Cymbeline
The moment Emma and Peter walked away, I turned to Viktor, who had sat back in his chair. A flush had reddened his cheeks. In general, he appeared chagrined, which only gave me further joy. He deserved to be uncomfortable. It was clear to me now that he’d orchestrated a courtship of Emma to make me jealous. Obviously, her fiancé had been back east all this time. I suddenly liked this Emma more than I had only moments before.
“Emma’s engaged?” That’s all I said. When we were kids and Papa wanted either Flynn or me to confess to something, he always started with an innocuous question to see how fast he could get the truth out of us.
“Yes, well.” Viktor straightened a fork and avoided looking at me.
“Yes, well, what? Are you devastated? Do you need my shoulder to cry on?” I grinned at him.
He dabbed at the corners of his eyes in an overdramatic fashion. “I’m crushed. I had no idea her heart belonged to another.”
I laughed. “You’re quite the actor. Did you concoct the whole thing up to make me jealous?”
He grinned back at me. “You think a lot of yourself, Miss Barnes.”
“I don’t know if I should be flattered or angry.” For months now, he’d played me perfectly. Knowing my competitive nature, he’d planted the idea in my mind that he was courting someone else, thus forcing me to confront my feelings. If I weren’t so disgusted with him, I’d have felt admiration. He knew me. Knew how I would respond.
“Was it working? Were you jealous?”
“Obviously not,” I said.
“Liar. Why can’t you admit you were jealous?”
“I might have been a tiny bit. Just this much.” I held up thumb and index finger to indicate about a half inch.
He laughed. “I knew it.”
“Don’t be smug.” I waved my napkin at him. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“Why? Have you lost sleep pining away for me?”
“I sleep like a baby every night,” I said.
The server appeared with our main courses. He set them in front of us and then swept away bread crumbs before walking away backward as they were trained to do. Flynn and Phillip put their staff through a vigorous schooling before they were allowed to interact with customers.
I sipped from my water, then picked up my fork. Inside my chest, a warmth had come. Like warm tea with honey on a cold day. Viktor didn’t love Emma. He still loved me.
“Your mouth just curled up like a satisfied cat after a saucer of milk,” Viktor said. “It’s not becoming.” The way he was smiling at me made me think otherwise.
“That was a dirty trick,” I said.
“I was spending time with a friend. I can’t be held responsible for your assumptions.”
“Don’t act innocent with me. You knew exactly what you were doing.”
“What if I did? What if I knew the way to your heart was to fire up your competitive nature?” Viktor asked.
“You do seem to have a good understanding of my terribleness.”
“Yes, indeed.” He raised both eyebrows. “And?”
“And you don’t seem to mind, which I don’t really understand. I’m beastly, and everyone knows it.”
“I welcome a challenge, like our hero in Taming of the Shrew.’”
“I’m not like Kate. Am I?”
“You’re a bit like her, which is one of the many qualities I admire about you. You and Kate have your own minds and no patience for the ways of convention.”
Despite what many women might have thought about being compared to Kate, I was flattered. I grinned at him. “You and your Shakespeare. I might be wild, but you’re odd.”
“I’m myself,” Viktor said.
“Unapologetically so.”
“Thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment,” I said, teasing.
“Ah, too bad, because I would say the same about you. You’re you, and no one has ever made you deviate from your convictions.”
I’d never thought of it before, but he was right. We were uniquely the same that way. Unapologetically ourselves. Could we be thus while together?
“Can you just give in and admit you like me a little and allow me to court you?” Viktor asked.
“You’ve gone to all this trouble to make me jealous. I suppose I owe you for that. We can’t have all that effort go to waste.”
“How generous of you.”
“You’re welcome.” I poked at my trout, pleased. Again, a warmth washed over me. Was this what it was to be in love? “May I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Will we still be ourselves if we’re together?”
“Is that what you’re worried about?” Viktor asked, soberly.
I nodded. “Quite a lot actually.”
“I believe so. In fact, together we might become even better than we were before. Regardless of the answer, there’s only one way to find out.”
“Eat your fish,” I said.
“Whatever you wish, Miss Barnes.”