Painting Paper Hearts | ✔

Chapter 6- Build and Break

"Think about it. Marcus will smother you with gifts and a lot of PDA. Heck, don't even try to defy me because the man is made of sugar and spice and everything nice. If you're not really going to fall for that, I don't know what will." Erin continued.

I just let out a tired sigh. "Yeah, right."

"Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"You already like him." Erin said with a suggestive smile, bobbing her eyebrows up and down.

"Now you're being delusional. Did you eat anything this morning? Are you sick?" I jested and Erin did not stop there.

Erin only pouted as we entered the laundromat. The place was not too shabby since they had their own coin exchange. Begging a cashier to give me coins was vexing, especially if they were being stingy with their cash.

I scanned the place and noticed that almost every washing machine were empty, leaving the television and the dryers as the only noise in the place. It was clean and the smell of detergent and was potent.

Erin started loading one of the washers from the far left of the laundry place where a nearby exit was located while I head over to the coin machine. I inserted the ten-dollar-bill I was supposed to spend for a coffee this morning.

The clashing of the coins against the metallic machine resounded through the whole establishment, making my head turn to the woman behind me. I let out a sigh as she didn't seem to mind the noise.

I walked over to where Erin had loaded half of the laundry.

"Did you choose this side just to watch T.V?" I asked Erin who was sitting on top of the folding table. Across her was an ancient looking television hanging from the ceiling.

"It's interesting. Look." Erin pointed at the television where she was watching a live news of a woman getting mobbed by the media.

My eyes widened in disbelief. "Hey! That's Catherine Elton."

Of course she'd be encircled by the media. She was an heiress to the Elton Hotels and Resorts as well as a well-known violinist born and raised in Toronto. She had made her name in the music industry since she was ten.

By the age of twenty four, she had done so much in her lifetime. She pursued a life going around the world, performing with different orchestras, and doing philanthropic work on the side.

My mother, being the classic music enthusiast that she was, had instantly become a huge fan since we watched her perform in Vancouver Playhouse a couple years ago. It was my first time to watch a violin concerto and thought it would be a bore, but classical music could magically pull you into the music, tapping your very soul to let out the capped emotions.

I read the headlines slowly scrolling at the bottom of the screen: HEIRESS HOMECOMING.

I turned half of my attention to the unattended laundry and the other half on the reporter now taking over the screen.

"After a full year of going on tour with the Vienna Philharmonic, our sweet and lovely Catherine Elton has come home! Rumor has it that she and her long-term childhood friend will soon wed. Many of Miss Elton's fans gathered here today in Pearson Airport to give her a warm welcome and congratulate her." The reporter finished with the fans behind her, hollering at the camera.

"She's so lucky— she has both beauty and brains." Erin commented, her eyes still glued on the T.V.

"Yeah. She's basically achieved everything in life even before she's thirty. I bet the only thing left in her bucket list is get married." I said, laughing.