Something That Is Love

CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT

~Chaos and charm~

CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT

"I don't think this is appropriate for a big event like this." Nikita grumbled at her image in the mirror. "I'm changing."

Sitting in the chair in her room, her legs dangling from the arms of it, Scarlett rolled her eyes, not bothering to give a reply.

"Scar! Tell me I should change!"

"Don't. I like this dress." Scarlett looked Nikita once again, admiring the way the way how the bottle green color of the dress complimented her golden brown skin. It was like a fusion of dress types, with spaghetti straps, backless and floor length with a flare. If it did have a name, Scarlett didn’t know it!

“You look hot enough to bang, Nik. Miccah will love you in this dress.”

Nikita whined at that, her face scrunching up as she pouted at Scarlett from the mirror. “But what if he doesn’t?”

Scarlett groaned loudly, banging her head to the head of the chair. “It is the seventh time I am hearing this sentence, Nik. Shut the f**k up get out of here!”

“I would’ve helped with all my heart if it were you, Scar. You are such a b***h to me!”

Scarlett rolled her eyes again. “Yes, you would have. Just like you stabbed my eye with the mascara when I told you I didn’t like my lipstick shade last time.”

Nikita smoothly ignored her as she started touching up her makeup. “Should I keep my hair down or make a pretty bun? Or maybe I could curl it? Or straighten it! And keep it back? Or keep some hair at the front and other at the back? Or—“

“Down. Keep them all at back and straighten them.”

“Hmm.” Nikita touched her shoulder length hair, playing with a strand as she contemplated Scarlett’s idea. “Yeah, I think making it a little wavy would be best!”

“Great! Can I go to sleep now?” Scarlett was already up and in a second she had thrown all of Nikita’s previous clothes on the chair she was sitting on and laid down on the bed, moaning out in happiness when her back touched with the covers.

“It’s only seven. Why are you sleeping so early? You are going to end watching a movie anyway, so why pretend?” Nikita fired at Scarlett, her face the perfect picture of mock concern as she curled her hair at the ends. “Oh wait, I can guess! It might be because someone wasn’t invited somewhere where someone else was invited who had someone as a date already and now the first someone is— “

A pillow hit Nikita’s back, making her shriek out in horror. “Don’t ruin my hardwork!”

“Then shut the hell up!”

“Fine.” Nikita put the curler on the dressing table, examined herself in the mirror one last time and turned to Scarlett. “Well, my date will be here in a few minutes. I better go and wait for him. Have fun bristling alone in the dark room!”

~~*~~

“You look good.” A lady addressed Ethan. There were sitting in a car, on their way to the fundraiser gala that was held tonight.

Ethan looked up from his phone to her, smiling a genuine smile. “Thank you, so do you. You have become more beautiful.”

“I know right?”The lady replied quirkily, waiting for Ethan to let out a soft laughter at her cockiness like he used to before.

Ethan however, was occupied with someone else’s thoughts. Scarlett would have given the same reply, and maybe added one or two high quality insults for him as well. The thought made the corner of his lips lift up a little, before he told himself to snap out of her thoughts.

Thinking about her felt wrong when he couldn’t man up enough to accept her.

“Who are you thinking about?” The lady beside him, tilted her head to a side, waiting for Ethan’s answer.

“No one.”

“I see.” She didn’t push it any further, knowing Ethan wasn’t going reveal anything. He had always been so closed off.

The rest of the ride passed in silence as both occupied themselves in their phones, both incredibly awkward in each others’ company after so long.

“We’re here.” Ethan looked out of the window to see a crowd already formed outside his car, and got out of the car after his driver had opened his door for him. He went to the other side, and opened the lady’s door, offering her his arm as she stood next to him.

There were gasps and shouts of surprise from the reporters once they who the lady was, and then the deafening noise as everyone swarmed around them like hungry animals, asking thousands of questions in a second.

Without paying them any attention, Ethan and the lady walked in the large banquet hall where the event was being held, showing their invitation cards to the guards.

The lady dragged Ethan towards a tall man, and greeted him with a hug, and then gestured the man to shake hands with Ethan. As Ethan smiled at him, his eyes contacted with a pair of glaring ones.

It was Nikita.

She had come to the fundraiser with Miccah not so long ago. They were just going to go to their table when she had caught the sight of Ethan entering the place with a lady hanging on his arm.

Nikita was angered by that, of course. In fact, she had thought that Ethan told Scarlett about him having a date just to make her jealous.

It had been two minutes since she had saw Ethan and she was still glaring at him. When their eyes met, Nikita had half expected Ethan to turn away from her, to ignore her completely. But to her surprise, she watched as Ethan excused himself from the man and started walking towards Nikita, alone.

She looked at his date, but she didn’t seem bothered by it, in fact, she was engaged in what seemed like a very interesting conversation with the man she was standing with. The lady was wearing a blood red floor length dress, it had a high slit on her left leg, coming up to her upper thigh. Her blackish-brown hair was up in a very pretty braided bun, she wasn’t wearing any earrings, which was the only imperfection in her looks. Other than that, Nikita had to admit, although reluctantly-after all she was Scarlett’s friend, that the woman was very beautiful.

“Ms Pandey, a pleasure to meet you.” She was brought out of her inspection by Ethan’s formal greeting, and she cringed a little, it was too formal for her mind to not be completely blank.

She stared at Ethan awkwardly, desperately searching for words she could speak. Until Miccah nudged her from her side, snapping her out of the awkwardness.

Nikita glared at Ethan. “You asshole!”

Ethan didn’t look even a slightest bit affected or angry, as if he had expected her to say something like that. “Ms Pa—“

“You do realize that I hate you, right? You broke my girl’s heart, for a reason that wasn’t even in her control and you show up with a f*****g date just a few days after that and you have the nerve to look me in the eye!”Nikita burst up. She had seen how Scarlett had been these days, she had heard her sobbing at night even though Scarlett tried to pass it off as hallucinations, she knew how hurt Scarlett was by Ethan’s rejection.

Something flashed in Ethan eyes, just for a moment, this could have been a hallucination, because it looked suspiciously similar to guilt. When Nikita blinked, it was replaced with fire. “That is between me and Ms Wh—“

She slapped him.

There was moment of silence as Ethan’s head turned to a side slightly. He clenched his jaw, trying to control his anger. A few heads turned to them.

If this had happened a few months back, Nikita would be being arrested in an attempt of assault in front of everyone, but it was not. It was right now, after Scarlett.

She had changed him.

Ethan looked back at Nikita, his jaw clenched. “You have some nerve.”

“Of course I have some f*****g nerve! Something that you don’t, lose—“

“It’s enough, Nik.” Miccah tugged her arm, trying to calm her down, he knew who Ethan King was, and he knew that he wouldn’t hesitate to ruin Nikita’s life for the stunt she pulled. Reputation was all that mattered to the Ethan King he knew.

“No, it is not!” Nikita jerked free from Miccah, turning her back to him and to Ethan.

“Do you have any idea how much you have hurt Scar?” Ethan’s date and the man with her were now walking towards them, the lady had a pissed off expression on her face. “She cries every night when she thinks I'm asleep, she doesn’t eat as much as she used to, her smiles aren’t genuine anymore, she is meaner than usual and it is all your fault! You are just a coward who can’t accept a woman with a bad past! You can’t accept her scars, all you can do is give her some lousy excuse to not be with her! You—“

“What—“ Ethan’s date interrupted, ready to give Nikita a piece of her mind, but Ethan held up his hand, stopping her midsentence.

“You!” Nikita turned her glare towards the lady. “You couldn’t find any other man to leech off of?” She pushed Miccah’s hand away when he tried to stop her. “If you think you are going to get anything from this—“

“Enough!” Ethan boomed at her, glaring at Nikita, his eyes burning with a fire that wasn’t there before. “You will not speak a word to her like that!”

Once again throwing Miccah a glare when he tried to interrupt, Nikita narrowed her eyes at Ethan. “Wh—“

“She is my sister. I would not stand anyone talking to her like this!”

There was a stunned silence as Nikita’s mouth hung open, her eyes widening as she looked at the lady. She blinked.

Then blinked again. Scarlett didn’t tell her anything about Ethan having a sister! She was going to kill her!

“Um,” She looked at the woman, cringing when she saw the glare on her face. “You are very pretty.”

The woman narrowed her eyes at her but kept mum. She looked up at Ethan, “Who is she?”

Ethan was still glaring at Nikita. Although his eyes were in her, his mind was somewhere else.

“You are still an asshole. You broke her, Mr. King. She was happier with you, the happiest I had ever seen ever since I knew her. She was in hell before you, maybe she still is, but she had found her redemption in you. And you destroyed her by throwing it all in her face.” Nikita had calmed down a little, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t angry with Ethan for causing Scarlett pain.

A muscle in his jaw ticked, his left eyebrow twitching but Ethan didn’t say anything. There was hurricane in his mind, and there was no way he could survive without being destroyed.

He abruptly turned away from Nikita, his eyes flitting to his sister for a moment before he continued glaring at nothing. “I need a damn drink!”

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