Chapter 17

Matt could not believe what he just heard. Did he just hear Juliette tell someone that she imagined having that kind passionate moment with him? He knew they had their moments but he didn't think it was to this point. He just stood up from the balcony where he had been sitting, walked into the room, took off his robe, picked up his phone, checked for any recent texts or calls and decided to go to bed. He was going to have a long day pretending that he did not hear what Juliette just said. What scared him was that he felt the exact same way. As she narrated, he imagined the same thing and he got mad at himself for getting himself into this situation, he should've stayed alone instead of getting caught up with a girl who clearly has a lot going on in her life already.

Juliette woke the next morning and after getting dressed, she went to Matt's room so that they would go for the conference together. When she got there, she knocked on his door and he opened up but there was something different about the way he looked at Juliette. He didn't make eye contact or joke as usual, how could he? Juliette had told someone the things she imagined they did and everyday she reminded that she was not interested in him. He had tried to be jovial with her but there's something she didn't know about him, he already had a girlfriend, Tessa.

Tessa was a supermodel from Europe that Matt was dating. They had been dating since college. Her parents are friends with his and they thought it would be a good idea if the two of them ended up together. Growing up, the two did not exactly get along but eventually, when they had to go go to the same college, they discovered that they had things in common and decided to give each other a chance. Tessa had always been the type of girl who would choose her career over her love life and everytime she had to choose between their relationship and her career, she always choose her career and he never got upset or held it against her. If anything, he admired her for that. She knew what she wanted and always went for it. She told him she needed some time to get somethings together but that she loved him and he was free to be with anyone as long as they'd end up together as should be.

Now that he thought about that agreement, he knew it was stupid but he didn't want to argue with her or make her stay back.

"Hey" he said immediately he opened the door without looking at her.

"Hey" She looked at him and immediately noticed that something was off. She wanted to let it slide but they had grown on each other and she wanted to know what was disturbing him so she asked, "Are you okay, you look weird,like you did not-"

"I'm fine Juls. I just didn't sleep well." He responded as they started walking down the corridor.

"Why's that?"

"I don't know, I guess it was one of those nights,."

"What nights?"

"The kinds where you find it hard to sleep and then finally fall asleep at dawn, so now your entire day seem off."

"The day just started so maybe I can help you go through the rest of it with less disgust?"

"You are a true hero. The world needs more people like you." He joked in a sarcastic way.

"Seriously, I'm actually worried about you."

"I'm fine. I'm really fine."

"Okay"

When they got to the conference, someone excused him and Juliette went to get a place to sit and as soon as she settled, Leighton came over to where she sat.

"Hey Juls"

"Hey"

"How are you this morning?"

"I'm good, how are you?"

"Good as always."

Juliette looked at Leighton and noticed she looked extra excited and said,"You are glowing, spill the the."

"Oh please, I just woke up from the right side of the bed."

"Yeah? That's awesome. It seem like we are the only ones who did though."

"What do you mean?"

"Matt has been weird all morning. He has not looked at me straight in my eyes all day."

"Did you talk to him?"

"I tried but he's impenetrable."

Leighton blushed as Juliette said Impenetrable and Juliette realized why she blushed and said, "You wild cat!"

"Stop" Leighton started laughing. Soon, the first lecture of the day started and Matt didn't come to sit where she and Leighton sat.

At the lunch, Juliette called Ashley to ask her about Skye.

"Hey Ash, how are you?"

"Sore."

"What the hell? What happened to you?"

"Winston happened to me."

"Ew. I didn't need to know that."

"Why? You and your story made me go to him later night and we turned it to a fifty shades of grey type of magic."

"Ashley I only called about Skye-"

"Skye's good. She was home when I went out this morning and I called her some hours ago and she's still home. Don't worry about her, she's in good and capable hands."

"I know."

"Are you okay? You don't sound as excited as I expected you to sound."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what is disturbing you?"

"Nothing, I'm just thinking about the reason Matt is acting weird to me "

"Have you tried talking to him?"

"That was literally the first thing I tried to do immediately I noticed this behaviour."

"Then give him time to come around. I'm sure he will open up eventually."

"Yeah. I guess you are right. I'll talk to you later."

"Alright kiddo. Take care of yourself, bye, love you."

"Love you too."

Matt finally came over to seat where they sat and they began to make small talks. Juliette was watching him as they talked. She watched him talk to Leighton, it was the same way he always spoke to her. He still behaved the way she normally behaved around her but immediately she said something,he woukd not look at her. He would either start eating it try to something that would prevent him from looking at her.

Lunch was over and they went for the second part of the lectures and she concentrated on the lecture. She didn't allow herself to be distracted by anything outside the topic being discussed and when the speaker finished, she asked some questions. The speaker was impressed by the way she structured and presented her questions. In fact, other people kept nodding their heads at the questions she asked. After the conference meeting was over for the day,the speaker called out to her and they started talking. As they were speaking, Leighton signalled her that she was leaving with Matt. She nodded that they could go without her, and she continued with her conversation.

As Matt and Leighton walked, she asked him if he was okay and he gave her the same excuse he gave Juliette so she didn't push it anymore. When they parted ways, she walked to her own room and saw Nathan on a call, he seemed riled up and she patiently waited for him to be done. Immediately he saw her, he walked off to the balcony and switched from English to Arabic language.

She was shocked but she waited to hear what was going on with him. She was tired and decided to lay on the bed for a few second. As she finally felt her eyes closing, he walked in to the room and then he sat on the sofa in the room and started working on his laptop.

She opened her eyes and watched his angry face and countenance change and relax a bit.

"Nate, are you okay?"

"Yeah, how are you? How was it?"

"Good. Everything was okay. I don't think my ears were deceiving me but did I just hear you on the phone speaking Arabic?

"Yeah, I speak fluent Arabic."

"I didn't know that."

"There's a whole lot you don't know about me. Anyways, I need to go back to this meeting I was on."

"Are you just going to act like I don't deserve an explanation of what just happened?"

"What just happened?"

"You going outside immediately you saw me and switching your language."

"I didn't want you to get involved in my personal business."

"What personal business?"

"Leighton, why are you interested in that? Can't I have my shit going on? And you wonder why I switched to Arab. I'm sick of you trying to be in my shit, and why the fuck do you think it's okay for you to know every detail of my shit."

"I'm only interested because-"

"I don't want you to be fucking interested."

"In case you did not notice, we have a child together and I want to be involved in the life of the father of my child."

"Jesus Christ! Now you're going to try to rope me into your web of control using the baby that I don't even think I'm ready for as bait for your schemes?"

"Why do you gotta bring up how much you don't want this baby? It can fucking hear you!"

"You're paranoid. This is what babies do to you, and I'm not ready for them. I don't even think I would be. It's literally seed-like. It cannot hear shit so please, don't say things like that."

"I can't do this with you right now. You're one of the most selfish people I know."

"I'm selfish? At least I'm not the one who tricked you into having a child you've stated severally that you didn't want just because I want to prove a stupid point that babies can make us united."

"Oh my God! What the fuck?"

"What? You're shocked that I figured you out?"

"Tricked you? Nathan, you're a fucking grown ass man! You should know that actions have consequences. You cannot be having unprotected sex if you don't want a child."

"Great and I admitted my mistake and want it to remain a past mistake but you need me to be reminded of how I made a terrible mistake!*

"Why don't you just say it Nathan? I'm the real mistake."

"I didn't say that."

"You might as well say it. Everything you've said or done this night is just to annoy me. I thought of getting rid of this child but I thought, what if this is going to be my first and last shot at being a mum. My mother had fertility issues but that's not your business, so like I said, I can take care of this child, we don't need you!"

Nathan knew he had crossed the line. He did not know that about her and he was sorry for her but that didn't change the fact that he was not ready to be any child's father.

"I didn't know that."

"Of course you didn't, you're not the only one whom nobody knows everything about."

"I just-"

"Just don't say anymore, you've been very clear, I can't deal with you when you're like this, this energy is just too toxic for my growing child."

She climbed the bed and went to bed. In bed, she was silently sobbing because she knew he was right about one thing: he thought the child would unite them. Nathan just sat there for some seconds staring at her figure. He felt sorry for her and wanted to consoke her when be heard the silent sniffs but he didn't. Instead he sat the and continued his work.

Juliette got to her room and changed her clothes. She wanted to shower and then just go to bed but the noise from her stomach and the ache on her neck made her rethink her decision so she wore something less official and was about the open her door when she heard a knock on it.

She opened it and he was standing outside. They stared at each other for what seemed like forever and then he said to her, "Hey."