Never Judge

"Francesca Rocci is going to be your date to the auction?" Katerina asked Ram as she sat up from Eric's arms.

They were currently at Ram's office in Lights Entertainment, it was one of the few safe spaces that she and Eric could be a couple. 

"Yeah, she mentioned that you knew her." Ram said as he recalled the conversion.

"Well she agreed to help." Cedric said with a shrug. 

"We were classmates in highschool." Katerina said, rolling her eyes. "We weren't that close, I really didn't care for much at the time."

"Oooohh, highschool Katerina. I think you were already in love with me at that time." Eric said as he winked at his girlfriend.

"Ew, no." Katerina said as she playfully pushed him.

As a reflex Eric grabbed on to her waist and ended up pulling her down on top of him on the couch.

"Hey Katerina, it's a bit too early for this." Eric teased as he stole a kiss on her lips.

Katerina gave him an annoyed look and sat back up.

"Fine, I did like you back then, but you had Calathea." Katerina said as she stood up and distanced herself from Eric.

"Katerina, you know nothing happened between us." Eric said as he tried to grab her by the wrist, but he was too slow to catch her.

"Can you guys flirt somewhere else?" Ram asked in an annoyed tone. "Please pity my single heart and protect the sanctity of my work space."

"When you get a girlfriend again Ram, I swear this work space will lose all it's sanctity." Katerina said as she walked out of the office.

"Damn so hot. That's my woman." Eric proudly said as he chased after her.

Eric managed to chase Katerina's elevator and squeezed himself in.

"Why don't we go on a date?" Eric asked Katerina. "You seem a bit high strung recently." Eric said in a soothing tone.

"Sure. Why not? Where though? I can't go anywhere with you Eric." Katerina complained.

"What if I book the presidential suite at Maharlika and we have dinner there?" Eric asked.

"The staff will see us." Katerina complained. 

"Maharlika is one of the most discreet places." Eric explained. "The suite has its own elevator, so no one will see us arrive, and I'm sure we can pull some strings to enter the hotel through a different entrance." Eric suggested.

"Fine. But we are arriving at different times and you have to fix everything." Katerina said, finally agreeing.

"I'll give you a call." Eric said with a wink just as the elevator doors opened and Katerina marched out.

Katerina was exhausted from both work and helping Nicole, she knew her friend was going through a tough time and needed them, but she needed some time to herself too. 

She and Eric hadn't had time alone in months due to work and she really just wanted to sleep in, when Eric suggested going out on a date she got really annoyed because he knew that they couldn't be seen together in public and yet every time he insisted that he wanted to try making their relationship public. 

She slid into her car, exhausted by the day. 

"Take me home first." She told her driver who nodded and drove her home.

When she finally arrived she sent Eric a quick message telling him that she was exhausted before finally collapsing on her bed and falling asleep.

When Katerina woke up she was surprised to see Eric lying next to her, watching her.

"What time is it?" Katerina asked as she yawned.

"Well it's already 7pm. You slept for four hours." Eric said as he gently kissed her forehead.

"I'm sorry we couldn't go out on a date." Katerina apologized. 

"No Katerina, it's me that should apologize. I should have known that you were tired. You've been working non-stop and keeping my sister company in your free time." Eric said as he pulled her into his arms. "I don't deserve someone like you." Eric said with a sigh as he buried his head in her hair.

"Hey don't say that. You aren't a bad guy." Katerina said as she leaned back into him.

"I'm just glad that after everything I have you in my arms." Eric planted a kiss on Katerina's cheek that made her blush. "I still owe you an explanation though." Eric whispered into her ear.

"For what?" Katerina asked.

"Calathea." Eric answered simply.

"It was an arranged marriage and she drugged you. It's that simple to me. You don't need to explain." Katerina told Eric.

"I still need to tell you. Knowing Calathea the moment our relationship goes public she will try to create a misunderstanding between us, and I don't want that." Eric told her as he held Katerina's hands.

"If you want to, then go." Katerina said with a nod. She really didn't care about what happened between Eric and Calathea, that was all in the past, they were in the present.

"I used to visit your school often, do you remember?" Eric asked.

Katerina nodded in reply.

"I would often insist that I pick Nicole up just to swing by your school, and my parents caught on to that." Eric said with a grin. "You see I was watching someone."

"You stalker!" Katerina accused.

"I've only stalked one woman in my life Katerina, you." Eric said in a sweet voice.

"If you weren't hot I would say creepy." Katerina teased.

"Well, my parents came along one time and Calathea just so happened to be hovering around Ayanna." Eric explained.

"They thought it was Calathea you liked?" Katerina asked the obvious question.

"Yup. They thought that it was very unlikely for me to like any of you girls." Eric said with a laugh. "But as you can see, I like liking you." 

Katerina was at a loss for words and blushed as she smiled. She was glad that she had her back facing Eric or else things would have definitely escalated.

"Well they took off on that and were glad that I liked someone from a powerful family. They didn't ask me and jumped into assumptions. They spoke with the Carpios and a marriage was quickly placed on the table." Eric explained to his girlfriend. "One day, mom told me that they were arranging a match between me and the girl I kept visiting at school. I was shocked that they had found out, I thought they knew it was you so I got excited. Mom told me that she set a date for us, just to see if the girl liked me as much as I liked her. I quickly agreed."

"Is that why Calathea thought you actually liked her?" Katerina asked.

"Yeah, I agreed so quickly I didn't even ask who they thought it was. Mom was delighted and quickly made the call, at the time I was already 22 years old and everyone assumed I would meet a woman soon." Eric said with a shrug.

"Was the date the reason why the engagement didn't push through?" Katerina asked assuming the events that followed.

"When I stepped into the room and the woman inside wasn't you I walked out." Eric explained. "Calathea was so embarrassed that I saw her run out of the room in tears, she had just been rejected in the most savage way, and I felt like I had been cheated."

Eric sighed at the memory, it was clear that he had regretted the events that led up to that.

"After I saw her crying I felt guilty. She was the same age as you, I ended up thinking about you Katerina, what if the man you were supposed to marry stormed out at the sight of you. I felt bad, I wouldn't want a man treating you that way, so I bought her a bouquet of flowers and some chocolates to apologize. Sadly, that too was misunderstood." Eric said with a frown.

"That actually explains why she thinks you had feelings for her." Katerina said.

"It's also the reason why she drugged me. She thought I still loved her, but that night she heard me speaking to Miguel. I was telling Miguel how I was going to ask your parents if I could court you. At first Miguel was fiercely against it, he said the age gap would be a problem and me falling for a family friend would ruin everything if we broke up. I insisted that we would never break up because I knew you were the one for me from the very beginning." As Eric said this he lifted Katerina on his lap so he could see her face. "She couldn't take the truth Katerina, so she decided to do whatever it would take to be with me."

**I'll be giving you guys a treat in the next chapter, we're gonna go a lot more explicit just this once. It'll be my first time writing something like that so tell me if you like it or not**

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