Date Me, Mr. Archer

nine | pained rejection

"Vienna," Bernard's eyes widened watching me take a seat next to Kyst and he offered his hand for a handshake. "How are you?"

Taking his hand in mine, I shook it sternly. "Mr. Black," I nodded as a greeting and took a seat in the chair Kyst Archer had pulled out for me.

The last time I'd seen Bernard Black, I hadn't been able to scrutinize his features well enough. Back when we had been fifteen, Bernard had black, ruffled hair, his style had usually consisted of normal jeans and hoodies, sweatshirts and converse.

Looking at him now, as he sat across the table, his legs folded at his ankles, I clearly saw the contrast from earlier. Even though we were only twenty-five, I could see the wrinkles on his forehead, make out the tired creases across his eyes, the dark circles, his entire face which was usually cheerful, now was just a scowl.

Things had changed. Even more so after how I went from loving Bernard to absolutely hating him in a matter of two days. My heart still palpitated the same way it did the moment he got me another Starbucks after I had accidentally spilled mine before school.

Then, my heart had raced because Bernard had been this mysterious, sunshine boy I'd seen for the first time in my life and no questions asked, he'd immediately risked getting late to school for getting me a coffee on the first day itself.

Now, my heart beat faster because the same fifteen year old boy that made me laugh made me want to launch myself at him and slap him across his face for what he put me and my family through. My father's company had gone bankrupt because of him. I had lost my mental health for the upcoming years because of him. My relationship with my parents had been tattered to pieces because of Bernard, because my parents had warned me multiple times to be careful with him but I'd just walked straight into his trap and ruined everything that I had been, that I had believed, that I had wanted.

He took away my virginity, stripped me off of my innocence. Consensual it had been, but the trauma that followed it, I hadn't expected that that was the extent businessmen fell to, to achieve success. He had not only ruined me and my family, but had also erased any and every desire I had of love.

Love had been my biggest enemy of it all while growing up. I had never gone to a prom, never asked a guy out, never attempted to date, never seeked a boy out, did nothing. Because everytime I had tried to work up my courage and thrash my past beneath my feet, a question had popped up from the dead in my brain : Is it going to be worth it?

In the end, was anything ever worth it if it cost you what made you you? The answer had always been pretty explicit : Never. Not again.

Until. . . . Kyst Archer. My blue-eyed menace. My. If my eighteen-year old self could hear my thoughts right now, she'd pat my cheek and very calmly ask me to fuck the right off because business men didn't fall in love, they merely made it into business deals.

There were clear examples in front of me : my father had only married my mom because of a land he had had his eyes on and he'd get it as a wedding gift from my mom's dad if he had agreed to marry her. A year later, that land had been in my dad's name and my mom's life had been signed off to my dad.