Slow Dancing

12 | prima volta

1 2 

p r i m a   v o l t a

[It.] : First time, first ending.

I WAS MORE than relieved to see Parker at the door that evening, with his suitcase in one hand and two bags of takeaway food in the other. He took one look at my face and swore under his breath. "So you saw him, huh?"

"That and more." Taking the food from him, I headed to the kitchen to set it down on the counter. "He helped me carry the coffee to my desk like the perfect gentleman he is." The memory was still vivid in my mind and I knew it was just one more to add to the list of everything I remembered about Kaden Bretton. "Was he there for business?"

"I wish," Parker scoffed. Shrugging out his jacket, he tossed it carelessly onto the sofa and loosened his tie before coming over to help me with the food cartons. "He was there for you."

Parker's words made me stop. My heart stuttered and for a moment, I could barely breathe.

"For me?"

My brother smiled sheepishly. "It's not the first time, Isla. He's been badgering Nolan and me about you for months now."

This was unexpected news. I knew that the aftermath of my meetings with Kaden had left a trail of destruction in its wake for all of us. But I had been a bloody self-absorbed fool who alternated between feelings of guilt towards Kaden and anger at myself for the way I handled things.

On the other hand, Parker and Nolan had suffered from the aftermath of the ruse in an entirely different way altogether. They were thoroughly tight-lipped about it, however, and all I knew was that they were blamed for suggesting that I was perfect for the job. Particularly when Lawrence and Adelaide Bretton found out what a massive liar I had been the whole time – agreeing to play Evangeline to fool Kaden and then pretending that he'd bought it to fool them. It was a double deception on my part and their anger was very much understandable. Parker and Nolan had shared the blame for allowing things to spiral out of control even though it wasn't their fault to begin with.

"Much better us than you, Isla," Parker had told me, when I offered to explain everything properly to Adelaide. "You can't afford to mess with them, trust me. They're proper furious and so overprotective of Kade that they might just slap a lawsuit on you."

So I had let that slide and properly removed myself from anything and everything associated with the Brettons. But Parker's disclosure now put things in a different light.

"Kaden's been asking about me?" I clarified, still feeling thoroughly shocked about the whole thing. "Why? But he doesn't even know who I am!"

"No, I meant the 'you' he'd been with during those seven meetings. He's been desperately trying to find you – and since his parents refuse to tell him a thing, he's turned to Nolan and me instead, trying to pry information out of us."

My sixteen-year old self would've been charmed off her bloody feet with this revelation. She would've thought it all too similar to Cinderella and started to wish upon stars in hope for her Prince Charming to find her.

But at twenty, I knew better and I was terrified. It was all coming back – all the horrid, terrible things I had said to him and the lies I had told that last meeting. How I had pushed him away when he clung to me and practically stomped all over the emotions that he'd so genuinely displayed for me.

In all likelihood, Kaden was equally as furious as he was desperate to find me and I hardly liked to think of how he would react if he ever found me. I was terrified of him finally finding me and looking into his eyes and seeing nothing but hatred reflected in them.