MASON AND KLARISE DID NOT attend the wedding.
It has been months since the long preparations, also a while after Mason and I both have healed from our injuries. A miracle it was, I did not have any scars.
Of course, we also finally got all the glasses and windows in the penthouse renovated. That was one of the first things I did after being released from the hospital.
It turned out Mason did lie to Cameron. But Mason was out of the country—for work related business—when I found out from Cameron. We were tasting wedding cakes together, with cameras everywhere to witness everything as proof, when he "thanked" me in low whispers. No one could know about what happened, that much was clear. But it did take a huge sum of money to quiet everyone that had involvement with the accident.
"If it wasn't for you, I really don't know what I'd do." He said, and I looked up from tasting the frosting of one cake, waving at the staff to take it away. Too sweet.
"What are you talking about?" I smiled at one cameraman who was noticeably butting his camera as close as he could into our conversation. I lowered my voice. "If it's about...you know, let's not do it here."
He nodded. After the atmosphere had seemed to clear a little more of paparazzis and people, he pulled me to the side. We were going to go to a place and help me try on the few designed wedding dresses that his parents had insisted on ordering later. This wedding was going to be the fanciest one yet in the last whole year.
"I just want to thank you. After all these months, I wanted to let you know that." He's leaning down toward my ear, making this look intimate. Everything has been like that now. Before, the fake dating thing, we didn't have to act this much. But now it's an everyday procedure. I kiss him almost everywhere I go. I feel like I was slowly dying inside. I wonder if he felt the same.
"Thank me for what?" I took a sip of the red wine a waiter for this small party of simple wedding procedures had passed out. It tasted so good.
He smiled, then his face turned slowly into confusion. "Of course for saving Mason."
I almost choked on the wine. "S-Save him?"
He nodded, his expression slowly starting to crumble into a frown. "Yeah. If it wasn't you, he would have completely broken through that window and jumped out. You saved him. You stopped him from..." He looked around. We were a good distance from the press and interviewers. He looked back at me. "Killing himself."
Oh god. What in the world did Mason tell him?
He blinked at me. I blinked back. I just held my glass, the red liquid in there calling out to me. I could've dunk the whole thing, but that wouldn't have been ladylike. Cameron's parents were not too far away either. They wouldn't want to see that their son is marrying a girl like that. I'm sure blasting this wine down my throat would have done the very fine job of canceling this wedding.
"Is something wrong?" He rested his hand on my upper arm, the one that's holding the glass. He takes it out of my hand and sets it down on a table near us. Well there goes my chance.
I shook my head out of this daze my mind wanted to stay in. "No, everything is fine. I just...I just need a sec." He nodded and I excused myself to the bathroom.
I check every stall to make sure I'm alone before pulling out my phone and dialing Mason's number. He doesn't answer. So I text him.
Why did you tell Cam you tried to kill yourself and I saved you? That was not what you told me you told him. Hello?? Mason?? Where are you? Answer me. Please.
I waited there for his response, maybe for about twenty minutes. I just stood there at the sink, tapping my heels against the marble floor. I looked at myself in the mirror. I was thirty-six. I was in a young looking white dress with pearls around my neck. I looked like the kind of woman I wanted to be when I was fifteen. But now, as I stared at her, I hated her. I hated her dress. I hated her stupid hundred thousand dollar necklace that Cameron's parents gave to her as a blessing, even though it was secretly a pressure added to make sure I behaved and didn't bring shame to their family name. I hated her nicely done makeup. I hated her hair. I just hated this person in front of me. I wanted her to go away. I didn't want her to be me. But she was. I was her.
"Ah, you're in here." I turned to look who it was. It's Tabitha Li, Cameron's mom. She's got even more jewelry on her herself. She is taking my hand and pulling me out with her. "We've been looking for you. There's this thing the press wants you to do with Cam..." I've already stopped listening.
When we're done with this photoshoot of me and Cameron, he's walking towards me. I was starting to realize how this whole thing made him...not himself. He was the formal him I first met. The teasing and bullying he did with me at home, that him, he was completely somewhere else. And now I'm left with this overly careful and caring Cameron I don't know how to interact with. Because I barely know him.
"Did I say anything wrong earlier?" He brushes my hair out behind my ear, smiling this dimple-full smile. I can hear the clicks of cameras right behind me.
And here it goes again. Lies. Acting.
"Yeah." I take his arm, pulling him closer to me. We smile for more pictures. I lean toward his ear. "I just had to check in with Mason. After what you told me, I just got worried again and wanted to see if he was alright."
I did it. I continued with yet another lie.
Cameron grins, but in his eyes, only I could see, was a sad smile. "Yeah, I'm worried about him too. Hurting himself...killing himself, I'm scared, Maeve. I don't know what to do. Do you think this wedding will make him feel better?"
I could've laughed. But the look in him when he said that told me he really believed this wedding will solve everything, including everything with Mason. This wedding obviously was not going to help him. It pissed him off, that was a first. So it was definitely not going to 'save' him or anything.
"Maybe," I let my head fall on his shoulder. The cameramen snap more shots. "He's going to be alright though. He will be."
"Can we get a kiss shot?" Someone shouts from the small crowd.
Cameron is now suddenly shy. He rubs his hair like a little boy. I don't know if that was acting. I turned him towards me, and smiling my magnificent smile these people seem to all go crazy for, I pulled his face in my direction and planted a mighty kiss on his lips.
What disgusted me, what made my stomach churn and roll from within, was the fact that I could smell Mason on him. It just reminded me how wrong this all was.
—————
It was the day before the wedding. Also the last day I lived with Klarise. I was going to leave my stuff in the penthouse, since we didn't want any outsiders to know that I lived with her, we didn't get a moving company. And since there was some unreasonable tradition Cameron's parents had with the newly wedded wife moving in with none of her stuff and letting the husband buy her everything new.
I was home late from more picture shootings and last finishing touches with the wedding procedures. Because of all the preparations being made, the only times I got to see Klarise for the past weeks were the times when I came home late to bed and left early in the morning while she was still sleeping. I barely got to see her. I barely got to spend the last few good times I had left with her.
The shower was running. The whole penthouse was turned down to a low and dim light. The only sharp glow came from the bathroom. The only sound being the water running. This place was so big and hollow when there's no one. So quiet.
This was really my last day here with her. Living with her. I forgot how precious that was. It's always like this, you start to realize how much you've taken for granted to certain things when they're taken away. Or in my case, about to be taken away.
She usually showered with music. But today, there was none. It was just the water.
I took off my clothes and got in the bathroom. The glass door and wall to the shower is covered in mist and fog by the hot water, yet I could make out her body perfectly within the blur.
"Maeve?"
I opened the door and got inside the shower, feeling the hot water draining my hair wet. Klarise doesn't look surprised.
It had been a long day. I felt so tired.
"Hey," she brought me under her arm. And then I finally just let everything drop. My tears were mixed in with the shower water, unrecognizable between which was which.
Soap, water, shampoo, they wash all over us. I nuzzled my face into the crook of her neck. She held me as I cried, kissing away the tears.
"It's going to be okay," she whispered into my ear. "It's going to be alright. Everything's going as planned."
I sniffed, cried, bit my lips, both hating myself for being like this and relishing it.
She brought my head close to her chest, brushing out my now tangled and soaked hair. "You'll be okay."
I stopped crying. And then I got a good look at her. She was so gorgeous. I thought about everything I loved about her. I loved her voice, I loved the way she moved with confidence like she owned the world, I loved how she could wait you out, how she was so patient and somehow spending so much time with her has given me a bit of that skill. I loved how my eyes can't look anywhere else when I spot her, even in the middle of a crowd, surrounded with other gorgeous people, she will always be the only one that holds my attention.
"I love you," I said to her.
She stopped massaging me. She brought her hands to my face instead, cupping them, holding my gaze up to hers. "I love you too."
I kissed her like it was the last time I could kiss her. And maybe, in some kind of way, that might as well have been our last innocent kiss. Because I don't know, the other ones, they weren't as simple as this.