“Fuck,”
That’s the only word I could muttered the moment I gain my consciousness, my head feels like popping, I woke up disoriented, while trying to remember what happen last night.
I roamed my eyes, and I sighed in relief when I noticed the familiar room that I woke up to, “That was a fuck up dream,” I muttered as I was trying to stand up from my bed, I halt when my door opened.
“Try drinking below your limit,” Jane immediately said as she entered while holding a tray with, I assume by the smell is soup and milk, “Take this soup to sobber you up,”
I just nodded and take the soup, and she’s right it sobbers me up, “How did I got home yesterday?”
She gave me a weird look, “Duh, you call me to pick you up,” She said and started to open the curtains, “You really shouldn’t be drinking that hard, you can’t hold your liquor, Eli,”
“Fine, fine, nag me later, my head is fucking throbbing,” good thing that today is Saturday, I still want to stay in bed, but I won’t feel better with that, so I stood up and took a cold shower to make me feel less shit.
“You don’t have class?” I walked to the kitchen, and saw Dan writing something on his tab, “How ‘bout you, Ja?”
“Cancelled, but I’m going to the library near the school later, preps for midterms,” I nodded and help myself and grabbed some toast and bacon.
“Ana call asking about you, she was ballistic when I told her that you got home super drunk—”
“Jane! Why would you do that?!” she sticks her tongue and rolled her eyes, “That bitch will probably on her way right now—” I didn’t have the chance to finish my sentence when I heard the door pin.
“Serves you right,” Dan and Jane exited as soon as they heard Ana’s loud voice.
“Oh, wow, the bitch is up, what a pleasant surprise?”
“I didn’t know I was drunk last night, Ana,” I explained immediately.
“Oh, save your goddamn explanation, bitch! You didn’t even call me; what do you think I am? A fucking saint?! I always ask you out, which was always rejected, and now, you went out with your workmates?! What a dumb witch,”
“I’m sorry, okay?” I tried to de-escalate her annoyance, I can see it on her face, she didn’t need to tell me.
“That won’t do, treat me out, I’ll give you twenty minutes, ready or not, I’ll drag you out,”
“Ana!” I exclaimed. She smirks and put down her bag, she grabbed the toast on my hands and start to devour it.
“The clock is ticking,”
*****
“You alright?”
I budge when she tapped my shoulder, I bit my lip, “Hey, Ana,” I called her, while she was sipping on her iced coffee, and looking around.
“Hmm?”
“Your old friend, Grayson,” she immediately takes her eyes on me, “I uh, I don’t know if it was a random dream, or it really happened,” her brow shot up, “But I heard him yesterday, at the bar?”
“Let me clarify, by the word heard, does that also mean that you saw him?”
“No, it’s just a hunch that I heard him?”
She shrugged her head and went back on lying on her wooden chair, “That would be impossible, I heard he’s in states, doing his business?”
I nodded, “Right,” I muttered, “Is he that rich? I asked out of curiosity; it’s just I don’t know him well. I didn’t have the chance to do so, and I spent most months trying to forget what happen between us, it just feels wrong.
“Huh, haven’t you seen him through magazines—right, right, you’re too busy for that, anyway, that old friend of mine is freaking huge, he is well known for being a devil in business, still, most businessmen wanted to taste a little amount of his empire, they all went crazy,”
“You mean, he is something, like a millionaire?” I asked. I cut my apple pie. We went to a famous coffee shop near Dan’s school, it was my first time coming here. The place was a ten out of ten in terms of relaxing ambiance, the music was soothing, and most people I see is minding their own business, either by reading, using their gadgets, or talking in a very low manner to avoid distracting other customers.
“Oh, honey, he’s a shipping magnate, he is a billionaire,”
I let a loud sighed, “Good thing I cut my connections to him,” I muttered.
“Connection—what? Right, you haven’t told me the real reason why you didn’t want to see him, and him knowing your whereabouts,”
“It’s just for what ifs, I’m sure he’s not interested in knowing where I went—”
“He asked me,” that stops me, “He asks me about you, that was two years ago, the day you hurriedly went home because your mom died,”
I was taken aback, she didn’t tell me about that, I didn’t know what to say, “It’s uh,”
“You can tell me when you’re ready, you can fool everyone around you, but not me. I know when something happens, Eli. We have been friends since I can’t remember, I don’t have to ask,”
“To tell you the truth, something unbelievably happens,” she was just looking at me, waiting for my next words to spurt, “We uh,”
“Yeah, it’s obviously that you had sex—” I tried to cover her mouth and look around, in my relief no one was paying attention on us.
“Shut up, you bitch,”
She chuckles, “Okay, okay, I didn’t mind though, we’re in the modern world where everything is possible, what’s the highlight of the story?”
I bit my lips, “Well, I didn’t have the chance—or the courage perhaps to check if it’s legitimate or what,”
“Legitimate, the what?”
I looked at her, while playing on my fingers, “Before I runaway, he told me, that night before we uh, something happens,” her brows are still up, “He told me that we got married,”