The Last Option
Chapter Seventy: Shattered Illusions

The next day, Bernard woke up determined to play the seduction game Rebecca had planned for him. He was already in the position he wanted before her, he just needed to finish convincing her that he was indeed going to die to let her convince him to be with her. He would then put the cards on the table: he would offer her marriage so that he would have someone to leave his fortune to, if she didn't go ahead and ask him first.

But he thought that most likely she would ask him first. He expected it so and then she would let herself be completely convinced. That was his plan.

After eating breakfast and going downstairs to meet Rebecca, he found Bernadette waiting for him in the reception lobby. Rebecca had not arrived yet. He was a little surprised to replace her there. "Hi, I've been waiting for you for almost an hour," Bernadette said. "I thought you'd be down a little early."

"Why didn't you notify my room? I would have come down sooner if I knew you were here."

"I was undecided whether to wait for you or not. I wanted to talk about us."

"Sure. Have you had breakfast yet?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Anyway, let's go to one of the nearby cafeterias, so you can have breakfast if you get hungry."

"I don't think I'm hungry."

Bernard extended his hand to her and invited her to leave. As they were about to leave, the elevator doors opened and Rebecca was about to get out with two other people when she saw them. She hid inside the elevator so they wouldn't see her, waiting for them to finish getting out of it.

"It's weird that Rebecca hasn't come downstairs yet," Bernadette said once they were over the threshold of the building's entrance.

"Rebecca? Downstairs?" asked Bernard, pretending he didn't know she was also staying there. "What are you talking about?"

"Didn't Rebecca tell you that she was also staying here?" Bernard could see from Bernadette's face that her expression of surprise was genuine.

"No, she hasn't told me. Why would she hide it from me?"

"She must have her reasons."

They kept walking for a long time talking about their experiences when they parachuted and about what they saw in the Palm Jumeirah, until they reached the Dubai Mall. They found a cafeteria and sat at one of the tables outside in the open air. Bernard ordered coffee with milk, even though he had already had breakfast. Bernadette did not want to order anything. She looked a bit nervous.

"Is something wrong?" Bernard asked when realizing her attitude. "You look nervous."

She waited a few more seconds before starting to speak.

"I just wanted to tell you not to worry about what happened between us and that I understand that you are in no condition to start a relationship with someone because of your illness," she lowered her gaze and began to play nervously with a bracelet she wore on her right wrist.

Bernard looked at her tenderly. She was really in love with him; he could see that she had a hard time saying that.

"I really wanted to avoid all this, Bernadette. I didn't mean for you to feel this way. You are a wonderful woman and it really hurts me a lot not to be able to reciprocate you as you deserve, but I repeat: it would not be fair for you to tie yourself to a dying man. It would be much worse to deal with your feelings later if we accepted how you feel and became more than friends, and then I died."

Bernardette looked up and looked at him somewhat confused.

"Accept how I feel? You mean you don't feel the same way about me?"

"Unfortunately I can't fall in love with anyone, Bernadette. It would not be fair to feed illusions in someone, just as you must be now."

She looked down again. Bernard wanted to make her feel better, but it was necessary for her to understand that he couldn't fall in love with her, and therefore she couldn't fall in love with him either. The sooner she accepted it, the better. She had no other choice.

"I understand all that you tell me, but why is it so difficult for me to accept it?"

Bernard extended his arm and with his fingers lifted her face, making her see him. She had that longing look on her face again, but with a hint of sadness she couldn't hide.

"I'm really sorry, Bernadette," he told her softly. "I would like things to be different, but with this illness and death looming soon, I can't do anything. No one else but me would like to have a full life and a family, grow old with someone by my side with whom I can share and enjoy life, but I can't. It's sad, but it's true. A painful truth."

"Then you also have no hope with the treatments that you could try? Don't you have the slightest hope? Are you willing to give up without having tried everything and without fighting for your life?"

"When you expect something to happen and it doesn't, the disappointment and pain is much stronger. I don't want to get my hopes up on something that might not work. As simple as that. I just don't want to create false expectations for myself and neither do others."

Bernadette was silent for a few seconds. She knew it was final.

"I guess that's all then," she said in a low voice and still without raising her head.

"You know we can still be friends. At least until I get back to New York, which is possibly tomorrow."

Bernadette got up from her chair unexpectedly, looking like she was about to cry. Bernard was puzzled and got up too.

"I can't keep seeing you feeling all this that I feel," she told him this time, looking into his eyes, with hers full of tears. "As you say, it's not good to create expectations, and I had one where you clung to hope and struggled to continue living, with me fighting by your side."

"But Bernadette-"

"It was nice meeting you, Bernard. I will try to forget you, even if it is difficult, since you are the best and most beautiful thing that has happened to me in a long time." Saying that Bernadette started to walk away, Bernard went after her.

"Please don't!" she asked him energetically as she kept moving away. "Please don't make it harder for me!"

Bernard stopped. She was right and he decided to let her go. As she walked away he thought it was the best thing that could have happened. Even if it hurt a lot to her now, he was sure that with time she would get over her grief and in the future she would replace the ideal man to make her happy.

He returned to the table and sat down feeling a little sorry for her and for everything that had happened. It wasn't his intention to provoke all of this; maybe he was reckless and immature to associate with her and allow everything to end that way. His target was Rebecca Hicks and she should have been his focus at all times. It was an inexcusable oversight, and now a girl was suffering.

Sitting in a chair in another coffee shop not too close, Rebecca had watched the whole scene and was smirking. From what she saw, she guessed that Bernadette tried to win Bernard over to no avail. That stupid got what she deserved, she thought. How could she fall in love with Bernard, knowing that he didn't want anything with anyone? Besides, he seemed like a difficult man to win over and, to her, her friend didn't have the tools or experience with men to pull it off. She thought that to conquer a man like Bernard she have to appeal to what he doesn't have, and boy did he have many lacks. Above all love, especially that of a family. Every man at some point in his life wants to have a family; it is something that is carried in the genes to perpetuate the species. It is the law of life to defeat death.

Bernard must have needed that. She was sure that he needed it.

And she will appeal to it.