The Wedding Plan

Chapter 20

Sebastian wasn't expecting what Eleanor said, and truth be told, neither was she. The words simple poured out of her. He was not as superficial as she initially thought. In reality, she still didn't even know much about him. She didn't care about what the tabloids said related to his personal life. She only cared about the articles that were written analytically, analyzing his business decisions, as she could not deny his genius mind for numbers.

That was something she was fascinated about, his intellect. That was the reason she wanted to work for Crain Enterprises, to learn from one of the best. She was never interested in him, at least, not in the way most people are.

But that changed... She wanted to know more about him. Just him. Nothing else. And that was dangerous.

Eleanor had planned the next few years carefully; she spent all her life working on her career. She studied as hard as she could in school, worked hard to keep distractions away... She spent all her life thinking that all distractions were fatal.

Until this point, she had deprived herself from so much; she did it all for the future she thought she wanted, the future she thought she needed, but it was all about to go down the drain. She had just opened her life to a fatal distraction, a distraction called Sebastian Crain.

They left the restaurant looking like a couple in love. No one would suspect a thing, not even if they looked closely. Sebastian was gazing at her. After placing his jacket on her shoulders, protecting her from the cold breeze, they walked outside as his hand was protectively placed on her back. Eleanor smiled at him, as her glowing eyes revealed so much more than she wanted to lead on, much more than she knew herself.

Before heading home, they decided to take a stroll through a nearby park. Neither one of them wanted the night to end so soon, so they thought it would be a good idea to walk for a bit since they were too full from the food they had at dinner.

As they walked by the blossoming cherry trees, Eleanor stepped on a pebble and lost her balance, Sebastian caught putting his arm around her and pulling her towards him. He chuckled, and Eleanor was too mortified to even move a muscle.

'So clumsy,' he said as they started walking again. 'This reminds me of the day we met at Montgomery.'

'I thought that we had agreed on forgetting about that,' she whined.

'It's not about you.'

She looked at him, confused.

'The day we met. It was also the first time that a tabloid posted something about me. I mean, other articles had been written about me before, but not that kind. I had just replaced my dad that week and there was already gossip about me and a model.'

Eleanor looked at floor, embarrassed. She definitively didn't want to hear about Sebastian's romantic life, and she remembered the magazine cover. It was the reason she didn't call him.

'That story was fake. It was just a coincidence. I was walking by when the model tripped. But it was the first of many lies that appear on the magazines.'

Suddenly Eleanor felt guilty. She didn't call him because of a lie. An unfortunate coincidence. In her head she created a wrong image of him just because of an innocent lie. What would've happened if I had still called him that time? She wondered.

'I guess that on that week I was on an unlucky streak since the next day you also fell.'

She stopped walking and looked at him, perplexed, almost angry.

'What?' he asked with a worried look on his face.

'Why didn't you tell the truth? Why did you let people believe in it if it was a lie?'

'I don't know,' — he shrugged — 'I guess that at that time I thought it wasn't a big deal.'

'So, the news about you are fake?'

'Most of them, probably some, are true. But as you can see, I'm just a gentleman that happens to be passing by when a damsel is in distress. Women fall into my arms. I can't help it.'

She chuckled.

'No, I mean it. They literally fall. It's not funny at all.'

They both laugh and looked at each other. They were back at the entrance of the park; it was time to end the night.

'Where should our next date be? You choose.'

'The theater. A friend of mine is an amateur actress. The group she's in has a new play and she gave me tickets. But it is tomorrow, I understand, if it is too short notice for you to go. It's okay if you can't go, I was thinking about going alone, anyway.'

'It sounds good to me.' He smiled from ear to ear, wondering why that made him so happy. 'I'll find a way to clear out my schedule.'

Eleanor took a cab home, as she refused to let Sebastian drive her home. Despite the conversation that they had, he still insisted that she should not go home alone, and that it was simply a matter of safety and nothing else.

Even though he was right, she felt that it was already too much having him always offer to pay for everything, and her heart was racing. Besides, she wouldn't be able to sit in a car right next to him and pretend that she was completely immune to his charms. She could do it when they weren't alone in confined spaces.

However, Sebastian insisted she should at least wear his jacket on her way home, since it was a chilly night. But his smell was on it, making it impossible for her to calm down.

While he was driving, he was only thinking about whether or not she made it home safely. He was worried about her to the point it ached, and even though he was such an intelligent man, he still hadn't found an answer for what he was feeling. It still conflicted him. What is happening to me? I just met her. Why do I care so much about her?