Mistakenly Eaten

120. By Each Other's Side Forever

‘Fiona, I hope you find it in your heart to ever forgive me. I know I have not been the most loyal of friends to you but please I really hope you would for once, try and put yourself in my shoe for once. But even if you aren’t able to do so, I don’t judge you or hate you and I only pray and wish that you would also happen to do so one day, where you would not hate me anymore. Once again, I am sorry if I hurt you. And please, don’t ever stop taking your own decision. The girl that you had become recently, compared to the girl that I met, is exceptional. Your emotional and mental growth makes me happy and proud of you. Keep on changing and growing. Love – Althea.’

Fiona’s heart felt entrapped with guilt as she read the letter that Althea had supposedly left for her.

She sighed, looking at the door to Althea’s room, where she had come to late in the night.

She had heard that Althea was brought back safely by Nick and everyone else and that her little adventurous escape had been prevented by everyone else.

She cursed herself for not listening to Andrew and not being mature enough her own self. She should’ve gone on her own and talked to Althea. Althea’s letter made it quite evident, how she assumed Fiona felt about her. And being in an adult friendship, Fiona should’ve understood that she needed to put Althea first in that matter and realized that the situation that the girl had in her mind was entirely ersatz.

The entire stimulation and the set up of the made believe Secret Chef Hunters’ Society had a different impact on Althea than it should have on everyone else.

Fiona knocked the door of the room, finally breathing in and out and preparing an apology in her mind.

The door opened up, only to reveal Nicholas standing in front of Fiona, gawking at her with conspicuous.

“What are you doing here?” he asked with quite the muddle and Fiona looked over his shoulder and found Althea sitting by the edge of the bed.

“I wanted to talk to Althea.” She revealed and Althea also got up from the bed and walked towards the door.

“Okay, talk.” Nick pushed the girl to speak up but Fiona remained hesitant.

“I want to talk to her alone.” Fiona urged and Nick shook his head, refusing to leave the room.

“I have decided to not to leave Althea on her own, since she is a flight risk.” He crossed his arms across his chest and Althea rolled her eyes, pushing Nicholas aside.

“I won’t run away now.” She informed Nick, who once again shook his head stubbornly.

“I can not trust you. You had one chance of not doing something in this relationship and you blew it.” He told her, by pulling a pretentious smile across his lips.

“Really? Who decided this chance-o-meter?”

Althea crossed her arms across her chest and challenged back Nick.

“I did. You get to have one chance only to screw things up and you my love, have lost your chance. So, now it is time for you to be under my watch. And since, you are a flight risk and untrustworthy of making rational decisions, you also lost your civil right in our relationship to be the mature and the deciding body of matters.”

Althea couldn’t but snorted out loud, as she listened to Nicholas’s words.

“Really? Are you even listening to yourself? My decision was merely based on trying to prevent a situation from going south than it had already become a mess. My action was based on the reaction that came from the housemates after the news of our relationship spiraled out and in to the schism. If anything, I did the mature and the right thing. But if I remember it well, this isn’t our first commotion that we had to face. the first one was due to the fact that someone was not willing to act as a mature and an adult person and show responsibility by officially giving our situationship the tag of a relationship. If anything, I should be the one to deprive you off your decision rights. Because you are a man and men don’t mature quite quickly.”

Nick opened his mouth to argue but fell completely silent to Althea’s argument. Fiona on the contrary couldn’t help but snicker as well, attaining Nick’s attention, who threw an obnoxious look her way.

“Now, would you give me and Fiona some time on our own like a mature person, or do I have to ban kissing for the next two days.”

“Two days… ban… kissing? Are you crazy? I can not live like this…”

He immediately pulled Althea close and planted a kiss on her lips, making her giggle a little.

“I would take that as a yes, that you would give me some time with Fiona?” Althea questioned and Nick sighed in defeat.

“Fine!” he pulled himself away from Althea, placing one final kiss on her cheeks and then turned towards Fiona.

“If she tries to pull any stunts, just scream my name.” he asked the girl, who suppressed her laughter and nodded her head.

Nick gestured with his fingers to Althea that he was watching her, as he finally stepped out of the room and Althea also laughed at his adorable behavior, until he finally disappeared.

“Gosh I have never seen him like this before.” Fiona chuckled, getting inside the room with Althea.

“Huh? Before?” Althea asked, slightly confused by Fiona’s statement, who immediately covered up her previous statement, quite meticulously.

“I mean ever since I came on the island.”

“Oh! Yeah well, he used to look like a yeti. So, that’s on that.” Althea joked back and walked to sit on the edge of the bed but before she could’ve taken a step any further, Fiona hugged her from behind, wrapping her arms all over Althea’s body, entrapping her hands within hers as well.

“Umm, are you alright?” she asked Fiona, who nodded, as she tried her best to sniff her tears away.

“I am just so glad that they got to you before you could’ve gotten away. I never want to lose a friend like you.”

Althea turned towards Fiona and held her hands in hers.

“I just thought that you would be mad at me for hiding things from you.”

“I don’t care. If you do anything, you must have your own reasons and reservations to do that. But one thing that I have learned today, is that I need to be selfless, at least with you and for you. Even if you have murdered anyone, I promise to always be by your side and support you no matter what. So, dating Nicholas is nothing compared to that. you can date whoever you want, screw whatever you want but just don’t leave my side. I need you by myside. Now and forever, as a true friend.”

Althea pulled Fiona in for a hug and smiled, “I promise to always be by your side.”

As the two friends hugged it out and things turned back to normal for good, every one called it a night to quite a happening day.

With everybody busy in their own rooms, Nick and Althea lied in each other’s arms in Althea’s room, happy and contented that the only thing they feared was now tamed and under control.

Despite of everyone around the house, especially Salva knowing about their relationship, no one was going to project its effects on the competition and things would continue to be the way they had always been.

In the middle of the night, as Nicholas felt stirred up from his sleep, he gently pecked Althea’s forehead and moved her off his arm.

He got up to walk towards the washroom but paused when his eyes fell on the nightstand table.

An envelope with his name on it, caught his eye and he remembered that Salva told him when Althea left, she left some letters behind and one of them was addressed to Nicholas.

Nick did not bother to even read the letter once he got Althea back and it must have slipped off Althea’s mind as well, after she returned and that was the reason why, the letter was left unattended on the nightstand. But suddenly Nick felt intrigued, wondering what Althea had left him with.

The last time he was stranded by someone and left with a letter, he got his heart bruised pretty badly and he only wondered what Althea had left to his name.

Opening up the envelope, he pulled the letter out and walked towards the closet, as he began reading the letter.

‘Nick! I am sorry, I am leaving this way but I am also writing my address at the back of his letter. I want you to come to Gragnano. I don’t want to lose you, please! Now that I think of it, I had taken your presence so much for granted and so casually that I didn’t even bother to get your number. But I guess you do so, with someone, when you meet them conventionally under conventional circumstances. But you and I, we met in a different setting, in a different way. And I am glad that we did. Nothing is more important to me than you and that’s why, I am sorry for leaving this way but please, try and understand, I can not leave by saying goodbye to you. It would make me weak and I might not be able to make this decision. But I need to go now. I can not continue to put your position and integrity at risk. I love you. I love you very much. So, please do come to Gragnano. I will wait for you!’

Nick felt a warm sensation settling inside his heart.

Althea did not leave him all together, if anything she wanted him to go after her.

As Nick went to lay back next to Althea, he pulled her in his arm and felt her snuggling close and in to his chest. He gently moved the few strands of hairs that had fallen on to her face and looked at her soft features. To Nick, she was the most beautiful woman in the entire world because he had seen how she was on the inside and what beauty truly stands for. She had opened Nicholas’s eyes and hearts to witness what real love was because he had been drown in his depression of being left by someone who never truly loved him and looking back at those moments he spent cursing the woman who left him at the altar, he couldn’t believe how he had spend all that time in misery.

And in that moment when he held Althea in his arms, he wanted nothing more than to thank Cheryl for leaving him. he had cursed her in the past eight months but in fact, he realized that he didn’t really love her and neither did she and he was glad that she was the one to realize it when he was too blinded with his own primitive delusions. He realized that even if he got married to Cheryl, their marriage wouldn’t have lasted.

He had no more complains from life anymore. He had a successful business to run and a woman in his arms to love, who prioritized him and put him before everything. His life was complete.

He felt contented that she was not running away from him but running away for him.

Nothing was more important to her than him and even though Nick did not want her to lose herself in the way of loving her but it felt nice for once. To be loved beyond any limits and unconditionally. To be loved more than what one had worked hard their entire life towards. To become someone’s centerfold and to become someone’s center of attention. To become someone’s focus and someone’s entire heart. That feeling, Nick had never experienced in his life and he felt fortunate to have Althea in his life, who taught him that and made him feel special.

He tightened his hold around Althea’s body, pulling her even closer to him. if it were possible for him, he would’ve completely pulled her in to him and made the two in to one. But if he couldn’t do that physically, he was determined to do that soulfully.

He was going to make sure, that the two never parted their ways and he would have her in his life forever and ever.

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What do you think Nick should do and how he should tell Althea the truth?

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