3

~ HAZEL ~

    

     Indy, coming out of the bathroom in her towel, walked up to me on the couch, taking a seat beside me.

    “Please consider getting married to Tristan, Hazel. You’re the only one that can be of help to me now— to me, to Tristan, Ian, yourself, and everyone else.” Indy pleaded. 

    “It makes absolutely no sense…” I trailed off, confused and surprised— I was surprised that I wasn’t jumping into this. Tristan was everything I could think of at all times and this was going to be like the romantic books and movies I had seen where you finally get married to your prince charming.  

    

    "Please." She pressed on. 

    "How can I get married to him? He barely even knows I exist. Will you be so excited that your bride was switched without your consent? That's crazy!" I exclaimed, rising to my feet. 

    "I'll speak with Tristan. He'll accept, I promise."

   Accept?! Accept to marry me?! Happiness popped inside me at the thought of him accepting this. Trying to hide my excitement, I scoffed. "He won't."

    "He's my best friend. I know he will." She rose to her feet too, holding my shoulders with every form of hope flashing in her sky blue eyes. "If he agrees to get married to you, will you accept my proposal?"

    Of course I will! "I guess so." I shrugged, trying to play cool to avoid jumping on the bed to celebrate the thought of him accepting this.

    "Thank you!" She pulled me into a really tight hug. 

    "Too tight." I gently pushed her from me. "I'll have a bath now. I'll stay here for a while. Aunt will still be home, she has to leave first before I return."

    "I don't have a problem with your company so it's fine." She beamed. "Aren't you going to the bakery today?"

    "No, I'm on a kind of leave till 'your' Wedding is over." I made sure to place a stress on 'your'. 

    "I can't believe that grumpy woman gave you a break."

    "Me neither." I chuckled. My boss was such a strict cow with her dangerous glares that could eliminate a fire. She couldn't mess with me because I was the best employee she could ever have due to my magical cooking (baking) skills.

    I took my towel and clothes out of my bag and arranged them properly, leaving for the bathroom. 

    After my morning rituals in the bathroom, I returned to the room with a towel around my head and body.

    Indy was having a group video chat and judging from the voices, I could tell it was those two crazy morons, Jade and Claire.

    I got into a pair of black denim trousers and a purple sweatshirt, got rid of the towel around my head, dried my dark brown hair and straightened it from its beachy waves before tying it into a high ponytail. 

"You look hot, Hazel." Indy commented, drawing my attention to her. "Bye, ladies. And yes, we'll all definitely purchase the dress for the party. That crazy bitch needs to know who's boss." She said then ended the video chat. 

"Let me guess, those bitches are making you purchase a million-dollar worth dress?" I stood in akimbo. 

"It's actually twenty thousand dollars." She shrugged like it was NOTHING.

"You're officially crazy." I said and she burst into laughter. 

"My father's money is meant to be spent, it makes him happy."

I playfully rolled my eyes at her. "Anyway, I'm heading downstairs. You can call your so-called boyfriend."

 Grabbing my phone from the nightstand, I left the room while scrolling through social media and walked down the stairs. At the last step, I just happened to bump into a hard figure. 

As the cliché may be, it turned out to be no one else in this world but Tristan. Why was he here so early this morning? Okay, this was literally his second house, none of my business.

The exquisite smell of his cologne and his emotionless face made my heart beat rate increase wildly. Was it fear or nervousness? I had absolutely no idea.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking..." He apologized, retrieving his phone from his ear to his pants pocket. As the rumors from the internet and Indy had made me believe, Tristan Shane Hendrix NEVER apologized to anyone for any reason at all. 

"It's fine..." I said in the best way I possibly could without feeling breathless to express my uneasiness. My eyes just had to travel to his beautiful full lips that were always present in my dreams, doing wonderful works to my lips, his perfectly trimmed jaw that looked like it could cut through any iron, his wonderfully natural silky black hair, those electric blue eyes that could make an electrocution occur in my soul. His lips were moving but the sound from it was mute to my hearing, I could only focus on the wondrous movement of those tempting things he called lips. 

"Hey!" He snapped his fingers, snapping my brain back to life. 

"Uh? Uh?"

"Did you hear anything I just said?" Once again, I couldn't tell whether he frowned or it was just his normal expression.

"I... Uh... I was so lost in thoughts of my... Uh... Work." I scratched my earlobe. "What were you saying?" 

"Never mind." His frown intensified. What? It wasn't my fault he was too good-looking for a human. "Is Indy in her room?"

"Yes, she is." 

Without another word, he walked past me and scurried up the stairs. 

I spoke to him yesterday and today again? Wow, such a short interval to speak to him and not pass out from excessive breathlessness. 

I quickly left for the kitchen to join Lila in cooking so I could bless their taste buds with foods cooked by my magical hands. 

***

It was 2pm already, Aunt must've left to watch her favorite game with her friends. I could freely go back home.

I returned the book I was reading to the shelf, arranged my stuff into my bag and left the room with my bag in my hand. 

I ambulated to the living room where Lila, Indy and Tristan were standing by the door, laughing at what either of them might've said.

"Oh, you're leaving now too, Hazel?" Lila asked when I stopped in front of her.

"Yes, I am." I yawned. 

"Okay. Tristan can drive you home, right Tristan?" 

"Sure." He replied indifferently, receiving a short kiss from Indy (ALL FAKE!)

"Don't you have to go to work or something?" I asked, just curious. 

"I'm free from work till after our wedding." He said in a very deep and rigid tone that made a weird feeling run through my nervous system. 

I only nodded.

"Bye." Indy said, shoving her hands into her shorts pocket with a smile.

Tristan and I walked to his car and he was gentlemanly enough to open the door to the passenger seat for me— he was being a gentleman but that crazy look on his face made it seem like he was on a mission to kill me during the drive. 

"Thank you." I said, got into the car and dropped my bag beside me, then he shut the car door, turned around and got into the driver's seat. 

He started the car and zoomed off.

I tried to avoid gazing at him at all cost, staring at everything else except him. 

The drive continued for the next few minutes, absolute silence, and I couldn't stop myself from glancing at him at short intervals. 

Wait... "Do you even know where I live?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. 

"Of course I do. I've driven Indy to pay you a visit so many times. You've served me coffee as your guest with Indy. I must admit that it's the best coffee I've ever had since I was born." He said, not sparing me a glance— oh wait, he just glanced at me. 

I remembered the day I had served him coffee, it had been a while ago. "I thought you hated the coffee because it tasted terrible or because it wasn't of good quality as the rich people's coffee. You were looking at it with disgust.”

"No. It was really good. I was only mad because it was better than my Mom's." My eardrums almost died from the angelic sound of his chuckle, something I had never heard. Glancing at him, his face was so stern that made me wonder if the chuckle I heard was just my imagination.

The rest of the drive was silent till he finally pulled over in front of the small bungalow Aunt Mandy and I lived in.

“Thanks a lot for driving me home.” I said, smiling at him. 

He only stared at me without a word. “It’s not something I’d normally do. I have a lot of work to attend to. Bye.” He smiled— oh my gosh, he smiled?! At me? Maybe something was wrong with him today.

I couldn’t take my eyes off him and a question was ringing in my head to ask him. Once again, my heart was beating faster. What if it made him very angry? 

“Is there any problem?” He asked and I shook my head excessively, internally warning myself to keep shut— but what if Indy running away with Ian was going to hurt him terribly since he loved her. “Is there anything you’d like to ask?” He raised an eyebrow. 

“Do you love Indy?” The words rolled out of my mouth before I could control them.

He frowned harder than usual. “That’s a very personal question but as Indy’s best friend, she must’ve told you that we’re only doing this for our parents. I don’t love Indy anymore.” His frown intensified, making it obvious that he wasn’t comfortable discussing this. 

“I’m sorry.” Without another word, I got out of the car with my bag and waved him goodbye while he zoomed off.

He didn’t love her! Thank goodness!

I went into the house, grinning.

My smile slipped after noticing Aunt Mandy was sprawled lazily on the couch and of course there were certainly crazy things like empty alcohol bottles, some were filled, cups, dirty things and for some reasons, rumpled papers. I hated living with this woman. So much.

“Good afternoon.” I greeted grouchily, attempting to leave for my pretty clean room. 

“Hey, listen up. Indy called to let me know what’s happening.” 

“Is she crazy?” I turned to her, frowning. “Why would she call you?”

She lighted a cigarette and clipped it with her fingers. “You’ll have to get married to him else I’ll ruin you, kill you. You know what I can do,” She smirked, placing the cigarette between her lips. 

If she could’ve burned my entire bedroom containing all the memories of my life and my most important things when I was 10, almost made both of us have a car accident intentionally when I was 12, destroy all my dolls when I was 5, ruin my perfectly normal life, all because I didn’t listen to her, then she could murder me if she wanted to.

Jeez, I hate this woman.

*** 

I rolled over twice till I was finally comfortable in my small bed. Unlike Indy’s beautiful bed, this one was so uncomfortable and my stupid phone that didn’t stop ringing was ruining everything.

I groaned before succumbing to answer the call. Without checking the caller ID, I answered the call and placed it on my ear lazily, yawning. “What?”

“Hi, it’s Indy, and I have good news!”

I frowned. “And you couldn’t wait? This is probably 2am.”

“It’s actually 1am.” She chuckled. “Anyway, I called to let you know that Tristan just spoke with me, I summoned courage to discuss with him about Ian— he wasn’t interested in getting married to me either because we’ve definitely lost the spark, but he was upset about the business deals linked to the wedding and guess what?” She said the last three words in a higher pitch. 

“What?” Sleep was driven out of me completely and my eyes widened, expecting to hear the best news of my life. 

“He agreed to marry you!”

I squealed. “Really? How? Why? Gosh, this is so unbelievable.” I was grinning from ear to ear. “What made him accept? How’s this possible?”

“He accepted and I’m so excited.” She squealed too. “I’ll finally be able to elope with Ian, and you’ll take the place as the bride without letting anyone know.”

Guilt flooded in me at the thought of helping her out with eloping but the guilt was flushed away with extreme happiness. 

“We’ll secretly go to my fashion designer to make a wedding dress for you that’ll hide your identity completely, so others don’t know it’s not me. Prepare to get married to your prince charming.” Though I couldn’t see her, I could tell she smirked. 

~ TRISTAN ~

I’ve been more than frustrated with everything lately. The wedding was stressing me out so much.

Speaking of the wedding, I ought to call Indy for update. Whether or not I wanted to, I had to be involved in the wedding preparations.

I picked my phone from the nightstand and dialed Indy’s phone, getting rid of my rolex wrist watch then my shirt.

“Tristan… h–hey.” She sounded worried, I assumed.

“Hey. Is anything wrong? You sound weird.”

“N–no.”

“Jeez, what’s wrong? I know you well enough.” I rolled my eyes at her.

“It—it’s r–really no–nothing. Why— why did you call?”

I could tell that tone was when she was either bothered or feeling guilty for telling a lie but I was too tired to press on. If she didn’t want me to know then I wasn’t interested.

“I only called to stay updated about the wedding… our wedding.” I sighed.

“Wedding? Everything is… it’s fine.”

“Your wedding dress?”

“I’ll go… to D–Daisy tomorrow with… Haze–Hazel for the… dress.”

“What lie have you told?”

“No… nothing.”

“I’m your best friend, remember? I’m not stupid, I know that tone.” I rolled my eyes.

“Nothing is wrong. Our wedding would be perfect. Bye.” She said in a rush then the call ended.

Weird woman… my future wife…