The perfect gentleman ✓

Chapter 5

Nicola Heights

12 February

I once had a moment when I didn't think of Colwen as only a friend.

Perhaps I was just stupid and naive at the time. I remember it was in seventh grade, during that stage in every girl's life when she just wants to be asked out to prom. It was just after the time when I had just gotten over my 'boy are gross phase, 'before I knew it. I realized I was starting to notice Colwen in a different light and that I couldn't stop thinking about him.

One afternoon, he invited me over to his house. He said that he had an important question to ask me. I don't know what lead me into thinking that he was going to ask me to prom. Instead, he had called me over the help him hatch up a plan about how he was going to ask some other girl to prom. It hurt like hell.

From then, I knew my place, there wasn't a place for me in the world to be anything more than a friend in Colwen's life. I accepted that.

Right now, everyone was busy running around like headless Chickens. We were hosting a fundraising event for Valentine's Day, a Valentine's Day ball. Just two days earlier because most people would be busy on the actual date.

I had to help coordinate the whole event, including the decorations because no one knew what Colwen wanted better than me, not even he did.

By five pm, I was finally done with the arrangements for the ball. I was exhausted. In just under two hours the ball would start. That didn't give me much time to rest.

It was going to be a masquerade ball, romantic and mysterious. That was the whole idea behind it. We might have been hosting, but the event also had much bigger names behind it.

When I got home, I would have expected to get some rest for a bit, but then again, I had Colwen. He looked frustrated, pacing around the whole house.

"You need to help me," he said taking my hand.

Once again, it was a fashion emergency.

I thought the benefit of not having too many female friends was not having to talk about clothes all the time.

I helped him pick a suit from the ones the designer had brought in. The mask he would be was going to be a surprise.

"Do you think we should have Dennis investigated?" Colwen said getting his tie ready.

"Wasn't trying to set him up enough?" I asked.

"There is just something about the guy that I don't like!" He explained.

"You don't like a lot of people," I said.

I hope he would finally put this whole thing at rest.

Dennis agreed to be my date, he said he would meet me there.

Colwen sighed in frustration, unable to make his tie.

"Here, let me help you!" I spoke.

I took the tie from his hand and placed it around his neck. As I navigated the tie, I could feel his gaze on me. Something about the way he looked at me made me feel uneasy. I felt exposed in front of him as if he was looking right into my soul.

Our sudden closeness wasn't helping things either.

"Do you remember the promise we make," Colwen said snapping me out of my thoughts.

"What? We said a lot of things Colwen." I answered.

"That if both of us weren't married by twenty-five. We would marry each other." He spoke.