226 Complex Feelings

Ace told me something similar about his relationship with Elizabeth. Even when they were engaged to be married, they never really dated at all. I wondered what, if anything, has changed between them.

“Maybe I should just ask Ace. This is driving me insane...” I murmured to myself.

“Will he answer you honestly? What do you think?” Kyle asked as if he could read my mind and the worries swimming inside it.

“I don’t know. Will you believe Elizabeth? Have you asked her?” I asked.

“Not directly. She will just yell at me and say that it’s all nonsense. She would deny everything, and I’ll have no idea if she’s telling the truth or not...” Kyle replied.

“You don’t trust her?” I asked as I wondered how much I trusted Ace.

Kyle did not reply to me, and I decided not to press him. I hated to admit it, but it seemed like we were in the same boat. He probably felt very similar to the way that I was feeling. Although I didn’t like to admit it, I thought that I could pretty much understand how he was feeling.

“Well, I guess anyone would suffer from an inferiority complex if they had to be compared to Ace...” I said before I laughed a little.

“And anyone would suffer that complex too if they had to be compared to Elizabeth,” Kyle shot back before he smiled challengingly at me.

.....

Fine. Maybe I did dig up my own grave for that one. However, I still refused to believe that Ace was cheating on me. There has to be a very good reason for all of this. If only he would tell me when I ask...

“I’m going home,” I stated as I put up my hand to flag down a waitress who happened to be looking my way right at that perfect moment.

“Already?” Kyle asked as if he wanted to spend more time with me.

“Of course. There’s nothing else for us to talk about,” I snapped as my mood turned extremely sour.

“So, are you going to ask Ace about this?” he asked again.

“I will. I’ll have to find the right moment to do it, though...” I replied honestly.

“Good luck. I doubt that he’ll actually tell you anything or confess to anything,” Kyle said lightly as if none of his was his problem.

“Bye...” I muttered as I got up from my seat after paying my part of the bill.

“Are you sure that you don’t need me to escort you back?” he asked with a grin.

“Of course, I’m sure,” I replied without hesitation before turning on my heels to walk away from him.

I could feel Kyle’s gaze on my back as I walked away from him, but he didn’t do anything to stop me from leaving.

...

Later that evening, I took a long shower to clear my mind. While I stood under the shower, I thought of so many ways to ask Ace about his relationship with Elizabeth. I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, and it may do more harm than good to our relationship. However, there didn’t seem to be another way out of this. Asking him will probably expose the fact that I didn’t trust him completely; however, if that meant that we could talk things over with each other then it might just be worth it.

The real problem was finding the right opportunity to talk to Ace about this. Tomorrow is going to be a Monday and that meant that the following days would be weekdays and we would both be busy. I clicked my tongue in frustration as my body continued to enjoy the warmth of the water raining down on it.

After stepping out of the shower, I got dressed in comfortable pajamas before heading to the vanity table to dry my hair. Halfway through the process, my doorbell rang unexpectedly. My heart jumped in my chest at the sound and hope welled inside of me.

historical

“Ace...” I whispered to myself.

Quickly, I got out of my seat and headed as fast as I could toward the door. My guess was confirmed to be correct when I peeked out from the peephole of my door. The man standing right on the other side of my door was none other than Ace.

“Hey...” I greeted him softly after opening the door for him.

“Good evening, Rina...” Ace greeted me with a smile.

His smile made my heart skip a beat, but it wasn’t just that. I looked down at the large bouquet of red roses that he had thrusted toward me.

“This is a little present for you...” he announced cheerfully.

“T-Thank you...” I whispered as I tried my best to recover from the shock of his surprise gift.

It was already quite unexpected for Ace to turn up here to see me and the bouquet of flowers added more to the surprise. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t happy to receive flowers from Ace; however, I wasn’t sure why he was giving them to me.

“May I come in?” he asked.

“Oh, yes...of course...” I replied.

That was when I realized that I was just standing there like a frozen statue in the doorway without letting him into my room. I quickly snapped out of my daze and stepped aside to let him in. Ace walked past me into my room, and I closed the door and locked it behind us while I wondered why he was here.

“I hope you like these flowers. I want to apologize properly for the unexpected end of our trip. Something urgent turned up at work that I had to handle. It must have been very disappointing for you,” he said as his eyes met and held mine.

A lump formed in my throat at his sincere apology, and I felt tears sting the back of my eyes. I glanced down at the red roses of the bouquet that I was holding in my hands so that I wouldn’t have to keep on looking into his hazel eyes.

–To be continued...