CHAPTER - 5
LOVE ISN'T... A QUESTION
'Love is the answer. What was the question?'
Meeting Liana made me feel like I was back to my teenage days. Not that I had a crush on her or something or I was just staring at her whenever she wasn't looking in my direction.
It felt like going back to younger days solely due to the fact that she was keen on asking so many questions from me which to be honest were boring. It felt like playing a round of twenty questions. My reactions to all her questions included me giving her an inappropriate reply or just being rude to her. Initially, I gave these reactions because the questions were stupid, but then she started getting annoyed at my answers and I actually started enjoying seeing her annoyed.
So this cycle of her asking a stupid, irrelevant question followed by me giving a totally inappropriate answer which led to her rolling her eyes and getting irritated with my answers which finally resulted in me smirking some more continued for quite a long time.
"The next question is, what do you like to do?" she asked, making me roll my eyes.
"I'm back to school." I stated in the most bored tone I could manage.
"Why am I even here?" I heard her mutter.
My lips twitched up slightly as I heard her frustrated tone and I decided to give her one straight answer. "I like to travel to different countries." Her eyebrows shot up in surprise but that surprise was short lived when I completed my sentence, "I get to bang girls of different countries." Not that I was lying.
"You are an animal." She huffed as she typed away my answer on her laptop.
I wanted to laugh at her annoyance, but I stopped myself. "Correction – I'm a beast." I added just to annoy her some more.
She shook her head, proving that my little mission was accomplished. "Anything else that you like?" she asked, looking like she was trying hard to control her frustrated emotions.
'Being alone, painting, mountains, beaches, driving on empty roads that seem to stretch forever with no end.' I thought but stopped myself. 'Why should I be telling her all this? How much do I even know her? Just twenty days and she will be gone for good. And maybe if I continue to behave like this she'll be gone even before 20 days.' So exactly like the last few hours, I ended up giving a completely inappropriate answer just to piss her off and to make her leave this assignment.
"Size bigger than or equal to thirty four; the bigger the better," I answered and I watched as she took her sweet time trying to understand what I had just said, and once she did, her eyes widened and she opened her mouth to say something, but I beat her at it. "You look like a thirty four C to me. I'm right, aren't I?" Her cheeks reddened visibly and a little smile made its way to my face looking at the expected reaction. Wanting to add to my joy, I leaned back in my chair and told her, Of course, I'm right. Apparently, I'm not a pro at perceptive hearing only."
I knew it was a jerk move. I was proving to be a total ass to her. But I wanted her to leave as soon as possible. It wasn't like she was going to stay for a long time anyway. So why wait a long time for something that is definitely going to happen? I was just taking matters in my own hands, and giving her more reasons to drop this pathetic excuse of an assignment. Making her uncomfortable was one way that was definitely going to work.
She gave the expected reaction of not being able to say anything which added heaps to my joy. To irritate her some more, I smugly told her, "Of course, I'm right. Apparently, I'm not a pro at perceptive hearing only." I watched her as she ducked her head to look at her laptop screen. "C'mon, don't be embarrassed. That's the perfect size," I informed her truthfully, which made her clench her jaw.
The perfect shade of red covered her cheeks as she tried to ignore me and I stared at her for a second longer. That shade of red was definitely going to be a part of the painting. She cleared her throat, bringing me back from the slight distraction her reddened cheeks had brought upon me and started, "So, the next question is..." I interrupted her by laughing a little at her attempt. Or maybe I was laughing at my irrational thoughts.
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"There is this one last question that I wanted to ask." I heard her which made me look towards her and then back at my phone. The last two hours were shockingly joyful for me, though I couldn't say the same thing about the girl who was looking at me with a very patient look on her face. ""Is there any ex-girlfriend or ex-lover of yours whom you would like to give a try in this task?"
Coming from a girl I had been kind of looking for since the last four months was kind of ironic. But, just like a lot of things going on in my mind, this was also meant to stay unsaid. I focused on her question and tried to think about the appropriate answer.
"There was Candice. She was wild in bed, but then she had a terrible habit of crying after every round," I told her, recalling Candice and her wild fantasies which I had no problems in fulfilling. However, being the asshole that I am, I once asked her why she cried after sex. In response, she had cried again, only to tell me at the end that they were tears of joy. I never saw her after that.
"Then there was this Italian hotness, Elma, sexy and gorgeous but a little stiff in bed." I shuddered at the memory and looked towards Liana as she rubbed her forehead, clearly getting frustrated with my answers. "Oh there was one, Alexandria..." I started, but she interrupted me.
"Stop it. Please!" she yelled, making me look at her with surprise. Was she finally going to give up on this assignment? "I'll take that as a 'no'." She huffed and I took that as a no to the question in my mind.
I chuckled and shrugged. "Your wish."
She nodded her head. "I should get going now. I'll come back tomorrow with portfolios of few girls that you might be interested in." With that she got up from her seat and picked up her laptop.
"Where do you think you're going?" I stopped her, but then I questioned myself as to why did I just stop her? Hadn't I been trying to make her leave since she gave me this surprise visit at my door this morning?
She glared at me and groaned, looking all cute. "What now?"
I smiled a little, well, at least my plan was working somehow. "You asked me way too many questions for my liking and you should be grateful that I answered all of them so nicely," I told her just to rile her up, which seemed to work as she rolled her eyes. "It's not just you who has to work with me. I've to bear you for the next twenty days, Ms. Moore and going by my experience of past few hours these days are going to be annoying as hell and unbearable." I almost laughed when she looked at me with utter disbelief.
She shot a super sarcastic smile my way and said, "I agree on that one, but I really can't help my perverted mind from having dirty thoughts and my highly stupid mouth from saying every idiotic thing that occurs in my teenage head. Oh and the very thought of every sexual conquest I have had in the many countries that I have travelled just makes me much more horny. But, I'll try my best to keep my pee pee in my pants."
Within a minute, she had managed to call me a pervert, stupid, idiot, a teenager, and a horny bastard who can't control his hormones. I pressed my lips and thought about what to say next. "Pee pee? People still use this word?" I laughed as she glared at me, but if looks could kill, I would have been dead by now. In order to save myself from getting killed by her glare, I tried to stop my laughter. "You prove my guess work wrong every time you try to insult me. Now, you look like a four year old to me," I added my bit to make this conversation feel a little less insulting for me.
I grinned as the cycle of her groaning in annoyance continued. "You're so annoying," she stated as if it was a fact.
'Mission accomplished,' I thought. "I'm flattered." I said with a little bow down that I could manage to do in the super relaxed comfortable position I was in, sprawled on the couch.
"Ask whatever you want to ask. I do not have all day." She huffed, shooting a smug look in my direction and sat down.
Smirking, I asked, "As you are such a huge believer in shit called love are you in a relationship?"
There... there I asked her the one question that I had been wanting to ask since the time I saw her at my door. And for the first time during the day, or probably months, as would have been Harry's opinion, I patiently waited for something – her answer. A simple yes or a no.
"Yes," she answered, looking straight in my eyes with a little smile on her face. "I'm in a very happy relationship since the last six years and I'm very much in love with him."
I wanted to call her bullshit right there and then. 'Oh, is it? And what about the girl he hooked up with?' I wanted to ask, but just the way I had been keeping all my thoughts to myself, I kept this one too.
"Nolan...his name is Nolan Maxwell." It felt like an unnecessary 'FYI' in an important email. "Anything else?" she asked, smiling at me.
This time, unlike the last few hours, her smile irritated me. I was sure that she was hiding something from me, and I wanted to call her out for that. But could I really? Who was I to her? Just her boss's son who is notorious for being a 'good for nothing' jerk. I hadn't even given her a reason to not believe anything she must have heard about me. So, why should she be sharing the details of her relationship with her cheating boyfriend with me?
I decided to let the matter go. What was the use of pondering any further? She was back with that asshole. Good for her! "What is love?" I asked her the last question of the day, though I should have just let her go few minutes ago.
"Love is..." she trailed off, having this far-off look on her face, probably thinking of some stupid definition to say.
"Bullshit?" I asked with a smirk, hoping that she would remember something... anything at all about that night. Judging from the scowl on her face, I realized that my attempt had proved to be futile. Leaning away from her, I asked with a bigger smirk just to tick her off, "Finding it hard to make me believe in love when you yourself don't believe in that shit, huh?"
With bated breath, I waited for her to say yes.
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A/N
So I updated, after 3 long years, I finally did! Yayyy!
There have been so many changes in my life – married to the love of my life, change in career plans, moving places, facing the pandemic like everyone in the world, work from home, managing home, family and a demanding full time job... and just living life. But yes, I missed writing, so I'm trying to get back at it. How are you amazing people doing? So glad that 2020 is almost over, right?
A sheer co-incidence, this chapter has 2020 words.
-Richa