The Forbidden Love of Aesop Sharp

Chapter 28 - The Yule Ball

"Are you planning on asking her to dance?"

I turned to my right, forcing a smile. "Matilda, I didn't hear you approach," I managed to say, sipping my whiskey as my grip on the glass tightened. "It seems like everyone is enjoying the night, don't you think?"

I shifted my gaze towards the crowd and observed a dispute unfolding near the tables laden with food. Close to the entrance of the Great Hall, a couple was being scolded by the caretaker for 'indecent behavior.' Not to mention the uninspiring and lifeless music played by the orchestra that seemed eager to be anywhere but there. It was probably safe to say that, no, not everyone seems to enjoy the night.

"Don't try to change the subject, Aesop; it won't work with me," she countered, her penetrating gaze fixed on me. "I know what's going on between the two of you, my friend," she declared, pointing at Katie, who was having fun with Sallow and Olivia, oblivious to everything around her.

A guy almost stumbled into her, but she didn't even notice, too absorbed by Sallow, who was whispering something in her ear. I clenched my fist around the glass and sighed.

"Nothing is going on between us," I proclaimed, ignoring the smile that appeared on Matilda's face, choosing instead to focus on Katie and her graceful movements when she took her sister's hand to dance, ignoring the fact that people were observing them with a mocking smile on their faces.

"Please, Aesop, don't lie to me; I'm not blind, and I know you two too well to believe that you're not attracted to each other," Matilda remarked, grabbing a glass of champagne from a waiter's tray. "I've known since the day I interrupted you in your classroom. You know, when-"

"Yes, I know," I cut her off abruptly, unwilling to revisit that painful memory. "It was a mistake," I confessed sadly, still full of regrets. "I shouldn't have let that happen; I was her teacher, and I failed her in many ways."

"You're too hard on yourself, Aesop," Matilda intervened, placing her hand on my arm in a compassionate gesture. "Yes, it was indeed a mistake; Katherine was young and vulnerable, and you shouldn't have done that, both of you. But you can't control what you feel and what you want. Otherwise, the world would be totally different. And if I remember correctly, you cut all contact with her after that; that's why she left for Canada?" She inquired, encouraging me to open up.

"I did," and until now, it was still one of the most painful and vivid events I had to live through. Watching the sorrow and pain in her eyes without being able to comfort her was awful. And that was nothing compared to the months that followed this rejection. I had to see her in class every week, working hard to do her best and impress me in potions. Yet, her eyes were empty, and she had lost her smile, that part of us that she seems to have never fully recovered since that day.

"It was the right choice at that time; she needed to finish her studies and focus on herself, to grow up a little bit." She sipped her champagne, pausing in her argumentation for a while, her eyes falling on Katie. "But now, the situation is completely different. She's a woman, and she's capable of knowing what she wants."

I nodded painfully, acknowledging her words, a hint of doubt still plaguing me. "I wouldn't be good for her, Matilda; I have nothing to offer. I've lived my own life already, I'm not getting younger, and she still has so much to live. I can't take that away from her. What would her life be if I did that?"

"Stop talking like you were an old man, Aesop, you're 45, you still have a life to live. And Katherine is old enough to make her own decisions consciously. She already knows all of this, and she chose not to care. The only thing she wants is to be with you," Matilda corrected firmly.

"I don't know, Matilda, it's not that I don't want to be with her, I'm just not sure that she knows what she really wants," I confessed, my voice tainted by sorrow