Chapter 215
My heart leapt into my throat. I wasn’t sure whether I should take his call or not. I knew that I should hear him out, but at the same time, I did not want to listen after everything that I saw in the park...
My hands shook as I brought my fingers to the touchscreen. With a deep breath, I clicked the green telephone icon to accept the call and put the phone to my ear.
“Hello?” I said, my voice breaking.
“Crystal?” Andrew said. “Are you okay?”
My nose scrunched, and my brows furrowed. How dare he ask me that, after everything that’s transpired over the past several days?
“No. I’m not.”
Andrew sighed.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” I laughed dryly. “Sure, you’re sorry.”
“I swear, that picture was taken out of context—”
“You cheated on me, Andrew!”
“You don’t understand—”
“What don’t I understand?” I spat.
“I was carrying Princess Aurora to the car because she hurt her ankle,” he said, his voice determined to get his story across. “I was getting her medical attention. That was all.”
I sniffled.
“What about everything before that?”
“What do you mean?”
“You took your shirt off in front of her, Andrew.” I realized that my voice sounded strained and pathetic, but I didn’t care. “You almost kissed.”
“I-we didn’t almost kiss, Crystal,” he said defensively. “She had something on her chin, and I got it off for her. That’s all.”
I huffed through my nose.
“I didn’t say what you were doing when it happened,” I said through gritted teeth. “How did you know at what point I was talking about if it didn’t happen?”
I could hear Andrew quietly cursing himself.
“I’ll admit, Princess Aurora might have a crush on me—”
“Might have a crush on you?”
I shook my head at the audacity.
“She’s completely smitten by you, Andrew! Don’t you understand? Anyone with eyes can see that!”
Andrew groaned in frustration.
“Please, don’t use that word.”
“What word? Smitten?”
“Yes, that. She is not smitten by me. She just has a little crush on me, that’s all.”
I ran my hand through my hair, my frustration and anger growing, but before I could say anything, Andrew continued.
“She’s flirted with me, but that doesn’t mean that she is in love with me or smitten by me or anything of the sort. She’s just a friend, a daughter of a friend, nothing more. We hardly even know each other—”
“Please, stop,” I said, my throat tightening as tears threatened to drip down my face again. “Just, stop. I don’t want to hear it.”
Andrew did not respond, so I proceeded.
“You took her on a picnic. You sat damn close for people who supposedly don’t have feelings for each other. You even took your shirt off in front of her.”
I took a deep, shuddering breath. I wondered if Andrew could hear how upset this was making me.
“If you have feelings for her, just let me know now.”
Andrew stayed silent for a prolonged period of time, presumably waiting to see if I had anything else to say.
“Crystal,” he said when I didn’t speak, “I took her on a picnic because she’s a visiting dignitary who wanted to see the sites. She wanted to have a picnic lunch that day. That was all.”
“But at our park? The one where you played hooky for me?”
“It was the park with the best view and the most historic significance. I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about how much it would have meant to you.”
“You sat so close—”
“I was just being friendly.”
I huffed and rolled my eyes, even though Andrew could not see me.
“Very friendly, apparently,” I sneered.
“You haven’t sat close to Noah?”
I cringed. I didn’t want to admit that he had a point, so I avoided that subjected altogether.
“Then you took your shirt off.” I had lost count of how many times I had brought this point up and Andrew had avoided addressing it.
“That was a mistake,” he said. “I took it off because of the mustard stain, and I was going to change into a shirt that I had back in the car. Looking back, I can see how it might have been misleading—”
“Misleading? Andrew, she was going to touch your abs, right there in the park!”
Andrew’s voice turned annoyed.
“Don’t exaggerate, Crystal—”
“Exaggerate? I saw what I saw.”
“You’re blowing things way out of proportion. She might have been flirting with me, but that’s all that it was. Harmless, friendly flirting.”
“I can’t believe you. You’re not taking the issue seriously enough!”
“Oh, really? Just like you didn’t take the Noah issue seriously enough?”
I growled in frustration.
“Are you going to hold that over me forever? I explained the situation to you—”
“Just like I’ve explained this situation to you.”
“Not well enough. How am I supposed to trust that you don’t have feelings for this Princess Aurora when you won’t even give me a straight answer?”
Andrew blew air out through his nostrils.
“How am I supposed to trust that you don’t have feelings for Noah when he keeps showing up in our lives?”
“Because unlike you, I am telling you straight out that I do not have feelings for Noah!” I yelled.
By this point, I was pacing up and down the length of my bedroom. Tears streamed down my cheeks, and I was all but pulling hair out of my head. My heart beat against my ribs so painfully that I could barely breathe.
I could hear Jeffrey walking on the other side of my bedroom door, probably listening to my side of the conversation. I didn’t care. Let him listen.
After a long stretch of silence, Andrew spoke again, his voice quiet yet calm and strong.
“I’m not cheating on you, Crystal,” he said. “Please, believe me.”
I wiped my tears with the heel of my hand.
“I’m sorry, Andrew,” I said. “I don’t.”
Before Andrew could respond, I hung up the phone. I threw it onto my bed collapsed beside it, burying my face in my pillow. As soon as my face touched the fabric, I let my tears falls unchecked as my shoulders heaved in heavy sobs.
After a few minutes of crying myself out, I turned at the sound of my phone buzzing with another text. Assuming it was one of my friends again, I reluctantly reached over and grabbed my phone.
A text from Andrew read, I love you.
I glared at the screen as I squeezed my phone. I looked over those three simple words again and again, my grip growing tighter and tighter, until my eyes were so blurred with tears that I couldn’t see the letters anymore.
“Liar!”
I had an impulse to throw my phone again. Instead, I wiped my tears and switched over to Lily’s last text from five minutes before.
Hello? Crystal? Are u sure u are ok? she asked.
I slammed my finger against the touchscreen as I typed.
No, I’m not, I said. I can’t believe I fell for another cheat.
