Chapter 189 - Can I Still Say Yes?

As the party progressed and became nosier, Edward felt like it would be a terrible idea to stay on if he was going to have a serious conversation. Hence, he waited for Scarlet to finish before suggesting that they grab a coffee nearby to get away from the crowd.

Scarlet accepted and sent a text to her sister so that Alex wouldn't worry about her when she realised that the writer was gone.

As neither of them was too familiar with the area, they decided to stroll leisurely down the streets in search of a quiet cafe away. Scarlet walked in silence beside Edward who was much taller than her. At first, she had to run a little to keep up with his pace but after a while, Scarlet noticed how Edward was slowing down to match her. Blushing slightly at that, Scarlet wondered if they were a little too close to each other. If she moved a little more, they would be touching. Yet, that didn't happen. Both of them remained their distance even by just that little gap.

The cafe that Edward found was about two streets away from the office and Scarlet looked at the interior decoration. There were many cat pictures and the writer smiled. She liked cats even though she had a slight allergy to them.

"How about this cafe?" Edward asked and Scarlet nodded, feeling a lot more relaxed with the cosy ambience.

They grabbed an iced coffee each and Edward paid for them even though Scarlet insisted that she would pay. They settled at a small table in the corner near a window where Scarlet could people watch. Edward didn't say much and decided to look at the menu.

"Are you a fan of cakes?" he asked.

Scarlet looked through the menu and frowned. "It's too fattening."

Surprised that Scarlet would actually be concerned over such things, he couldn't help but laugh. The girl was indeed unpredictable. After taking time to glance through the menu twice, Scarlet settled for a strawberry crepe and Edward ordered himself a tiramisu slice. Scarlet raised a brow at the coffee and coffee cake combination but didn't comment on it.

"How are you feeling?" Edward asked after the waitress took their orders.

The writer was slightly surprised but immediately knew what Edward was referring to. "I'm alright. How about you?"

Edward took his tie to study Scarlet's expression. She didn't look too comfortable talking about it but she still said it. "Why did you keep avoiding me?"

The spy didn't answer immediately. Instead, he took a sip of his coffee. "Would you have liked it if someone who lied to you about their identity continued on as if nothing happened? It was wrong of me, I should have told you earlier when I knew that it was you but I didn't. I even hid behind Jedd77 to confess because that's the kind of sc.u.m I am."

Scarlet didn't comment on that but she didn't like Edward referring to himself as a sc.u.m. Truthfully, she didn't want to know why he didn't tell her about it. She could guess the reason. Instead, she wanted to know how he felt about it now as Edward without Jedd77 in the picture.

"How long have you known?" she asked almost quietly.

Edward thought about how he should answer her. He couldn't tell her that he knew about it from Elfie or give her a specific timeline. However, he listened to Elfie's advice. It was better to tell Scarlet the truth than lie to her. 

"From the very beginning," he said ambiguously and left it to Scarlet to interpret.

Thankfully, it worked and Scarlet didn't pry further when the desserts arrived. Scarlet focussed on her crepes and m.o.a.ned in delight when the strawberries exploded in her mouth. It was such a long time since Scarlet had anything this luxurious. As an actress, she didn't eat a lot and even after she was on hiatus, Scarlet only ate what Claire prepared or grabbed a sandwich from the cafeteria.

Edward watched Scarlet enjoy her food and dug into his cake. She didn't look mad at him for deceiving her but she also didn't appear to be thinking too much of Jedd's confession. That made Edward feel rather hopeless but he didn't want to give up. If Scalet wasn't pushing him away, he still had a chance to redeem himself.

Once they finished their food, Edward contemplated for only half a second before he looked up and caught Scarlet's attention. Locking eyes, he took a deep breath and apologised.

"Scarlet, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have deceived you like this and put you through something so horrible."

Scarlet blinked and set her glass down. "I'm sorry too."

The teen blinked. Why was Scarlet apologising? Was she rejecting him before he could confess? Edward's heart sank and Scarlet lowered her eyes.

"I didn't mean to reject you back then. If I had known you were Jedd77, I would have taken my time to consider before giving you a reply. Don't get me wrong, I rejected Jedd not because I didn't like him, I just liked you better. For me, Jedd is an irreplaceable friend who always cheered me up. He was like a brother and had a very sunny personality even though he had a morbid sense of humour. I just couldn't like him the same way I like you as Edward Bayon."

If that wasn't a sign that Scarlet felt the same way as him, Edward didn't know what was. The heart that had sunk crawled back up and raced full speed ahead after hearing those words. Edward knew it wasn't the caffeine nor did he want to pretend that it was.

"Scarlet... is this...?"

The writer blushed when Edward stared at her intently.

"That confession from before... I want to change my answer. Can I say yes?"

In the background, Edward heard imaginary fireworks and a harmonic choir praising the Lord. However, Edward wasn't going to allow her to change her answer. Instead, he was going to make her give him a new answer.

"No. You can't change the answer to Jedd77's confession. However, in a few days, Edward Bayon will give you a proper confession, not a cowardly one over text. You can tell him your answer when it happens. So, how would you like to be confessed to?"

Her mind blanked out when he asked her to choose how she wanted to be confessed to. How would Scarlet know? She had never been confessed to before in a normal way by a person she liked. Most of the people who confessed to her did so because she was a famous actress or singer. Nobody confessed to Scarlet, everybody confessed to the singer from Britannia or Liu Xiu Wen.

Edward loved teasing Scarlet who was glowing red from trying to find an answer to his question. Pretending to brainstorm for her, Edward suggested that he confess to her with a bouquet of ninety-nine roses after her class.

"No!" Scarlet half-screamed in horror. The sheer embarrassment of it could kill her and knowing the kind of people in the campus, word will spread if she carried something so ostentatious around. Scarlet didn't like being the centre of attraction. In fact, she would hide in a hole away from the world if she could.

"I know! I'll confess to you by calling into the school's radio station so that they can broadcast it loud and clear for everyone to hear."

"No!" Scarlet glared at him. "Nothing grand! Just something normal, please..."

The poor writer looked like an angry chipmunk sulking when she tried to glare at him out of embarrassment and Edward melted a little on the inside. She was cute when she smiled. She was cute when she was angry. Is there a time she wasn't cute? 

"Alright. I'll do it after a date with you. How does watching a movie of your choice sound like?"

Scarlet swallowed and considered it for a while until Edward ruined it by recommending a movie that she had acted in before her hiatus.

"Rejected."

Edward pouted. It would be fun to see Scarlet react to seeing herself on-screen and hiding from everyone else hoping that nobody recognised her. Too bad she wasn't falling for it. The devious teen suggested a few other methods including visiting Scarlet's house and going to the school event to make it official. Scarlet rejected every single idea that came out of his mouth.

"A letter. I want a handwritten letter. Can I?"

Edward blinked. In the modern dating culture of America, do people actually confess with handwritten letters? Scarlet was truly one of a kind and the teen laughed heartily. "Sure, I'll give you a handwritten letter although my handwriting is horrible."

Scarlet smiled. "I don't mind. I'll be happy to receive it."

Edward grinned. "A handwritten letter, huh? It's a little unexpected but you do have a little old-fashioned sense of romance in you. Where did you get such inspiration from? That actually never crossed my mind."

Scarlet looked away, declining to answer and Edward sulked as he prodded the ice with his straw. Still, it was nice to know what Scarlet liked. Now, the only problem would be finding the right words to convey his feelings for her. Edward might be a smooth-talker but he wasn't the most eloquent with his words when it came to writing and neither was Elfie.

It was going to suck but he was going to need Mandy and Alicia's help with this.