Chapter 48
Ethan Hatton felt conflicted, for some reasons he couldn’t fathom why he felt that way but lately memories of Amelia Sinclair have been clouding his head, the trip to Cancun that fateful summer had somehow been the beginning of some sort of ill-fate but he preferred to ignore, push it to the back of his mind and never remember it again, but recent happenings had made it all surface again.
Amelia Sinclair.
Ethan sat at the counter of an empty bar in Florida while on a business trip, the business was over and he could take the next flight back to New York that evening if he wanted to but he didn’t feel like it, more like he was avoiding home, avoiding Emily and avoiding New York altogether. He couldn’t look Emily in the eyes since the accident, he wondered if it was guilt or some sort of indifference he had festered over time, a nature of his that was bound to rear its ugly head over time. Was he really beginning to fall in love with her or did he just not want Jackson to have her. The similarities between Emily and Amelia were glaring, so glaring it blinded him, clouded his reasoning. Emily was his wife, plus they still have a few months left on the contract and he wasn’t ready to let go of her yet because she would go running straight into Jackson’s arms, why did that bother him so much?
“Another shot please” he gestured to the bartender, loosening the tie around his neck, he felt tipsy already but it wasn’t enough, he did not want to be able to feel anything at all.
“Make that two” a familiar voice sounded beside him and he turned to find Anita sliding into the barstool beside him, dressed in a red dress with a split in front that ran up her thigh, her lips luscious red and her hair flowing in jet black waves down her back. She smiled at him, the corner of her lips turned upward, the way she did when was up to something mischievous.
The surprise on his face was unmistaken, his eyes unraveled her, wondering how she knew to find him here, Anita she was relentless.
“What are you doing here Anita?” he eyed her suspiciously still while she downed her shot in one sitting before looking at him.
“I’m on business” she said to him and Ethan scoffed.
“What are the odds, yea I don’t believe that”
“I don’t care, believe it or not” she took his shot and drank it too before looking over at the bartender and ordering more, when it came she handed the glass to Ethan and she watched him drink the first glass, and the second glass and she smiled.
“Truthfully Ethan, I came out here to scope out a scene for a new movie my father is producing and I really wasn’t expecting to see you here, but since you’re here…”
“What?”
“We have a deal Ethan” she said, eyes fixed on him as she signaled for more shots from the bartender “Don’t think I can’t carry out my threats, because I feel people should really know what happened to Amelia”This content is © NôvelDrama.Org.
Ethan paused, matching her gaze, his eyes blurry but his ears alert to hear the threat she had just metered out to him.
“You’re not so innocent in that Anita”
“True, but what do I have to lose. My inheritance is mine, there’s no threat whatsoever” she said, her eyes sharp, and confident even whilst downing more shots, her face bare of the scrunch.
“I mean there’s Emily, if you really think about ” Ethan was going to say but a hard glare shut him up, instead he took a shot. His head was floozy already, turning in circles while his eyes danced within their sockets. He looked at Anita, as she shifted closer to him, a dainty hand finding its way to his lap, and she looked up at him through the hood of her eyes.
“We were so good together Ethan, so good. We had so much fun together. Don’t you remember, those
nights on the beach, the islands, drinking champagne on the sand with the sunset? Don’t you miss it, don’t you miss us?” she stood up now, moving closer to him with her hands finding their way around his neck, her acrylic nails holding the back of his head in the delicate way Ethan remembered. He inhaled her perfume in his drunkenness and his stomach did a dance, he wondered if it was the alcohol or some form of nostalgia but he let her, he let her intoxicate him.
“It should’ve been me”
“Anita ” he wanted to say but she shushed with a finger across his lips
“Don’t say anything, don’t ruin this” her lips met his, the lusciousness of hers colliding with the hunger that bridled within him, surprisingly he kissed back, hungrily so. His hands snaking around her slender waist and yes it was a mixture of the alcohol and indeed nostalgia. Anita was a like a fire, he could never quench out, she burned still, brighter and brighter, igniting fire within his loins and just when he needed her to keep it burning, she pulled away.
“Anita” he called, with a longing. His heart drumming, his senses felt alive. She matched his hungry gaze, a sly smile forming at the corner of her lips, her forehead almost resting atop his.
“It should’ve been me Ethan, it should’ve always been me. Not Amelia, not Emily, but me” she said, her pitched raised, but she pulled away from him in a swift motion, she picked her bag off the counter and proceeded to walk away. Her steps slow and calculated, a timer going off in her head and just when she was almost at the door, she felt him behind her, cologne and booze hitting her nose at the same time, his hard- on pressing unto her. He caught her by the wrist pulling her closer to him that she was touching his chest. His droopy eyes drilling into hers, even though they always held a hint of mischief, the longing was there. He kissed her again, harder this time, the wrongness of it all seeming like nothing to him because maybe it should’ve been her, it should’ve been her all these while.
“You’re right, it should’ve been you” he said “It’s always been you”
Anita smiled, she didn’t to say anything else but she kissed him again, letting his words wash over her, even intoxicate her more than the alcohol did.
One night, that was all she needed.