Seeing is Believing Read Online Free PDF

table as he entered; the roses were still there, but nothing new. Teofil wasn't sure whether he should be disappointed or relieved.
    Trudging into the kitchen, he decided to forgo dinner. He wasn't really hungry and he was tired enough that he would fall asleep quickly.
    Smiling faintly at the roses in the expensive crystal vase, Teofil froze when he realized that there was something new. A single, beautiful white rose now sat nestled into the center of the red and yellow roses, and as Teofil cautiously approached, he noticed the small envelope dangling from the side of the vase, tied with a dark red ribbon to the stem of the white rose.
    Teofil picked up the envelope, pulling the ribbon free. The envelope was made of costly paper, but it was lighter, not as stiff as the note with the poem. It was considerably thinner, and when Teofil opened it, it was considerably shorter as well—just three simple words that had Teofil's heart beating faster.
    In the bedroom.
    Glancing back to the dark room where he slept, Teofil wondered if he'd missed the author of the note last night.
    Taking a slow, apprehensive step towards the bedroom, Teofil chided himself soundly for not getting his locks changed before it came to this.
    It was probably just another gift; three expensive presents didn't seem like the right prelude for a naked display in his bed or something similarly disturbing, but he still couldn't think of any gift for his bedroom that wasn't creepy or perverse.
    Picking up the lantern from the kitchen, Teofil made his way to the bedroom slowly. The bedroom door was ajar, and he nudged it open with his foot.
    The room was empty. Everything was exactly as he'd left it yesterday morning. Teofil stared suspiciously, unnerved. Perhaps one of his admirers had waited for him last night. Teofil sighed, resolving to visit the locksmith tomorrow, no matter how busy the shop was, and then turned back towards the kitchen.
    Only to yelp in surprise as he almost ran headlong into the looming figure that had snuck up behind him, nearly dropping the lantern from his suddenly nerveless fingers. The man started laughing, and Teofil could only stare, flabbergasted, as he finally recognized Wystan.
    "The look on your face," Wystan crowed breathlessly, laughing again as Teofil glowered at him.
    "You're not funny," Teofil snapped, fixing his grip on the lantern so that he didn't actually drop it now. "I thought—"
    "Oh, don't be silly, Teo," Wystan dismissed, his laughter dying off. He straightened up and frowned at Teofil, looking unusually somber in the dim light from the lantern. "You've scared them off something fierce. I don't know what you said, but they're completely resigned to never winning your affection."
    "You know who it is?" Teofil demanded, but of course Wystan did. The man was a giant meddler; Teofil should have figured out his involvement sooner.
    "You do too, Teo," Wystan said, shaking his head ruefully. "I don't understand how you can be so insightful with jewelry design but fail so utterly at seeing this."
    Teofil flushed, pushing past Wystan into the kitchen. "That's not fair."
    Wystan had said they , and that he'd talked to them, but the only people he'd talked to about this were Cafon and Rathiel.
    "Figure it out?" Wystan asked from behind him as Teofil set down the lantern with shaky hands. "The both of them have been trying to catch your attention ever since you designed that damned ring last year."
    "But …" Teofil hadn't noticed any such thing. He hadn't even realized who Rathiel was until yesterday!
    "But you're oblivious to anything that isn't your work, so you didn't notice," Wystan filled in for him, shaking his head.
    "But why?" Teofil asked, unable to reconcile it. Rathiel and Cafon were obviously happy together. Why did they want to bother with him?
    "I don't know," Wystan said, shrugging. "That's something you should ask them. But I think if it were a fling they were after, they'd have given up on you months