Sophia kept her distance as they strolled around the garden busying herself with collecting new Roses for Janvier. The night breeze was calm and comforting. Jason inhaled the air deeply. Sophia came over with a bunch of Roses in her hands.
"Here" She said gruffly, handing him one.
With a questioning look, he took the Rose from her.
"I was never really good at apologizing to people. But I shouldn't have snapped at you back at the hotel. Whatever you did....you probably had a reason for it" She stopped talking for a while. Jason looked at her. For a moment his heart flipped. He was touched. "And you don't want to tell me. It's fine. Really. Maybe in the future, I might look back and thank you for what the-devil-knows you did for me last night"
She looked up at him. "So thank you and I'm sorry"
Jason looked at her. He couldn't say a thing. He finally looked at the Rose in his hands again.
"My dad used to love these" He said finally raising the Rose to her face.
"He said that the flower symbolizes love. That's why everyday, he would place one of them in a vase, in my Mum's room"
Sophia blushed. She just gave him the flower as an apology. Did he think she...
He exhaled deeply. "I miss him" She heard him whisper.
'Says the guy who killed my father' She said in her mind but she knew she would sound selfish if she said it out loud. They had lost their fathers but she knew that his was painful.
She stood there and watched as he stared ahead of her, at nothing in particular.
"I wish he would come back to life to see me now. A CEO of a lucrative company. I'm just like he was you know. I've got my cars, my mansion, my reputation"
"....A family?" She blurted out before she could stop herself.
Jason looked down at her face.
He knew she didn't mean to blurt it out.
"I...I'm sorry" She apologized again.
He saddened a bit and she felt guilty looking at the hurt in his eyes.
"Many women would like to date me. But no reasonable woman would marry me knowing I'm impotent. And as for Janvier? No man in his right mind would marry her, knowing she won't be a able to bear a child"
Sophia just nodded, a slight pain in her throat.
Jason put the flower behind her ear. She looked up at him. Then he brushed her hair backwards.
"You're so beautiful" He muttered as he leaned close to her neck.
Sophia lifted her head up with her eyes closed. Her lips trembled slightly as his warm breath caressed her neck.
As he put his hands around her waist, she didn't realize when the flowers in her hands fell to the ground.