Everlastingly Loving You - Chapter 26

“Good choice,” Sophia said as she watched Nicholas bring over two glasses of vermouth.

“It’s not champagne but it’ll do,” Sophia said, satisfied.

“That’s something we can both agree on,” Nicholas said with a slight smile.

Sophia raised her glass, looking Nicholas in the eye whilst grinning.

“To Julia.”

The two royals clinked glasses.

“To Julia,” Nicholas said as both the royals took a sip from their respective glasses.

Smooth jazz music played, and the guests were left blissfully unaware of the true reason why this dinner dance was held in the first place but enjoying themselves nonetheless.

A couple of tables away, Louis’ tapped his fingers on the table, visibly nervous by the presence of a certain person. He had an entire table to himself, fortunately.

“Why is he here,” he wondered, regretting his decision to return to Beldovia for his sister when there was the possibility he’d meet him.

“It could’ve been anywhere,” he said, eyes shut. He wasn’t letting him inflict pain on him again.

Who was it he was fretting about exactly?

An old friend perhaps? An ex-lover he rather not meet in the presence of his grandmother?

The answer would be the latter. His ex-lover, back for unknown reasons.

He’d seen him enter the ballroom, unaccounted for. He had definitely not been invited. He’d dropped in unannounced, highly to see Louis.

And yes, it was a he. Louis had established his sexuality quite early on in his life. He was homosexual from the minute he understood what sexuality was.

It wasn’t like Julia hadn’t tried to change his way of seeing things, she had. Multiple times. All failures.

Yet although she tried to change his views, she didn’t love him any less than she did before she learnt of his true sexuality.

Of course, Sophia was first to know, and it was thanks to her support that Louis gathered enough courage to tell Julia – which he was incredibly thankful for.

Sophia spotted her brother from a distance, panicking.

She scanned the room. There had to be some certain reason her brother was acting the way she did.

Her eyes landed on a man not too far away.

“Oh,” she said aloud, gaining Nicholas’ attention.

“What is it?” He asked her.

Sophia shook her head.

“Nothing to concern yourself about,” she told him before he noticed her looking at another man.

He looked rather tongue-tied, seeing her staring at another man and paying him heed.

The man she had her eyes on was definitely good-looking – not as good looking as him, but enough to get him ever so slightly… envious.

He observed him and his every move carefully, wondering why would she have any interest in him so as to look at him from a distance away. He remembered her telling him she didn’t believe in love, but here she was.

“And who might that man be?” Nicholas asked.

He tried all his best not to grit his teeth. It was fortunate he was seated, or Sophia would’ve been able to notice his clenched fist under the table.

Sophia acted amazed.

“Don’t tell me you’re jealous,” she told him.

Nicholas stared at her, his piercing gaze causing her to blurt out, “It’s Louis’ ex.”

Nicholas felt a wave of relief wash over him. It was Louis’ ex.

He wouldn’t admit he was relieved, but he was taken aback.

“Louis’ ex?” He queried.

Sophia nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Oh,” Nicholas said, starting to feel slightly ashamed. He shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions that quickly. Heck, he wondered why he jumped to conclusions that quickly. It was just another man. She was bound to find someone else after the entire ruse ended – if it would end. There had to be someone out there that’d change her views on love, and it was certainly not him.

He couldn’t comprehend why the thought saddened him, but that was reality. At the end of the day, both he and Sophia knew that the ruse had to end and that they were eventually going to return to their lives.

“Was he intentionally invited, or?” Nicholas asked.

Sophia shook her head.

“There was no way he was invited, his arrival is completely unexpected,” she said truthfully, quite appalled by her brother’s ex’s sudden arrival.

She was extremely upset, seeing as he was the man responsible for Louis’ pain the minute he broke things off.

She watched as he stared at Louis longingly, wondering if the bloke still loved her brother.

“How exactly did the two… break things off?” Nicholas asked Sophia gently.

Sophia pursed her lips, before answering, “If what Louis said is to be trusted, him and his now ex-boyfriend wanted different things in life.”

“Thus, the two of them breaking things off,” she said gloomily.

The music changed from jazz to lively music, this turning into the inevitable dancing part of the dinner dance.

“You up for a dance?” Nicholas asked Sophia hopefully.

She shook her head, much to his dismay.

“I’m going to have to sit this one out, I’m afraid I have some interrogating to do,” she told Nicholas.

Nicholas nodded, duly understanding of the situation.

Sophia finished her glass of vermouth before leaving, off to grill a certain royal for some details. Boy, did he have some explaining to do.

Sophia walked over to another table, shooing away a couple other royals before landing her gaze on her brother’s ex-lover. A past friend of hers.

“What are you doing here, Leo?” She asked glaring holes at him.

“Sophie!” He exclaimed, relieved to see her there.

Sophia kept glaring at him.

“That nickname is for the few people I call my friends. Not for backstabbers that go behind my back to break my brother’s heart, Leo,” Sophia said with bitterness etched in her tone.

“And for what, a higher promotion in rank?” She asked, appalled by his sheer audacity to show his face back there after what he’d done.

Anger bubbled up inside her, and she was close to letting her anger out on the count that had broken her brother’s heart.