My Wife is an Aloof Beauty

"Stop acting like you don't care, dude. You wouldn't have asked us out if you didn't feel upset about all this," Duke said, rolling his eyes at Rain. He had seen right through this friend, and he didn't think that he could maintain the pretence for long. 'Let's see you keep at it, ' he thought.

"Why are you all ganging up on me? This isn't the first time we come out here for a drink. I don't need an excuse to get drunk. I'll drink whenever I want!" Rain refuted. What he was doing was what people called "to be more nice than wise". The throbbing pain in his chest wouldn't go away. Rain grunted, tightly gripping his glass. There was no chance that he would admit how he felt about Fred... how he felt about Annie. It would just hurt him even more.

"You are really something, eh? If you never planned on telling us anything, you shouldn't have dragged us out here to watch you sulk," Duke snapped at him. In truth, although Duke was getting angry at Rain, he was deeply concerned for his friend. 'Come on, Rain, ' he had wanted to say. 'Annie's just a girl for crying out loud!'

"Calm down, Duke. Stop putting him down. Let's just drink the night away," Edward interrupted. He had no idea what had happened between him and Annie. But right now, the best thing to do was to give him the company he needed.

"At least Edward gets me. Cheers to that!" Rain grinned. It was dim in the bar -- nobody had noticed that tears were already welling up in his eyes.

Edward clinked his cup to Rain's. He wondered what was going on in Annie's mind. He knew for a fact that Annie was hopelessly in love with Rain at first. What else did she want now that she finally won his heart and had his children? What was behind all her hesitation?

They no longer touched on that topic for the rest of

already had his heart at the palm of your hand, and yet you still left him just because he didn't love you right away," he said coldly, his gaze piercing through Annie. Edward might have sounded rude, a bit too harsh even. But he had always been like that. Edward was never the type to beat around the bush.

"What? How drunk was he? Is he all right?" Annie burst out, meeting Edward's eyes. Her face was full of surprise and worry. It was as if she didn't hear everything else Edward had to say when she had learned that Rain wasn't doing okay.

"What do you think? How would you feel if you were the one who got rejected?" he asked. Edward had thought it would have been hopeless if Annie's first instinct was to defend herself. But here she was, asking how Rain was doing. It was obvious enough that she still had feelings for Rain.

"I'm so sorry. It seems that our relationship has caused a lot of people so much trouble. I'm really sorry," she replied. She didn't expect that she would be so transparent about her feelings towards Rain. She still loved him, but found it hard to bring herself to confront those emotions. And before she could, she found it hard to accept him frankly.