Chapter 19

Back to present:

We went back home and on the way Bartholomew immediately apologized to me:

"I am sorry about her. Did she annoy you?

-No, it's okay. I am just a bit lost. It seems I forgot a lot of things.

-It's okay. She is not worth remembering.

-Was she bad to me?

-She was. She did her best to make you leave.

-What did she do?

-Do you really want to know?

-If I don't know what she did I won't know if I should forgive her.

-I will tell you. You should forget her.

-Bartholomew...

-Not Bartholomew, Honey.

-My Honey will tell me what happened or he'll sleep alone tonight.

-How could I argue against such convincing statements? She thought that you would leave on your own so at first she didn't do anything but when she saw that you were staying she started getting creative. She would wait for me to leave and would turn off the heating in your room, hide insects in your bed, put salt in your water... Childish and mean things.

-That's very dumb.

-It is."

I understood better why Bartholomew had been so cold to her. Of course he would hate her after this.

"And who is Bonnie?"

Bartholomew froze.

"She was your friend.

-Was?

-Is.

-I would love to meet her. And Zadimus too.

-I could arrange a meeting with Zadimus but I have no idea where Bonnie is at the moment.

-How come?

-After your accident she disappeared and I was too busy to care.

-Were we very close?

-Too close."

I started laughing:

"Were you jealous?

-Yes. You have only known her for two months but you two looked inseperable as soon as you met. I hated it. I hate her.

-Did you only hate her because of that?

-That's the best reason I ever had to hate someone.

-Wasn't your family murdered?

-Proving how much I hate her."

I rolled my eyes.

"Anyway, did you tell me that you hated her?

-It was pretty obvious."

I laughed again and that made Bartholomew frown:

"What is so amusing about this?

I didn't think that someone like you would get jealous so easily."

Bartholomew grabbed my shoulders and bent very close to my face:

"I am always jealous. So don't pay attention to anyone else but me.

-We will see."

His expression crumbled and it was hard refraining from laughing. For some reason seeing him all self conscious made me want to comfort him. Bartholomew was always very nice to me and he deserved a bit of care too. Me being shy wasn't an acceptable excuse.

"You don't have to be jealous of anyone. You are way better than anyone else."

I thought that Bartholomew was going to tease me and say that I was flirting but he went completely red and started coughing to hide his unease.

"We should get ready for bed."

I smiled:

"What is it? Is my Honey flustered by any chance?"

Bartholomew turned away, hiding his face with his hand.

"My Honey is so cute when he is all shy."

I was having a great time and couldn't stop teasing him:

"My cute fiance is the most handsome man I've ever seen."

Bartholomew still wasn't looking at me and I was walking after him in a good mood:

"Husband fait for me."

The next second Bartholomew turned around and pulled me close to his chest, his arms around my waist. I got so surprised that I stopped smiling and looked up at him but as soon as I saw his eyes I froze. He was way different from usual. He wasn't blushing at all anymore and his eyes turned dark. My whole body went numb and my skin was burning where he was touching me.

"Say it again."

But I couldn't talk immediately.

"Say it again.

-What?

-How did you call me?"

Was he in this stage only because I called him husband? This man was terrifyingly quick at switching personalities.

"I want to kiss you right now."

I froze. Kiss? This was way too soon. We must have kissed hundreds of times in the past but it was a first for me. Seeing me all frozen made Bartholomew smile but his eyes didn't turn back to their original state:

"If you call me husband one more time, I will kiss you. You can't say you weren't warned.

-If you kiss me without my consent I will burn your eyes out."

Bartholomew chuckled:

"I would never do anything without your consent. But I have a feeling you will be giving it to me soon.

-Has anyone told you before that you are way too obnoxious?

-You are the only person who would dare call me that.

-Let me go and get ready for bed.

-Yes, sir."

The next day Zadimus showed up at the mansion as promised by Bartholomew. He was a bit smaller than Bartholomew but still taller than me and had a thin built. He was rather tan and looked too serious for his own good. However he did smile when he saw me. A very small smile but a smile nonetheless.

"Aed, I am relieved to see that you are fine."

He handed me a box of chocolates and I accepted them gladly. I could feel Bartholomew glaring at me but didn't care. Food was more important than anything.

We went for some tea and sat around a small round table. Zadimus wasn't the talkative type and Bartholomew didn't really pay attention to him so I had to be the one breaking the ice:

"I heard that Bartholomew and you have been friends for 6 years."

Zadimus nodded:

"Bartholomew was there for me when I thought I couldn't take it anymore so I promised myself to protect him forever."

Wow. That was heavy. Was it healthy for someone to live for another person? Bartholomew did save his life it seemed but that didn't meen Zadimus had to live for him either. Compared to how sincere Zadimus seemed, Bartholomew didn't really seem to care about him. That was really sad. Poor Zadimus. I needed to talk to Bartholomew about this later.

"And were the two of us close?

-No."

He could have hesitated a bit. Did no one like me in this mansion? What did I do? Was I that unlikable?

"At first I thought you would be bad news for Bartholomew. You were only doing what you wanted and didn't care about the consequences so I was worried that you would drag Bartholomew in your problems."

My problems? He was the one with a murderer family but I wasn't going to say that. It wasn't really nice.

"But I changed my mind and would like to apologize. I was wrong. Instead of dragging him down you saved his life. Thank you for being by his side."

It seemed it only took three years for Bartholomew's friends to accept me. It wasn't that bad. It would be harder being on bad terms with people that I didn't even remember.

Zadimus didn't stay long and left us alone. As we were saying goodbye, Bartholomew didn't let go of my waist for a second and I did my best to ignore his hand. Once Zadimus gone, I laid my head on Bartholomew's shoulder and the later immediately paniked, cheking my forehead for a fever:

"I am okay. I am just tired. This was a lot of information.

-We should refrain from meeting people for the time being.

-Do we have a lot of other friends?"

Bartholomew shook his head:

"Those were the only two.

-Is that all? I thought you were very popular?

-Is my sweety jealous?

-No.

-You could have let me dream for a bit.

-Do all your friends hate me?

-They didn't hate you.

-But they didn't like me either.

-They were just jealous. I stopped caring about them as soon as you appeared.

-I feel a bit bad for them. Zadimus seems to really care about you but you didn't look at him once."

Bartholomew had spent the whole time handing me biscuits and refilling my cup with tea that he would blow until it was the perfect temperature. I got used to him doing these things for me but he could have talked to his friend a bit. Was this how he behaved all the time? I could understand a bit better where Gardenia was coming from. Especially if it came out of the blue. That made me think:

"Did you fall for me at first night?

-Yes. As soon as I spotted you behind that door I knew that you were the one.

-What was I doing behind a door?

-Admiring me of course.

-I doubt it.

-Why? You said I was the most handsome man you ever saw.

-But I have amnesia don't I?"

Bartholomew started pouting and I rubbed his head:

"I am just kidding. Even if I saw every man on Earth, I would still think you are the prettiest."

He immediately went back to smiling.

"But mode seriously, what was I doing behind a door?

-You were curious about what was happening in the room so you hid and watched.

-And what was happening?

-I was being poisoned."