls even need to wear make up? Just be yourselves and maybe you won’t attract guys that will break your heart.” My mouth was moving but I couldn’t care less about the words coming out of it. My mind was totally invested in finding out what was in the photo albums. The first one I recognized; it was pictures of all the art she loved and wanted to showcase one day. I didn’t recognize the other two so I began with those ones.

“Guys will break our hearts either way.” My grunt quickly caught her attention. She looked over at what I was doing then saw my eyes fixed on the pictures in front of me; Stella’s baby pictures.

“She was a cute baby.” Michaela snapped me out of my trance. “Like I know that everybody says that babies are cute but some babies are just weird-looking and there’s no sugarcoating that. Stella was definitely a cute baby though.” I released a few laughs at Michaela’s explanation while she closed the makeup bag then grabbed the art album.

“Stella would’ve loved you.”

“Everyone loves me.”

“Whatever makes you sleep at night.” Michaela immediately launched a pink nail polish bottle at me as we smiled.

“You earned that.”

“Out of fear of getting thrown with something else, I’ll agree with you.”

“Good boy, now find a picture.” Michaela ordered me as she flipped through the pictures in front of her. We sat in silence as we turned over sleeves of pictures looking through the albums. Michaela marveled at some of the art while I was mesmerized by the pictures of when we were younger. I found himself surprised that in all of the pictures Stella was either laughing or smiling while I barely looked like he was having fun. I had to admit though, I could still feel her love through all the memories.

“How about this one?” I showed her a picture of us sitting in a tree at the park when I was 10 years old. Stella had her arm around my shoulders and smiled while my smile could use a little more… happiness.

“You guys are too young there. Your love story only begins when she was 15 so look for pictures after that.” Michaela wasn’t wrong but it was still a cute picture. I continued looking through the album but all the pictures in it was of us before we were teenagers. I closed it and was about to reach for the last album when Michaela stole it away from me.

“Want to look through it together?” I suggested before she could say something smart.

“Okay.” She stood up then crawled to the headboard and sat against it then motioned for me to join. I planted myself beside her then allowed her to open to the first sleeve of pictures. Her explosive laughter at the first picture sent a trinket falling off the bed.

“It’s not that funny.” I knew that picture was going to bite me in the a*s one day.

“Please explain.” Michaela managed to say through her breathless laughter. She wiped some tears away from her eyes but continued laughing when she could see the picture properly again.

“She was learning about different kinds of makeup and how to apply them and she needed someone to test them out on.” I explained as I looked at the horrible picture of me with brightly coloured makeup while Stella smiled next to me.

“How did she manage to convince you to agree to this?”

“She didn’t. She literally just started putting it on me then she told me that she needed to continue or else it would damage my skin. I didn’t know better but when I found out that she was lying, she was already finished and took the picture.” I might’ve had the ability to bullshit anyone but Stella was one hell of a convincing liar.

“You should’ve put this in the story.”

“I kind of did. I just changed it a little.” Michaela’s laughter died down but I could see her trying to figure out which part of the story it was.

“Okay, I give up. Where in the story did this happen?”

“My first kiss with Stella.” The confusion on her face was evident. I really did do a good job of recreating that scene then.

“In the book you said that you guys had your first kiss while she painted in your room.”

“In real life, she was laughing while cleaning the make up off my face. I did really fall in love with her at that moment though so I took the chance and kissed her.”

“You should’ve added the makeup thing in the book rather. It would’ve made it funnier.” That set off her laughter again so I paged over to look at the rest of the pictures. Thankfully, the only other embarrassing things were my weird expressions. Michaela continued to ask for more stories behind the pictures and I was actually happy to oblige. They were fun memories that I was happy to share with her. She wanted to know more about what Stella was like so hopefully she got her answers.

“What’s the story behind this one?” Michaela pointed to a picture of Stella and I facing each other as we’re about to kiss on the beach with the sun setting behind us. Honestly, I loved that picture. It was a perfect moment captured in the most opportune time.

“Stella had a fight with her parents about them not allowing her to go out with her friends to some comedy show. She had to cancel on them so I went to go cheer her up. I got her parents to allow me to take her out and I arranged for her friends to meet us at the beach. They got to hangout together and I actually got their approval to date her that day. After they left Stella told me that she loved for the first time since we started dating. She wanted to take a picture so she asked this couple that walked past us. Thankfully the guy was an actual photographer which is why it came out so perfect. Honestly, I wanted to propose to her on the spot.” Michaela’s starry-eyed gazed fixed on me. It was a bit unsettling but she quickly composed herself again and took her eyes off me.

“You tell that story better than your book ever could.” I did put that story in the book so that’s probably what she was referring to.

“If that’s true then the story is doomed to fail.” I joked, eliciting a smile out of her.

“Hunter, that’s the one.” Michaela proudly stated. I looked down at the picture and couldn’t help but

agree with it. If there was one picture that captured the love we had for each other, it was that one.

“That’s the one.” I confirmed as I smiled at her. “Thank you for helping me.”

“It was a genuine pleasure.” She returned the smile before breaking eye contact. “And as payment, I’ll take the makeup and nail polish off your hands.”

“So that’s the real reason why you helped me.” I concluded.

“I would’ve taken it regardless.” Yep, she and Stella would’ve gotten along perfectly.

“Stealing from a dead girl, that’s rather ruthless of you.”

“It’s not like she’s going to use it anytime soon. And I’m sure she wouldn’t want it to go to waste.” I had to release a couple of chuckles at her reasoning.

“True. I guess you did earn it so have fun.”

“See, both of us get what we wanted. You even got the picture with…” Michaela checked the time. “10 hours to spare.” I turned around and checked the time and saw that it was nearly midnight.

“Your father is definitely going to murder me no matter what I say right now.” I chuckled again to cover the fear in my voice. If I took Michaela home right now then I probably wouldn’t be invited back again.

“Then I’ll sleep here and you can deal with him after you get a good night’s rest.” That was actually a good idea even if it only bought me time to come up with one hell of an excuse as to why I kept Michaela here all night.

“Okay, just let your parents know. I’ll go get the other room ready.”

“Your bed is big enough for both of us so I’ll just sleep here. Is that a problem?” Her raised eyebrow questioned me more than her words did. She was definitely scary at times.

“You have a boyfriend and I don’t think he’d appreciate you sleeping next to your fake boyfriend.” It’s not that I didn’t mind sleeping next to her but we were already faking a relationship so there needed to be some boundaries.

“He trusts me and it’s not like you’ll try anything with me now would you?”

“I don’t think this is the right way to test his trust in you.”

“Is my sister the only one good enough to sleep next to you?” Why was she being so difficult?

“That wasn’t my choice and look what happened after your sister slept next to me; she basically hates me now.”

“She doesn’t hate you, she’s just being stubbornly stupid and you’re not exactly helping the situation.”

“After what she said about Stella and I, you can understand why.”

“She’s an a*s for doing that but you’re not exactly being the bigger man here.”

“I tried. I admitted my feelings again to her and once again she shot me down so I’m tired of trying. Life is too short to waste on someone who doesn’t want you.”

“Give her one more chance. Third time’s the charm right?” I appreciated her optimism right now but I honestly didn’t feel up to it.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Great. Now let’s clear this all up then get some sleep.”

“I still didn’t agree to this.”

“And I still don’t care.” Why did I always end up with such difficult girls? The innocent smile plastered on her face wasn’t fooling anyone right now but it didn’t look like she cared. She began packing the albums away so I gave up and helped her. It was too late to be fighting anyway.