Roots and Oxygen

Chapter 40 - Murphy's Law

"Liniana, hi," Sage said as the guilt swarmed his gut. I kissed someone else. Lady Liniana had been pushed towards him for years, as much as he had been pushed towards her. Their statuses were perfect for marriage, but Sage had never played along. Now he wished he had been blunt from the beginning, though at the start, he didn't know what he really wanted.

He glanced back to Taro and with a tight tilt of his head, Taro weaved through the crowd. "I need to talk to you outside," he said to Liniana and guided her to the glass doors at the other side of the room.

Her lace purple gown tickled his hand as they walked. She grabbed his arm, so they didn't separate in the growing crowd. Everyone swarmed around Sage, even if they had nothing to say to him. He already felt suffocated, and the event was only just underway.

Taro was right behind them, discretely parting the crowd of puffy ballgowns and squeaky polished shoes.

The glass doors led to a lit-up courtyard of yellow fairy lights embedded among the orange roses and the large-leaved bushes. Sage thanked the sky that nobody else was outside, apart from his personal guard who stood by the door, watching them very, very closely.

"Liniana-"

"Isn't it just a perfect evening?" she said, embedding a curl over her ear and peering up into the sky.

Sage looked at her basked in a silvery moonlight, with a glow in her eyes and a smile on her lips, and a dress that gleamed brighter than the stars. He hoped that one day, she could be in love with someone who could love her back just as much, but that wasn't him.

"Liniana, we have to talk," he said in a tone that dragged her eyes from the black night.

"What is it?"

Sage very nearly said that everything was fine, just so she could enjoy her night, but then his gaze locked with Taro Vinea, the man he had kissed earlier that evening. He not only owed Liniana the truth, but he owed Taro the reassurance that whatever was happening between them was real and he cared enough about it to take it seriously.

"You know everyone always talks about how we're born to marry each other, and how our parents are always trying to push us together? And how the tabloids always conspire about us, and how they always assume we're dating when we're together?" Sage said, feeling the sweat on his palms, and the anxiety twisting his throat.

Liniana nodded. Her eyes only beamed brighter.

Oh no, she looks hopeful. "Well..." Sage dropped his shameful gaze to his shoes. "I want to make it obvious to you first that-" he cleared his throat. "I'm not interested in being more than friends."

And just like that, the brightest star was killed. The light dimmed in Liniana's eyes. Her breath stalled, and her glossy lips tremble. Then her eye twitched and her perfect brows scowled. "After four years, you say that now and here?"

"I'm so sorry," Sage whispered. He had never seen such anger and sorrow fighting to front such kind eyes. He had a million other things to say. Four years of endless flirting and getting nowhere should've been a sign that I wasn't interested. My silence and discomfort should've been a sign. But I should have said something sooner. I should have been clearer. I shouldn't have hidden behind my secret and stayed quiet because being with you made it less obvious that I didn't like women at all.

Sage couldn't bring himself to speak. He just wanted their conversation to be over.

"I've made it so obvious to you that I've liked you, and you decide to reject me now?" Liniana stepped back, blinking to stop her tears from ruining her makeup.