In the evening, Sarah came to Xu's household to hang out with her cousin.
After exchanging a few polite words with her Aunt, Sarah went upstairs to look for Violet. She knocked on the door twice and habitually walked in.
The moment she walked through the door, Sarah saw her cousin, Violet sitting on the bed while staring into space.
Sarah raised a brow. Seeing that Violet was ignoring her, Sarah knocked on the door again to get Violet's attention. However, it seemed as if Violet did not hear the knock.
After watching her cousin for a while, Sarah walked in and stopped in front of Violet.
Violet only raised her head again once she saw her cousin waving her hand in front of her.
"Sarah?" Violet blinked. "When did you get here?"
"I got here a while ago. I knocked. But you don't seem to hear."
"I'm sorry." Violet tried to smile.
Sarah sat next to Violet and tapped her cousin's thigh. "What's wrong? Why are you staring into space?" Her brow furrowed with concern. "Something troubling you?"
The smile on Violet's face disappeared.
The frown on Sarah's face deepened when she saw Violet's expression. "What is it? Violet, "You know that you can tell me anything, don't you?"
"I know." Violet heaved a sigh. Her mouth opened and closed a few times. Violet wanted to say something but the words seemed to be stuck in her throat.
Violet has been in a trance after coming back from her bakery.
The scene where Ryan accidentally kissed her replayed in her mind over and over again. She tried to get rid of the scene but it seemed that she was failing miserably.
Her heartbeat raced and Violet felt a bit feverish whenever she recalled that incident.
She could not tell Sarah what she was worrying about, right?
But then again, Violet realized that she could not sort out her mind if she did not talk to someone. Right now, talking to Sarah seemed like a good choice. Sarah was her good friend and someone she trusted.
"Well…" Violet looked at her cousin and cleared her throat. "Sarah, there's something I need to tell you. Well, I need your opinion on something."
Sarah nodded as she waited for Violet to continue.
"But you have to promise that you won't tell anyone."
"Violet, you know that you can trust me."
"It's like this." Violet inhaled a deep breath before she told her cousin everything—every little bit and every little detail of what happened in her bakery.
Once she finished, Violet turned to Sarah again, wanting to look at her reaction. Surprisingly, Sarah seemed a bit calm. Violet had expected her cousin to start bombarding her with questions. Instead, Sarah was staring back at her as if she was contemplating something.
"Sarah," Violet said softly. She peered at her cousin's expression. "You know," she paused and swallowed. "It would be good if you could say something now. I mean anything at all."
Sarah heaved a sigh. She bit her lips and looked up to her cousin. "How did it feel?"
"What?"
"Kissing him."
Violet's cheek turned scarlet. "Sarah!" she exclaimed exasperatedly.
"Well." Sarah paused. She wasn't sure what she should say in this situation. She never thought that something like this would have happened. But Violet's reaction told her that she was not unhappy about the kiss.
"He kissed you. Accidentally or not. Doesn't that mean that he breached the contract?"
Violet froze. "I don't know."
It was an accident. Does it still count as breaching the contract?
"So, I assume that this whole pretend-dating thing will be over?" Sarah asked when Violet did not answer.
"I don't know."
"Perhaps you should give him a call?" Sarah suggested.
Violet laughed. "That would be a really awkward conversation to have over the phone, don't you think?"
"Let me ask you something, Violet," Sarah said and sighed. "What do you feel about him?"
Violet looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"
"Violet." Sarah paused as she was trying to produce the best way to say what was on her mind. She looked up and her gaze met with Violet. "Does it ever occur to you that you might like Ryan Chen?"
"W-what?" Violet stuttered. Her eyes widened and her cheek flushed. She turned her attention to her shoes and swallowed. "Sarah, are you crazy? Why would you think that?"
Sarah rolled her eyes. "You developed some new chocolate cupcake recipes for him," Sarah pointed out. "How do you explain that?"
"I did that out of generosity," Violet said and looked away. "I just thought that I should make him something that he could actually enjoy since he doesn't really like sweet things. I wanted him to like my cupcakes."
"Well, surely it was more than that," Sarah said and pursed her lips. Trying to help Violet realize her feelings towards her pretend-boyfriend was not an easy task. "Why is it important to make him like your cupcakes?"
"Well," Violet squirmed. She sighed exasperatedly and turned to Sarah. "This doesn't make any sense," she chuckled. "Why are we having a conversation about cupcakes?"
"You're avoiding the question."
"Look," Violet said. "The point is, I can't fall for him."
Sarah raised an eyebrow. "Because of the agreement?"
"Yes," Violet affirmed. "And I think, it's impossible to fall in love within a short period." She laughed. "I thought we had this conversation before."
"Violet," Sarah called softly. "It doesn't really work that way. You can't choose who you fall in love with, even more than you can choose when it happens. And there are times when you fall in love with someone who you never thought much of before."
"Sarah," Violet whimpered.
"Now," Sarah said. "I want you to look deep inside your heart and tell me." She paused. She tucked her hair behind her ear and turned to Violet. "What do you feel when you're around him? Did you have those butterflies in your stomach or anything like that?"
"Well," Violet sighed. She closed her eyes to play along. "I don't know. Maybe there are some butterflies." She paused and bit her lip.
Sarah nodded. "And what do you feel when he's not around? Do you feel like you want to see him when he's not around, or keep looking at your cell phone for any messages from him or anything like that?"
Violet consulted her feet and hesitated. She remembered that there were some times when she would sneak to look at his smiling picture on her phone. "I don't know," she replied. "I suppose, I've always felt like I wanted to see him again when we parted. Sometimes, I just can't get him out of my mind. I thought it was because Ryan Chen is the most annoying man I've ever met."
"Violet," Sarah called. She shifted towards Violet and smiled. "Let me ask this again. What do you feel for Ryan? Do you think he's still annoying?"