Chapter 14

The sun was almost down the horizon when we were done with the shopping. Red marks formed on my palms as well as on Ethan’s as we carried the bags to the car and sent them to the hotel room.

None of us was tired enough to just go and hit the bed so we decided to go around the city. I wasn’t actually in a great mood to spend time with him, considering how much of a control freak he was. But he kind of persuaded me to do so as he was the kind of person that can get things done by a click of his fingers.

But after the phone call that I received from Jake, I couldn’t get back to being my normal self. The hooded man and the pistol in his hand were the only things that were running in my mind. I was suddenly feeling scared for Ethan. Jake would probably hurt him without thinking twice and that scared me to shit.

“You doing alright?” Ethan asked me as we deposited our covers in the car.

I nodded at him. He looked at me for a few seconds and nodded back at me. “You know you can tell me if anything’s bothering you.”

“No...” I said. “I’m just... worried about Jake.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I regretted it. That’s it. Ethan will know what happened and he’ll start questioning me about it. Shit.

“Why?” He asked, with concern. “Are you worried he’ll come back to you?”

“No, I...”

“Skylar, look at me.” He held me by my shoulders. “He is not going to come back. He is behind the bars, and he won’t be out until we remove the charges pressed against him. You got that?”

I nodded, reminding myself how I just got him out of the Jail. “Yes.”

“Good.” He said. “And even if he escapes, I’m not going to let him come close to you or do as much as lay a finger on you.”

“I know,” I said with a sigh.

“Forget what happened. That’s the only way.” He said, his hand now going down to clutch my palm with his.

I nodded and glanced down at our entwined fingers. A small smile formed on my lips.

He frowned at me. “Why are you smiling?”

I looked up at him. “The paparazzi’s watching.” I lied to him.

He narrowed his eyes. “Really? That’s all?”

“Yes. Why else would I be laughing?” I teased him.

He smirked and pulled me towards him. Without warning, he kissed me again.

I pulled back and gaped at him.

Fake innocence crossed his face. “What, the paparazzi’s watching.”

I narrowed my eyes at him while he just chuckled. He swung an arm around my shoulders and led me through the road.

We walked for a while and bought some coke on the way. It was beginning to get dark and we were still aimlessly walking on the road.

“Are you going to buy me dinner or not?” I asked him when we saw a tiny restaurant on the left side of the pavement.

“You hungry?” He asked.

“Yep,” I said.

“You gotta wait until we head back to the hotel.” He said.

“What, no! That’s going to take long!”

He looked at me. “We don’t have a choice.”

“We do. Look over there!” I pointed to the small restaurant.

“What, you want to have food there?” He asked me.

“What’s wrong with that place?” I asked.

“It doesn’t even have a lot of people, which means it doesn’t run quite well. One of the reasons could be bad hygiene or food. We can just go and-”

“You know what, I think we should just go there. Now that you told me it needs people.” I said, holding him by his palm and pulling him along.

“What, Skylar. What are you doing?” He said but I ignored him. I went over to the counter and ordered the food.

The cashier was an old man, who gave me a wide smile before handing over the bill. I turned around and held my hand out. “Money.”

“I don’t have any money,” Ethan said with a flat look.

Okay, someone just got annoyed by me.

“I’m serious,” I said.

“I’m serious too. I don’t have money.” He said.

I laid my hands on the hips when he crossed his arms over his chest. I shook my head and went to search in his shirt pocket. It was empty. My hands went back, and I pulled out the wallet for his back pocket of the pants. He smirked when I got it.

“What?” I asked.

“You do realize what you just did right?” He asked me.

I frowned. “Pulled out your wallet?”

“From?”

“Your back pockets?”

He nodded with a smirk. Realization dawned on me and I widened my eyes. “Ugh.”

I turned around and paid the bill. I moved to the side and waited for my order.

“We could have just gone to the hotel and had a proper meal,” Ethan complained behind me.

I turned around to look at him. “Ethan, this shop was about to shut down in a month.”

“So?” He asked.

I sighed. “The owner is old. And the last time I came here was during my college days. I went to drama school here, so we used to come here a lot. The old man behind the counter has a huge family, his daughter is a teen mother. And he has to support his grandkids too. Where do you think he would get the money from if this shop gets shut down?”

He sighed. “And you mean our bill would just eradicate the threats of poverty for him.”

“Look around,” I said. “People are beginning to poor in.”

He ran his eyes over the place. Indeed, people were pouring in.

“The reason why I came here is,” I said. “People would notice us and visit this place. And seeing them come, more people would visit. And trust me, this place serves good food. I have no clue why it hasn’t been experiencing good customers yet. And now, we’ve already shared a kiss before the shop so the paparazzi will follow us and click pictures here. Obviously, it’ll promote the place and people will start visiting.”

“Okay, people are visiting now. How can you say they’ll come after we go?”

“That’s not the point, Ethan,” I said. “We’re just here to buy food and help the old man earn a little money. If he ultimately has to shut the shop down, then there’s nothing we can do about it. At least we’ll be glad we helped him earn a good deal of money for a day at least.”

The man behind the counter came up with our food. I took our food and guided Ethan to my favorite table in the restaurant and started eating my food with relish.

I saw his gaze fixated on me with at least a weird smile dangling on it. “What?”

He smiled and shook his head. “You think a lot about the people around you, don’t you?”

I shrugged.

“Then to what do I owe this horrible treatment from you?” He gave me a tight smile.

I smirked. “Well, unlike you, people here are nice and less annoying and controlling.”

“Don’t you dare call me controlling.” He said. “Everything in this marriage is basically controlled by you!”

“Excuse me?” I laughed with fakeness dripping from the core. “I’m controlling this marriage. Please, I didn’t even know where we were going for a honeymoon until I landed here. You tell me nothing and do everything according to your wish!”

“That’s not true.” He said. “We’re in London because you have always wanted to go here for a honeymoon.”

“When did I-”

“Remember the time in high school where we used to pretend, we’re in the future and you always used to say how you wanted to go to London for a honeymoon because it’s romantic?”

“Yes. but that. how do you even remember it?” I asked, shocked myself.

“Of course, I do.” He shrugged.

I eyed him with surprise. How did he remember such details from seven years ago? I talked about random shit during our high school and didn’t fail to forget this? That’s something.

“I thought you forgot everything after our break-up,” I asked him, with a teasing smile.

“Well, not everything.” He replied and avoided eye contact.

***

Ethan’s POV

After a day well spent, we headed back to the hotel with a bottle of French wine and zero balance in one of my back accounts. Apparently, I’ve made a transfer of a huge deal of money without making a check of the money I had. The planned events like hitting the bar shattered down when we realized how broke we were.

But I’m not totally upset as we managed to grab the complementary French wine from the hotel staff. I was sitting across the balcony rails, taking a sip of serenity mixed with wine while Skylar’s had her share in the shower.

My phone rang to the side, swallowing the peace I was at. I stared at the screen to read Agent Owen’s name. He was a friend of mine and the first person that helped me with getting Jake behind the bars without slipping the information into the media.

“Owen,” I said.

“Ethan,” He replied, his voice indicating him being in a hurry. “Why the hell did you get him out of the jail?”

“Jake?” I asked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Apparently, Skylar called an hour ago and removed the charges pressed against him. Why on earth would she do that?”

“I had no clue about this,” I said, bewildered myself. Why would Skylar, of all people do that?

“Whatever, it is,” Owen said. “Make sure she’s fine. And talk to her about this. I hope she isn’t doing this out of fear of someone.”

I cut his call and set the phone aside. I wondered how Skylar would just remove the charges like that. What he did to her was unforgivable and what Skylar thought about him after that has no potential of gaining mercy. Then why on earth would she do that?

The door of the bathroom clicked open and Skylar walked inside. I turned around to face her and give her an accusing glare. She frowned at me and rose her eyebrows in question.

But I stopped myself. Something inside me hinted that we were here to forget everything that happened in the past few weeks and enjoy ourselves. We’ve already had enough fights and arguments.

Skylar had come out of a traumatic and she doesn’t deserve to be questioned about him which could bring her back those memories of him. That’s the last thing she needs right now.

“Earth to Ethan.” She said, waved her hand in front of my face. “How’s everything up there? Can you spot our galaxy?”

I rolled my eyes. “Shut up, Skylar.”

“Woah, okay.” She said, with a chuckle. “You were the one glaring at me. Not the other way around. What’s the matter? To what do I owe this glare of yours?”

“Nothing, I’ve just been thinking about how we’re going to share the bed tonight.”

“Um, about that.” she said, looking around to avoid my eye contact. “You can take the couch... I don’t mind.”

“Now why would I take the couch when I’m paying for the room?”

“Because you’re nice?”

“Not tonight,” I said, giving her a smirk. “Good night, Cind.”

***

I woke up in the morning as the sun rays streamed in through the glass windows. I squinted as I opened my eyes and rolled around to face the other side of the bed. I frowned when I found it empty.

“Skylar?” I called out but didn’t get any reply.

I got up and walked to check in the balcony. It was pretty weird for her to not be asleep because she does sleep a lot and she’s definitely not a morning person. I sighed when I found her nowhere in the room.

I rang up at the reception and asked about her.

“We’ve seen her leave to the new yoga class we’re organizing today, sir. But it was done a couple of hours ago and we were under the impression that she already came back.”

“Did she tell you about her plans later on?”

“No, Sir. She was just going to head back. In fact, we just checked the whole area for her as she reserved her place for breakfast. We were about to ask you if she was up with you.”

I cut the call and threw it onto the holder. I grabbed my phone and called her. But it just went to the voice mail.

And then it dawned upon me.

Jake.

He was out of jail. Which means he’s probably out looking for Skylar. Jake was never the one that kept aside his ego. He always got back at the ones who troubled him. Dammit.

I groaned in frustration and called Owen.

“What’s the matter?” He asked me as soon as he heard the tension in my voice.

“Skylar has gone missing,” I said. “And I think it’s Jake.”

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