Aleena
The formal part of the evening ended under soft golden light and the sound of polite, well-timed applause.
I watched my mother stand beside Ethan with a very bright smile while glasses were raised around them.
She looked radiant, every detail of her appearance exactly as she had planned it.
Ethan stood with the same controlled composure he wore in every public setting.
A perfect picture of a man who never allowed anything private to reach the surface.
I felt something sharp and unwanted twisted low in my stomach as I looked at them together.
The way her hand rested near his, the easy public closeness, the fact that the entire room accepted them as a pair, it all landed heavier than I expected.
Envy mixed with a quieter, more bitter jealousy, the kind I didn’t want to admit even to myself.
I tried to keep my own expression neutral but it was quite difficult as my eyes kept flitting back to my mother and Ethan.
The black dress was perfect, moving with me whenever I shifted my weight.
I could feel the fabric against my skin, the way it held along my waist and then released lower down.
It was doing exactly what I had chosen it to do but was it attracting the man I had chosen it for?
He hadn’t even looked at me all evening.
When people began to stand and move between tables, Sophia touched my arm lightly.
“Come on.
Liam’s already at the table.”
We made our way through the clusters of guests with conversations overlapped around us.
The air still carried the scent of the floral arrangements mixed with expensive perfume from guests.
Liam stood as we arrived, his eyes widening a little when they first landed on me.
His stare lasted longer than it should have and I met his gaze for the briefest second, just long enough to register it, then looked past him and took my seat as if the weight of his attention meant nothing at all.
I let her carry it without offering him anything further.
Across the garden, Ethan stood with two of his board members.
For a moment his eyes lifted and found me through the moving guests but I did not look away.
Instead I held the contact, slow and deliberate, letting him see that I knew precisely what the dress was doing and that I felt no need to hide it.
The air between us changed.
His expression barely shifted for anyone else watching, but something behind his eyes tightened and darkened.
I allowed the smallest curve at the corner of my mouth before turning back to the table, as if the moment had been accidental and already forgotten.
The rest of the evening became a quiet, private exchange that no one else could quite see.
I felt his gaze more than once as the night continued.
Each time, I met it without hesitation.
I did not smile openly nor did I do anything that could be tagged obvious or reckless, I simply looked at him the way a woman looks at a man when she already understands the effect she is having and is willing to wait for the moment he stops pretending otherwise.
When our paths crossed near the drinks table or between groups of guests, I let the contact of eyes last a second longer than politeness required and once, when the crowd shifted and pressed us briefly closer, my arm brushed his, Neither of us moved away immediately allowing the heat of that small point of contact stay with me long after I continued past him, a low awareness that settled under my skin and refused to fade.
Liam tried to draw me into conversation twice but I answered with polite, short replies and returned my attention to Sophia, giving him nothing more.
His stares continued throughout the evening and I ignored every one of them.
Whatever interest he might still be harbouring was irrelevant tonight.
My focus remained fixed on the man who kept looking at me as if he were fighting an internal battle and losing ground with every passing hour.
The garden remained beautiful and carefully arranged under the soft light as servers moved between the tables with fresh bottles and small plates.
People laughed, networked, and performed the practiced social rituals of the evening.
Through all of it, the tension between Ethan and me stretched tighter and thinner and I could feel it in the way my pulse shifted whenever I knew he was watching.
I could feel it in the deliberate calm I forced into my own expression each time I looked back at him.
The knowledge that he was affected and that he was trying not to be settled deep in my chest like a quiet, dangerous satisfaction.
By the time the first guests began to make their excuses and leave, the air between us felt charged enough to spark.
I set my glass down carefully, the soft sound of crystal against the table barely audible beneath the remaining conversation, and stood.
“I’m going upstairs for a minute,” I told Sophia.
My voice sounded steady, almost casual.
“It’s getting warm out here.”
She nodded, already turning back toward Liam.
I moved through the remaining clusters of people without hurrying.
The black dress whispered around my legs with each step, the fabric cool against my skin now that I was no longer sitting still.
I crossed the edge of the garden, passed through the open doors into the quieter interior of the house, and started up the stairs.
The music and conversation faded behind me, replaced by the softer sounds of the house itself.
Halfway up, the back of my neck prickled with sudden, precise awareness.
I did not stop nor turn, but the knowledge settled over me with perfect clarity, the subtle change in the air, the measured rhythm of footsteps taking the stairs at a controlled distance behind me.
My pulse climbed and my nerves sharpened.
The quiet of the hallway seemed to press closer but I kept my pace even and continued toward the upper landing,with the sound of those footsteps remaining steady behind me, never rushing but also never falling too far back.
Someone was following me.
I reached the door to my room and rested my fingers lightly on the handle.
Still I did not look back.
The presence behind me remained, close enough now that I could almost feel the weight of it in the narrow space of the hallway.
For a moment I simply stood there, listening to the quiet, feeling the heat of attention on my back, the unanswered question hanging between us in the silence.
Then I opened the door and stepped inside, leaving the tension unresolved behind me.
And just as I was about to close the door, a hand from outside stopped it and I looked up to see the pair of hazel eyes that had been haunting me all night.
“Ethan.” I breathed