Mistakenly Eaten

87. What Loving Someone Actually Means

Fiona entered inside the kitchen, finding many of the contestants already lined up. As she walked towards her spot, she found Fiona fixing her station and the moment their eyes laid on each other, their expressions changed.

With Althea being happy to see her friend, Fiona was confused to find Althea all dolled up, wearing makeup and even a dark lipstick on her face, that made her look radiant and enticing.

“Wow! You look nice.” Fiona complimented the girl, checking out how she wore a tight dress that hugged the curves of her body precisely.

“Thanks! You’re the second person to say that to me today.” She chimed with a bright smile and then gently patted Fiona’s shoulder.

“Are you okay, after everything that happened? You slept quite early and…”

“Actually I slept like a baby and slept for like thirteen hours or more.”

“Wow! So, depression sleep is a real thing.” Althea mumbled, making Fiona throw a daggering gaze her way.

“I am sorry.” She immediately straightened up, sensing the animosity coming in from her friend.

“How are you feeling now?”

“Confused a little but predominantly determined.”

“Determined? About what?”

She questioned and just as Fiona was about to reply to her, the door to the kitchen flipped open and Garry walked inside, keeping his head a bit low, still not recovered form the impertinent situation that he had suffered a day ago.

He made his way towards his spot and noticed that Andrew was still missing. He only wished that the guy did not show up at his spot or else Garry was going to sprain his neck due to the inadvertent confession that Andrew had added in, fuming the situation even more adversely.

Fiona ignored Althea’s question and walked towards Garry, tapping on his shoulder, making him turn towards her.

Garry c****d an eyebrow, finding Fiona standing in front of him.

He darted a gaze over her shoulder and found Althea looked at the two with wary written over her face.

Garry shrugged, slightly bobbing his head, a silent gesture that he had formed to ask Fiona what she wanted and why was she bothering him.

Fiona mustered up her courage and finally spoke up.

“Can we talk? Even if you’ve got a second, I really need to talk to you before the first cook off of the day begins. Can we please talk?”

She urged politely and even though Garry had anger written all over his face which mirrored the feeling of his heart as well but he couldn’t say no to Fiona because even he understood that the solution of much of his problems rested with having a conversation with Fiona.

“Hmm, sure.”

He nodded and walked ahead to lead her out but stopped when he heard a voice cooing behind her.

“Wait!”

He turned around to find Althea coming after Fiona. She held the girl back and gently pressed on her shoulders.

“Are you going to be alright? do you want me to come with you?”

Fiona smiled brightly, rejoicing the fact that instead of stopping her, Althea simply supported her by very timidly asking, if she wanted Althea to come with her.

It was a simple gesture but in a very camouflaged manner, Althea had informed Fiona that she was not going to stop her from doing whatever she wanted and was just going to be there for her in anything that she ever required, which was somehow everything that Fiona felt that she needed to hear.

“Yes! Thanks for your support but this is something that I need to take care of, on my own.”

With that Fiona felt like flushing up in to a big girl, as she turned and gestured Garry to follow her.

Garry was slightly amazed at how the timid and fractious Fiona that he had known of, who would always be after him, following him and trailing after him had suddenly become a grown up woman, who had a voice and boldness of her own.

As the two finally reached the pool area, Fiona softly pressed a smile on her lips, as she looked at Garry, who yet again, held a irritable expression on his face, showcasing just like his usual self how uninterested he was in having that conversation with her.

She realized that, that expression of his was not something new. In fact, it was something that always remained and previously Fiona actually found it mesmerizing that how Garry was a man of ego but instead, she realized what she considered to be personality was actually insolence.

“What did you want to talk about? You didn’t seem interested in talking to me yesterday, when all I did was try and talk to you.”

He spoke up brashly, snapping Fiona out of her trance of realization.

She hummed gently at his words and then decided to retort back with equal coherence as him.

“Yes, you just wanted to talk but you didn’t approach me politely like I did today.”

She told him off, taking him by surprise at how Fiona’s tone had simply changed. Garry’s acts and daunts didn’t bother her previously but suddenly they had become a trigger to her, which only made Garry wonder what had went wrong in their condition.

“Anyways, I don’t want to get dissolved in the conversation of who did what and what happened and when, but I just want to say that I am sorry.” She told Garry, once again taking him by surprise.

One minute, he believed that she would give him an scolding and tell him off how she didn’t like him anymore and another, she was yet again apologizing, something he thought that she would do when she asked him to step aside with her.

“What are you really sorry for?’

He wanted to actually know what was going on in Fiona’s spinning mind.

“I am sorry for being too brash when I confessed by feelings a bit to ardently. I should’ve been of course more careful when I abruptly just came on to you and confessed my love for you. I was of the impression that you knew that I liked you and you just wanted me to be verbal about it.”

Garry fell in to complete silence. He did always know that Fiona liked him. The way she was always at his command, agreeing to anything that he would ask her to do and even went ahead and saved him from Gigi one too many times. But he didn’t know that Althea would be aware of his cognizance as well.

“I…” he fumbled with his words but Fiona simply stopped him, not wanting to further press him to admit or say anything. She was done putting him in awkward positions.

“You know what Garry, you don’t have to say anything because I am done putting you and myself in awkward situations. I can not continue on to put you in positions that will clearly trouble your peace of mind and that’s why, I have decided to free you of the burden of ever even thinking that you should consider me. You shouldn’t have to go through it.”

Garry’s lips parted in surprise, as something so mature and proficient came out of the girl’s mouth who always seemed to be living in a utopia of her own.

“The first and foremost rule of love is to learn the art of letting go. Because all that matters to you is the comfort of the other person. Even though, it is hard and I don’t know if I will ever cry about it later on or not but for now, my mind is determined that I need to free you from any worries of every returning my feelings. I just want you to be comfortable. You don’t have to do anything anymore. I am sorry for being so sudden and imposing but I would not bother you anymore. It is fine if you can not or will ever return my feelings because suddenly, I feel like I should love myself more than I will ever love you and I need to care about my comfort as well.”

With that Fiona turned on her heels and left Garry muddled and confused.

He didn’t know what just happened with him but to Fiona, she had within a glimpse learned to get over a love that she had inside her heart and mind over the past five years and not only had she gotten over it in a glimpse of a moment but also in a much more graceful manner.

She didn’t have to shed much tears and only had to learn to choose wisely which love was meant to be for her and which not.

As soon as she entered back inside the kitchen, she found Andrew positioned at the last station, having changed his position from the one that he shared next to Garry.

She noticed that he was simply engrossed in setting up his station and even Althea was quite worried as she looked at Andrew for a moment.

When Fiona came to stand back at her station, Althea rushed to her, “So? How did it go? What did you say? Did he say something rude or…?”

“It went fine! I just realized that I was wrong for bombarding him with my confession and feelings in such an abrupt manner and at the same time, I needed to respect my feelings of true love.”

“So, what did you do?” Althea asked, slightly jittered by Fiona’s words.

“I told Garry that he didn’t need to worry about reciprocating my feelings. I was fine and he shouldn’t feel burdened by my love.”

“Huh?”

“Thank you!” she turned towards Althea and hugged her feverishly. “It is you, who gave me the confidence to always speak my heart out and if it weren’t for you, I would’ve never realized that I am being plain stupid about being in love with Garry and in fact, I deserve the kind of the love that I am willing to give to someone. The love where all your flaws are ignored, where your rudeness is considered as a bliss and just a single glance of yours is enough to make someone’s day.”

Althea smiled softly, listening to Fiona’s words. She was perhaps defining the true essence of love and she was glad that Fiona had ended up reaching the par of identifying that love is not just about crushing over someone but in fact, it is about receiving as well and knowing that you deserve to be loved.

“I am happy for you.” Althea patted Fiona’s cheeks and moved back to her side of the station.

Fiona also smiled at her own self, proud of what she had been able to realize and achieve on the other hand, her words had reached deep within Garry’s heart, who heard everything that she had told Althea as well and looked at Fiona, regretting and realizing how he had ended up ruining something that could’ve been beautiful.

As the image of what a possibility of relationship could be played through his head, those very images were once Fiona’s imaginations. But they weren’t so anymore and instead, in her imagination now was someone very different and more generous.

Someone, who had made her realize that she deserved gentle love and care and that was the guy who stood all alone, in the last corner of the kitchen.

Someone who stayed away from the gleam and glam and was always a quiet and detached. Someone who didn’t care about his image or what the world thought of him and was actually someone with high self esteem, that wasn’t just self imposed through societally proved steps but was earned with hard work and sheer talent.

She turned to gaze at Andrew and slowly began realizing that true love was not just caring about one person but instead, having someone who loved you and made you realize that you also deserved to be loved and cared for.

She smiled to herself, getting busy as Anthony and Martha began the day’s cook off, since Salva had already signed off and Serena had not showed up and neither Martha nor Anthony wanted to check up on her, after what she had ended up saying to them. So, they decided to conduct the cook off on their own and as the competition began, Althea would every now and then wonder about Fiona’s word that had reached her heart and she also wondered if she was beginning to fall in love with Nicholas, since he also made her feel comfortable and cared for.

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Who do you think is falling more hard?

Althea or Nicholas?

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