Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 129: Feelings This, Feelings That

Contrary to his intimidating look, the man’s face suddenly revealed a small smile.

It was just a light raise of his lips, but it made him look ten times more handsome, ten times friendlier.

"Hello miss..." He drawled and hearing such a deeply masculine voice for the first time made Jasmine feel a chill up her spine.

Anne quickly recovered and made a hurried introduction.

"This is Jasmine Kent, my best friend. And Jass this is..." Anne subconsciously hesitated, but fearing Jasmine would pick up on the slightest hint Anne quickly completed, "Andrew Sterling, my fiance."

Saying that word was so foreign, so unbelievable even to Anne’s ears that she hoped Jasmine wouldn’t pick up the fact that it sounded so strange on her lips. She had called this cold, arrogant man her fiance. Somehow Anne felt she shouldn’t address him as such since the impending wedding between them was fake. But in order to make jasmine believe, she had to address him as that.

To her surprise, Andrew actually shook Jasmine’s hand lightly without seeming uncomfortable or displeased at that very intimate form of address.

"Miss Kent, a pleasure."

"Same here, Mr Sterling."

Sterling, the name seemed to ring a bell in Jasmine’s head but she couldn’t remember where she’d heard it, however after thinking for a few seconds Jasmine’s face suddenly went stiff.

"Wait, Sterling? Your boss?" She asked Anne incredulously in a quiet voice that Andrew couldn’t hear.

Wait, this whole thing was getting complicated. Anne had signed a contract with a mysterious man, what did her boss have to do with it?

Anne leaned towards Jasmine, answering an awkward, "Yeah."

"Your boss is the one you..." Jasmine trailed off. Her gaze silently moving to the man.

What was this, some twisted tv series?

Why did Anne not mention that part while they were talking so she should have prepared herself?

She discreetly sent Anne a glare to which she replied with a silent "Sorry."

Not to be rude to the man with them at the table, Jasmine quickly smiled lightly beginning a small conversation.

"Anne told me you two began to hit it off quite recently, considering the situation surrounding how you both met, don’t you think it’s a little weird to immediately decide on marriage so fast?" Jasmine was intimidated by the man, that she wouldn’t deny but even if his firm gaze made her feel like crawling into hell than talk to him, she was going to woman up and do it for Anne.

She held the man’s gaze, not blinking, even when his gaze became too overpowering.

Andrew had been expecting a question of those sorts, Shawn had said to find out if one truly loved someone, they would usually ask,

"How are you sure she’s your soulmate? How can you be so sure she’s the one?"

First of all, Andrew didn’t believe in the thing called "the one" what the heck was that even?

"The thought that someone exists in the world meant for you and only you." Had been Shawn’s reply to which Andrew had rolled his eyes.

Those silly little concepts, Andrew couldn’t understand what people chose to believe in, it was ridiculous.

Soulmate? He could only shake his head regretfully.

He could see the skepticism in Jasmine’s eyes, the girl just wanted reassurance that her friend was in safe hands, the worry she showed couldn’t be mistaken.

Shawn had given him a whole speech, on that, dripped with sugar and an unbearable amount of cringey sweetness.

But using those silly words just wasn’t him. The more he thought about the speech, the more he hated it.

The damn speech went something like this if he remembered every word correctly,

"I can’t believe how I’ve lived all my life without her by my side, because now that she’s in my life I can’t imagine living a day without her in it..."

Thinking about the words, Andrew suddenly paused.

The thought that one couldn’t live without someone else was nothing but a big fat lie. He’d seen many people swear they couldn’t live without someone else, but when that person left them they would still be alive and breathing...the lies people tell for this love thing was insane.

But then he imagined...

Subconsciously his gaze raised to settle on Anne, she looked nervous...her cheeks beautifully flushed pink, she gazed at him expectantly waiting to hear what he would say to her friend.

Those wide eyes staring at him with such unmistakable expectation was somewhat endearing...a warm feeling tickled his chest and he didn’t realize a rare warm smile currently sat on his lips.

If he hadn’t met Anne at all, what if he hadn’t met her at all?

If he hadn’t met her, he wouldn’t have known a kiss could taste so warm, so addicting...

He remembered everytime he’d kissed her like a feeling he could still experience and that warmth in his chest soared.

If he hadn’t met her at all, he’d never have known what it felt like to care about someone else’s tears...

He could still remember everytime a tear had slid down her face because of him and the feeling of hating himself for it, the tears that weren’t caused by him however would make him feel a destructive rage.

If he hadn’t met her at all, he would have forgotten what it felt like to truly rest, to truly sleep, and the delightful wonder of sleeping with someone next to you...

He could remember the night he’d slept with her in his arms.

Andrew knew he would have absolutely hated it if he had never met her.

A small kick below the table to his foot made him tear his eyes away from Anne and wake up from his thoughts.

His composed expression returned,

Shawn’s speech had continued like this...

"Her passion and beauty inspire me every single day, I’m the luckiest man alive to have her by my side. I love seeing her laugh, I love seeing her eyes sparkle, she’s my everything, the reason I breathe, the reason I live..."

What the heck was this damn speech?

Reason I live? How absolutely ridiculous!

He’d said the exact same thing to Shawn while he was reciting the speech and going through it in his head now he still found it absolutely ridiculous.

Who in their right minds would even believe it if someone told them they’re the reason they breathe?

The reason was called oxygen, every child who’d ever gone to school absolutely knew that so how would an adult be fooled enough to believe that crap?

People these days were truly gullible.

"I know I might not have known her for long but it feels like forever. And I want to spend every waking moment with her, worshiping her, taking care of her, giving her everything she ever wants in life. I want to make her happy, because her happiness feels like mine, I want to have a future with her, I want our kids to look every bit like her, her beautiful eyes, her beautiful smile. She’s the woman I’ve been waiting for all my life..."

For the words on his tongue to be so sickeningly sweet, Shawn either had to be consuming loads of sugar every day, or mentally consuming absolute crap from romantic movies.

Shawn had gone on to say, "For you to convince someone with these words you have to show feeling in your eyes while you talk. Make them believe every word, and while doing that show some body language too, a man in love holds his woman, kisses her. Maybe wrap your arms around her waist and pull her close then hold her really tight as if your life depends on it. Remember, the most important thing is to feel. If you say those words blandly you wouldn’t convince a dead rat, so you have to work on those dead cold eyes of yours and show some feelings."

Feelings this, feelings that, those were basically most of what Shawn had said to him last night.

If he could peel open Shawn’s head, he was sure one would see cute heart bubbles floating around along with crazy romantic ideas, some of which doesn’t even logically make sense, but because Shakespeare once said they do, everyone believes it.

In order not to look like he was taking too long to answer such a simple question, Andrew decided to open his mouth to speak,

He’d been about to utter everything Shawn said word for word. If Anne’s friend was anything like her, perhaps she would believe in these tasteless vows of forever, but no matter how he parted his lips and willed his tongue to move, he just couldn’t say those mushy words.

They weren’t him!

He wouldn’t be caught dead saying them in any situation at all, it wouldn’t feel honest, it wouldn’t feel true.

Yet somewhere inside...

There was an emotion he was clamping down, an emotion he didn’t understand, and there was nothing Andrew couldn’t understand in his life other than emotions, so his best solution was to suppress it.

His mouth moved and he began to speak,

"You’re right, marriage is a life long commitment, and quite frankly it’s too fast to decide to take such a rash step. Let me be honest with you Miss Kent, I’m not a man known to lie or say something contrary to what I believe... I’m marrying your friend, not because I’m mindlessly in love with her, but because it’s a responsibility I have to fulfill."

Jasmine’s eyes went wide and he could see Anne stiffen from the corner of his eyes.