CHAPTER FOUR: STRIKE WHILE THE IRON IS HOT

Damn! And double damn! Rhea stood stunned at his last sentence not knowing what to make out of Adam. He was such a paradox. Last year, he had tried to seduce her and this year he was acting like the past two years had not even existed!

Like he was the best friend he had always been. Rhea would be damned if she could figure out what was going on in his mind. He was so damn unpredictable! So she managed a tentative smile instead deciding not to give him more importance.

She was already unhappy with herself for not having the audacity to tell him that she did not love him. She knew that she would have lost him forever as a friend and she so did not want that. If that made her weak, then so be it.

“Sure, let’s go,” she said casually and followed him downstairs.

Which was quite a sight. There was a crowd gathered in every empty space available in the living room which was big enough to accommodate at least a hundred guests. Damn! How had the party gotten so out of hand? She had not realized that there were so many friends invited. University friends, college friends, high school friends. And well friends of friends.

Sending a furtive look towards Adam, she noticed the bags under his eyes and realized that he must have worked damn hard for her party. And instead of feeling bad she felt happy. It was going to be back to normal between them. The Adam she had known had always bestowed her with gifts and little attention even when she had never asked for them. And had asked nothing in return.

Was it selfish of her to want the same relationship back from him? Did it make her an opportunist? It wasn’t like that. She would do anything for him too; he was very special to her. Except that when he had kissed her last time…

She shuddered at the memory as the feelings of revolt that had surged through her at the reminder. Well, not revolt but mostly fear. As people surrounded her to wish her, she plastered a fake smile on her face while her mind drifted into the past.

It had been one birthday ago when he had called her as usual to express his love and to wish her. She was used to his phone calls by now and she did not have time to bother about his feelings. It would wear off eventually, she was damn sure of that.

But it had not been enough for him when she had listened to him without reacting. Apparently unsatisfied with her lack of response, Adam had climbed the pipes to her bedroom to meet her. And she had been shocked to find him on her bed while she was wearing only her bathrobe.

“Adam!! What the hell?” she had asked trying desperately to ignore the pounding of her heart. It was only Adam; she knew he would never hurt her. But damn him! He had no right to sneak on her like that.

“Hey sugar,” he had replied nonchalantly leaning on his elbows and looking at her with a predatory gleam in his hazel eyes.

“Would you mind telling me what you’re doing here?” she asked trying to hide the way her fingers were trembling while she was holding her comb. It was of course a reaction she had associated with anger and outrage at finding him invading her privacy. Turning her back to him, she took in a deep breath and combed her hair like it was the most natural thing for her to do.

“Well, I came to wish you, sugar,” he said jumping on his feet and approaching her.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Oh dear God! Was that her heart? Why was he playing with her like that? Wasn’t he doing enough damage by bothering her every morning? Maybe she should try to talk to him about his supposed love. Ever since last year, she had shunned him whenever he had tried to approach her.

And did the mistake of putting down her brush to face him and nearly bumped into him in the process. She had never realized how close he was to her. Not until it was too late. She could not back out because there was her cissy behind her and Adam in front.

She gulped at his closeness indecisive of what her feelings were reflecting. Why was she feeling so nervous when he was so near? It was Adam for Heaven’s sake. Okay he was the most handsome guy she had ever come across with but she knew him ever since he was five years old. It was not as if he was some stranger for which she was having those dumb reactions.

“Adam! Move,” she said certain that her voice would sound assertive considering how much she was feeling annoyed. But instead the words sounded like a pathetic squeak lacking conviction to her own ears.

Needless to say he remained unfazed and she had looked up at him frowning. That had been her second mistake. As soon as her eyes had locked with his, she had felt an inexplicable jolt of electricity when his eyes had changed color. It had been fascinating. Green freckles was filling the hazel background and soon the green color had settled in. It was phenomenal. The green hazel eyes looked back at her with a stormy look full of emotions.

And when she was expecting it the least, he bent and kissed her on the mouth. It was a peck and she gasped in shock unable to move away. Then his lips touched hers again and he smooched them. She resisted at first shouting in protest but the sound was muffled by his tongue which had gained entranced when she had opened her mouth to mark her displeasure. It had been an awkward kiss and she had moved her face away from him before he had time to delve into her mouth.

Moving away from him, she had averted her eyes swearing to herself that if he apologized, she would knock his face off his shoulders. What was the point in apologizing? What was done was done. He had already kissed her and done even more damage.

He waited but she kept her face averted until she felt more than saw him move away from her. It was relief which filled her body when he was finally gone and she was able to relax. And then she allowed herself to be filled with anger.

Adam Crighton was going too far; his advances had become too much to bear. How dared he? How dared he touch her like that?

It was so inappropriate. They were friends; next to being brothers and sisters. How could he even think of her in that way? It appalled her to know that whatever she had believed in from childhood had been a jinx.

Adam Crighton had taken her in when her father had rejected her. He had made her part of his family. She would always be grateful for him for that but she had always considered him as someone harmless. Someone who would protect her no matter what.

And he was doing the exact opposite. He was trying to woo her and then he would leave her like everybody else had done. And then she would just die. She had only Adam as true friend; if he went away, she was sure Zoey and Zach would side with him and so would his family.

And she would be the receiving end of all the speculations and bad mouth. And she could not afford that. Not when the Crightons and Coopers were the only family she had left. There was too much at stake for her and she refused to risk that.

So there was no question of whether she liked Adam or not. Or whether she believed him or not. Although it was the façade she was using for the world. She knew that Adam was the dream of every girl in the city and beyond. Anyone would be glad to have him. Hell, she herself could fall so in love with him. But she knew nothing lasted forever and when he was done with her, there would be fall outs. And she could not afford them.

When he had dared kiss her, she had been scared as hell. It meant that he was going to make a move and she had not known how to reject him. Again. So she had decided to go to New York so that she would be able to avoid him forever.

But Adam had never given up. Not really. When she had moved to New York to end every contact with him, Rhea hadn’t been expecting him to call her again. But he had called her every damned morning even after she had run away from him. And she had had no known how to tackle him. Not then and not now. But she had had enough!

So while everybody was enjoying themselves during her birthday party, she was coming up a plan. A plan which would end Adam’s relentless pursuit once and for all. It was after all the reason why she had come back from New York.

“My, my! Isn’t somebody looking edgy?” asked a voice behind her jogging her out of her reverie and she whirled round to face her alter ego. Zoey Nora Cooper.

“Stop following me. It’s my birthday,” she said offhandedly and the latter grinned back at her. They were too close to be offended by words.

“I will never stop following you,” Zoey declared solemnly and Rhea rolled her eyes. Zo was one of a kind; she was the carbon copy of her father. Uncle Ashton was and had remained a maverick character always saying the oddest things at the oddest moment. And so was Zoey.

Rhea grinned back at her not in the mood to reply back. Her mind was already preoccupied with her plans as a new idea had formed in her head a while ago. Actually it had cropped up one month ago when she had been reading an article but she had never wanted to actually apply that formula. Not until now.

Rhea was worried that if she could not tell Adam she did not love him, she would never be able to ward off his advances in the near future. But Zoey was right too. If she was unable to tell Adam that she did not love him and she never would, the poor guy will never stop hoping. Irrespective of whether he loved her or not, he will always hope for her to feel something for him one day.

And Rhea had that strong feeling that the more she tried to act indifferent around him, the more Adam would feel encouraged to come after her. It was a vicious cycle. So since she was incapable of telling him that she did not love him, she would show him.

Two could play at a game and Heaven knew how much he had assaulted her privacy until now. Rhea was going to give him back what he wanted except in a completely and utterly unexpected way. It was going to be fun; Adam Devin Crighton would not know what hit him.

And instead of having his heart breaking over her, he would be thankful to his lucky stars for having escaped the disastrous fate of being her husband. Ha! She inwardly squirmed not realizing that she was giving more away from her satisfied expression.

“What’s with you?” Zo asked her frowning at what she was sure was her smug look.

“Nothing,” she said quickly. Too quickly and Zoey who had known her forever picked something up. Damn! It was too early to mention her plan to anybody yet. And besides she was not even sure on which side was Zoey.

“Don’t play me for a fool Cooper,” Zoey told her deliberately not calling her Palmer. She hated her father’s name and Zoey had offered her to use her last name. And so for her friends she was more Rhea Ivy Cooper. She grimaced inwardly; she was that indebted to them.

“Okay, okay,” she capitulated. She could trust Zoey. Hell, she was someone who had not thought twice about sharing her family name with her. “I have a plan,” she whispered in her ears amidst the noise and looked around to see if anyone had caught anything.

Her glance stopped as she encountered a pair of hazel green eyes across the living room and she flashed guiltily which earned her a frown from him. Damn! She should stop acting like a school girl unable to mask her feelings. But she was so excited for her plan and she was sure it was going to work.

“What plan? For what?” shrieked Zoey over the noise and she shushed her friend almost instantly even if it was stupid considering the noise around.

“Well, you should have said you have a secret plan,” Zoey stage whispered dramatically apparently annoyed of having been rebuked.

Rhea sighed and prevented herself from rolling her eyes again. “Okay, I have a secret plan,” she whispered back. “It was about three weeks ago that I came acr…,” she frowned when Zoey touched her right ear to indicate that she could hear nothing. It was not surprising considering the amount of people moving around and chirping.

Tsking to show her impatience, she practically dragged Zoey to the kitchen where she could whisper and be heard. “I came across this super magazine which had an article about how to be the ideal girlfriend,” she said in the most dramatic way she could.

But Zoey instead of getting her point looked at her as if she had completely lost her mind. “What the hell are you talking about? Why don’t you start from the start?”

Rhea sighed. She wished she could impart some of her enthusiasm to her friend. But it would seem that the latter was hell-bent on spoiling her jovial mood.

“I mean that like I told you yesterday that I was fed up with Adam and his antics. And so you told me to refuse him by telling him that I don’t love him back and I never will. But…”she inhaled in deeply before going on. “…I couldn’t. I mean he’s my best friend and I simply cannot break his heart.”

Zoey squinted at her looking almost murderous. She opened her mouth to talk but Rhea lifted her palm to stop her.

“Wait, let me finish. I know I screwed it up, okay. But then I thought it all over. Even if I manage to tell him I don’t love him, I don’t have the guarantee that he won’t give up. What if he’s still after me? I mean we all know that his love for me is DOA but he’s so stubborn that he will never see the truth,” she said and stopped to draw in a breath.

Which gave Zoey the time to add something. “So, will you please tell me what this has to do with that article you’ve read?”

Rhea grinned inwardly. Zoey was curious and that meant that her idea was substantial.  “Okay, so I want him to stop coming after me but I want him to realize it. I don’t want to be the one hurting him because I know he will never give up on me.”

“Rhea, you’re not making sense. How would that article which…” Zoey paused and threw her the look before continuing. “…talks about being an ideal girlfriend help?!”

“This is it! I’m going to do the exact opposite of what the article said. I’m going to make him realize how bad I am as a girlfriend and so he will thank his lucky stars for having been spared the fate of being stuck with me!” she delivered dramatically waiting for her words to sink in.

“Would you care to be more explicit?” queried Zoey for once looking like someone had outdone her. Usually such kind of extravagant ideas came to her as she was the one frivolous enough to entertain such activities.

“Well, I would use every idea stated in the magazine in a totally opposite way to make sure that Adam instead of loving me would feel the urge to run away from me. In that way, I would neither have to tell him that I don’t love him.”

“Wait, let me finish,” she interrupted Zoey again by lifting her palm just as the latter was about to open her mouth. To argue with her most probably. “And second he will find me repulsive as a prospective girlfriend and stop pursuing me forever. You know killing two birds with one stone,” Rhea finished. It was so obvious to her.

“Oh no! This is so going to backfire on you,” was the instant reply and she frowned. What? It was the perfect solution to her problems.

“What do you mean? It is the perfect solution. I will be able to put Adam off my back forever without any word. Don’t worry he won’t suspect anything. And of course you wouldn’t be telling him any of it or else consider yourself no longer my friend.”

“Of course I’m not going to tell him. But there’s no way you’ll be able to pull of such a stunt. At least not with Adam. He’s smart and he’ll definitely smell a rat!” her friend told him and by that time both of them had forgotten that they had to whisper and was launched in a heated argument.

Rhea scowled at her girlfriend frowning in concentration at the impact of her words. “He will not even doubt it,” she scoffed confidently.

“But aren’t you supposed to be the girlfriend to play the anti-ideal woman something? Are you going to actually date him?”

Damn! She hadn’t actually thought about that part. Munching on her lower lips. She tried to figure something out quickly. Of course she would not date him; it would give him more footage.

“No I won’t date him. I will act normally except that he’s gonna believe that I’m not the kind of girl he had in mind.”

“But hasn’t he known you since forever?” came the infuriating reply. Why was Zoey so hell-bent on ruining her plans?

“Well, who knows? Maybe I got a changeover while I was away in New York or something. Don’t worry I’m cool with that. And besides, this is not the main focus here. I am not going to act completely different of who I am actually. There are just a few things that a guy needs in a girlfriend – as stated per the magazine and he will not find those virtues in me.”

If she managed to convince Zoey of her fluke, then Adam would bite the story as easily. While her friend looked down upon her disapprovingly, Rhea figured she might as well use her trump card. The dinner  for which she had been invited the next day.

When Adam had asked her for a tête-a-tête, she had not even thought about refusing; it had been the long awaited opportunity to finally put her plan into action.

“Okay, here’s the plan. He has invited me over for dinner tomorrow and it’s going to be just like old times. Except that I’m going to play my role so well that Adam would never know what hit him. At first I agree, he will be indecisive. But then he will realize that I’m not worth his time or affection. And it will be game over. For both of us. And we both win!” she exclaimed clapping her hands together to make the impact sound more profound.

“Hmmm…” Zoey mused her mouth in a comical grimace as if she was tasting her idea. “I don’t know why I still feel skeptical about it. But what the hell? Nothing ventured nothing gained, right?”

Rhea was almost too keen to nod. Now she was talking! “Trust me, I will manage to fool him. I know him so well. He won’t even know what we’re up to. But I need you in this plan of mine. Please promise me you will help me.”

Zoey looked dismayed as she stared down at the outstretched hand in front of her and for a moment Rhea felt a doubt. Why was she so reluctant to agree with her? She would never be able to pull this off without her friend.

“Zo…,” Rhea urged looking at her with a worried frown. “Please this is my only option if I don’t want to see him heart-broken. And he sure doesn’t deserve it. Please.”

Her friend looked almost pained when she shook her hand and Rhea knew she was still disapproving of her method. She could not wait until tomorrow to show her how right she was. Strike while the iron is hot – that was her strategy and Adam Devin Crighton would discover how unsuited she was to be the future Mrs. Adam Crighton.