It wouldn’t do me good to come this far and fall just by losing my temper. “I did, in a past life, in a very distant past, but I don’t feel that way anymore.”

“Enough!” my mother’s voice cut through, stopping whatever Aurora hoped to say next in her defense. “You’ll learn to love her then. You’re old enough to get married, and nothing is stopping you from loving her later on, as far as I’m concerned.”

It’s now or never, I told myself.

I sighed dramatically, “That’s the thing, Mom. There is something stopping me from loving her now or later.”

And because I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it, the words came easily to me. “I love someone else.”

Chapter Thirteen

Fiona

“Fiona?”

It wasn’t a voice I heard every day, but one that I’d played in my head over and over again; it was no surprise I could tell who it was from just one word. I didn’t know what to say in response, but Aurora wouldn’t give up any time soon.

“I can hear you breathing,” she said, and I quickly realized that I’d given myself away. I cleared my throat to make up for my lack of response.

“Who is this?”

I expected her to say something rude to really drive home the point that she could see through my bullshit, but she spoke with a soft voice when she replied that I had to pull the phone away from my ear as if I could see her face through the phone.

The same unknown number stared back at me, and I returned the phone back to my ear. Asking how she got my number wouldn’t get the conversation going because she was rich, and rich people had their ways.

“It’s Aurora.”

I waited for her to say something more, to get to the point of the phone call, but she didn’t say anything after the fact.

“Okay,” I replied, breaking first. “What do you want?”

“I need to talk to you, Fiona,” her voice had taken on an air of desperation that I could tell she was trying to hide back. But it was Aurora; she had no business calling me.

“We’re already talking.”

“No, I meant face to face. Can we meet up somewhere?”

“You want to meet up? With me?”

“It’s imperative, and I wouldn’t be taking up much of your time. If it wasn’t important, I wouldn’t be calling you.”

And how she said it made me agree to meet her at a cafe on the outskirts of Laketown. It was a public place, and I figured she was less likely to try something in broad daylight and in front of so many people.

****

Saturdays were my off days, and this wasn’t one of the ways I hoped this weekend would go. I realized how overly dressed I was when I stepped into the cafe and found Aurora in pants and a black shirt, a clear contrast to my flowery dress. It was almost as if I got the impression that we were meeting up for brunch or something.

Coupled with the bags under her eyes, she looked like she had just had a night from hell. I didn’t comment on her choice of clothing or the fact that her hair wasn’t as pristine as it always looked.

What happened at the dinner party? I hadn’t spoken to Allison yet, so there was no way of telling.

“Hey,” I said and took a seat opposite her. She hadn’t ordered anything yet.

“Hey,” came the reply, in the same soft voice she used on the phone.

I looked around the room, hoping to catch sight of a camera in case I had managed to walk into a prank set, but there was nothing but the other customers who seemed far more interested in their own conversations or their solitude to care about us.

“Aurora, what is this about?” I said, looking back at her.

“Would you like to order first?”

I raised a brow in question, and she nodded, receiving my message.

“I want to start by apologizing for my actions when we first met. I reflected back on it, and realized it was rude of me to act that way, but I was too insecure at the time to know better.”

It was not on my bingo card of things I expected to happen, but I managed a nod. It was rude of her to speak to me that way, but I knew Aurora well enough - I’d like to think so - to know that there had to be something else to it.

“I need your help, Fiona,” she said finally, and I nodded because, of course, she did.

“You need my help?”

“It’s something only you can help me with.”

She said it like it was something I was supposed to find pride in. That she, Aurora, in all of her glory, has found me worthy of helping her.

“I still have feelings for Christian.”

A pause followed, a much-needed one because I needed time to wrap my head around her words and the implication that it was my help she thought would turn the ball in her favor. I should have ordered coffee or something. The most I expected was a warning to stay away from the man, not a confessional.

“And you’re telling me this because?”

“I need you to talk to him for me. He listens to you well, and if you tell him that I’m a good choice for him, if you tell him that I regret how I’ve been, he’ll believe you.”

I blinked a couple of times, unsure of what I could say to measure up to the response she hoped to get. I looked around the room again to make sure that nothing had changed since the last time I scanned around. The only change was the couple by the window were kissing now.

I turned my attention back to Aurora. “You want me to talk to Christian for you?”

Aurora nodded quickly. “I know we don’t get along, you and me, but I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t something I felt greatly about. I wanted… Honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking, but you’re really my last line right now.”

I looked closely at Aurora, wondering if, when she got the idea to ask me for help, she genuinely believed that I was going to shake her hand, congratulate her on loving Christian, put everything I’ve witnessed aside, everything Christian had said about her, and get on my feet, shake her hand and tell her to trust me completely.

Was there something about me that made her think I was easy to convince to do something as dumb as this? How would that conversation even go? ‘Listen, Christian, I spoke to Aurora today, and she still loves you. You should really jump on that.’

Putting my feelings aside, I wanted to truly understand her thoughts.

“I don’t think Christian would appreciate me talking to him about your relationship,” I told her. “Maybe you should talk to him.”

“I would have talked to him if he would listen, don’t you think?” her voice pitched up, and I raised my brows at her. Well, it must be difficult for her to control herself. She ran her hand through her hair and looked away from me. I didn’t say anything, but again, I wished I had ordered a drink when I first came in.