Way Back Into Love (Essie) novel Chapter 32

She feigned a smile and swam as far away from him as possible.

He stared at her receding figure with his unblinking eyes. The waves danced but he didn't stir. He was in a daze and not even tsunami could placate him.

As soon as Essie was ashore, she began to look around for Mandy. Luckily, she didn't have to search long. Mandy was caught sitting on the beach chair, with her head bowed down.

"Mandy, you misunderstood. There is nothing going on between the two of us," Essie explained in a hurry.

Mandy suddenly stood up from her chair, raised her hand and slapped her across her face. Writhing with rage, she said, "You are the most despicable person, Essie. You pretended to help me whereas behind my back you were trying to seduce him! You cheating bitch. Why did you do this to me? Did you want to prove that you are better than me? All these years, I considered you my best friend. And look what you did to me!"

In spite of the burning pain on her face, Essie grabbed Mandy's shoulder and said, "Mandy, we have played together since childhood. Don't you know who I am? If I really wanted to be with him, I would have gone ahead and done it. Why on earth would I give you hope and pull you into this? No! This isn't true. And about what happened earlier, he did it with an intention to piss you off. Guess what? It worked! You were stupid enough to fall for it."

"Why did he want to piss me off?" Mandy asked in between her sobs. If he had done it just to anger her then it meant he hated her with a passion!

Essie didn't give a reply, instead she waited for her friend to calm down. Once she saw that she had calmed down, she took a deep breath. She picked up the fruit juice from the table and handed it over. "I am not sure why he is doing it. Perhaps he knows you have taken a liking to him. He is probably playing hard to get," Essie said in a soothing tone.

Mandy opened the bottle of juice and took a sip. Still looking doubtful, she said, "Are you sure you don't like him?"

"Don't you know who I like?" Giving Mandy a glare, Essie dragged her to sit on the beach.

The anger in Mandy's heart almost died out. Yes, in the eyes of her bestie, Zac was a poor hobo. How could he compare with that rich and handsome Hanson?

"What if he likes you?" Mandy asked, finally asking the question that was eating her alive.

"Before I came here, I asked him this question. It turns out he doesn't like me at all. It was silly of me to ask him such a question. I am not his type," she said with a shrug. Although Zac didn't give her an answer, she took it for a no. That's why it was believed that indecision was a decision within itself. His hesitancy meant he didn't like her.