Everlastingly Loving You - Chapter 67

Sophia snuck up on Nicholas.

“Why didn’t you tell me it was your birthday?” Sophia asked, tempted to smack him over the head.

Nicholas answered coolly, “There are some things I’d rather keep to myself than tell you.”

Sophia seemed hurt by his words.

She wondered, ‘What was the reason for his sudden coldness?’

Had she not overheard a couple of maids gossiping, she would’ve never known.

She then asked Julia, who told her about the birthday party.

“You following through with the party?” Sophia asked.

Nicholas shook his head.

“No, I’m not,” he answered.

Sophia was strangely relieved to hear that.

“So, how’re you spending today?”

Nicholas stared at her weirdly, why was she being nicer to him than usual?

As if she read his mind, she asked, “What?”

“It’s your birthday, least I can do is treat you… nicer,” she said, a disgusted look on her face.

Nicholas chuckled.

He then decided to ask her, “What did you do with Alistair?”

“Nothing much,” Sophia answered truthfully.

Frankly, the Alistair she’d gotten to know as a child was no longer the same Alistair staying in the Beldovian Palace. It was as though they were two completely different people in the personality department with their identical faces as their only similarity.

She missed the old Alistair. The new one she’d met was nothing compared to the old him.

She sighed miserably. She wasn’t too keen on spending more time with Alistair. He was a plain, arrogant jerk.

She’d made excuses for his attitude and behaviour, but she’d quickly come to the realization that Alistair was no longer the childhood friend she loved fondly.

“That jerk’s nothing like who he once was,” she grumbled.

Nicholas smiled, earning a blank stare from Sophia.

‘She called him a jerk,’ he mumbled audibly.

Sophia smacked him on the shoulder playfully.

“I heard that, Ambrose,” she said cheekily.

Nicholas hid a smile.

Sophia laughed.

“So, since you’re not planning to spend your birthday…”

“What I’m trying to say is, if you don’t have any plans tonight, drinks?” Sophia asked.

Nicholas was baffled.

“Sure,” he answered.

He looked at the time. It’d been hours since he had breakfast with Julia.

Then again, he ended up eating nearly nothing, what with finding out Julia had planned a party for him.

“So, first off, lunch?” He suggested hopefully.

“Definitely,” Sophia agreed.

“So, dining room?” Nicholas asked.

“You know it,” Sophia said,  quickening her pace.

__

One lunch later, Sophia and Nicholas were strolling through the palace gardens. It’d been an uneventful day, to say the least.

But, Nicholas didn’t regret his decision to not continue with the party.

He’d rather spend the day with Sophia than that, even if he appreciated Julia’s sentiment.

Sophia, on the other hand, found everything extremely depressing.

She usually wouldn’t have cared or spared it a single thought, but Nicholas was on a whole other level.

His own family hadn’t bothered to wish him a happy birthday. And he hadn’t any friends either.

“Do you not find your life depressing?” Sophia asked, seated beside him.

They were back at the lake, again with each other and no one else. But this time, it was Nicholas’ birthday, not that he seemed to acknowledge the fact that today was his birthday, and not like every other day that passed by.

“It’s your birthday, and no, you’re not with your family.”

“No, you’re not with your friends celebrating it either.”

Nicholas interrupted her, “Yes, I’m not with neither my friends nor family.”

He lowered his voice, whispering, “But I’m with you.”

Sophia’s cheeks visibly reddened, she asked, trying her very best not to stammer, “So I’m not a friend of yours?”

Nicholas mumbled something under his breath. He hadn’t noticed that Sophia was blushing.

“No comment,” he said nonchalantly.

Sophia tsked. It was now the evening, and by then, many things had changed.

Nicholas had been surprised by a bundle of gifts, from civilians, fangirls, and royals alike.

She hadn’t gotten Nicholas a physical gift, which wasn’t entirely her fault, what with her only finding out it was his birthday on the very day, but it did cause her to feel dreadful, and as though what she intended to give him wasn’t enough.

Whilst she was dazed, she hadn’t noticed the raindrops starting to fall.

She snapped out of her train of thought once she felt droplets of rain dripping on her emerald-green trousers, staining them.

She looked up in the sky, realizing the only thing giving both her and Nicholas shade was a huge tree.

She momentarily wondered why she and Nicholas were sitting beside each other at lakeside, and how it wouldn’t benefit the ruse in any way either, but she couldn’t complain, she’d go as far as to say she didn’t mind spending time with Nicholas, whether it was at elegant balls, exclusive garden parties or extremely lavish birthday bashes.

She extended her hand out, watching as a couple of raindrops fell on her palm.

Nicholas watched her, admiring her beauty under the somewhat blue sky. The mystical lake couldn’t compare to her in terms of beauty, or at least, to him, it didn’t.

He, for one second, hadn’t regretted not being with his family on his birthday. It wasn’t a huge deal, and his family couldn’t care less. Not once had he celebrated his birthday with them, nor had he’d gotten a gift from his family, or a salutation from anyone other than his youngest sister.

An accurate way to put things, was, as Sophia put it, ‘depressing.’

The past twenty-three years, as cliche as it sounded, it’d been all loneliness and darkness, especially on his birthdays.

He’d never felt as contented as he did now in decades, correction, his entire life.

Him feeling as if he were finally accepted in a place, much less by someone? It was exhilarating and refreshing, to not feel alone. It was better than nothing.

He and Sophia sat there, beside each other, in silence, with the raindrops falling being the only source of noise.

They’d both tried to speak, but found that the words were stuck in their throats, as though something was keeping them from speaking to each other. They hadn’t left either. They were rooted to the ground as if they were trees.

The rain gradually became heavier and heavier, before turning into a heavy downpour.

Sophia and Nicholas had no choice but to leave, now soaked in rainwater from head to toe.

“This is what I get for sitting still,” she said, laughing at her own words as she wiped some water off of her face.

“I suppose we have no other choice but to leave,” she said loud enough for Nicholas to hear as she looked around nervously as if she were looking for something in the grass.

“Have you lost something?” Nicholas asked, speaking louder than usual as the downpour drowned out both their voices. He couldn’t recall her bringing anything, to begin with.

Sophia shook her head.

“No, no, it’s nothing,” she shook it off.

She looked at her outfit, “I’m just soaked in rainwater, ‘is all.”

“We should probably retreat back to the palace,” Nicholas suggested.

Sophia agreed.

“Alright.”

Nicholas was about to make his exit before…

“Wait,” he heard Sophia call out.

He stopped whatever he was doing, turning around.

“Yes?” He asked.

Sophia was nervous. No, nervous was an understatement.

Her hands were trembling, either from the freezing cold or pure anxiety. She was near-certain her knees would’ve stopped working, which she blamed on the rain.

She inhaled sharply.

“I just…”

She couldn’t get the words out of her mouth. They were stuck, as they had been before. Why was it so difficult to tell him? Why couldn’t she just tell him and be done with it?

“Before we leave,” Sophia finally began.

She’d been trying to find the perfect moment to tell him, but there hadn’t been any perfect moment. There never would’ve been in the first place.

The most important things to say were the hardest to say, but it was then she realized… it was precisely when something’s important to say, you say it, no matter what obstacles you face, so she decided to say it, although she was making a far bigger deal of things than one should’ve.

She walked up towards Nicholas, knowing it was now or never since she never would’ve mustered up the courage to do such gestures ever again when it came to her and Nicholas, who still hadn’t realized what she was about to do, or more so, why she’d do it. She wasn’t usually a cheesy person, but she figured this was an exception, just this once.

She softly kissed him on the cheek, and just as he was about to ask what she was doing, she managed a nervous smile, telling him affectionately, “Happy birthday, Nicholas,” before leaving immediately afterwards, and leaving, by which I meant, sprinting through the palace gardens and to the palace, her hair whipping in the wind, and her heart beating quicker than ever before.