Chapter 407: Awkward Room Situation (Bonus)
Ethan continued looking around for a while before turning towards Valerie and Eduardo. "You both have done really, really well."
Valerie smiled at the compliment, while Eduardo nodded appreciatively.
Everyone was grateful for the amount of work the two had put into overseeing the reconstruction while the others were away.
Ethan stretched slightly before saying, "Well, I’m going upstairs. Hopefully, I can continue my sleep where Isabella and Hayley rudely interrupted me."
"Oh no." Hayley immediately responded. "You’ve had enough already."
Isabella laughed a little.
Ethan rolled his eyes dramatically and was about to continue towards the stairs when Eduardo suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, Master Ethan."
Ethan stopped and glanced back at him.
"Bettie called." Eduardo said. "She said she urgently needed to speak with either you or Lady Isabella."
That caught their attention.
"When?" Ethan asked.
"Three days ago." Eduardo replied. "She didn’t know what had happened after the battle, so I explained the situation to her. After that, she suddenly said it wasn’t anything important and that there was nothing to worry about."
"Oh..." Ethan muttered.
He thought about it briefly before reaching towards his pocket out of habit, only to remember there was nothing there.
"I don’t even have my arcphone anymore." He glanced towards Isabella. "Actually, we both still need to get new ones."
"I can call her." Hayley offered.
"Oh, yeah." Ethan nodded. "Alright, call her. Let her know we’re back. If there’s still something she needs to speak to any of us about, we’re available."
Hayley nodded. "I’ll do that."
With that settled, Ethan finally turned towards the stairs and headed upstairs.
Isabella naturally followed Ethan upstairs, while Hayley came along as she connected the call to Bettie.
By the time they reached the bedroom, Bettie had answered, and Hayley handed the arcphone over to Ethan.
Ethan spoke with her briefly. Bettie first enquired about how he and the others were doing after everything she had heard concerning the battle, and Ethan assured her that they were all fine.
As for why she had called three days ago, Bettie was currently occupied with something and decided it would be better to explain everything in person rather than over the phone.
She then offered to come over to the Stark Residence later, to which Ethan agreed.
After the call ended, what should have been Ethan returning to sleep somehow turned into one random conversation after another between the three of them.
Strangely enough, Ethan eventually noticed that most of those conversations were happening between Isabella and Hayley.
The two had never particularly spoken to each other that much before. They certainly interacted whenever they were around one another, but Ethan couldn’t remember them ever being close enough that he would have considered them friends.
Apparently, that had changed at some point in the last three days
One conversation became another, followed by a joke that had Isabella laughing, then another comment from Isabella that earned the same reaction from Hayley. Before Ethan knew it, the three of them had settled into the room together.
A while passed like that.
By then, Isabella was seated against the bedframe with Ethan lying across the bed, his head resting comfortably upon her lap. One of her hands absentmindedly played through his hair while he stared towards the ceiling.
Hayley had somehow made herself equally comfortable. She lay across the other side of the bed with her head resting upon Ethan’s lap, her legs stretched diagonally towards the opposite end while she occupied herself with her arcphone.
For a while, none of them seemed particularly interested in moving.
Ethan’s eyes briefly moved from the ceiling towards Isabella, then down towards Hayley. Somehow, during the three days he’d spent sleeping, these two had actually become friends.
Ethan continued staring towards the ceiling for a while before his brows gradually furrowed. "Hold on...this is all weird."
"Hm?" Isabella looked down at him. "What’s weird?"
Hayley didn’t look away from her arcphone, although one of her ears visibly twitched at the conversation. Whatever she was doing on the screen apparently had enough of her attention to keep her eyes there.
Ethan gestured vaguely between the two women from where he lay. "You and Hayley. What’s actually happening here?"
That finally made Hayley glance at him.
"I mean, guys, come on. Look at this." Ethan pointed down at her. "Hayley is literally lying on me."
Then his eyes moved up towards Isabella. "On our bed."
"This is very much strange." Ethan continued. "At first, I was just going along with it, but I’m not gonna lie, guys...this is freaking me out."
Hayley stared at him for a second, then burst out laughing.
Isabella quickly followed, while Ethan continued looking between them as though their reaction only proved his point.
Of course, Ethan was perfectly aware of the kind of situation he had with both women.
Some part of him who had once fantasized about finding himself in this exact sort of position someday. After all, he loved both women, and genuinely wanted a future with each of them.
But apparently, fantasizing about something and actually finding yourself lying in bed between both women were two completely different experiences.
Because right now, he was genuinely a little freaked out.
When their laughter finally settled, Hayley looked at their current positions for a moment before conceding, "Okay...when you look at it from your angle, I guess it is kinda weird."
"Thank you!" He gestured to her.
"But we’ve gotten used to being around each other these past few days." Hayley added. "We were both watching over you while you slept."
"Yeah." Isabella nodded, still playing with his hair. "This actually feels pretty normal now."
Ethan slowly looked up at her.
Isabella raised a brow. "Besides, why are you freaking out? You do realize you’re involved with both of us, right?"
Ethan stared at her for a second, then his eyes slowly moved down towards Hayley.
Hayley gave him an amused grin before casually returning her attention to her arcphone.
This was all still weird. But...okay.
Then, mostly out of curiosity, he asked, "What did you guys even talk about for the last three days?"
Hayley’s lips slowly curved into a mischievous grin. "Are you sure you really want to know?"
Ethan narrowed his eyes at her. "To be honest, the way you just put it, I’m not so sure anymore."
Hayley shrugged and returned her attention to her arcphone as though the matter had been settled.
Except now Ethan was even more curious. He looked up at Isabella and immediately noticed the grin she was trying to suppress which only then made things worse.