The Beauty in Eternity

Chapter 79.

Mason stands to his feet and brushes himself off, taking it as well as can be expected. Or at least, trying to. The sad truth is that it doesn't change everything, the reality of what happened. It means that I don't have to wonder; it means that I don't have to spend my days going over, and over, and over again why he didn't care. But in reality—we both still hurt each other. And realistically, things are just too different now.

He lied to me, when he told me about his past. It may have been two years ago, but it was a secret that I deserved to know, one that changed my life. And I can't help but wonder. Wonder if I had known from the beginning, that things would have been different. Because that lie destroyed us, and I can't forget that.

"So, you really wear heels now?" he shrugs with a smile.

I nod. "I do."

"What changed?" he asks.

"A lot." I respond sharply, shrugging my shoulders.

"Oh," he furrows his brow. "Okay."

"Yeah."

I sigh in defeat, "I- I still kind of hate them, I don't know why I did that."

His lips tug into a small Mason like smirk. "Petty." he mumbles.

I let out a small chuckle. "Shut up."

I fall silent when I notice the way he looks at me when I smile, it brings a sadness back to the room. "I have to go." I tell him as I stand to my feet.

"Goodnight, Amara." he nods distantly.

"Goodnight."

As soon as I close the hotel doors behind me, I catch a cab to the one place I need to be right now. I open the door and walk inside to find him relaxed on the couch with a glass of wine in his hand. I slip my heels off from my aching feet and throw them onto the ground.

"You hate heels," he furrows his brow.

"I know!" I groan reluctantly. I throw myself onto the spot beside him and curl up on his chest—snaking my arm across him.

"How did it go?" Matt asks softly as his arm wraps back around me.

I open my mouth to speak, but instead I just cry. He takes a deep breath before leaning forward and handing me his glass of wine from the table in front. "Drink this, and tell me everything." he instructs.

I finish two full glasses of wine in the time it takes me to explain everything. Luckily, I managed to stop crying half way through the first.

"We can never work," I tell him. "Even knowing what I know now, we can't work."

He stands up and signals for me to hold my thought. I tap my fingers against my legs as I patiently wait for him to come back. A few moments later he emerges from the kitchen with a spare glass and another bottle of wine.

He pours himself a glass, and fills mine back to the top, before placing himself back down beside me and adjusting his 'I'm listening' face.  "So, what are you going to do?" he asks.

"I do nothing. I'm with Elijah, and I'm happy with Elijah," I explain. "I just can't shake this... sad feeling, and the overwhelming guilt that he has nobody in his corner."

"And you're sure this is what you want?" he questions, an unsure look in his eye.

"I am."

"I think you need to talk to Jake." he shrugs, taking a sip of his wine.

I cock my head in confusion at his response. "Why Jake?"

"Because you're right, he doesn't have anybody in his corner; but come on, Amara—it's obvious that Jake doesn't hate him, he's just pissed," he tells me. "But more than that, he won't forgive him until he knows it won't hurt you. He feels like he's being disloyal to you if he befriends Mason."