Ethan Adams

Chapter 22

            

Ethan shows up at our door when Ella and I are about to head out of the hotel room the next morning. I've been waiting for her to finish her makeup for the past twenty minutes but his presence is a nice distraction.

"Hey!" He says and looks up. I do the same and I'm mostly relieved that there's no mistletoe hanging above us this time. "So er, I just came to... to get y'all for breakfast."

"Oh, are we late?" I ask. There's an awkward pause and he just stares me straight in the face. It's making me nervous. "Ethan?"

"Yeah, um, you guys are a little late. Janet's downstairs already and she's getting a little antsy." He clears his throat and looks away from my face. I release a small breath. "Um, so I gotta talk to you about something too. If that's okay?"

"Oh. Yeah, what's up?"

"We can talk about it later." He dismisses quickly. "Oh! And I gotta give you your Christmas present; it's the twenty ninth and you've already gone a few days without it."

I smile. He smiles too. And then we're smiling at each other, until Ella comes out of the bathroom, her face of makeup finally done. She gasps loudly and pushes me out of the way slightly.

"Ethan! Did you come check on me?!" She asks, fluttering her eyelashes.

I roll my eyes and move out of the way. "He came because you were taking too long getting ready." I say bluntly.

Ella frowns and looks at me. "I was?"

I send her what I'm hoping is an exasperated look but she ignores it. The three of us head downstairs for breakfast and join the others, who are scattered around a huge table. David winks when he sees us coming in and whispers something to Janet who gasps. The two of them high five and I roll my eyes. My mind's still on what happened last night and I'm happy we kissed but I kinda wish they didn't orchestrate or see it happen. It's embarrassing.

Ethan sits next to David, with Ella between us. I pick up a bread roll and nibble on it nervously. Janet smirks at me as I sit next to her. I pretend not to see her because it's beginning to get on my nerves.

"So what's the plan for today?" Anthony asks.

"I wanna go shopping." Ella says briskly. "I wanna get a diamond ring from Tiffany & Co. – Ethan."

Ethan looks up from his phone. My phone vibrates and I realise he's sent me a message. "Yo?"

"Could you help me pick out a ring today?"

"A ring for what? What are we picking out rings for?" He squints while I sneak a peek at my phone. He's sent me a picture of myself edited with mouse ears and whiskers. I almost chuckle out loud but realise people would ask me why so I just sneak a picture of him. I do the same, only this time I add cat ears and sharp teeth.

"Alisa? What did you want to do?"

I look up and lock my phone. Everyone stares at me expectantly and I lick my lips, wondering what the hell they were talking about. "What were the options?"

"David wants to go sightseeing, I want to go shopping." Ella explains. She looks at me expectantly. "You coming shopping too?"

I consider the day. "I don't really have anything to shop for and I wanna see the Statue of Liberty."

"Sightseeing?" David asks. I nod and he reaches over the table to high five me. "Okay, so that's me and Alisa, anyone else?"

"I wanna go shopping too." Anthony says. "I wanna get a new pair of basketball shoes for my brother."