Seven Months Later:
Scarlett:
I calmly inhaled, taking in the plush furnishings and the soothing scent of lavender as I stepped into the opulent lobby of the luxurious spa with my best friends, Lexi and Olivia. A group of beautiful women wearing elegant spa uniforms and holding champagne flutes welcomed us.
"Welcome to Blissful Spa, ladies. We're delighted to have you here," one of the ladies said with a smile. "May I have your names and reservation details?"
I stepped forward and handed over the reservation details, feeling a flutter of excitement in my stomach. I had been looking forward to this spa date with my best friends for weeks. We had all been so busy with exams that we hadn’t had time to get together and catch up.
We chattered excitedly about the treatments I had chosen for us as the ladies checked our details and led us to a private room. The spa date was courtesy of Mrs. Sterling. It was my 20th birthday, and she always did something special for me on my birthday. The previous year, we went to the Maldives, and I took my friends with me. Mrs. Sterling went with us, and my mother was invited along, but she made up an excuse and politely declined. I tried to get her to come, but she didn’t want to. I didn't think they were taking us anywhere this year, though, because normally we would have left already.
The spa was new, and we were visiting it for the first time. Mrs. Sterling was invited to the opening, and she invited me. I wished I could have gone, but I was too busy to join her. She saw how much I wanted to come, so I guess that is what inspired her choice of gift. I called Lexi, and we went over the packages together. We settled for the one that included a massage, facial, and pedicure, and we couldn’t wait to unwind and relax after all the stress.
As we settled into our plush chairs and sipped on our champagne, the spa attendant informed us about a new treatment that was included in our package, and we exchanged glances, intrigued by the idea of the Diamond Glow Facial.
"What is it?" Lexi asked.
"It’s a treatment that uses a diamond-tipped wand to exfoliate and vacuum the skin, leaving it smooth and radiant," the attendant explained, and we nodded eagerly, excited to try this new treatment. The attendant smiled and left the room to prepare for our treatment.
"Oh, this place is nice, you guys," Olivia gushed over our surroundings, slightly bouncing on her tippy toes. She always got overexcited. "Girl, you have to be the luckiest girl I know. My mother has to come work for the Sterlings," she added, causing me to chuckle. She was right, and it made me feel even more ungrateful for wishing I could trade it all away.
Moments later, the attendants returned, and the room was soon filled with the soothing sound of soft music and the relaxing scent of lavender. The ladies began our treatments, and I felt myself slipping into a state of complete relaxation as the massage therapist worked my muscles. But then my mind wandered too far, and before I knew it, everything had faded to the background, and the cerulean blue eyes that had been giving me sleepless nights flashed before my eyes, sending my green ones flying wide open, while a groan that the attendant probably mistook for a moan left my lips.
The eyes belonged to Reed Sterling, my first and only love whom I couldn't get over. My heart immediately clenched, and I desperately reached for the flute to try to wash down the lump that had quickly formed in my throat. I was tired of being sad, and I was trying my best to be happy and move on. But how could I when I could still feel his hands on me every time I closed my eyes? He didn’t just touch my skin; he left prints on my soul, and now they were haunting me, making me ache with longing.
When I told Lexi, she told me it was probably because he was my first and, as soon as I met someone else, I would forget about him. But I doubted that. How was I supposed to find someone else when all I wanted was him? There were so many times when I woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to get into my car and drive to his place, but then my mother’s words would ring in my ears, and I would end up getting back to bed.
My mother and I moved into the Sterling household when I was four after she secured a job as the chief maid. The drivers and everyone else could live where they wanted, but everyone who worked inside the house stayed on the premises. Mrs. Sterling wanted it that way. So my mother and I lived in the servants’ quarters, which we shared with other staff. But when it was time for me to start school, the Sterlings took me in.
They gave me a room inside and put me in the same school their children went to. They paid for all my expenses as if I was their own child, and nothing changed until ten months ago. Mrs. and Mr. Sterling never had daughters; they only had three boys, and I figured that's why they took me in. I was pampered, had everything, and felt like the happiest and luckiest girl on the planet. But that all changed ten months ago.
Growing up in the Sterling mansion was like having a million siblings. We did everything together, from going to school to playing sports. It was just natural that we would all be very close. But Reed and I had something special. He was four years older than me. His younger brother, Ethan, was my age, and I was always paired up with him in activities, but I’d always find a way to dump him for Reed.
Reed was always there for me, even when no one else was. We would talk for hours about everything and anything. We would stay up late just chatting away until we couldn’t keep our eyes open anymore. It was like we were two peas in a pod, which is why I was so hurt when he left to go study overseas that I almost failed that term. I missed him so much that my mother noticed and worried that I was sick. I confessed to her that I wasn't; I just missed Reed, and that was when she told me something that shocked and irked me. She said I was in love with Reed and warned me it wasn’t a good idea.
She said it would mess up our relationship with the Sterlings, and we were in a really bad place when they gave her the job. She didn't want to upset them, but I wasn’t in love with Reed. I loved him, but as a friend, or so I thought, so I didn’t bother with what she said.
Reed and I kept in touch, talking almost every day. When he had finished and was about to return home, I counted down the days. I was the first one up on the day we were going to fetch him at the airport. I couldn’t wait to get my best friend back and make him laugh at what my mother had said about us. I was grinning from ear to ear as the aircraft's door flew open, but then the unthinkable happened. His eyes found mine as he descended from his family's jet, and the world froze as a fire ignited in my soul. My mother was right. I was in love with Reed Sterling; I hadn't realized it until that moment.
It was like a switch had been flipped, and I couldn’t turn my feelings off. As his feet touched the ground, he wasn't cute anymore; he was hot. Everything he did excited me. The friendly hugs made me hot, bothered, and ashamed. I couldn’t even look at him half-naked anymore without feeling things that would have made my mother disown me if she found out. So, thinking of my mother’s words and being unable to remain sane around him, I decided to distance myself from him. I was afraid that my mother was right, that the Sterlings saw us as siblings, not lovers, and they had done so much for me that I didn’t want to disappoint them. But then, one night, I was watching a movie with Ethan in the theater room when Reed came in and joined us. Life had become sour for me in the Sterling Mansion, and it had been days since I had been avoiding him.
About halfway through the movie, Ethan decided he didn’t like it and left. As he walked out, I realized I should have gotten up with him too, as I couldn’t even look at Reed. I got up, and I was glad he didn’t say anything when I did, but I only took two steps after I bade him goodnight before a pair of arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me against a hard chest.
I turned around, taken aback by the action, and just as I opened my mouth to ask him what he was doing, his lips were on mine. I knew I should have pulled back, but how could I when fireworks exploded in my head and stomach at the sensation of his lips against mine? It was like nothing I’d ever felt before, and my arms took on a life of their own as they wrapped around his neck and pulled him even closer.
Our heavy breaths echoed off the walls as we crumbled to the floor, never letting go of each other. Goosebumps rose on my skin, and I trembled with need as his hands explored my every curve, driving me wild with lust.
I had my first time right there, and it was magical. It turned out I was not the only one who had experienced a change in our relationship. Reed wanted to take our relationship public the following day, but I stopped him because I didn’t want to hurt my mother’s feelings, and because I was afraid his mother wouldn’t approve. So, for three months, we sneaked around behind our parents' backs. He didn't like it, but he did it for me because he didn't want to put me under pressure. But my mother busted us seven months ago in Reed's office doing the deed and there was no denying it. I felt so bad I couldn't even chase after her. She spoke to me earlier that morning again when she saw that I was going with Reed to the movies. She explained to me why the relationship wouldn't be a good idea and I lied to her and said nothing was going on between us and that I understood. She cried so hard when I got home and tried to speak to her that I felt like the world's most horrible human, and called the relationship off.
She never said it in so many words, but my mother already felt like the Sterlings had taken me away from her, and that broke my heart. No one could ever take me away from her; she's my mother, and the first thing I was going to do when I started working was to get her a house and send her into retirement. The last thing I ever wanted to do was to put my mother in a position where she felt unsafe, so I had to make the sacrifice once, even if that sacrifice was my happiness.
But since then, I haven't been able to move on. Every day hurt more than the last, and the worst thing was that I didn't know if it was the breakup itself that hurt so much or the fact that he never even put up a fight when I called things off. He just let me go like he never really felt the same.
After that, we carried on as if nothing had happened, but it was killing me. I was snapped out of my reverie by Olivia and her attendant, who were walking out of the room. I reached for the flute again and gulped it down, forcing Reed Sterling out of my head. It was my birthday, and I was going to enjoy it. It was over between us, and I just had to accept it.
