A Fall of Secrets

“Adelle visited me some days ago, here in this cabin. She expressed that she held deeper affection for me than him.“

“Oh.”

“Do you mind if I go and visit her? I feel I need to close things off with her. Adelle needs to understand that I have moved on and not hold out hope. I’m hoping to persuade her to forget me and get back with Eli.”

“Of course, Aiden. You don’t need my permission to go and see her.”

“Thank you.” I drew her closer and kissed her lips before standing up and walking down the steps.

I wound around the mountain cabins in our area until I had reached Adelle’s doorstep. Despite myself, I felt butterflies in my stomach at the thought of her standing there.

Get a grip, man.

I climbed the stairs and rapped against the door. Then I took a step back and held my breath. Footsteps sounded behind the door. There was a click and it swung open. Adelle stood before me, wearing a nightdress, her long auburn hair braided and hanging down one shoulder. I could tell that she had been crying; her eyes appeared glassy, her eyelids red.

She looked shocked to see me.

“Aiden?”

“I’m sorry if this isn’t a good time. But we need to talk.”

“O-okay.” She stepped back and allowed me entrance. “Take a seat.”

I sat down on the sofa while she sank into an armchair opposite me.

My heartbeat quickened even as I looked into her blue eyes. “Adelle, I’m going to tell you now what I’ve never told you before… what I held back during all those years we spent together as friends. I loved you. Deeply.”

Her cheeks flushed red, her eyelids fluttering. She looked down at her feet.

“Had you not started going out with Eli,” I continued. “I likely would’ve asked you out. You may remember, soon after you started dating Eli, I was avoiding you. You wondered how I even knew that the two of you had gotten together because you said you hadn’t told anyone yet. I’d said that Yuri had told me. That was a lie. I walked in on the two of you embracing in the lakehouse.”

Her lips parted.

“And do you know why I was there that day? Because I had intended to finally express my feelings to you.”

I breathed out. A wave of relief rushed through me. It felt almost therapeutic to be finally letting this all out. I’d bottled it up for so long.

A silence fell between us.

“I-I didn’t know that you loved me, Aiden,” she said quietly. “You never gave me reason to believe it. From your behavior, I thought you were deliberately keeping me at a distance. Keeping me as your friend. I remember one time—perhaps that was the first time you had intended to ask me out—you had come to meet me outside the school, and you had wanted to take a walk with me down by the lake. Do you remember that?”

I nodded. Of course I did. That was the first attempt I’d made. But Ben had called from “Scotland” and thrown me off.

“I really thought you might have said something then,” she continued. “But the fact that you didn’t convinced me even further that I was imagining things. Since you had given me no reason to believe that you saw me as anything other than a friend, I was afraid to voice what I felt for you, because I didn’t want to ruin what we had. But now, it just seems that you were afraid… as I was.”

I ran a hand down my face. So she did have deeper feelings for me even then.

“It’s unfortunate, Adelle.” I said. “But I didn’t come here to just discuss the past. I came here because I need you to understand that… I’m with Kailyn. I have moved on. You should too.”

She bit her lower lip, nodding slowly.

“Eli is heartbroken,” I said. “You two seemed great together. Why don’t you return to him?”

Adelle blew out a breath. “I told him that I needed some time apart. I didn’t tell him that I had stopped loving him. I do still love him. It just didn’t seem fair to him to stay with him even while I was having these feelings for you. It felt like I was deceiving him, even cheating on him somehow. It was dishonest. Before I can move back in with him, I need to sort myself out.”

I nodded. “That makes sense, I suppose. But I do hope that you will return to him.”

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a tissue, wiping a tear that had spilled down her cheek. Then she gave me a watery smile.

“Well, I’m glad you came by. It was good to talk. I-I can’t pretend that I don’t still hold feelings for you, but somehow it feels like a weight off my chest that we are no longer hiding things.”

“I agree.” I stood up. “And I hope after all this, we’ll be able to resume our friendship even if it never becomes anything more than that.”

She nodded, standing up too. I headed for the door and opened it. I stepped down onto the porch, looking up at her once more. We held each other’s gaze for a few moments. Then she stepped down, touched my forearm and planted a chaste kiss on my cheek.

My heart hammered against my chest, whatever blood I possessed rushing to my cheeks.

Adelle’s cheeks also grew rosy. “I hope you didn’t mind. I’ve just wanted to do that for the longest time.”

My voice caught in my throat. I backed away down the stairs. “Goodbye, Adelle.”

“Goodbye, Aiden.”

Chapter 38: Derek

Now that the rest of our council members and my daughter had returned from yet another wild escapade, I called another meeting in the Great Dome.