Pleasant surprise

I watched as Olivia's face turn pale the moment she saw me. You could swear all the blood drained from her face as she stared blankly at me. A smile crept to my lips because my hope of seeing her soon had come true, and she looked beyond horrified, maybe from seeing me or realizing who I actually was. It probably didn't make things better for her since she and I will spend a huge amount of time together for the preparation of the wedding.

“Olivia, this is my cousin Nathaniel”, Mellisa turned to look at me. “Nathan, this is Tristan's best friend Olivia”, Melissa introduced us together, and I extended my arm for a handshake. She had frozen in her spot for a second before she cleared her throat and placed her hand in mine.

“Nice to meet you, Olivia”, I smiled at her, and she was still dazed as nodded her head

“Nice to meet you too, Nathan”, she emphasized sarcastically on my name, and we locked eyes for a while before I nodded, breaking our contact soon after

“Such chemistry between the two of you. I could swear the both of you know each other or something”, Kevin hummed as he looked at me and Olivia simultaneously. “Do you two know each other?”

“Actually-”

“No!”, Olivia blurted out alarmed, interrupting me abruptly and everyone turned to look at her. She tensed up and cleared her throat awkwardly.

“What I mean is,”, she laughed nervously as she fixed her eyes on me. “Nathan and I don't know each other”,

Cause you know Tony, I see what you did there Liv

I laughed to myself as I couldn't even stop this wide smile growing on my face, just looking at her was just so fulfilling in so many ways I couldn't even explain. Not to mention how beautiful she looked today, strikingly gorgeous. She was clearly a sight for sore eyes.

“Actually what Nate?”, Mellisa questioned, and I rose an eyebrow in question of what she meant

“You were going to say something before Liv interrupted you”, she clarified and Olivia fixed her eyes threateningly at me, it almost felt like she was almost warning me not to say anything stupid

“I thought I recognized her from somewhere, but I think I clearly must have mistaken her for someone else”, I lied convincingly, and they all seemed to believe what I said, as they nodded away in agreement

“Now that we all know each other, I think it's time we go eat. I'm starving”, Kevin complained and there were agreeing sounds from the group. Olivia quickly turned on her feet and walked to the table while Tristan wrapped his arm around me.

“I'm glad you could make it, Nate”

My lips spread into a grin as I watched Olivia take her seat at the table

“So am I”

We all took our seats and indulged in the meals I prepared for this brunch. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, giving out compliments at every bite. It felt good that my cooking was bringing some sort of happiness in people's lives, it actually felt great. My eyes found Olivia's, who gave me a thumbs up while she mouthed delicious, and I smiled in her direction. My blueberry muffins were her absolute favorite.

I could feel Mellisa's eyes on me the entire time and turned to see her poking at her food. With everyone was busy socializing with each other, I leaned closer to her.

“What's wrong? Don't you like the pancakes?”, I asked, and she pushed her plate forward and took a sip of her juice.

“I just think omelets, muffins, pancakes and other simple things to prepare menu is a bit overrated now”, she seemed displeased as she wiped the corner of her mouth with a serviette

“You could have done better”

Her words pierced deep, and I swallowed hard at her bitter remark before pausing for a second to stare at her

“If you didn't like the pancakes so much, you could have opted for something else”

“I didn't say I didn't like the pancakes, I'm just saying that it would have been great if you just wow'ed us with something else other than pancakes and stuff”, she pointed out in a dull tone, nearly rolling her eyes

“I'm not doing this with you right now”, I whisper shout, not giving away we were about to argue about another pointless thing

“Of course Tristan, my opinion doesn't seem to matter to you”, she rolled her eyes again. “But if Olivia said what I just said, you could have actually taken this conversation into consideration”

“This is not the place or the time to talk about this”

“Whatever”, she looked away to take another sip of her juice. I was not going to let her ruin my mood today, I was definitely not going to let her get to me.

“So Tristan-”, my mother's voice called to my attention and I looked at her before drawing a deep breath

“Yes mother?”, I forced a smile on my face

“How are the wedding preparations going?”

“Good”, was all I could say because I had absolutely no idea how even far the preparations were going. You could swear I wasn't the one getting married because Mellisa had everything under control. It's like I didn't get to choose what happens at my own wedding. I mean yes, I wasn't going to be involved-involved in all the decision-making and stuff, but I also had to have a say in this. She even hired a catering chef for menu discussions because clearly I was a joke to her.

We were supposed to make some decision together but in this instance, it looked like all I needed to do on the day was just to show up

“Oh Tristan”, Mellisa laughed dryly as she placed her hand on my lap. “No need to be so modest babe”

She turned to my mother. “Everything is going as planned, Catherine”

“It sounds like this is going to be the best wedding of the century”, Martin McCarthy, Mellisa's father added chuckling

“It won't be as glamorous as Nathan's wedding though”, Mellisa laughed, adding in passing and the sound of Olivia coughing out loud echoed around the room, seeming to have choked on something

“Oh my God, Liv”, Sarah and Elizabeth were sitting beside her and they both rubbed their hands up and down her back

“Are you okay?”, Elizabeth asked her as she finished gulping down a glass of water, and she nodded her head whilst motioning with a thumbs up

“I'm fine Mom”, she forced a smile even though she seemed to struggle catching her breath. Everyone on the table had their eyes fixed on her worriedly.

“I'm fine everyone, relax”

There were sighs of relief before the McCarthy's turned to look at Mellisa, scowling at her for bringing Nathan's wedding up. She quickly realized her wrong and mouthed an apology to Nathan, to which he brushed it off and told her it was okay.

The tension around the room grew less tense soon afterwards before Olivia quickly stood to her feet, excusing herself to go to the bathroom. She looked really troubled, and I was about to stand up to follow after her, but Mellisa grabbed me by the arm before I could push my seat backwards, forcing me to seat back down without causing an obvious scene.

“Don't even think about it”, she warned without even looking at me. I removed her hand off me before pulling my seat in again and watched Olivia disappearing from sight. I bought my eyes back to the faces on the table, noticing I wasn't the only one who seemed worried about her. Nathan's mind seemed preoccupied as he stared in the direction Olivia disappeared in while nervously cracking his knuckles.

My father's voice bringing the wedding topic again caused me to look away from him and pay attention to the new conversation at hand

He's married

That was all that was going through my mind as I was busy pacing up and down in that closed bathroom thinking, oh my god how could I be so stupid to even be in a situation where I find myself having been engaged in adulterous behavior with a married man?

Is this what imploding feels like?

Like there's this hot ball rolling in the pit of my stomach and I just didn't know how to explain it. My heart is beating so fast, my whole body was sweating. My brain was on fire and there was nothing I could do to actually stop this ragging, pounding feeling that I was feeling in my chest. I was panicking of what I had done with a man who actually belongs to another woman.

“I slept with another woman's man”

I thought while splashing cold water on my face, as if it would actually tone down the burning sensation I was feeling all over my body. I felt so bad and guilty, feeling like I've betrayed the woman I don't even know existed until a few minutes ago.

Everything happened so fast in there, we were just sitting and enjoying the brunch while I was still recovering from the shock of actually discovering that Nathan was actually Anthony, only to later learn he was married

Where was my womanly intuition when all of this happened? To warn and let me know that, No Olivia, this guy is probably a red flag because he could probably be married and has kids?

Why does it seem like everything in my life just goes from terribly wrong and bad to worse?

I took one hard look at myself on the mirror before taking steady breaths and walked out of the bathroom, going back downstairs to find that everyone was done with lunch, and they had gathered together in a circle for in a toast. Joshua, Tristan's father was still telling a speech of how the happy couple's love should always grow from strength to strength even in marriage. He even went as far as wishing them all the best in the new quest they were about to take together.

I walked closer to my family and wrapped my arm around my father before he handed me a glass of the sparkling champagne

“Are you okay, Pumpkin?”, he whispered asked as he wrapped his arm around me. I looked up and nodded a little and I felt him place a tender kiss on my temple.

“To Tristan and Mellisa”, Mr McCarthy announced out loud and my eyes caught Nathan's, who was already looking at me and never broke contact as we all rose our glasses and chorused together,

“To Tristan and Mellisa”

Later on that afternoon as I was leaning on the balcony rail, looking at the clear blue sky and enjoying the cool afternoon breeze, I felt a tap on my shoulder, pulling me from my deep thoughts only to see him standing next to me

“Nice day isn't it?”, he asked, leaning on the rail next to me and I chose to look away instead. I felt him heave a deep sigh.

“Liv, I know I have a lot of explaining to do-”

“Which one is it?”, I interrupted, not bothering to look at him as I asked, and he paused for a second, waiting for me to say something further

“Should I call you Nathaniel or Anthony?”, I quirked up an eyebrow he shrugged

“Nathan is still okay. It's just that I like Tony, which happens to be my middle name a lot better”

“Is that so?”, I asked, turning to look at him, and he nodded his head, with me nodding back before clearing my throat to ask the real question that's been bugging me the entire afternoon

“Why didn't you tell me you're married, Nathaniel?”

I watched the small smile on his face slowly fade before it was replaced by sadness, mixed with pain as he seemed to take a deep breath

“I was married until three years ago”

“Are you divorced?”

“No”, he shook his head and I felt my heart sink deeper into my rip cage, all my suspicions were true. I was just waiting for that moment whereby a stunning woman appears behind him to give him a passionate kiss in front of me before apologizing for being late for the brunch.

I feel so fucking stupid

The sound of him clearing his throat to get my attention made me look up, and we locked eyes before he opened his mouth to speak

“I'm a widower”