The Malevolence of a Woman Wronged (PREQUEL)

Chapter 6- The Smile of a Lifetime

--Lucian POV--

They say that meeting someone by coincidence three times in a row can no longer be considered to be a coincidence, but rather fate. Of course, I don't believe any of that, I am and always have been a logical kind of person that uses science to explain most things.

But I realise that even science has its limits. Complicated things like human emotion will take some more years of research to be able to explain. But maybe, just maybe, if I ignore my logical side and see things as they are, things will be so much more fun.

"Are those for me?" Julia asked, her eyes pinned on the bouquet in my hands, and I took a moment to glance down at the bouquet before turning my head back up to look at her and nodded, handing the flowers over to her as she took them.

"It's a nice change from the classic roses," She said, hinting to all the bouquets she received from other people in her life because it definitely couldn't have been me, I've never gotten her a bouquet of any kind of flowers before, let alone roses. And even today, can we really say that I'm the one that got the flowers for her?

And at that thought, my mind drifted back to the beautiful lady that helped me find my bearings earlier today. My sense of direction is the worst, that's why no one ever trusts me to be alone in a place that I've never been to before, but I had no other choice today since my secretary was still severely jet lagged from the flight from Germany.

I would most likely have still been wandering the unfamiliar streets of Rome alone, like a lost child, if it weren't for that woman whose name I regret not having gotten.

"What are you thinking about?" Julia asked, reminding me of why I was even here in the first place.

I've known Julia since we were kids, and as we grew up, it just became expected of us to get married, although I'm certain that neither of us harbour any feelings for the other, we were just going with the flow of what our parents wanted.

We came to Rome on the instruction of her parents in the hope that I propose to her, and they couldn't have been more obvious about it, my own mother even went as far as to buy the engagement ring which was sat in my suit pocket right now.

But I can't seem to grow the nerve to ask her.

It just feels like there's supposed to be more to life than whatever this is.

I want excitement, happiness, and curiosity, but all I have right now is schedules, work, and expectations, none of which belong to me. Maybe just a little bit, I want to do something for myself instead of others, just once.

"Hey, Julia," I half-heartedly called as she hummed her reply, cutting through her steak as she ate the expensive dish.

"I don't really want to do this anymore," I bluntly said, finding that it was much easier to be honest instead of asking her to marry me.

She paused, head slowly tilting up to look at me in disbelief.

"I'm bored. And marrying you, no offense, but it just doesn't seem fun. I know who you are, we've known each other for forever, and I don't like you, and I know you don't like me. I don't necessarily want love, that's not what 'm trying to say, I just want to try and put some meaning-" She, thankfully, cut me off as I tried to speak my thoughts in a respectful manner.

"Lucian, shut up... I get you, and I understand," She smiled, going back to cutting through her steak as I simply watched, wondering if it was really supposed to be going this smoothly.

"As long as you agree to be the one to break the news to our parents then I'll full-heartedly support you, I promise you that," She smiled as I raised a cautious brow.