The more he thought about it, the more he became certain that there was something wrong. Two days had passed since the “credit card’ episode and Rhea had stayed clearly out of his way since then. It was certainly not a coincidence that they had not crossed each other’s path while they were living in the same house.
The only few seconds he had heard of her was when he had called her like every morning to tell her that he loved her. Except that it had been a one-sided conversation and he had to try after several disconnected calls as usual.
On top of that, Adam had had his share of furtive looks from Zoey during those past few days and he suspected that they were cooking something up. Except he never realized how right he was until he returned home that evening and found Rhea already in his kitchen. Cooking!
And now he was sure that he was right well at least literally. Rhea Palmer cooking in the kitchen was definitely something out of place. As far as he remembered, she had never been able to manage a decent dish in her entire life and had never fail to emphasize how much she hated cooking.
Putting it that way, Rhea was the kind of person who would cook only if it was a matter of life and death. So Adam became damned sure that there was something amiss. A person could not change that much in only two years.
“Hi, what’s up?” he asked casually trying to bade some time before his attack. He needed a confirmation that there was something else behind her latest behavior. And then he would confront the Cooper girl. Zoey would surely know what Rhea was up to.
“Nothing much,” she replied. “I’m trying to cook us dinner.”
He nodded. She was stating the obvious. “What happened to Jane?” he probed still opting for the casualness he was far from feeling. It was certainly not showing in his voice thankfully.
“Oh, she had asked for the day off,” she replied flapping her hand casually – a gesture which was self-incriminating in itself. Adam was no longer sure if he wanted to know what the hype was all about after all. Because whatever it was he was sure not going to like it.
“Alright,” he said in a calm voice which was in total contrast to where his thoughts were leading him. “And where’s Zoey?”
“Oh she and Zach are out for dinner,” she replied still trying for a pure and innocent tone which Adam knew was laced with huskiness. And he could not associate it with any particular emotion. Damn! All that suspense was exciting him but at the same time he was feeling wary of what would happen next. It was either she was making an effort to be near him which he seriously doubted. Or she was plotting something to drive him far away from her.
Adam was smart enough to conclude that it was the latter option most probably. Rhea would never admit so easily that she even liked him. And she certainly had not shown him any positive vibes. Come to think of it, she had done her best to behave like she was a weak creature or something. An attribute he had never associated with Rhea before since she had always been strong and independent . Pretending to play with his mobile phone perched on the kitchen table, he opted for a casual pose while his thoughts were in riots.
And something clicked inside his head. It had the same effect as if lightning had struck him. Of course he would not know the comparison but he had a pretty idea he would feel like that if electricity rippled through him.
And the more he pondered over that fact, the more the puzzle seemed to fit. For example during their dinner date, every time he had expected her to say something, she had done the exact opposite. Her weak feminine side had been a novelty for him; her insecurities and her efforts to make him look macho looked now uncanny.
And not to forget that she was actually trying to spend time with him when she had made a point to avoid him last year. It was all so obvious to him now. Rhea was acting weird because she wanted him to disgust her.
Although he could not understand her exact strategy, he was sure he was on the right track. He vowed to himself that he would pounce on Zoey as soon as the latter got back home but for the time being he wanted to confirm his theory.
It did not take a genius to guess what would happen next. He was sure that Rhea would cry over her inability to cook a decent food. But that was something he already knew and it was certainly not going to put him off her.
In fact, none of her actions were going to stop his feelings for her. It saddened him to see that Rhea thought his love was weak enough to end over such pretty matters. He almost wished it was. That he could finally stop the hurt and pain of his one-sided love. But love unfortunately did not depend on conditions.
Love was as unpredictable as life. It came when you least expect it and found a life on its own even when someone tried to crush it. And who better than him to know that. He had tried hard to stop loving her but it was beyond his control. It would seem that he was cursed to love her all his life while she would never return his feelings.
Because if Rhea thought that by doing all that he would stop loving her then it only meant one thing. She had never known what it was to love. As Shakespeare had so rightly said love is not love which alters when its alteration finds.
Damn here he was getting poetic while Rhea was glancing at him like he had grown into a green monster while he was tapping furiously on his screen to attempt a casual stance. While he was preparing himself to bombard her with questions to disorient her.
“So what are you preparing?” he asked putting down his phone and noticed how she turned at the sound of his voice. It was as if she had been waiting for him to ask that question and he was playing right in her game just to expose her.
“I felt so bad the other night to have refused the pasta you had ordered for me. So I was trying to make you some pasta today,” she replied.
And Adam knew what was coming his way. The question was on the tip of his tongue but he refrained from voicing it out. He wanted her to suffer as he was suffering. It was not fair that she did not love him back and he was even more hurt that she was taking so much pain to convince him otherwise.
She looked at him expecting him to ask if everything was alright he was sure and he felt the perverse need to torture her. So he remained silent picking up his phone again knowing that it was the only way to disorient her. True to his thoughts, she started fidgeting after a while desperate to get his attention.
“What’s wrong?” he finally asked making it sound like he picked the clue only recently.
“The pasta!” she gasped.
Adam had to give it to her. She was a fantastic actress except he knew her only too well. If she had been a stranger to him, he might never have picked up what she was after.
Standing up, he neared the washing basin where Rhea had transferred the boiled pasta. They looked over boiled and had lost their spaghetti form. Come on! How hard was it to boil pasta? HE felt damn sure that Rhea was trying to show her in a bad light to him so that what she believed was infatuation for her would end.
Trying not to show his rage and desperation, he looked at her crestfallen face and prayed for patience. "Let me call for some pizza,” he replied and was sure it was what had been planned all along.
Rhea tried a wobbly smile and started her “poor me” rants bout how she would never get married since she could never manage a good dish. He only half listened to her and when she had finished, he had managed to control his wrath and the urge to strangle her.
He had to talk to Zoey first before deciding what to do. So, he tampered down his feelings and gritted his teeth while she finished with her show.
He was really not in the mood to humor her and when she was done, instead of consoling her, he went upstairs only asking her to signal him when the pizza arrived. He had a hell of a week and it was certainly not the Friday he had been expecting.
And frankly speaking, he was feeling down. It was a difficult path and he was not sure how to proceed with her. As he laid on the bed, various unwanted thoughts still filled him. Was it time for him to give her up? He should talk to Zoey first before taking any decision.
But he never knew when his eyelids dropped and he felt asleep still wearing his business suit. When he woke up the next morning, he was wearing only his shirt and his pair of trunks. Gone was his heavy suit, pants and shoes. But his stomach rumbled like it had nothing in it and he remembered having skipped dinner the previous night.
Thankfully it was Saturday and he had no pending work to complete today. Picking up his phone, he dialed her number but felt crestfallen as he remembered the previous events. Should he phone her? Or not? Finally, deciding not to give up, he dialed up her number and she picked up after the first dial tone.
“Hey,” he greeted hesitantly. “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” she replied back. Adam heaved a sigh of relief. At least she was answering him back. It meant that she was not that pissed off with him yet, right?
“I love you,” he simply said and cut off the phone without giving time to reply back. It would have been either “go to hell” or “get a life”. And he was not in the mood to face his failures again so early in the morning.
He needed to clear his head. So, he wore his jogging suit and headed towards the kitchen feeling ravenous. It was futile having pessimist thoughts again and all he wanted was to have some time to figure out about his next moves.
“A.D.C! You’re going for a run?” asked Zoey as soon as he walked into his kitchen and he nodded..
“Yah, care to join me?” he asked seizing the opportunity to seek her out alone as they needed to have a talk.
“Sure,” she replied jumping off the stool. “Let me get ready. Here, have some breakfast in the meantime,” she said serving out a fresh plate for him.
Adam did not offer any protest. He was famished and he gobbled up the plate without any further delay. When he was done, he looked for Rhea but she was nowhere in sight. Good! It gave him time to sort out his ideas with Zoey.
They finally hit the road together. The morning was neither too warm nor too cool and he felt better when his blood started to pump in his veins. It always refreshed him to run a few miles in the morning and Zoey had always accompanied him. Zach had never had the time from work while Rhea was anti-sports.
When they reached their usual rest spot, they both heaped in huge amount of air from the fresh air of the morning and trying to get back their normal breathing. “So? What’s with Rhea?” he finally managed in between two gasps and sat down on the grass as he knew the conversation would take some time.
Zoey’s neck seemed to veer towards him like a camera being zoomed on a particular target. It was amazing how she managed that without her neck getting jammed. Adam would have laughed at her comical stance except he found no senses of humor in confirming his doubts. He had not been paranoid; Zoey had just confirmed him right that by her stupid reaction.
“What’s with her?” she croaked managing to smile brightly at him.
Adam was simply not in the mood for games. “Don’t give me that, Zo! I know something is fishy. And you know everything. So you’d better spill the beans. And besides you were the one who made me go after her on a date. You promised to help me. How can you?”
She groaned stopping his sentence mid-way. “I know! But I’m both your friends and I don’t know who is right and who is wrong anymore,” she said gruffly hiding her face in between her hands. Adam felt guilty for putting so much pressure on her. He had never realized how torn she must feel to choose between her two best friends.
He sighed. “Alright. Never mind. I give up. I’m not going to pursue her anymore. I give up!” he repeated another time in a defeated voice.
“What?” she asked removing her head from her hands and looked up at him in alarm. “What do you mean?”
Was she crazy? Did he have to spell it out to her? “I mean…” he breathed in. “I will not call her now. I will find myself another hobby. I will become so busy that I won’t have the time to think about her anymore. This is what she wants, right?”
“But A.D.C you love her, don’t you?” Zoey exclaimed childishly as if she had grown into some dimwit or something. She looked as if she was on the verge of crying and Adam could have laughed at his bad luck. If only Rhea was on the same wavelength as her.
“Rhea’s going out of her way to show me that she does not care. And this is something she had never done before. And don’t you dare deny it! I know what’s going on behind her eccentric behavior. She is driving me away by acting like she is not the one for me.”
Zoey looked stunned at his last sentence. “How do you know that? Has she told you something?”
There! He was right. “No but I’m not stupid. She’s acting the exact opposite of what I expect her to be. And totally different from the Rhea I know. Oh, she’s subtle I give you that. But I know her from childhood. There’s no way that she could have changed so much.”
“I told her it would never work. I’m really really sorry. I did try to stop her from that stupid plan of hers.”
His alarm grew. “Plan? What plan?”
“Oh, she has read an article somewhere about how to be the perfect girlfriend. And her genius idea is to act the exact opposite as what has been written in the article so as to convince you that she’s not the girl for you.”
Of course! It made perfect sense now. Well, not her idea but her latest behavior. She had been acting like a total moron those past few days and Adam felt sad that she had to go to such length for him. He sighed and it came out loud and long which told a story of its own.
“This is getting complicated. I think it’s time for me to stop everything here. I don’t want her to feel like she needs to do these…stuff to put me off. If she wants me to stop bothering her I will. But it does not mean I will stop loving her.”
Zoey was shaking her head even before he had finished his sentence. “No, Adam,” she pleaded and it was one of the rare times she used her name. It had always been “A.D.C” for her and Zach and Adam could only guess how serious she was. “Don’t give up on her. I’m damn sure she feels something for you but she’s too wrapped up in her pain to give you a chance.”
“Zo….”
“No, at least hear me out. The day we got back here I asked her what was wrong about you. And she said the weirdest thing. That you were already her best friend, mentor and neighbor. And she did not want to add lover to the list. Which got me thinking.”
Adam lifted his eyes towards his friend. “Really? She said that?” he asked hope flaring inside his heart despite the severe lecture it had just received last night.
Zoey nodded her head vigorously. They both knew what it meant. Rhea was afraid to give Adam more space in her life as she already depended too much on him. They knew her so well that there was no need to voice it out. It hung in the air between them unspoken and finally Zoey was the first one to break the silence.
“Okay, let me put it that way. If she does not hook up with you, she will never find someone else. And she’s my best friend and I want her to be happy. Here is not the question of whether she loves you back or not. Rhea will never love anyone else; she’s too broken for that and you know it.”
Yeah he did. But was it enough? It was not that he had grown tired of her or that he wanted to move on. He simply did not want to force himself on her. It was bad enough to be rejected but it required great courage to have his love thrown back in his face every morning. When Rhea had never reacted to his declarations of love, he had assumed that she did not believe him and would eventually come around. But she had never reacted. Unlike now.
“But why the hell does she want to convince me that she’s not the perfect girlfriend? Don’t you think it would have been much easier if she just told me she did not love me back. Not that it would make any difference to how I feel but I fail to see the reason behind so much drama.”
“Well, according to her, it will make you realize how wrong you were in picking her as the ideal girlfriend and rectify your mistake without her having to break your heart. And that way she would remain your best friend and revert back to what you were in the past without any hard feelings between the two of you.”
“Women!” he smirked. Talk about them being complicated. Where the hell did they get such warped ideas anyway? Life was already so complicated and he did not know why they had to complicate it further. When would Rhea realize that they would never go back to what they were?
“Please A.D.C don’t give up on her. If you give up on her, she’s a hopeless case.”
Adam knew Zoey was right except that the path he was heading was full of hardship and he was not sure whether he was up to it. But it was not like him to give up on his love again. He refused to live without her and what if she did not love him back? He loved her enough for both of them except that she was too stupid to see that.
As he gazed through the unseen scenery, he suddenly felt a sense of optimism. If Zoey was convinced that she was made for him, it had to mean something. That was the reason why he had never been discouraged when Rhea had refused him so many times before.
Because he also knew that Rhea was too broken to be able to love someone. She was afraid of commitment of any kind and it was only their solid friendship which was still holding her to them. The moment she doubted their friendship, Rhea would leave no stone unturned to shun them out of her life. Zoey and Zach included.
And he nodded his head in response to Zoey’s plea.
“Alright. What do you suggest?”
Zoey grinned back at him almost jumping in his arms. “Oh A.D.C I so wish somebody loved me that much too. Thank you for not giving up on her. Now listen carefully. Rhea Ivy Palmer would not know what hit her until it’s too late.”