Summary: Drake begins to question his own actions regarding his friendship with Jade and Liam and his sexual encounters with other ladies and seeks the help of his most reasonable friend.
Drake has been keeping himself busy in the past few days. After Jade cleared her name, he avoided her at all costs. Liam had announced his engagement with her that morning and Drake knew she wanted to be out in the open with Liam, so he reduced his presence in their lives slowly, only showing up whenever Maxwell and Hana were there. He had to focus on something else. Or somebody else.
His secret night visits to Madeleine became a daily activity and the same thing happened everytime he had a chance to sneak out into Kiara’s room. However, no matter how many people he spent the night with, something ached inside him and he didn’t know how to deal with it. He didn’t expect to feel so alone even when one of the ladies were still with him. He needed to talk to someone. And there were only a few people he’d be willing to talk to.
He stepped outside the palace and walked past the garden, towards the stables. Hana was riding Twilight Dash. Her cocoa brown hair flew on the wind as she trotted around the field with the competition horse. She is a great friend and remarkable at many things. Maybe it includes advice? Jade always feels more at ease everytime she talks to Hana. Drake leaned on the wood fence and watched her doing dressage movements. When she spotted him, she smiled and waved, leading the horse into his direction.
“Hey, Drake!” She beamed.
“Hey, Hana! Those were some nice movements.”
“Thank you,” she pulled the reins and the horse immediately kneeled and bowed.
“Show off…” a corner of his mouth lifted.
She giggled. “Do you want to have some quality time with Twilight Dash? I know you’re very fond of him.”
“Actually, I was hoping to have a quality time with you. You said that I ever needed to talk…” His hand involuntarily rubbed the back of his neck.
“Oh, of course. I’ll be right out.” She led the horse out of the field and got down. Pulling the reins forward, Hana guided the horse to his stall and Drake followed, giving some water and vegetables the stablemen left for Twilight Dash. He handed a carrot to the horse and smiled.
“You’re good with horses,” Hana acknowledged.
“They’re easy to deal with. Give them some food and water and everything else will go smoothly. People are the complicated ones.”
“Hmm… Are you talking about someone specifically?”
“Yeah,” he nodded looking away. “Me.”
“Okay, we can’t talk about serious matters on an empty stomach. Let’s get some snacks first.” She held out his hand and they walked to the kitchen. On the way, she quickly pulled her hair into a messy bun and for some reason, he couldn’t stop looking at the nape of her neck. As soon as they arrived in the kitchen, Hana began to fetch ingredients for sandwiches on the refrigerator. “Can you grab a frying pan for me? I’m going to stir-fry us some steak and vegetables.”
“Are you spoiling me, Hana?” he raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, I always look for excuses to spoil my friends,” she looked over her shoulder and beamed.
Drake stifled a smile and asked a servant for the frying pan, two plates, and two glasses. “Thank you,” Hana smiled and placed everything she got on the kitchen isle. She began to add raw onions rings and olive oil in the frying pan and marched to stove to cook. The sweet smell of onions combined with the oil spread through the kitchen and she added pieces of steak, carrots, mushrooms and a few condiments. “Can you assemble those ingredients while I cook this?”
“Sure thing,” he placed the bread on the plates and added mustard, mayonnaise, sliced tomatoes, lettuce and Swiss cheese. When he turned to look at her, he watched mesmerized Hana mixing the content of the frying pan, lifting in the air and catching it back with minimum effort, “Is there anything you can’t do?”
“Don’t tell Maxwell or Jade because they taught me a bunch of times, but… I don’t know to add filters on Pictagram stories.”
Drake laughed.
“And don’t even get me started on GIFs. How do they find those things?”
“I can teach you later if you want,” he said grinning. She nodded smiling and turned off the stove, added the steak and vegetables over the swiss cheese and closed the sandwiches with another slice of bread. He poured peach and orange juice into the glasses. “Do you mind if we eat in the backyard?”
“Not at all,” she took the plates. “Let’s go.” They walked outside and sat on the patio chairs, placing their snack on the table. They took a few bites and talked about random subjects during the meal. When they finished eating, the servants came to collect the plates and add more juice to their glasses. “I believe you didn’t come talk to me about gravy and meat combinations, so tell me what’s going on.”
He took a deep breath before starting to speak. “I like this girl, but she is with somebody else. There’s no chance for us, she made it clear. So I’m kind of avoiding her and I got involved with some other women because I thought they would be a good distraction.”
“What kind of distraction?” Her brows drew together.
“Umm…” he scratched his head as he searched for words to describe it. “I don’t know how to explain this to you without scarring you for life.”
“Oh,” her cheeks turned into a light shade of red. “I think I know what you mean. Continue.”
“So I’ve been doing this for days and I feel…” his brows furrowed. “Empty.”
“Do you know why do you feel this way?”
“No.”
“Think harder, Drake. When did you start to feel this void inside you?”
“I guess that when I learned about Jad-” his mouth snapped shut.
“When you learned that Jade and Liam were engaged?”
“Well, yeah…” He felt his cheeks heat. However, he already let her name slip, so why bother hiding anymore? “But it began the night before after Madeleine told me.”
“Madeleine is one of the ladies you have been with?” She gawked at him.
“Stop looking at me like that, she’s not that bad,” his nose wrinkled.
“Try to be her lady in waiting for one day, then come back to talk to me about it.”
“Kiara says the same thing.”
“Wha… who else are you ‘distracting yourself’ with?”
“It’s just them. Olivia dismissed me because she thinks I get too emotional with I’m in love. Even though I said I wasn’t.”
“But you are.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” he shrugged. They stood in silence for a few moments. “So… Any piece of advice for me?”
“I don’t know if I’m the best person to give you advice about that,” she looked away.
“I know you didn’t have these kinds of experiences before, but you’re smart, kind and reasonable. I know you can give me some good advice. Come on, give me your best shot.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, do it. Be brutally honest if you have to.”
“Fine. I think you need to stop fucking your troubles away.”
His jaw fell open.
“What? You said I could be brutally honest.”
“I know, I just didn’t think you would go through with it.”
“You won’t get the sugarcoated version of this lecture because I know you won’t take it seriously. Stop fucking all these women. Let yourself feel bad for being rejected. Cry, break stuff if you need to, but stop hiding the truth from yourself. You’re hurt, Drake. You need to feel the pain to make it go away.”
He stared at her for a moment amazed by how she changed since she got to Cordonia for the first time. “Remind me of never asking for the brutally honest side of you again.”
“You’re not taking it seriously…” she pursed her lips.
“No, no. I am. You just caught me off guard here. And this is all easier said than done.”
Hana shook her head. “I understand you’re living a tough moment, but don’t say it’s easy for me. I would never want you to suffer. You’re my friend, Drake. You’re a great guy, you’re so much fun, and you’re loyal and caring. You don’t deserve any of it.” She took his hand on hers. “But you have to. Otherwise, you’ll remain suffering for a long time.”
Their eyes met and he placed his free hand above hers. They stared at each other and a deep connexion was established between them as if they could speak without words. They didn’t need to do anything else. The simple exchange of looks and touch of their hands was everything they wanted.
“Excuse me,” a servant approached them. Hana pulled her hands away and blushing. “Can I offer you anything else?”
Drake cleared his throat. “No, I’m good. Hana?” He looked at her. She shifted uncomfortably on her seat, adjusting the hem of her skirt and shook her head.
“No, thank you.”
The servant bowed and left.
“I should probably go. I think I took too much of your time, Hana. I didn’t mean to.”
“Don’t worry about it. I like your company, ” she smiled shyly.
“I could say the same about you, my lady,” he said studying her delicate features turning crimson again. “Thank you for all this, Hana. The sandwich, the talking, the not talking…” he leaned forward, gazing at her.
“You’re welcome,” she replied, battling her lashes discreetly but avoiding his eye contact.
“Are you going back to your room?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll escort you to your room then,” he stood up and held out his hand. She took his hand and he helped her stand up. They walked side by side towards the west wing of the palace making small talk as their hands slightly brushed. This was refreshingly new to him. The emptiness was still there, but at least he knew he didn’t have to go through it alone.
