Rosaline got up quite late, having partied till late last night.
Looking at her sleepy appearance in the mirror, she thought of William. She shook her head, flattened her messy hair, and went on with her morning routine.
There was a commotion at the breakfast table with her parents waiting for her. She had an uneasy feeling about it.
“Good morning, people!” Rosaline said with a smile.
“You guys did not wait for me for breakfast, did you?”
She had hardly finished what she was saying when her father, George Dayne, slammed the local newspaper on the table.
She picked it up with curiosity and saw two pictures of herself which were rather vague.
One was her leaning toward Pete, and Pete’s face was unmistakable.
The other picture showed her leaning toward William; even William’s back view was vague.
The headline was rather glaring.
“Shameless groupie steals another woman’s boyfriend!”
Rosaline instantly knew that it was Supriya’s doing.
As the photographs were from inside the bar that only had dim lights, they were vague.
Only people who knew her well would recognize her.
It did not bother her much.
But the look of accusation on her parent’s faces broke her heart.
‘They are my parents. How can they love and dote on me but not trust me? At all?’
“It’s just a misunderstanding. Some boys were trying to bother me, so I deliberately got close and pushed them on the floor.”
Rosaline concealed her hurt and shrugged her shoulders.
“Lina, you are not a kid anymore. What will people think when they see this? Did you ever think about how it affects our family’s reputation?”
“How will we show our faces to other people now? We were thinking of getting you engaged with Liam since you are both here. How will we face their family now?”
Elisa Dayne asked without even taking a breather.
“Mom, who cares what other people think? Besides, I’m not going to get engaged to a total stranger.”
Rosaline said nonchalantly. She decided to focus on her breakfast.
‘Mom, your daughter has been slandered. Do you not care how I feel? Are other people’s opinions more important than my feelings?’
Rosaline lowered her head to bite her toast and hid the burn in her eyes.
“What nonsense is that? Aren’t you well acquainted with Uncle Tom and Aunt Rita? Their daughter Ellaria is about to marry your brother Max.”
“Liam is Tom and Rita’s nephew. He is a good person. So, don’t spout all that nonsense about not knowing him well. You can do that after you get engaged.”
Elisa snapped with obvious impatience.
“Mom, how can my knowing Uncle Tom and Aunt Rita be relevant to knowing their nephew? Wasn’t he in a boarding school almost his entire life? Are you even sure Uncle Tom knows him well enough?”
Rosaline tried to reason with them.
“Enough, Lina! We have spoiled you too much. Since you have been studying abroad for the last five years, do you mean to say we don’t know you either?”
“What kind of faulty logic is that? You will get engaged before your brother’s wedding, so don’t make any trouble.”
George roared and left after saying his piece.
On the other side of the city, Tom and Rita Brown also saw the news.Tom Brown and George Dayne were professors at Apex University and had been friends for over 20 years. Their families were close as well. George’s nephew, Maddox Dayne, got acquainted with the Browns while visiting his uncle and got to know Tom and Rita’s daughter Ellaria.They became childhood sweethearts and were about to get married in 5 weeks. They had known Rosaline since she was a little kid. They had thought William and Rosaline would be a good match.Both families had agreed to set them up during Max and Ria’s wedding. But seeing the news report, both Tom and Rita hesitated.‘Although we have known her since she was a child, Lina studied abroad for the last five years, and five years before that, Lina was in a hostel. God knows what she has become these years.’ ‘Maybe we should wait and see for the next few days before settling things.’“Tom, what do you think about the news?” Rita asked, obviously worried
William also chanced upon the pictures while his father was reading the newspaper. Even though it was not clear, he recognized them right away. He went to the bar, but it was closed and only had some people cleaning and preparing for the evening. He asked the available staff if they knew the girl or anyone in her group but got nothing. Getting no leads the usual way, he was tempted to investigate it himself but resisted the urge thinking she might not like her privacy to be intruded on by a stranger. In no mood to work, he went to the all-familiar Apex park by the lake.Despite its small size, Apex Park held immense charm in the city center.It had a small rock mountain with a rugged path to the top and a natural lake and stream. All of which were surrounded by dense forest. The entire area was preserved in its natural beauty, making the climb rather adventurous with fresh air, the calming sound coming from the stream, and a great view if you managed to climb on top.As luck woul
“What do you have in mind?”William was pleasantly surprised.At best, he had hoped she would be in touch to stay updated on the issue.He had not dared to wish for anything more. “Let her run amok. Make her desperate. Collect evidence. Make her believe she has won. And, then, show our hand.” ‘I just want to vent. Since that woman dared to cross me, too bad for her.I am not someone that she can use in her mind games. Since she is a bitch, I don’t even have to feel bad about venting my frustrations over my parents on her. Besides, she started it.’‘She doesn't care. It’s something else that this scandal indirectly caused that bothers her. She is just looking for an outlet. But why do I think she is hot? I should be alarmed.’ “How old are you?” William asked.“Are you kidding me?” Rosaline was caught off guard by this sudden change in topic. “C’mon. You said you were going to tell me if we meet again.”“Why are you so fixated on it?” Rosaline was curious why he would ask about her
Rosaline and William stayed quiet while watching the bustling city below the mountain.Lost in their thoughts, they did not realize how long they had been sitting there until it got too hot.“Let’s go down. I’ll take you to a nice place.” William proposed, having noticed the sadness in her eyes. “Alright!” Rosaline agreed without too much thought.They climbed down the hill, but halfway through, William stopped and started off to a path that was not quite visible, most likely a track left by some animal. Rosaline was intrigued. She had never ventured beyond the few direct trails that led to the top. The narrow path was even more rugged and harder to traverse.William had to, multiple times, support Rosaline as they moved away from the main trail. The winding path went up for a while before taking a sharp turn downhill. After a short stretch of flatland, the duo climbed uphill again.Even when focused on the path, Rosaline did not miss the lush green trees with wildflowers of mult
“What about you?” William asked.Rosaline was not sure what he was asking. “What about me?”He asked clearly. “Are you on vacation? Or in the middle of something?”“What made you say that?”“Last night, it looked like you had your entire time planned, and we kind of messed it up.” “Kind of?”“Well”“Hahaha!” William was mesmerized by her laughter.But he looked towards the pool instead to ensure she did not notice. “I finished college and will be working soon. So yeah, six weeks of break before that.” “It looks like you earned it.” “The internship and thesis wore me out. I can get a little too caught up while working. So, I wanted to give myself a break, catch up with everyone, and enjoy my brother’s wedding.” “What a coincidence! I am on a two months break. Just finishing up things before heading back to work again. Helping with Ria’s wedding.”Rosaline smiled, and they both stayed quiet for a while.Rosaline’s mood visibly improved. After what felt like forever and no time, Ro
After William explained his story, they stayed quiet.Rosaline commented after a lengthy silence, “You admire her.”It was not a question, and they both knew it.“Yes, she has both a high IQ and EQ. Even at 8, she understood me better than my family.”William answered truthfully, with a hint of self-mockery. “I always knew my EQ was low. Supriya taught me how pitifully low it was. I took psychology classes after that incident. I guess I just admire smart people in general.”He shrugged. “Unfortunately, her personality is quite terrible. But most importantly, she lacks a moral compass or a bottom line.”“I doubt there’s anything she would not do to get what she wants. Combine her lack of morality with her natural intelligence, which she must have honed over the years; she becomes scary.”William gave his emotionless analysis. “What do you think we should do?” Rosaline asked, looking at him intently.“I was too busy to do anything about her when she fussed around Pete and others. And
William and Rosaline climbed down, and this time they took another route.It brought them out from the other end of the park. This route took them from between the heavily fortified forest area to prevent animal attacks. This route was between the two closed-off parts of the forest. There was a small natural alcove by one of the smaller streams where they rested.He thoughtfully asked her to rest and drink some water as he plucked some black plums to eat. “Thank you!”Rosaline realized she had thanked him a lot in one day. He seemed very tolerant of everything she said or asked.‘Is he always this good-tempered?’ “A penny for your thoughts?”William interrupted her musings for the first time. She smiled, “Just wondering what to eat for lunch. I’m starving.”Neither of them knew at this time that he would pull her back from her daydreams countless times in the future, and she would always talk about food when asked.It would later go on to be one of their private jokes. They rest
William shook his head.“Silly!” “Tell me, what don’t you like here?” Rosaline was surprised that he knew she did not like something there. “What do you mean?”He explained, “In the beginning, you liked it. And then you frowned soon after we entered.”“Aren’t you paying a little too much attention?”“Would you rather I ignore you?”“That’s not what I meant, and you know that.”“You seem to know what I meant pretty well too.”“Why don’t I think so?”“Are you not going to tell?”Rosaline rolled her eyes and explained.“See the plants here - they are all fake and overdone. It’s worse because it’s right outside the forest perimeter.”“The ceiling is decorated like a pub with dim lights and all. It’s not a pub, and the location makes it relatively awkward as most of the customers are likely to be people who have come back from the park. Tired and hungry ones.”“All the ACs are placed on the side of the road. It would be better if it were on the side of the forest as the emissions from AC