Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Mia got to Alex's room and realized it was only two rooms away from hers. She knocked on the door, but there was no response. "Alex, it's me, Mia." "May I come in?" She asked as she knocked again, but there was still no response. "Alex, we have to talk about what happened at the borderline," she said again, and she knocked, but there was still no response.

She turned the knob of the door, and she realized it was not locked, as it gave way, opening for her to go in. She walked into the room at the same time Alex was coming out of the bathroom, clad only in a towel around his waist. She shrieked at the sight of him, quickly closing her eyes and turning around immediately.

Alex was too dumbfounded to speak when he saw her in his room. "Were you not taught to knock before entering a room?" He inquired, finally finding his voice to speak.

"I did knock." I..." Mia began to defend her actions.

"Leave," he ordered, and Mia shuffled out of his room. She closed the door and ran across the hallway, into her room. She breathed heavily as she got into her room, placing her hand on her chest.

"My goodness," she exclaimed as she tried to steady her breathing. "It was absolutely not my fault that I walked in on him in that manner." I knocked several times, but he refused to open up. "How was I to know he was in the bathroom?" she soliloquizes.

She walked into her room and placed her hands on her waist. "He had no right to order me out of his room in such a manner." "How could he?" She kept going on and on. "All I wanted was to know what happened at the altar, and he had to begin his cold treatment towards me," she added colloquially, as she dropped her hands to her side.

"Leave," she mimicked his tone, and she rolled her eyes. She walked over to the window. "How can one person be so cold and bitter?" She pondered aloud.

"No one around me should ever feel or be this way," she said as she leaned on the window rail. "If only he could give me a chance to make him happy," she added as she recalled the first night she had seen him and the way his warm green eyes had captivated her.

•

Alex finally got out of his room later that night just for dinner, and he promised himself to quickly eat and leave the dining table before Mia appeared.

Just as the bowls of steaming smoked salmon, roasted garlic potatoes, and roasted meat were placed on the table, Mia walked down the stairs.

Alex groaned inwardly when he saw her walking towards the dining table, and Hendrix looked at him in bafflement. "Is everything alright?" He asked Alex

How can everything be fine? I was obliged to marry this woman, who babbles all day with no single sense to tell her that I do not want to have a conversation with her. How can everything be fine when I'm desperately trying to avoid her but she keeps showing up? He raved inside of him, but instead of voicing all that out, he simply nodded.

As Mia got closer to the table, Alex contemplated what to do.

"Good evening," Mia greeted, and as usual, her face was full of smiles as she pulled her chair backward.

"Good evening to you, Mia," Hendrix replied with an equal smile.

As she was about to sit down, Alex picked up his tray of food and turned to walk away from the dining room. He was bent on avoiding her.

"Alex, what is it?" "Where are you going?" Hendrix inquired in surprise.

"I'll be eating dinner in my room," he replied as he walked away, without a backward glance at his friend.

Mia slapped his forehead. "What is wrong with this cold-hearted son of the Heartmen?" She muttered, and Hendrix chuckled. She looked at him. "I mean, why does it look like he's always running away?" She asked him.

Hendrix shrugged. "I have known him all my life, and he has been that way since he was a child," he replied.

"He's always so cold and melancholic." That's very unhealthy for one person. "It's too much to bear," she said as she looked over at the stairs, but Alex was long gone. She sighed as she looked down at her food. "I wish he could be happy," she sighed again.

"My lady, he's happy, believe me," Hendrix said, and Mia stared at him wide-eyed.

"You call that being happy?" "How do you always maintain this face?" she asked, as she mimicked Alex's poker face all the time. "Means being happy?" "I'm afraid that, to the best of my knowledge, that does not show a single bit of happiness at all," she replied, returning her expression to normal.

"He's happy, Mia." "He just has a hard time showing it," Hendrix insisted, and Mia stared at him in doubt about what he said.

"If that's the way he feels happy, then I'll like him to experience a better one." "I would want him to be in a world full of smiles, rainbows, and colorfulness," she said to him.

Hendrix forked some fish into his mouth before speaking again. "There's one thing you should know, Mia," he said, and she stared at him.

"Which is?" She asked, keening with interest.

"When you get a chance to be in a man's life or get the opportunity to live with a man, you should never try to change him to fit the description you have of him in your head or the description you have of the ideal man in your head rather," he said, and Mia just sat there staring at him, her heart sinking gradually with each word he uttered.

Hendrix continued. "When a man lets you into his life, you should understand that he has been this way even before he met you, and you cannot change him to suit your taste." You'll give him the respect to live as he deems fit, which was a lifestyle for him. If you really want to get to Alex, to get to know him, you'll let him do his thing. "It will be better for you, for all of us," he finished saying as he continued with his meal.

Mia swallowed hard, wondering why she was affected by the short speech Hendrix just delivered. He noticed her quietness and wiped his lips with a napkin.

"Do not take it the wrong way, Luna. I am a man, and I know how these things work; also, I have known Alex all my life. It's a thing, Mia. "It helps him live in this world without much trouble," he said, and Mia became more confused by what he was saying. "Your dinner is getting cold," he added.

"Uh?" Mia said, looking lost, and he gestured to her food. She looked down at her meal and realized she had not touched it. She picked up the cutlery moodily and cut into the roasted meat. With the taste of the seasonal flavors bursting on her tongue, she regained her composure a little bit.

"I still don't know your name," she said to him as she took another bite.

"Hendrix. "It's Hendrix, my lady," he replied with a smile, and Mia smiled back.