Indisputably Yours

05.

Sienna

"Alright, that's it." Xavier finally spoke after excruciatingly long minutes of tension-filled silence. "Are going to tell me who that guy was or are we still going to pretend whatever happened at your doorstep didn't?"

I swallowed the insanely huge lump in my throat, my eyes trained down at my Jimmy Choos. I couldn't look at him, not after what had happened, and I wished he hadn't asked at all because my mind was still spinning in circles and I was finding it hard to process everything. He came back for me...he missed me...he wanted me..."He's...He's no one." I had no idea how to explain this. I'd rather not.

"He didn't seem like a no-one to me, and if you're going to have a conversation with me at least look me in the face."

I bit my lips, raising my head slowly to meet his hard eyes. "It doesn't matter who he is, let's just enjoy our evening and forget about him, okay?"

The car suddenly lurched to the side of the road and came to a screeching halt. I gasped, gripping my seatbelt. "W-why did you stop the car?"

Xavier turned to me, his jaw clenched. "You say he is no one but you walked back to my car with tears in your eyes, Sienna."

"It's not—"

"Don't lie to me." He cut me, his clipped words sinking into my stomach. "I'm taking you to dinner because I want to know more about you and explore what we have going on between us, I didn't fly down all the way from Germany because of roasted turkey and pumpkin pie, I did it because I was captivated by what I saw."

My lips parted and nothing more than a whisper of his name breezed out. "Xavier..."

"But I can't move forward from this point." He continued. "I can't just drive off and pretend that I didn't see what I saw. I want to explore things with you but I can't if you already belong to another man."

I shook my head, forcing back my tears. "I don't belong to any man."

"What about your heart then?"

His question knocked me askew.

"I saw the way you looked at him and the way he looked at you. I might have been single for a very long time but I am not naive and I am not desperate enough either to take someone who belongs to someone else."

"Xavier," I reached my hands out to touch him but I stopped myself. "it's—it's not what you think."

"Fine then," he crossed his arm over his sturdy chest. "If you can assure me right now that he's not in your heart and he means absolutely nothing to you, I'll start up this car and drive us off without mentioning any of what happened."

I opened my mouth, eyes going watery. "Xavier, I—"

"Just give me the truth, Sienna," he cut me, his eyes growing weary as he scanned my face. "That's all I ask."

The truth?

What was the truth?

I dropped my head and squeezed my fists on my thighs.

The truth was that I'd fallen for Tristan way longer than I wanted to admit, the truth was that even with all the physical and emotional pain he'd caused me, I still couldn't hate him, it was that I wished I could love him less, maybe if I did, pushing him away wouldn't feel like I was ripping out a part of my heart, but it was impossible to do so because there were people you could know for a lifetime without them getting into your heart, and then there were people like Tristan Larsen who plowed their way inside your heart without permission and took possession of it.