THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT: paired with a rose

CHAPTER 7

It's been three weeks since Kevin proposed to Maria and yet all she could think about was Rose—her bestfriend. Everytime Kevin would bring the wedding talk, Maria would find something else to talk about, it was starting to dawn on her now that she was making the biggest mistake of her life, not only was she not ready to get married but she was now certain that Kevin was not the person she wanted to wake up beside in the morning, sure he treats her with love and kindness but what was she giving back to him? She knew she was not reciprocating the love Kevin gave her and he might not mention it but she knew it was not fair for both of them especially Kevin. He is a victim in all this and she needed to be honest with him before it's too late.

"Maria!" Kevin called out rushing through the door

"Yes Babe?" Maria answered

"where you at?"

"I'm in here love" Maria responded from the bedroom

Kevin walked up the stairs heading to the bedroom "My sweet Ria, where's your laptop?" Kevin asked giving Maria a quick peck on the lips

Maria looked at Kevin with mix of confusion and curiosity "I don't know babe, you know I haven't used that thing in weeks now, You use it more than I do, have you checked the..."

Before she could finish her sentence Kevin was out the bedroom running down the stairs "FOUND IT.. IT'S ON THE TV STAND"

Maria followed Kevin down to the living room "uh Kev.. Babe.. Is everything okay? What's the rush?"

"uh yeah, everything is okay sweets.. Just gotta go through your emails here"

"my emails? Kev.. Why would wanna do that?" Maria asked seriously

"babe.. Relax okay, I need some of your close friends' emails, to send invites.. You know—for our engagement party?"

"oh of course that" Maria said with no emotion really

Kevin was not one to read much Maria's emotions so he didnt even flinch at Maria's response.. Instead he said "yeah so listen, I was thinking, how about we throw the engagement party back in Lagos? I mean almost everyone we love is there" 

Maria couldn't really care much about where they have the engagement party, she wasn't even a bit interested in organizing the party.. And lucky for her, Kevin was an events guy, he knew people who knew people that could do things for him with no worries.

"yeah of course, that would be okay babe.. Thank you for taking care of this" Maria said giving Kevin a peck on the forehead.

Kevin scooted over so Maria could sit next to her on the couch "I love you.. You know that?"

"oh shut up you say that all the time, it's hard to miss it" Maria said with a blush on his face "and I love you too" of course that much was true, Maria did love Kevin, she just wasn't in love with him and she needed to be in love, she wanted to be in love, but Kevin was so smitten with her and as much as she was ready to talk to him about how she really felt, she wouldn't want to break his heart like this, not now.

"Ria baby.. You have like a hundred unread messages here, you really need to clear your inboxes, you want me to do it for ya?" Kevin said

"Uhm no. It's okay.. You have already done enough, you're an angel Kev" Maria took the laptop from Kevin and started to scroll down each email

"alright babe, well I got all the names I need now, lemme go freshen up aight?" Kevin said leaving Maria

Maria wasn't even listening to what Kevin was saying, but because she 'heard' him talk all she could say was "yeah sure babe"

As Maria began to mark the emails on her inboxes her heart started to race and her eyes widened as she saw an email from Rose, a message sent to her almost a month ago now..very spontaneous of "Rose to send an email when she has my Cellphone number", Maria murmured to herself.

She took a VERY deep breath before she opened the attached document to begin reading.

Dear Maria

"this must be a response to the letter I wrote her, gosh Rose why didn't you just text me" she continued reading the letter and with every comma of the letter, Maria felt like her heart would break.

I broke out into a full-blown sob, curled up on my bed and wrapped my arms around myself when I was done reading that letter. My eyes were closed as tight as I could close them. It all had to be a bad dream. How did it get this far? You were leaving everything behind, and for what? Just to get away from our relationship?

I know that I have been distant, but I never wanted you to leave. I never wanted to break your heart. My heart was broken, too. The minute I found out you were talking to Kevin again.  It didn't mean I didn't still love you though Maria.

I need to find you. I cannot let you believe that I resented you for getting back together with Kevin. I cant let you think that I would have put my career before our relationship. I can't let you go thinking that we needed to move on from one another. We can fix this. I want to fix it. I want my best friend back.

"DAMMIT ROSE" Maria said out loud

"WHAT'S THAT BABE?" Kevin yelled back from upstairs

"OH NOTHING BABE?" Maria yelled back

"I THOUGHT I HEARD YOU SAY ROSE"

"UHM YEAH, I JUST REMEMBERED THAT WE GONNA NEEDED ROSES FOR THE ENGAGEMENT PARTY"

Kevin peaked from the stairs "sweet Ria, do you really think I'd forget your favorite flowers, Dont worry I got this okay? Kevin is your man babe" he then disappeared to the bedroom.

SHIT

Maria was panicking now, she didn't know if she should be mad at Rose for not saying anything about the letter when she was standing at her door or mad at Kevin for being such a sweetheart or mad at herself for not figuring out why Rose was here, or course Rose wasn't just in the neighborhood, she was here to win her back, Rose sent this letter before Kevin could propose to her, if only she had taken time to go through her emails then, maybe this wouldn't be happening.

For the first time, Maria felt like fate wasn't on her side.. She shut down her laptop to collect her thoughts for a minute. She needed to talk to someone about this and since Kevin is blind to everything that has happened between she and Rose, there was only one person to talk to— her sister..

Kevin walked in and told her that he's going out with the boys for a while and he might be late, so she shouldn't wait up but if anything happens, his phone is always on. He gave Maria a lingering kiss then walked out.

This was a perfect time for Maria to freely talk to Vee, she picked up her phone and began dialing her little sister's numbers.. She hated involving Vee in her business but she was the only one who could handle all her moods with this drama involving Rose.