Red Room |18+|

Epilogue

                                                                          1 MONTH LATER

                                                                                   Evie

"Can I have some croissants?" his deep, silky voice called over the menu. I smiled down at him, "Sir, you should try the hot chocolate as well, the taste with croissants...fascinating."

He looked up from his menu, his eyes landing on me and widening with bewilderment, before it slowly morphed with simmering anger and distaste. 

It seems someone is not happy to see me, I thought to myself, settling down on his chair opposite him.

With narrowed eyes, "I didn't ask you to sit." He chimed with repulse. I wouldn't say I liked the feeling that crept up my throat at his rejection, but I pushed it past me to focus on the now beautiful man clad in a white dress shirt, black pants, and beige overcoat. 

He had a freshly shaved beard and a new look that provided a better view of the hard outlines of his face- the face that now harbored a frown and a ticking jaw.

"Well, you didn't ask me to buy you either, but here we are." Just then the real waitress walked in, looking right at him and he looked up in a controlled smile.

"Good morning, what would you like to order." She inquired in her heavy French accent. I looked out the glass window and for the first time, wasn't expecting anyone to hold a gun to my head- mostly because the world still believed I was dead. When Cara gave me his location a month ago, I stalled.

I knew he wasn't expecting me, but I wished for less hostility than he had shown me a few minutes ago.

He placed his order and added the suggestion I gave earlier, which brought a faint smile to my lips. When the waitress disappeared, he looked at me, a frown between his brows.

"Go home, princess."

"I am home," I whispered, hoping to calm his raging heart. He looked away, clenching his jaw as his order came in. It smelled divine and I asked the waitress to give me the same thing.

"I left that life back in your castle."

"Did you?" I retorted, seeing him snap up from his food in a glare.

After several awkward minutes of silence, I broke it "You left me there. Waiting for you or hoping for a day you would realize how unworthy I am. I was waiting for when you'd realize how scared I was to fight for the one thing we both craved from each other. I was waiting for when you would finally see that you deserve better and I am willing to be better for you. I was waiting for you to realize how much I love you."

He stopped his bite of the croissants in his hands, midway and just stared blankly at me. No flinching, no reaction, then went back to eating like I didn't bear everything to him, jerk.

I opened and closed my mouth at the sheer audacity.

"Err...won't you say anything?" I folded my arms against my chest and stared at him and he simply shrugged, sipping the hot chocolate like it was the sweetest, most mouth-watering beverage to ever exist- well it is but that is beside the point.

"Ari, can you stop being a jerk?"

"Can you stop obstructing my breakfast?"

I resigned, looked out the window, and from my far periphery, I saw the waitress walking briskly towards us with my food. He sighed, "I don't think this will work out either way."

I tilted my head "What...do you mean?" I asked, my tone careful.

"I'm in a relationship with the French mafia princess. Well, it's more of an alliance but it's still commitment."

Now my jaw ticked, seeing him as relaxed as he was while he spewed out this complete bullshit.

"She's very stupid. She has cheese for a brain."

"Well...at least she didn't buy me for sex."

I gritted, "Isn't that something we should get past?"

He gritted, "have you apologized?" I huffed, sat in my chair, and folded my arms again. Hating the inconvenient feeling of jealousy, and that because of that third-grade princess who barely knew how to pull a trigger or even write her own name. 

"Don't make this more difficult than it already is," he pinned me with a pointed glare.

"Excuse me?"

"You are excused." He bit into his croissants, wiped his lips, and gave me a tight lip smile that was full of mockery. i bit my lips out of frustration, 

"I'll kill her, her entire French family, and that ass of a grandmother she has cooked up in that little cottage of hers. When I'm done, I'll take you into the room with all their blood and body in it, and fuck you on her French bed."

There was silence.

Then he burst out, shaking his head as he threw his head back.

"I'm not playing with you," I whined and watched him stand up from his seat, round the table.

"That was the sexiest thing you've done in a while. Well aside from cutting off your father's head for good measure." I laughed, bubbly and free and it was the best one I've had in a while. He joined me, and we had heads turning to look at us from different tables.

An old couple smiled at us when Ari, held my face and placed the sweetest kiss I'd ever received, saying in a whisper "It took you long enough." Against my lips. I smiled, giggling like a horny teenager. Was this how a fairy tale felt like?

He scooped me up from the chair and I wrapped my arms around his neck, there were claps as he took me out of the coffee shop and into the sunset.

Okay maybe not the sunset but can a girl not dream?