Just My Cup of Tea

twenty eight

Two weeks passed by in completely painful and awkward agony to a point I wanted to tear out my hair. Alexander and I returned that night from the ball with not a single word said and since I had previously taken up his offer and moved back into his mansion of a house (taking every opportunity I could to remind him what a waste of surface area it was), we both entered that mansion of a house and parted ways as soon as we stepped through the doorway. 

Time went by in a buzz. Alexander would leave to his office before I was even awake and would return long after I had fallen asleep. Not that I stayed around much to find out whether he returned during the day. I went to university, picking up Allison on the way and when the lectures would be over, we'd join Gabby, Olivia and her boyfriend and a bunch of other random friends for lunch. 

Loneliness was not the issue. If you get what I mean. I was constantly surrounded by people who never left me to my own thoughts. Allison, Gabby, Olivia and even Lin loved to chat with me through the evenings over a nice hot cup of steaming tea. I had learned over these long and conversation filled hours that Lin had been the housekeeper since Alexander was in his diaper and she had raised him like her own since his actual mother was too busy batting her lashes as banquets and chewing on 4-leaf overpriced salads at country clubs to bother to care. 

She had her own children back in South America and her children were in their mid-twenties and had families of their own. She told me the story of how she and her husband met and how she had come to work for the Evan household and for the times we spent together I was beyond grateful. She made me feel like a little girl again. With the weather getting colder and the wind howling through the nights while the iciness crept like a thief through the bustling town, the evenings of hot chocolate and the crackling fire whose flames licked and smothered at whatever it could reach, Lin's stories and her soft and motherly voice kept me awake for hours. 

Aside from the obvious people I spent my time with, Eric was one of the less obvious people. After the ball, Eric had taken every opportunity he could to get in touch with me. At first, I was reluctant and declined his lunch offers politely until he showed up outside the supermarket one of the days I worked without Allison there. It would be safe to say I had a mini heart attack, seeing him leaning against his sleek white Audi with a smirk perched on those stupidly pink lips. 

I had made sure to give him a piece of my mind, well aware the Allison didn't know we were speaking yet alone dancing at masquerade balls terms and he was terrible at hiding his laughter but he still nevertheless promised to inform me before he was coming. 

And he seemed to be coming a lot lately. 

He took me to the finest restaurants and out for drinks and even once prepped a whole picnic for us to enjoy. I was grateful for the effort and I definitely didn't mind the attention but...I was still nevertheless a married woman and he was still nevertheless my ex and there were boundaries that he was fully content with testing. 

But at the same time...it was refreshing. He gave me the type of attention I should be receiving from my husband but he was too busy doing lord knows what (probably Sienna) and I only ever saw his face on magazines anymore. Eric soon became a...a...guilty pleasure? He listened to me wholeheartedly, without a care about what I was saying and he laughed at all the right places and smiled at all the right times. 

It was a painful stab in the gut at how amazing we had been. They say high school relationships never last but I knew, deep, deep down that if he hadn't moved away and if I hadn't been thrust into the unwilling arms of Alexander, we would have lasted. We would have lasted a long long time. We were like people that just worked. I knew him better than I knew myself and he knew me better than I knew myself.