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“Here, have this, I’m sure you will feel better, after taking this.” He hands me a glass of vodka but I wave him off. “No, I don’t need that.”
“Whoa… what happened to your hands?”
I follow his line of sight to my busted knuckles. “I punched someone.”
Jake looks surprised and is staring at me like I’ve grown two heads. “You did what?” He starts looking around the living room, and then back at me.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“I’m looking around to make sure that it’s just the two of us here. because I don’t understand the words that just came out of your mouth, did you just say you punched someone?”
I shake my head as I walk over to the refrigerator in his open-plan kitchen, and grab a pack of ice. As I walk back to sit on the couch placing the ice over my busted knuckles, Jake is still staring at me strangely.
“If you don’t close your mouth, an insect may fly into it,” I say to him.
Jake places the bottle of vodka and glasses on the coffee table and comes to sit on the couch adjacent to mine.
“Please do tell, what made the ever so calm Kyle lose his cool, and punch someone?”
“He had his hands on what’s mine.” As I relive the incident at the club in my head, I realize I might need a drink after all. So I reach for the glass on the table that Jake had offered me earlier and take a gulp of the alcohol, wincing as it sent a burning sensation down my throat.
All of Jake’s attention are focused on me, as I take the bottle of vodka and pour more for myself.
“So what exactly happened?” He asks, now taking his glass and resuming drinking.
“He had his hands on Jewel.” I lean back in my seat as I go on to tell Jake all that happened at the club.
Jake doesn’t say a word, he just keeps sipping his drink, his eyes not leaving me as I speak, and when I’m done, he slowly shakes his head at me, giving me a strange look.
“What’s the matter, why are you looking at me like that?”
“I thought you said that you don’t love Jewel and you’re only with her because of your father?”
I wince, pulling my fingers through my hair. Every time I remember I said those words, I feel so stupid.
“If you don’t love her and what you guys have is only in name, why then are you bothered about her being with someone else?”
I shrug. “Even if what we have is only on paper, we both had an agreement not to do things that will attract the attention of the media. She was dancing with this guy in a club, anyone could have recognized her and taken a picture of both of them and…”
I trail off when I suddenly realize that I’m doing it again, I’m trying to deny the true feelings I have for Jewel, the real reason I had punched that guy.
Jake doesn’t look like he buys anything that I just said. He crosses his legs, watching me through the rim of his glass as he takes a sip of his drink.
“So, let’s say you were truly trying to prevent them from being seen and their pictures taken, so you think punching the guy and getting into a fight with him, was a subtle way of not getting attention?”
I swear under my breath as I reach for the bottle and pour myself more drink, now feeling even more foolish for trying once again to prove to my friend that I don’t care aboutMischief.
“I care about her,” I murmur under my breath, more to myself, looking down at my loafers. “I fucking love her man.” This time a little louder.
Jake doesn’t look surprised, instead, he goes on to say, “I know.”
Now I’m the one who’s surprised. “How did you know?”
Jake shrugs like it’s a no-brainer. “It has always been evident. We all knew that you were in love with her even before your parents came up with the idea that you had to marry her.”
“Really? How so?”
“Man, anyone who has eyes can see the way you look at her and the way you’ve always been protective of Jewel, would know that you are in love with that girl. Even though in the past you kept insisting that you guys were just friends, there was nothing friendly about the way you looked at her, it was always as if you were yearning for more with her. We all knew this, and when you told me about your father’s idea, I sort of thought this might finally get you to admit your feelings for her.”
