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I crack my knuckles, trying to dispel the nervous energy roiling around inside of me. “Look, you know that I value your friendship more than almost any other relationship in my life. I mean, I put together all of this,” I motion around the room to indicate the villa at large, “just so you could have a brilliant pre-wedding experience, even with your family being jerks. I don’t think you can deny that I’ve been a good friend to you.”
His jaw still tight, Andries simply nods.
“I know we made that pact, or oath, or whatever when we were younger about me leaving your sister alone, and I honored that for a long time. But things change… and that’s exactly what happened. Change. One day Elise stopped being just the annoying younger sister of my best friend and became this woman that I couldn’t ignore no matter how hard I tried. And… I think she feels similarly about me. It wasn’t like we sought each other out in the beginning, or did this just to get to you.”
I lick my lips, closing my eyes, sucking in a deep, steadying breath before continuing. “Yeah, she slept over at my house––and we’ve been spending time alone here in Capri––but this isn’t just some summer fling. I’m in love with your sister.”
Rocketing up from his chair, Andries clenches and unclenches his fists a few times as he stands tall across the desk. “You fucker! You swore—”
I hold up a hand. “Let me finish. I’m in love with Elise, and at this point, I’m positive I was before we ever even had any physical contact. I love her so much, Andries, more than I’ve ever felt for any other woman. Hell, I don’t think I even understood what love was before this thing between her and me. I want her in my life, and not just as your little sister—as my girlfriend.”
With a sardonic laugh, Andries points a finger in my direction. “You are such a fool! After knowing for years I didn’t want you to get involved with her here you are saying you love her, as if that should make me less pissed off about the whole thing. You are a fucking fool, Dan.”
At first, I’m thrown by his vitriol. I hadn’t exactly expected him to be happy about all of this, but I was so sure that with some heart-to-heart Andries and I could come to an understanding. Now, it feels like nothing I can say or do will change his mind.
“The world doesn’t revolve around you, you know,” I point out, acid in my tone. Andries just turns his back on me and starts pacing the room like the tormented man he pretends to be. “I’m not in love with Elise just to make you angry. In fact, you didn’t factor into it at all, but here you are acting like this is some affront to you and not just two people falling for each other in less than perfect circumstances. This nonsense of trying to keep us apart isn’t just cruel; it’s selfish.” I pause for a moment, observing the anger building up inside him. “Are you forgetting everything I’ve done for you? All the times I was there for you when no one else was? Now you can’t even let me have this happiness becauseyoudon’t like it.”
There’s a feeling of unbelievability to all of this, and I think Andries must feel the same. These ten days are supposed to be for him and Roxanne to celebrate the life they will be building together after the wedding. We’re supposed to be making memories that will never be forgotten, but instead, here we are arguing about my relationship status with his sister, maybe angrier at each other than we ever have been before.
“It isn’t just about me not liking it,” he insists, his nostrils flaring as he speaks. “It’s just wrong. And you made me a promise, so by seeing her you’re also fucking up our friendship, too. I mean come on, Dan…”
“You forced me to make that promise,remember?” I snap back just as fast. Holding your rapier up to me—does that ring a bell?” At this point, I’m standing too, and while we’re still across the room from one another, the angry tension between us is palpable.
“I didn’t trust you to make it otherwise! You’re such a fuckboy––”
Now it’s my face that’s flushing red. ”She was FIFTEEN, Andries! What kind of person do you think I am?!”
“I saw the way you looked at her,” he snarls, stepping closer. We’re both so loud that I’m worried that they’ll be able to hear us out on the terrace through the open windows, but it’s too late to change that now.
“I thought she was beautiful, but I’d never––”
Andries scoffs, cutting me off. “As if I can believe you now.”
I want to throttle him, maybe shake him until he sees sense, but I know that will get us nowhere. Plus, if I’m going to enact any violence, I’m going to save it for Johan and his stupid, royal face. Instead, I hold out my hands in front of me, trying to cut this argument off before it explodes into something neither of us can really handle.
“Listen, Andries. I’d treat her right, I swear,” I tell him, my tone coming off more confident and hopeful than I thought. “When I say I love Elise, I mean it. I’d never hurt her. Isn’t that what you want for your sister? Someone who has her best interests at heart, and who would do anything for her? I would move heaven and earth to make her happy.”
Hesitation flickers across Andries’s face, but he’s so hard-headed that he doesn’t give himself time to even consider my words before he launches into another diatribe about what a liar I am, until he’s cut short when the door opens.
Shit, I thought I had locked it.
Elise, looking unsure and almost afraid, enters. “I could hear you two from the hallway.”
Damn. That’s what I’d been wanting to avoid. “Sorry. We were just––”
“Talking about how Dan betrayed my trust and broke an oath that he made to me,” Andries blurts out in a failed attempt to humiliate me. “Can you leave so we can finish our little chat?”
Elise looks between the two of us before entering the room fully and shutting the door behind her. To my surprise, she comes to stand next to me. I’m not sure if it’s a show of loyalty, or just where she’s chosen to stand without there being any other motive behind it, but I like it either way. Too bad what I’m about to tell her is going to make her angry at me once more.
“Before you say anything,” I tell her, looking down into her now-upturned face. “Andries knows the truth. About us.”
She draws her brows together, a variety of emotions moving across her features. First there is anger, then fear, followed by relief, and then anger once more… at me.
“I thought we agreed to not tell anyone? And if we did, we were supposed to do it together. Now you just go off and tell Andries without even giving me a warning!”
I wish I could stroke a finger across her cheek, or take her hand in mine to reassure her, but there just isn’t time for that now. Not right in front of her outraged brother. “Actually, I wasn’t the first one to tell him. He found out because Tatiana told him about you sleeping over at my place.”
Elise’s mouth falls open. “Seriously? I can’t believe her!”
