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Her lips were pressed flat, her expression looking aggravated.
Maybe I wasn't fair, but I should have done this a long time ago. I thought we could be friends after we cleared the air between us, but she didn’t think that way. Still, even in the time when Alessandra and I were separated, I never thought of taking things between us any further than where they were.
“There’s just one thing I need to ask,” she said after a minute, voice shaking with emotion. “Why are you assuming the only reason I want to marry you, is because your mom wanted it?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, really wishing she hadn't brought it up.
“I know that’s not the only reason,” I said awkwardly. “I kept quiet about it, trying to be tactful. I never went out of my way to show you anything other than politeness, so you would know that I don’t have any feelings for you. I made it clear to you both it wasn’t going to happen because I already had someone I planned to have in my future.”
Her expression morphed to devastation, and her eyes blinked rapidly as they shone with unshed tears.
“So all this time you knew and let me act like an idiot?”
“I thought you would get over it, and things wouldn’t have to change, but it’s not happening. I’m sorry, Rachel. It’s not anything to do with you. You’re a wonderful woman, and any man would be lucky to have you. Just not me.”
“I have been in love with you all this time,” she said, voice small.
I winced. “I know,” I said gently. “But, Rachel, I’m in love with someone else.”
She ducked her head so I wouldn’t see her expression. It was easy enough to figure out, though. She had her fingers clasped together on the table, and her whole form was shaking. A waiter came up beside our table, pushing a tray with our food.
He must have noticed the atmosphere between us, because he served the food, and walked away. I looked at my plate. It seemed, and smelled, delicious, and in any other circumstances, I was sure I would have loved it.
Right then, neither of us felt like eating.
Chapter Fourteen
Alessandra
“I’m only here because you said there would be no tricks today,” I said when Wendy opened her front door for me.
After the trick she played on me last week, I was hesitant even to pick her call, but she somehow talked me into going to her house. I held Trent in my arms and my purse over my shoulder. Wendy opened the door and smiled disarmingly at me, but I just narrowed my eyes at her.
“Oh, come on,” she laughed. “I wouldn’t try the same thing twice, Alessandra, and believe it or not, I did do it for your good. Otherwise, you would have kept running around in circles, you know? That’s no way to live.”
I remained unyielding for a moment longer, but I knew I couldn’t keep it up. When she stepped aside to leave me room to walk in, I only hesitated a little before walking inside. I looked around, cautious, holding my baby close.
Wendy chuckled. “It’s not like I called you hereunder conspiracy to snatch your child, Alessandra so that you can relax a little bit. Don’t worry; not even my husband is home, I’m alone with the kid.”
She led us to the living room, where she had left her son on a blanket on the floor, playing with some toys. She walked over to him and picked him up, then moved with him to the couch, and patted the space beside her for me. I watched her with narrowed eyes but moved to sit beside her.
“All right,” I said, facing her. “You said you had something important to tell me, so what is it?”
“Can’t you just relax a little before we start talking business?” she asked with a pout.
I shook my head. “No way. The least you owe me is an explanation after last week, Wendy. I could have worked through my feelings just fine.”
“Like you have been for the past year or so?” she asked.
Her expression grew more dangerous, and I couldn’t refute it. I had spent that time worrying about a lot of things, my relationship with Joshua was just one of those things, but it was, admittedly, the biggest worry.
I slumped into the couch. “Still, why was blindsiding me like that your solution? You could have just insisted I talk to him!”
“But then I would come out as annoying, and you would stop talking to me altogether, wouldn’t you?”
I pursed my lips because I couldn’t say no.
“What are you running from, Alessandra?” she asked.
