Fake Fiancée

Chapter 31: Decisions and Heartache

My uncle had allowed me to stay at Curacao for another three days, so I could say goodbye and to experience what was left of the beautiful country, but I didn’t feel like exploring, which was weird. I was usually an independent person and now I was moping around. Well, not really. I wasn’t literally dragging myself around everywhere, bursting into tears and complaining about my situation. I just kept quiet.

Last night while Henry had been contently asleep, I had been lying still in his arms while my thoughts were all over the place. How could I tell him that I was leaving? And more importantly, for him?

I was too cowardly to tell him, but I knew I had to sometime. I couldn’t just leave without an explanation. That would be horrible and Henry would just come after me to get one.

So I had to do it now, since I have the chance.

We were eating breakfast at a restaurant by the beach because Henry had decided that we should enjoy some Curacao cuisine – different skewed meats with peanut sauce, soups made from okra and seafood and pastries filled with dripping hot cheese, fish and herbs. It was delicious, but I couldn’t focus on the food when the dreaded conversation about me leaving was still in the back of my mind.

“Do you like the food?”

I turned to Henry and gave him a small nod. He was watching me intently and I had the feeling he knew that I was zoning out while he was speaking, but he didn’t want to pry. I was kind of impressed by this.

“What about you?” I asked back, just to make some conversation and to get my mind of leaving Henry. “Does that … thing you’re eating taste nice?”

Henry rolled his eyes when I offended his food by calling it a ‘thing’. “It’s called Plantain, you pancake. Fried bananas.”

I started to laugh when I realised the pieces of golden food Henry was chewing on were indeed fried bananas. How could I have not noticed that?

“Do you want some?” Henry asked uncertainly as I laughed like a maniac.

I stopped myself from giggling further and gave him a wide smile. “Sure! Now that I know that it’s not something unusual, I’ll try it.”

Henry smirked. “The whole point of eating here is to try new food.”

“But fried bananas is new food for me,” I argued.

“You only agreed to it because you’ve tasted bananas before,” Henry pointed out.

I gritted my teeth and eyed the fried banana irritably. “Are you going to let me taste it or not?”

Henry’s deep chuckle filled my ears and he stabbed a fork into one of them and leaned forward. I raised an eyebrow as I watched it hover in front of my mouth. “Open wide,” he commanded playfully.

My lips spread into a small smile. I found this so weird. “Since when do you feed people?”

I could see his tan cheeks warming up and laughed through my nose. “Just eat,” he snapped when he saw that I was amused. I rolled my eyes at him and took a large bite out of the plantain. Very yummy.

Henry ended up paying for the food (after a heated argument which consisted of me repeatedly shoving him with my elbow so that I could pay for once) and we headed to the motorbike he had rented. He’d gotten rid of the car and decided he liked the motorbike better. I still couldn’t believe my boyfriend knew how to drive a motorbike. How much more of a bad boy could he be?

“Where are we going exactly?” I asked with a slight pout as I sat myself on the padded seat. Henry had told me he had found something very interesting to do inCuracaoand I had agreed to come. I wondered what it was. Swimming with sea creatures? Now that would be something unique.