Ethan didn’t say anything, but he turned around to face me directly. I could feel his eyes on my face, and I quickly glanced down at the floor, scared to meet his eyes.
"You don’t have to act so formal around me. It freaks me out," Ethan whispered close to my ear.
Suddenly, he was so close. My body froze as his warm breath tickled my ear. Without knowing how to respond, I just nodded my head slightly.
"You’re free now, right? What about a coffee?" Ethan asked casually.
I opened my mouth to decline his invitation; however, the slightly tight grip of his hand around my wrist told me that I better reconsider my response.
"Ethan..." I said his name as I started to pull my arm away.
His grip immediately tightened, and I started to feel eyes on us.
"Come along, Malissa. You don’t want to make a scene here, do you?" Ethan whispered softly. His tone as calm as ever.
"We can just talk here..." I said.
"It’s just coffee...unless you’re expecting something more..." Ethan teased as he smiled mischievously at me.
It didn’t seem like negotiating with him would get me anywhere. I knew Ethan very well and if he hasn’t changed much since then, then he’s not going to take no for an answer. I was always following him around and doing everything exactly like how he wanted me to while we were together. Although Ethan was kind, loving and extremely adorable back then, he was very authoritative.
"Just coffee," I said firmly.
"Just coffee..." Ethan replied with a pleased smile.
I sighed loudly as I pulled my hand back and this time, he willingly let it go. Without saying another word, Ethan began leading me out of the exhibition hall. As I followed him, I couldn’t help remembering how we spent our days together back then. Just like those times, Ethan trusted that I would follow him just because he said that I should. He didn’t even turn back to look at me.
He just knew that I would follow him.
"Why are you here?" I asked again.
Ethan’s green eyes narrowed at my suddenly sharp tone as he stared deeply into my eyes and leaned closer to me across the small table. After a few seconds of silence had passed by between us, Ethan smiled a little and broke eye contact.
"Why do you think I’m here?" he asked instead of replying to my question.
I hated it when he did this. Ethan wasn’t someone that was easy to talk to. He’s also very tight lipped about things that he doesn’t want to talk about.
"Listen, I’m not getting back together with you if that’s what you wanted to ask..." I said with conviction.
"Who said that that was what I want?" Ethan asked with an innocent look on his face.
"You said it! On the cruise..." I said in frustration. How dare he make me remind him?
"Oh, that...I’ll tell you about that later. For now, why don’t you come a little closer..." Ethan whispered as if he was about to tell me a deep dark secret.
He’s always been so secretive and back while we were together, I’d always found him to be so alluringly attractive because of it. I sighed before I let him get close enough to me to whisper into my ear.
"I want to reunite and form a union between Torex and Silva..." Ethan whispered.
"...what?!" I exclaimed loudly.
What he had said was so unexpected that I literally jumped up from my seat. I felt the eyes of the people around us on me and I turned to shyly apologize to them before sitting back down on my seat.
Did I hear that right just now?
"What did you just say?" I whispered back in shock.
"I said that I want to reunite and form a union between the Torex and the Silva gang," Ethan repeated.
--To be continued...