The words repeatedly play in my head. I almost want to laugh. What new shit has he pulled now? God, my life hasn't been normal since I met him. I look at a blank Nathan, it is very clear he is shocked. How could he forget that the media is watching him? They are watching him more than me. This is what happens when you put restrictions on others and forget to keep yourself in check.
"Oh my God!" Nathan whispers and sits on the bed. His hands cover his face to hide his doomed expressions. But, he is so doomed, Robin will kill him for sure.
"Mr Walsh, are you okay?" David moves forward to stand closer to him. He is confused. Even I am. I have so many questions I want to ask Nathan right now. Why was he drinking so recklessly at a bar? How can he let a girl bring him to the hotel? Was he drinking out of saddness or anger? Whom was he upset with?
"Sir I'm very confused, what should we do now?"
"You should leave me alone until I can think straight and not mention a word to Robin."
"Okay," he says and starts to leave. He glances at me before he does and I shrug. Of course, there is nothing I can do.
Nathan buries his face his hands while I stand still and watch him. He looks as if he is having a panic attack. I suddenlt feel bad for him. He has been trying hard, I hope Robin will see that. After a moment I move and sit on my knees in front of him.
"You okay?" I whisper and I hesitantly place my cold hands on top of his. I feel the muscles in his hands and damn he works out. My only question is when? I never see him go to the gym. I personally never went to the gym. I believe in the policy of eating and being happy.
"Didn't you hear me?! Leave me alone!" he jerks my hands away.
"Nathan, please!" I say, "Let's handle this together."
"I don't want to handle anything with you!!" he half yells bitterly and runs his hands through his hair.
"Listen to me!"
"Why should I listen to you?"
"So that we can come to a solution to this problem." and suddenly an idea lights up in my head. I'm sure this has to work.
"Nathan, I should give a press statement!" I say, "I can say that they should leave my husband alone and that he loves me very much and that this is all bullshit, that I trust you and a silly photo cannot change that." before I know it he tackles me to the floor and lands on top of me.
"What the hell are you doing?" I yell.
"And which of that is true?" he grits his teeth.
"Since when do you care about the truth?" I counter question, "You don't even be in your true self."
"That doesn't answer my question!" he hold me tighter but I don't feel scared like I used to.
"None of it is true. None of this is true. We have been living a lie since over a month now, so this shouldn't bother you. Honestly, who cares. I know I don't anymore, do you?"
He does. I can tell by his eyes. His green emerald green eyes don't lie. They can never lie. I gotta admit the man is handsome but God, he is heavy.
"Nathan,"
"Hmm,"
"You should get off me."
"Why?"
"Cause you are really heavy." I bite my lip to control myself from laughing. A huge grin appears on his face.
"Now am I, Grey?" he teases me.
"Yes!" I place my hands on his chest, "Get off!" I whine.
"Or...?" he leans closer to me completely closing the gap between us.
"Nathan no," I whisper.
"What?" he whispers and closes his eyes.
No, no, no my mind warns me again, but my body doesn't listen. As usual it's not in my control. Why do I lose my control around him? His hands linger on my waist and I burst out laughing as I feel his long fingers tickle me.
"Nathan stop!" I say between my laughter. But he continues the torture.
"Pleaseee, stop!" I laugh out. Surprisingly he stops and lies next to me on the floor. We look at each other laughing hard.
"You didn't call me to the dinner." I state to him, "You lied didn't you?"
"What?" he smile fades away quickly. I curse for doing it. He was looking so happy, like he has forgotten everything at that moment. He just knew one thing and that was to be happy. But I took it away.
"You lied, I know it!" I say.
"I didn't lie, April." he says and breaks our eye contact. He gets up and moves to the bed.
"You're lying," I repeat.
"You can keep saying that to yourself so that it becomes a fake truth to you." he sits on the bed and switches on the TV.
"You would never do that to me. You said it that night. Come on Nathan, tell me the truth. I deserve to know it. " I feel relieved letting out my emotions. I sit on the bed right in front of him and snatch the remote form him, muting the TV. He has to face me. He has to answer..
"I have already told you the truth. If you can't except it it's not my problem. Now let's not think of the past. We have a situation to handle. If Robin finds out..."
"Well, your sister and your mother are there to handle. You won't even meet him till nect couple of weeks."
"My sister?"" He furrows his eyebrows.
"Venessa? Remember?"
"What does the newspaper says exactly?"
"It questions your loyalty towards me."
"Yes! Exactly that! We have to tell the press that she is my sister. A thrid couisn or whatever. I can never cheat on you if the girl is a relative. Even if I was out with her the whole night nobody would care." The idea was not bad.
"Okay, I can say it in my press statement."
"No, I will tweet it or whatever, but we are not getting you around the press. They are going to twist your words and confuse you."
"I am not as stupid as you think I am." I get offended by his statement. I know I have not being in the limelight always but I can handle people.
"I know you are smart." He says shrewedly. The way he looks at me while saying it makes it clear that it wasn't a compliment.
"You are as well." I reciprocate. He sensed the vibe and realised I was as hurt by his actions/words as he was with mine. He looks away from me. I sit on the bed comfortably and watch the TV.
"Scoot over," Nathan says as he sits. He takes the remote from me and changes the chanel to business.
"No! I'm watching!" I protest.
"Okay, okay.. I don't cry like a baby, Grey."
"Why do you call me Grey? I have a name."
"Nope, April is month." he laughs.
"Oh shut up!" I say and turn to my side so that my back is facing him. I remember the last time we were in bed together. The night when Max called me on dinner. It was a comforting night.
I feel Nathan lingering on my back. At first I think I'm dreaming but then I look up and see him looking at me. I give him a 'what are you looking at?' look and turn again, watching the movie.
"What are you doing?" I panic as feel his hands snake around my waist.
"I like this. Just lemme take a nap please." he says with his eyes close.
"You can sleep without bothering me." I snap.
"Come on, Grey. I am tired and hungover. Just watch the movie." he snuggles against me.
He came to the hotel at 4 o'clock this morning, he must be tired. What? No! I shouldn't give in so easy, I should not care whether he is tired or not. I turn in his arms ready with a snappy comment but he is already asleep, softly snoring in my arms. I remove his hands from my waist but they find there way again. I finally give in and watch the TV until I too fall in a dreamless sleep.
When I wake up it's dark outside. My head is on Nathan's chest while he is surfing through his phone. I have a hard time recalling when I fell asleep but I had a nice nap. But, why am I in his arms? If he woke up before me he could have gently pushed me away, not that I would mind.
I snap out of my thoughts and immediately move away from him. I recall the events before we fell asleep. Yawning, I strech my arms above my head and tie my hair in a bun.
"What are you grinning about?" I ask Nathan as I find him smiling at me.
"What? Nothing, absolutely nothing." he stops smiling and we both look at the coffee table as my phone rings. "Who is it?" he asks sipping coffee.
"Unknown number." I pick up the phone.
"Hey?"
"April, is it?" a strange voice says from the other end of the phone.
"Yes, who is it?"
"I'm Zayn. You called me last night, remember? I'm so sorry I couldn't attend to your call last night, I was in meeting." he says.
"That's okay! Can you talk now? Or can we meet?" I whisper to avoid Nathan from hearing.
"Yes, we can meet. You can come to my home, it's close to your hotel."
"Message me the address."
"Alright, I'll see you."
I turn to find Nathan standing right behind, I gasp and loose my balance. He helps me regain my balance.
"Who was it?"
"Uh...it- it was re-rebecca. A friend a made." I gulp.
"Okay..." he furrows his eyebrows.
"She needs me right now." I say nervously, "I have to go."
"Take David with you."
"It's okay, I'll take a cab." I fiddle with my fingers.
"No, I said take David with you." he insists.
"Okay," I take a deep breath. God, I'm terrible at lying. I dress into a simple red dress and tie my hair into a high pony. I leave around 9 o'clock. David is waiting outside for me.
"You'll be driving?" I ask him.
"Yep, what's the address?"
"Here" I hand him my phone. It hardly takes us 20 minutes to reach at Zayn's house.
"April wait. Where have you brought us?" David stops me as I was about to get out.
"Zayn's house. Nathan's friend."
"I know. But why?"
"I took your advice. I'm getting to know him." I shrug.
"You could have reached his mother. There is no person in the whole world who could know you better than your mother."
"I know but he knows everything and Nathan's exact attitude."
"Okay. I'll be waiting for you outside."
"David you don't have to do that. You go back to the hotel and relax. I'll be fine."
"You know he may not like this." David says without looking at me as I am about to get out of the car.
I sigh and say, "Yes, but there are a lot of things I do that he doesn't like. I am not going to always do a he pleases."
"This one is about him."
"Why are you always on his side? Do you have any idea how hypocritical your boss can be?"
"It's a facade."
"Well, I am here to get to know the man behind the facade. Don't worry I'll keep an open mind. No prejudice."
"Okay, I hope you find your answers. I am going back to the hotel, if he asks me anything about you I will not lie."
"I don't expect you to." I exit the car with that. I hope meeting Zayn would be as comfortable as I imagined in my head. Standing outside the house I knock on the door. Within 2 minutes, the door opens and Zayn's familiar face in front of me, wearing jeans and a hoodie.
"Hey, I'm..."
"April!" Zayn beams, "Come on in. It's freezing outside." I nod and go inside. I shiver as I enter the warm house.
"Lemme take your coat." I hand my coat to him and move further inside the house. It smells sweet and foul at the same time. It seems like Zayn has sprayed room freshener to cover the foul cigarette smell but the freshner is having a hard time covering the cigarette's smell.
"Please sit." I sit at the edge of the couch in the living room and he sits across me.
"So what did you want to talk about?"
"Umm, like I said on the phone. I wanna know everything about Nathan." I look down.
"Oh." is all he says. No! Say more than that!
"May I ask why? As in are you trying to make this marriage work?"
"I don't have an answer to that. But I am trying to get to know him because he is very confusing. Take today for example we talked, laughed and had a good time. But, we didn't even look at each other for two weeks."
"April, I can't tell you everything about him when he clearly doesn't want you to know. But I can tell you this, you should sit him down tell him things about you then if he is comfortable enough he will open up as well. But only do that if you are comfortable with him, don't do it under any contraint."
I just nod as disappointment fills me. What the hell was I thinking? Why would he help me, obviously?
"Uh, yeah of course I understand." I finally say.
"The thing is we know all about you guys not going well together but we don't want to upset him more."
"Oh, so you also think I'm a gold digger like him. I get it. It was my mistake coming to you. I'm really sorry." I say defensively.
"No no, of course not! I personally don't think like that. It's just Nathan needs our support right now. I think you are wonderful trust me." he reaches out for my hand and squeezes it gently, "Listen, for all I know I think you should just let him go and focus on yourself. He told me you don't have much interest in the business but you were going to apply for masters or something like that." I nod, "Then focus on that. Leave the rest on time. Maybe you guys can get a divorce after a couple of months or something."
"Yeah I guess you are right." He smiles at me reassuringly.
"Would you like some dinner?" he asks.
"Always a yes for food!" I laugh and he joins me.
"So tell me about you. Do you live in New York?" I ask him as we reach the dining table and two people in white uniform serve us food. Wow he is rich.
"Uh, no. I'm here for my art exhibition. In fact Nathan is staying a bit longer just to attend that. We have a plan of going back together."
"You're an artist?" I ask as I fill my mouth with food.
"Yes,"
"Wow that's very cool."
The door bell rings once, twice, thrice.. Who is it in such a hurry? Oh my God, only one person is in such a hurry. Zayn gets up and disappears in the living room. I follow him to see who it is. I freeze in my place as my eyes meet dark green ones fuming in anger...