I tried to avoid Stefan after figuring out where he sent my boyfriend, but it was hard to get away from him when his guards were taking shifts to watch me. They could easily text him and tell him where we are every time we move somewhere new, and I know he checked in a lot with whoever was on shift at the time. Ugh. I was in the rose garden when I stumbled across Stefan again. Damn, all I wanted was some fresh air.
"Hey," Stefan said. He was clipping dead roses out of the bushes, and turned to meet my eyes quickly.
I wanted to still be mad at him, but seeing my reflection in his eyes turned me weak. "You can go away," he tells the guard.
The guard walks over to a bench a good distance away from hearing distance, and waits for his next order.
For a while Stefan just turns back to the roses and clips away, then he looks back at me.
"I'm sorry," he says.
I'm quite for a bit and when I don't say anything he continues. "I know what I did was rude, but I can't help it. Neither of us can, and you know it. You were made to love me, and I for you."
"What are you sorry for?" I tell him.
"For going through your head. It was a bad move on my part, and I know that."
It's been three days since the ball, and no one has talked about my unexpected strut out of the room, not to my face anyway, though I did get a brief talk from his mom to "adjust and learn the ways of a princess". Ugh. Add wolf on top of that and it just turns into a double ugh. Things will definitely be harder than needing to learn how to balance books on my head and drink tea with my pinky up. I'm going to be expected of a lot.
"That's it? You aren't sorry for locking Ayden up? And don't forget about grabbing him by the shirt and dropping him on the floor."
"Well, I'm sorry for that too."
"Why do I find it so hard to believe you?"
"I just don't know how much longer I can stay away from you. I've given you your space and you've done who knows what with that human."
"Why don't you go tell Ayden you're sorry for the shit you put him through?"
"No thanks. I don't usually say sorry to anyone because it's a form of weakness, and I won't be put in that situation to please him. Besides, if I saw him again I might do something worse than pick him up rough or lock him in the dungeons."
"I wouldn't doubt those intentions."
He begins to smirk and I punch him in the arm. "Really? You think that was funny?"
"No, it just now occured to me that you said Ayden earlier, instead of 'my boyfriend'."
"Oh."
Stefan puts the scisors away in his bucket of gardening tools he had laying on the ground, then looks back up at me. "Look, I feel I should make it up to you, I didn't exactly give a good first impression of myself."
"No, you didn't."
"There has to be somehing I can do."
"Stop treating my boyfriend like shit."
Stefan lets out a groan and says, "Just when I thought you were done using the term boyfriend on that human."
"I'll stop calling him boyfriend when you stop calling him human."
Stefan stares into nothing, thinking it over. "Fine, it's a deal then."
"So when will you be apologizing to him? Not that he's going to believe you, though."
"Exactly why I shouldn't waste my breath on the issue."
I sigh and look away from him. I mean yeah, Stefan would probably still hate Ayden, but the least he could do is be nice to him.
"Well, I'm going to go. The sun will be setting soon, and I'm getting hungry."
As I turn away, Stefan says, "Why don't we go eat together? It would be the perfect way to make it up to you."
I turn to look at him and he continues. "I've been pretty forward since I met you, and neither of us knows the other very well, apart from one being a prince and the other having a boyfriend."
"I guess that's true, but-"
"We don't have to kiss or give our parents grandchildren, we can just sit down somewhere, eat together, and get to know the other. We can work on the friendship part of us. That's how every mortal relationship starts, right?"
Even though I was thinking of Ayden, I couldn't help but be eager to say yes. I don't want anything to start between Stefan and I, but the least we can do is be cordial to each other. And I can't deny the fact that somewhere deep inside me, I could possibly love this self centered prick.
He hands me a yellow rose from the bushes and says, "I'll knock on your bedrrom door in two hours, until then I have business to attend to."
"Yellow stands for jealousy," I tell him.
He looks back at the rose bush and plucks another yellow one. "What about this one?"
I take a closer look and see it has a red tip on the top where it is opening up. "It means friendship, and," I stop there.
"And what?" He tilts his head to look into my eyes and I say, "Falling in love."
I look back into his eyes and see he is smiling. "Take this one then," he says. He breaks off most of the stem and pushes the hair out of my face, placing the rose above my ear so it will hold. "See you in two hours," he tells me. He takes my hand and kisses it, never moving his eyes from mine, then looks back at the guard and nods. With that, the guard gets up, and walks me back inside.
