Chapter 50: A Misunderstanding
"Mom, I am so happy right now! You won’t believe it, but my ploy actually worked!" Arabelle bubbled happily later in the night as she called her mother, singing a completely different tune than she had been just that morning.
"What did you do, my sweet child?" Her mother asked curiously.
"Mother! When Demetri sent Gabe to show me around, I was just so unhappy! But then I thought that I could use this to my advantage! I flirted with Gabe and then added a few of our pictures to my Insta story. You saw that, didn’t you? I think Demetri saw the story too because, within an hour, my date with Gabe was interrupted, and I was invited to have lunch with him!"
The older woman frowned as she heard this. Demetri, that cold block of ice who was rightfully known as Demon, interrupting her daughter’s date because he felt jealous? Arabelle might have delusions about the man, but she had seen the boy grow up, and she did not have any such delusions. Carefully, she probed," Did Demetri personally interrupt your lunch date?"
Arabelle leaned back onto her pillows, relishing the feeling as she glanced fondly at her other hand... the one he had touched.
"Of course not, Mom. That is Demetri. Do you really think he would stoop low enough to do that, no matter how much he likes me? In fact, if he had done that, I might actually not like him so much! Demetri’s main attraction is his dangerous aura and the challenge of subduing him. Anyway, he sent Ian to invite us both for lunch."
"And how did you reach this conclusion that he knew about your Instagram story, and the lunch was a reaction to that?"
"Umm, he passed me the plate of food and then told me to ’sober up.’ Isn’t that him caring for me? Also, how would he know that I’d been drinking when I had not even had anything to drink yet? The only way that was possible was he had seen the wine in her picture’s background.
"Arabelle, sweetheart, none of this constitutes that he was jealous or wanted to woo you. I know you have him in your heart, and I won’t stop you from pursuing him, but you need to be careful, baby. I do not want you to get hurt. And do not try to use Gabe against Demetri... It could be dangerous."