Chapter 12: Why Did You?

"Just my luck."

"Just my luck."

Those words left together from our mouths. Great! Now even the feelings we shared were mutual?

"Tadaa....!" Valery chirped, releasing both of our hands from the handle. She threw a smile in his way and my way too, which said, 'no way you are starting something now, just stop sulking and get in!'

A sneer left my lips at her smile as I sauntered into the restaurant-- ignoring the person-- and searched for the three familiar faces. Obviously, Alejandro can never overtake Phillipe in the case of driving.

My gaze wandered left and right in the packed restaurant when my eyes stopped on the sight of familiar blonde hair.

"Hey, guys!" I waved and strolled towards them.

"Hey, love!" Ivanna said while Sein just grumbled something under his breath-- who was seated opposite Ivanna, on an eight-seater table-- and pretended to analyse the menu card.

Even I'll see, if you can avoid me for more than an hour.

"Who is that?" I pointed the person who was seated beside Ivanna, glancing at the menu- or more like pretending like Sein. He was wearing a floral shirt, sunglasses blocked the view of his eyes while his black curly hair made an almost unnoticeable contact with his shoulders when he nodded his head towards the prices, was secured by a weird floral cap.

He was looking a total gay weirdo to me.

Do men really wear floral shirts and sunglasses in restaurants of Spain? He probably is the first one I've met. Scratch that, seen.

"Just sit beside me and I'll say." She patted the seat to her left while the weirdo was on the seat to her right.

"Yeah...?" I asked, after getting comfortable on the seat. Don't say that he's your boyfriend now! I never had expected Ivanna to hide something so big from me, nor there was a possibility that she hooked with some guy like him. But looks could be deceiving.

"He is your brother," she mumbled quietly, making my eyes widen.

"What?!" I yelled, grabbing the attention of nearby busy tables, whose gaze was saying, 'did you lose your mind chicka?'.

I threw a tight smile in their direction and waved them, to avoid further embarrassment whilst Sein's shoulders shook attempting to control his laughter, hiding his face behind the menu. That's when I noticed that Phillipe was not here.

"Yuk! He can't be my brother." My lips let out an hissing sound, pointing at the weirdo. Though my brother was not as attractive as me but I couldn't get myself to accept the fact that stated my brother was something like that....

"Why can't I be?" the weirdo removed his glasses and gave me the clear view of confused brown eyes, similar to mine. He indeed was my cousin brother. What the fuck did he do himself?

"What did you get yourself into? You look like a gay in that floral shirt." I placed a hand on my mouth, to stop myself from laughing out loud and attracting unnecessary attention. My finger pointed his outfit as he scowled at me and dumped his head into the menu again.

"He just doesn't want the media to recognise him," Ivanna said, giggling.

"He could've at least dressed manly." Sein revealed his face, smirking at menu behind which Phillipe's face was hidden.

"Shut up. As if you are manly. After all, you go to dress shopping with my sister." At this, I and Ivanna cracked up, not caring the burning stares from the strangers around us. Both the men stuffed their faces in the menu card, Sein trying to avoid his embarrassment while my brother trying to avoid his 'new look', I guess. Wait till Valery comes.

Speaking of the grandma, where was she?

"Guess who?"A faminine voice entered my ears, now giggling, while someone covered my eyes with his hands. The voice undoubtedly belonged to the grandma, but the palms covering my eyes were rough and manly, giving out only one possibility, Alejandro!

"Alejandro!" I screamed, laughing out loud.

"Wrong." I heard Alejandro's voice.

"Then who is it?" Wondering to myself, I twisted my head and my eyes increased in size when they landed on, none other than, Edward. I did not a tiny bit expect Valery to invite him to our table. Oh, dafoos Valery! She always seemed to find a way to make me uncomfortable in some sort.

"Hey, I did not touch you with any intention, it was your friend's idea," he scoffed, pointing towards Valery and back up slightly raising his hands in surrender, mockery was clear in his eyes. The expression did not astonish me as it was expected after receiving a hard slap from a female.

"He will be sitting with us, so I expect behaviour from you." Valery's eyes held warning, for which I bowed down with a sarcastic expression. A sneer left mine and Alejandro's lips together.

Great Valery! First, you bleed my ears by lecturing me in the car about how I shouldn't have hit him yesterday and, today, he sits with us for lunch. Couldn't I get rid of him?

God! Why do you hate him so much?

Maybe because he is so full of himself all the time and not to mention, he kissed me without taking my permission.

You are so full of yourself too. Get a grip girl, and act politely towards him. After all, he is the reason you are alive today. He is the reason that you got to know, your ex-husband is jealous and perhaps, has some feelings towards you.

Whatever my subconscious explained was correct. And my subconscious was again me. Maybe, my mouth and actions were too harsh towards him. I pulled out all his negative aspects and self-flattering remarks on the first day instead of thanking him for his presence. The first impression is the best impression, people say. Maybe, I need to make amendments of my first impression on him, in order to picture him positively.

"Sit," I said Edward softly which did not only shock Edward but also me and the other three who knew Edward; Valery, Ivanna and Alejandro.

"Uh-uh Okay..." he trailed off, cautiously eyeing the seat for a minute ad then seating himself.

"Who are you?" Sein's blue eyes narrowed at Edward when he finally gave rest to the poor menu whose pages were flipped left and right, at least, a fifty times till then.

"Oh, he? He is Edward, the one I mentioned in the ca-" Ivanna abruptly halted her words, once she realised what left her ducking mouth.

Sein's body tensed suddenly, his eyes changing the shades of blue, which became darker second by second. He suddenly jerked his head the opposite direction, to avoid the anger or something else.

Ivanna, when will you learn to stop the pretty little mouth of yours? Alcohol is not needed for you, You probably are drunk all the time to blurt out things which aren't supposed to be exposed so suddenly.

"Uh- is something wrong here? Maybe, I should leave." He started to get up after sensing Sein's hostile reaction, at his name. I understood the un-comfortability that seeped his nerves right then, not exactly knowing his role in the somewhat not so compromising situation.

I grabbed his hand and nodded him to sit in his place, which earned me another surprised look with raised eyebrows.

"Nothing's wrong here bro...just chill." Phillipe butted in the conversation.

"Hey, you look like a cool gay dude. Maybe, you will be pleased to meet my gay friend." Edward wiggled his eyebrows at Phillipe with an 'aw' expression written all over his purple orbs, at my brothers so-called 'coolness'.

Laughter erupted from our table while Phillipe sent glares in Edward's direction and Edward sported lost puppy look. Even Edward mistook him for gay weirdo, it's just that I thought it was a disgusting look for any person -as I personally don't fan over floral shirts- and Edward thought that was 'cool'. Maybe, we could get along fine.

"He-he is not a gay bro..." Sein muttered between his fits, at the same time, trying hard to control his stomach ache. The burden on my heart was lightened, all thanks to Edward, even though the seed for this whole mess was ploughed by him.

"Sorry dude, but you exactly seem like one." Edward scratched the nape of his neck, his purple eyes apologetic and at the same time luring me in.

The same happened when I first met him. His eyes held my attention, silently begging to detail them. Maybe, I could manage to found a wand of Harry Potter to freeze Edward and study his not-so-likely but very much captive purple eyes.

"We would love to meet your friend because I bet a thousand bucks on this guy, sitting right here, actually is a gay." Phillipe pointed Sein with a slight smirk tugged on his lips.

"Shut up, I ain't any."

"Hey Sofia, can you please say who is gay here?" Edward asked desperately when suspicions arose in my body if he was actually the gay friend he mentioned earlier? Why would Edward be desperate if his friend was gay? Oh, my god! Maybe, his friend often threw himself at Edward?

"Now don't say you are the gay bro. You are so desperate," Sein said, a smile developed on his lips when Edward started squirming on his seat, trying to hide his expressions from our gazes. Sein would probably celebrate Christmas then if he really turned to be a gay. But in no order, Edward seemed to be a gay. His walk, smile, punch on our first meet and the kiss....Please, Lord, show some mercy on poor me. I, in no means, would feel ecstatic kissing a gay.

He should not be gay...he should not be gay...

I chanted the mantra over and over in the hopes of Edward being straight. As if Lord was happy hearing my mantra, Edward said, "No, I am not one."

Sein's face fell, his lips turning upside down whereas my features brightened upon hearing that.

"Thank goodness." Maybe I saved someone in my life, to not experience the horrible reality the situation could have been.

"So why are you sooooo desperate?" Sein raised his eyebrows, probably expecting the answer he wanted to please his ears with. Why couldn't he leave the matter sometimes?

"That is a long story bro. To put in short, my neighbour is a gay and always finds a way to spend time with me. So, I decided to set him up on a date with some other gay. You know, to get rid of his hands landing on me on every occasion he gets", he stopped and scrunched up his nose trying to recollect something, "Ah, even he wears the same exact floral shirts."

"Looks like you found your exact match," Alejandro spoke for the first time after saying the waitress to get water for all of us.

"You all are so mean." Phillipe stuck his bottom lip out and put on the sunglasses back.

"Don't worry Phillipe, I actually think you look handsome in this." Ivanna flicked Phillipe's nose playfully, muttering 'so cute', at which I internally gagged.

"Why yes, thank you, my lady." Phillipe softly placed a kiss on her hand while she just let out a giggle. That scene was horrendous.

"You should actually check your eye-sight, Ivanna," Valery commented earning a chorus of 'yes' and 'yup'.

"Oh common, Ivanna always has a different taste in all." The rest of the lunch came to an end with the usual battering from girls and funny comments from guys around the table. Edward started narrating his hilarious childhood memories, guys seemed to get along with him, Sein's anger flew in the thin air and was replaced with his own childhood memories.

Once the lunch came to an end, girls hopped into one car whilst the guys shared the other car and left to pick Ethan and Anthony from kindergarten.

"I always wonder one thing, Sofia. Now that you are divorced, will you actually love some other guy?" Valery questioned and lines of concern formed on her forehead.

"Yes, I sure will."

"So what would he be like? Like, what kind will you prefer?" Ivanna asked, backing out of the crowded parking place.

I slipped into the dreams of my own prince charming, not the prince who resides in a castle with a bunch of maids and authoritative yet caring parents who spoil him rot, but into the imaginary prince charming who is an uncrowned prince without a kingdom; Prince through the heart. Slowly but surely, my lips started tugging themselves into a blissful smile at the picture my heart designed.

"Now that I am a Princess, I am sure that many people will be making plans to hunt and capture me into the love which will be a lie, just to be the king." A dry chuckle left my lips at the efforts I need to put, in order to dodge all the lies to hold the hand of my real Prince.

"The understanding we share must be envied by other couples. Instead of treating me like a princess, I will love if he treats me as who I am first, a girl. Never has someone treated me like one, Ivanna. I switched 5 or 6 foster homes till I turned eighteen where people would abuse me, treat me as a maid excepting for one house. But the old couple that treated me well died in a car accident once again throwing me in the shadows. You don't know the feeling, Ivanna, when you are thrown into the world consisting a population of seven billion with no one to care for you." A lone tear escaped my eye. My shoulder felt a warm hand squeeze it, which undoubtedly belonged to Valery as Ivanna was in the front seat whilst I was at the back along with Valery.

"Being and falling in love is not enough to make a marriage success. Everyone can fall in love and enjoy as long as it comes to marriage and the look at the irony of today's world, people just fall out of love before even thinking about marriage after dating for 5 or 6 years. The word 'love' is played today, just used carelessly sometimes, I guess. Like common, I know that you can't say you will last long together till death but you should, at least, try to make it work. People think marriage as a piece of cake and divorce when it doesn't work out. The way they are violating something so divine." My thoughts trailed to the time when I divorced Samuel, the trust he couldn't keep on me.

"Once think, if you do something for Alejandro which you personally don't favour but he likes it, will you really consider it as an adjustment?" I asked Valery hoping she wasn't getting bored by all this.

"I don't know." She shook her head, drawing her eyebrows together.

"You just started Valery, don't worry about this," I said, squeezing her palm in an attempt to provide assurance.

"I can just go on and on about the person and my marriage but it would probably be boring. I definitely will lecture you both before your marriage, though." I let out few chuckles in order to ease the situation but did not earn the familiar identical sounds in return. "Even though it sounds cheesy, I want our hearts to beat together and be one soul instead of two different souls."

"Tell me, Sofia, did you actually have all this when you married?" Ivanna asked, curiosity framed her voice without a trace of her 'oops' blurt out questions which meant, she needed to know about Samuel and me.

This kept me thinking as I learnt all these only after the divorce and I had a weird definition of love before divorce happened.

"No..." I heaved a sigh and my footwear seemed more interesting to me right then. I composed myself to face the question that would leave either of their lips,

"Why did you marry him then?"

Here goes nothing.

*********

I don't know but I think this chapter was quiet messy and she exactly did not explain the kind of guy she needs, which will be in next chapter.

Here is Christmas gift for you. Merry christmas.

COMMENT AND VOTE:)

And yeah, what is the definition of love for you?

Aren't you excited to know the reason behind Sofia's marriage?

Changed the cover....did you like it?