I'm Done Being Your Best Friend

“Miss! A letter has arrived!”

The next day, Nancy brought in a letter. Is it Logan? The first sender that came to my mind right that second was Logan.

A strange feeling arose again when I thought about the previous day. In fact, I couldn’t sleep well the night before. The incident kept popping up in my head, so how was expected I to sleep? My heart raced just at the thought of it, and every little thing was still vivid to all my senses.

Shaking my head with a small sigh, I picked up the letter from the silver tray and turned the envelope backward.

Eric H. Spencer

It was a letter from Marquis Spencer.

Spencer sent me a letter? What is he up to?

I stared at the name without even thinking of opening the letter.

“My lady, go ahead and read it!”

Nancy urged me to open the letter as she kindly brought me a paper-knife.

I would have to check for myself to see what it’s for. I accepted it and slit the envelope open. It was not a long letter, but as I read the content, I frowned. In the letter, it was written that he wanted to meet with me separately.

“What is it? Is something the matter?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“Please give me a chance to have a proper conversation with you next time.”

What he said came to my mind.

So that wasn’t just empty words? Why suddenly?

I couldn’t understand why he suggested meeting me out of the blue.

He said it was a misunderstanding and apologised. So hasn’t it already ended with an apology then?

As I gazed at the letter, uneased, Nancy asked me.

“Aren’t you going to reply to it?”

“It will be put on hold for now.”

I put Spencer’s letter aside for the time being and decided to discuss it with Chloe, whom I met the next day.

***

“Lady Grint, I have a question.”

It’s better for two brains to work at once than decyphering Spencer’s intentions alone. Chloe might notice something I didn’t.

“What is it?”

She responded almost immediately, and I explained the whole story to her. No lies, just the truth.

From our bad meeting on the street to how he kept suggesting to meet up whilst I kept refusing, which all ended with my question.

“Why is Marquis Spencer doing this?”

“Hmm…”

Chloe contemplated for a moment before she replied to me.

“Isn’t Marquis Spencer perhaps interested in lady Nelson? What about you?”

“Well…”

This situation was all the more worrying because I had once been involved in a controversy about having a relationship with a commoner.

Logan was at least a close friend, but I did not intend to run into Spencer again after meeting him last time. Besides, Spencer had a bad reputation in the social world.

Spencer’s notoriety had a lot to do with his eccentric personality, but there were other reasons as well. One of them was because of what his grandfather, the former Marquis of Spencer, had caused.

The former Marquis Spencer was said to have worked as the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the Royal Castle. The position he held was the general manager of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and had the authority to manage all imports and exports as well as diplomacy with other nations, including the money coming in when exporting from our country.

Unfortunately, Spencer’s grandfather did not handle things in a good light. He had stolen away some of the money and goods that were supposed to go to the national treasury for ten years. When he was caught embezzling funds, he was also caught accepting bribes from nobles.

As a result, parts of his territory were confiscated and a huge amount of compensation was given to the royal family. At the very least, he got to keep the title of Marquis.

That’s why the Spencer Marquis still had a bad reputation until this day.

Chloe thought with her arms crossed, then opened her mouth.

“Why don’t you write back saying you’ll meet up with him?”

“Pardon? But I don’t intend to meet him alone.”

He was not a comfortable person to be with. Though his attitude had definitely changed to being more polite from the last time, it still bothered me.

As long as I had the memory of our first meeting and of my previous life, I would never see him differently. Even if people could suddenly change, there would be a certain degree to that, they could never do a one-eighty.

However, it seemed that Chloe’s words did not mean for me to go ‘alone’. She added with a smile.

“You’re coming with me. In the letter, ask if you can sit with your friend. Let’s go together and listen to what he has to say.”

It was a very good suggestion. If I went with her, I would be able to respond to Spencer’s request, and would also be relieved of the burden of having to meet him alone.

I wrote a reply on the spot as she had advised. And when I passed the sealed letter to Nancy, a possibility popped up in Chloe’s mind.

“Maybe his interest was not a romantic one.” 

Apparently, his attitude changed since he found out it was me. Looking back, he seemed surprised to find out that I was a Nelson.

If so, it’s hard to see it as a romantic interest, as Chloe said. It must be an interest with an ulterior motive.

“The question is, what could that be…?”

I blurted out.

Perhaps the answer I wanted would come once I met him. With Chloe’s strong cooperation, I set up a date to meet him.

***

While waiting to hear from Brew for business, I had a meeting with Spencer. The meeting place was quite nice. It was a seafood restaurant downtown.

Marquis Spencer, who was sitting across from me, looked at me with a slightly puzzled expression.

He was neatly dressed like any other gentleman today. The olive-coloured cravat, which had the same colour as his eyes, was properly tied and his face had been shaved too. He seemed normal enough to make me think the first meeting with him was just bizarrely bad timing.

“I heard you’re bringing a friend, but… were there supposed to be two of them?”

“I’m sorry, Marquis. I asked lady Nelson for a favour, sicne I really wanted to meet you.”

When the young lady of the Cruz county, who was seated to my left, chuckled, Chloe, on my right, also joined her.

Originally, I was planning to go with only Chloe, but after hearing about it, lady Cruz also wished to tag along. I thought it would be nice if there were more people, so I decided to let her go too.

I told Spencer that I was going with my friends, but I didn’t tell him how many.

When lady Cruz said that she followed me because she wanted to meet him, Spencer smirked. Promptly, he said in a slightly lofty tone.

“It is such an honour to see all of you three ladies like this today. What would you like to eat?”

His tone was strangely higher, but… still gentlemanly though. I paid extra attention to each and every detail of him today in order to see through his intentions.

“I didn’t know better when I saw you last time, but you look quite neat today. I didn’t know you had a side like this.”

After ordering dishes such as oysters and lobster, lady Cruz spoke to him again. The young lady was very curious today. At that, Spencer responded with a chuckle.

“Is that so? I’m thinking about changing my style at this point.”

Why suddenly? In my previous life, he kept the same image for years.

At a gathering I attended with my husband in the past, though the man did not leave his shirt unbuttoned like in our recent encounter, the feeling of awkwardness and discomfort of being around him remained the same.

But why are things in this life going in a different direction? What kind of sudden turn of event is this?

“I think you’ve finally found a style that suits you. You must be very popular among the noble ladies.”

Spencer put on a calm smile at lady Cruz’s cheerful words.

“It would be nice if the person I was interested in thought so too.”

The person he was interested in. Don’t tell me that those words were referring to me?

I didn’t want to believe it, but Spencer stared straight at me as he said that.

I was dying of embarrassment. I didn’t like his oddly confident attitude either. I never had and never would say that he was popular among the young noble ladies!

As I turned my head with wavering eyes, Chloe came into sight, smiling ear to ear.

She barely kept her mouth closed for the sake of an aristocratic lady’s elegance. It almost seemed like her wide smile could turn into a full outburst of laughter with just a little more impact.

I turned my face to the front again. Fortunately, Marquis Spencer had taken his eyes off me.

But he then asked me a question, eyes on a plate.

“Does lady Nelson like to eat seafood?”

“…no.”

I hadn’t eaten yet, but I felt like I was already having indigestion. At my words, Spencer’s face turned grim.

“Oh dear, it seems I have picked the wrong place. I thought you’d like it.”

“It’s fine. The Marquis can eat whatever you want.”

“Still, I wanted to treat the young lady to delicious food…”

“No, you don’t have to.”

What kind of relationship did we have anyway? It’s not even friendship. When I answered flatly, he chuckled again.

“I wanted to arrange an opportunity for lady Nelson to get to know me again, but I guess it’s a shame.”

Why did he want to be liked by me so much? The more I responded to him, the stranger I felt.

He maintained the conversation with all of us, but I was the one he talked to the most.

“I had a lot of fun today. Please give me another chance next time.”

It was burdensome until the end. He greeted us politely and we parted ways in front of the restaurant.

As I turned my back on him and started walking, I immediately questioned the girls.

“What do you think?”

“He seems interested in lady Nelson, no?”

Lady Cruz said cheerfully.

Nonsense. I hated the sound of it. But Chloe shook her finger as if that wasn’t the case.

“No matter how interested one is, will it be possible to change so drastically? It’s kind of weird.”

“Pardon?”

It was a thought similar to mine. Clearly, there must be some other purpose. What is his intention? I was already busy with my business, but now the trouble had doubled.