My Little Secret

"Another one of the same." Ivan gestures the bartender to refill his drink.

"She's a handful, isn't she?" A young man, almost the age of Ivan says to him.

"Jake. Who is a handful?" Ivan asks shaking his head. Jake was one of the youngest and hot actors in the market right now. He and Catherine had been dating for five years and they had made their movie debut together. Both of them rose to fame and it got to Jake's head. He dumped Catherine for Margaret, an older, successful actress. Catherine had been an emotional wreck ever since.

Ivan snapped out of his thoughts. It was crazy, whatever people wrote in the news. Catherine seemed like a quiet, shy woman. Someone wo didn't know she was immensely pretty, it made her more attractive. She did not have one mean bone in her body and Ivan was very happy things were going well. Which explained the sweaty palms. He was nervous after what felt like an eternity.

"Maybe I need some air." Ivan says and excuses himself. He goes through the back door and slips into a tiny passage and enters the garden behind. It was a tiny garden, more like a hole in the wall kinda space. As a kid, he always slipped into the garden with Bryan where they made fun of the costumes people wore and how ridiculous the adults behaved.

He walked into the garden and froze midway. There was someone else here, which was weird since nobody else knew about this place, at least the normal ones. Or unless they had come from the back gate. He treaded carefully, the girl seemed lost. She had ebony curly hair that came up to her waist.

She wore a burnt rose gown that perfectly complimented her body. As he approached her, he could smell fresh strawberries. His favourite. She turns around and looks at him. Ivan seemed disappointed; she had her mask on. He wondered what she looked like. From what he could see, her skin looked smooth and the aura around her was wonderful.

"I'm lost." She says and smiles.

"How did you even end up here?" Ivan smiles faintly. She looked like she was very scared and confused. Ivan sympathized with her.

"I, I'm not supposed to be here. Please don't tell anybody." Sofia looks pleadingly at him. She was panicking. She did not want to get caught.

"What do you mean you're not supposed to be here?" he looks at her curiously. This girl was getting interesting.

"Um, can you please just tell me the way out? I promise I'll leave and never try to sneak in again."

"I'll keep your secret and help you out, but I need your help in return."

"What is it?" Sofia asked. Was she going to regret this? She seemed hesitant. Wondering what it could be that he wanted from her. She couldn't even get a proper look at his face. The garden was very dimly lit from the lights that were at a distance but she could tell that he was handsome from his features.

"Tell me something honestly. How do you know if the person in front of you is not going to hurt you? How can you decide if you should be vulnerable or not?"

Sofia stares at him and blinks. She did not expect this kinda question from him. He had taken her by surprise.

"You trust your instincts. Your mind knows what to do. There is a voice inside your head, always listen to it." She says as she looks at him. For a brief moment they looked like they knew each other, like this wasn't the first time they had met. Their eyes locked on to each other like two separated lovers.

Ivan moved his hands towards her mask, he wanted to know what she looked like. Sofia stepped a little back in hesitation.

"Your instinct asked you to back off?" he teases.

Ivan points his finger to his right.

"If you keep walking down that way you should reach the cloak room. If you go around it, you'd reach the entrance." He says and she thanks him and runs past him.

"Wait, don't I get a name?"

"No" she laughs and continues running.

Ivan smiles, the sound of her laugh reverberated in his mind for a long time. Her words sunk deep into his mind. He knew he had to trust his instincts.

He walked back determined to ask Catherine out for a date. The prophecy was falling into place, just like Bryan wanted.