His Ex Wife

Chapter 22: Good Friends

Flashback

“How can you always be so sure that people like you that much Scott?” she asked sarcastically. Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

He chuckled proudly in return. He still had the ball in his hand.

She rolled her eyes and asked him, “And what are you doing here anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be in class yet?”

“Well, I could ask you the same question, we are in the same class for your information,” he said as he sat down and made himself comfortable on the ground, he threw his bag on the warm grass and put his ball aside and now, he just observed her, she still looked gorgeous, her face drawn taut in confusion.

“You know, you should learn how to chill, a bottle of wine or two wouldn’t hurt,” he proposed looking at her.

She watched him seriously, he was really a jerk. Without answering his silly queries, she got up with her wooden notebook now inside her bag, when Scott’s mighty arm pulled her down to where she was sitting again.

“What do you want?” she asked irritated at the extreme now.

“You!” he replied strictly and then changed his tone as he laughed, “Look at you! So serious and you call this a bunk…” he mocked her.

“I never invited you to this bunk!” she retorted, “and besides, you’ve distracted me from what I was thinking anyway so now, I might even go to class.”

“What will you do in class anyway? It’s better to be here, in the garden,” he laid on the grass and relaxed, his ball laid aside as he crossed his legs and closed his eyes.

Mariella watched him for a second, unsure of how to react. She sat down. Despair had not been as evident as before now.

“I don’t know if what I’m even doing is right, I should not have bunked any class today,” she said sadly.

Scott opened his eyes to see her expression, she was serious about that. He sat up and said, “Close your eyes.”

“What? Why?” she asked confused.

“Just close them,” he asked her again calmly.

Eying him suspiciously, she reluctantly closed her eyes.

“Now what?” she asked. Internally she felt like he was going to propose some silly game to light up her mood but he had to know that nothing was going to pacify her this time.

He smiled though looking at her innocent face.

“Tell me what your favorite place is,” he asked.

“So the game you choose is 21 questions?” she asked sarcastically immediately opening her eyes.

Scott immediately placed his palm over her eyes, “Cheater! I told you not to open your eyes! Now I’ll make sure you don’t open them,” his hand was placed firmly to cover her eyes.

“Okay okay,” she said still confused.

“So yes,” he continued, trying to remember, “What is your favorite place back in your home town?”

“Hmm…” she thought for a while, her mind running in the streets of Italy, where she was brought up, “the waffle place in Rome, it was not too far from my house, it was called Stefano Waffles, they had the

best ice cream in all Italy,” her tone had now quickly switched from sad to excited.

He smiled and then continued, “What is your favorite ice cream flavor?”

She chuckled and then answered- his hand still covering her eyes, “I like anything that has chocolate in it, just not white chocolate or dark chocolate, the milk chocolate is the best…”

“Ought to remember that!” Iyan muttered under his breath.

“What?” she asked, and he quickly moved to another question to divert her from that.

“Which is your favorite part about nature?” he asked.

She took a long moment to answer this, contemplating over the nature part, “We’re surrounded by nature in all ways we can imagine and personally, I like things the way they are, natural. But specifically thinking of nature reminds me of plants,” she let out a small laugh, “I don’t like flowers though, they make me sad because people pluck them and then they wear out. People say they love flowers and yet, they don’t realize that if they really loved them, they should let the roses, the lilies, orchids, tulips just grow,” her lips curved a small smile, “It’s common sense, if you love something, you should just let it grow.”

She continued, “My favorite part in nature, in plants is the cactus- they represent warmth, protection and long-lasting love. You would ask why, it’s because the cacti plants survive really harsh conditions and yet they stay unaffected, strong and unconditional. In some cultures, they even compare cactus to maternal love- strong and protective.”

Scott was listening to her carefully, as much as he was interested to know her, her intellectual only impressed him and attracted him further.

“That is a very deep analysis,” he pointed out still watching her complacent face, his hand still carefully placed over her eyes, “and what is one thing that you would never do no matter what?” he asked her.

Her smile disappeared now. She was taking his silly questions quite seriously by now anyway.

“I would never give birth to a child,” she said in her most serious tone possible.

Her answer pushed Scott’s curiosity to another level now.

“Why wouldn’t you?” he asked her.

She let out a small smile and said, “I don’t think that I would be able to give my child a good father and I would never want him or her to lead the life that I have led- with a single parent or suddenly discovering your father at the age of 16. An innocent child just doesn’t deserve this,” her tone grew sarcastic and melancholic at the same time.

It threw Scott under some confusion though, he removed his hand from her eyes and let her adjust to the daylight and asked, “What if you found a great guy? I know there are good guys and bad guys, but what if you found out your soulmate and you fell in love with him?”

She scoffed at that, “And where do you think I’ll find that genius?” she asked sarcastically.

Scott stepped closer to her and looker her in the eyes to build up the drama as he said intensely, “You could just be looking at him right now…”

Mariella tried to keep a serious face to that, but she could not even hold it in for more than a few second and she burst out laughing, her joyful laugh filled his ears.

“God you’re the most self-obsessed person I’ve ever come across,” she said in between her laughs.

Scott didn’t care about what she was saying, he was just glad to see how she was laughing now. If it was one thing, he had to realize this fated Wednesday, then it was that whatever happened, he just couldn’t bear to see Mariella sad.

When she had stopped laughing, she looked at him and smiled, “I think we will be good friends Scott Anderson.”

In only a matter of minutes, Scott had managed to distract Mariella from all her woes regarding her father and forget about Iyan.

Scott only smiled in response to that, he knew they would be good friends and a lot more than just good friends.

--

Since the morning, Iyan had been patiently waiting for Mariella at the library and his attention had not even been in the thick 300 pages’ physics book that lied in front him, untouched.

He had been on the constant look out for someone and she just hadn’t showed up. He wondered if he her father had asked her to stay away from him, or if she had felt too nervous after their kiss last night. Whatever the matter was, he was not going to just let her go. He waited impatiently for another 5 minutes before he quickly assembled his things and stormed out of the library- he was dying to see if she was okay. Surely the tone in which his dad had addressed him, he must have reprimanded Mariella too. He should have thought about that earlier.

Iyan looked for her in all her classes, even in the cafeteria as it was close to lunch time now; but he didn’t see her anywhere in the entire Edmont High. Finally, he went to the admin office and found out that she had not even attended any one of her classes since the morning. This only got him worried. He wondered if he should go to her place right now, after all he did know where she lived. He did not even know if she would be home right now or where exactly she would be…

He called her a few times but even her phone was switched off. He felt truly troubled, maybe he was the reason she must have been upset, he thought.

Though it was not what she had wanted, he had decided he would have to do it again, he would have to visit her again tonight to find out why she was avoiding him.