“Whoa!” For the hundredth time in the span of barely an hour, Emily let out another sound of surprise, in general awe of how huge and beautiful the suite was. Giovanni had left for his meeting moments ago and with the help of the hotel staff, she had gotten settled in. She had her luggage in and all that was left to do was stare at the room, taking her time to sink in the details of every corner. It wad even fancier than the exterior of the hotel. Though it was painted white, the furniture, chandelier and ornaments lurking around in gold and other colors brought even more light to the room. It was almost glowing, the effect money had on any space in full display. With a smile on her face, she plopped into the huge bed, immediately giggling at how soft it was. Full of excitement, she rolled on the bed, messing up the sheets as she kicked her feet and allowed herself get absorbed in the warmth coming from the blanket. “Tyler has to see this.” Immediately acting on her thoughts, s
“Mr. Rueben, are you listening to us?” A light groan escaped Giovanni’s lips as he glanced at his wristwatch, nodding in response to the question he was asked. He was listening but definitely had stopped listening a couple of minutes ago. “Yes, please go on.” His business partner to be in front of him went on speaking and all it took was a couple of words for Giovanni’s attention to slip away all over again. His mind travelled to the time and in the long run, Emily. He had promised to get back to the hotel by evening but with the look of things, that was going to be nothing but an empty promise. It was past 7pm already and he still wasn’t done for the day. He had no one but himself to blame though. He had made August tweak his schedule so he could fit everything he had to do in one single day. That way, he could have the following day to just himself and Emily without any work interruptions. “I believe that would be all for today. It is a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Rue
The second Tyler heard the doorbell to his place ring, his quickest guess was his parents finally back from their little outing. But as he began to take steps towards the front door, he took a wild guess that instead of his parents, it could be a distant relative or just Emily at the door, pranking him the entire time. But much to his surprise, he pushed the front door open and immediately spotted August standing behind the door, hands shoved into his pocket. “What?” he almost stuttered. “What are you doing here?” “Hi, Tyler,” August smiled at him. “Um, is that Emily?” Disconnecting the call he previously was on, he quickly sent his phone into his pocket and folded his arms, stylishly checking August out and mentally comparing himself to him. He was in a dark trousers with brightly coloured shirt and basically looked formal and decent compared to him who was in shorts and an almost slacked t-shirt. “What are you doing here?” Tyler repeated his question. “Why are you here? H
Emily stirred in her sleep, slowly becoming aware of the warm presence around her. The bed felt warmer than usual and to make it even more confusing, it wasn’t feeling as soft as she expected it to. At least not the entire bed. It was like a part of the bed felt harder than usual. And around her, she could feel something just as hard. It couldn’t be the pillow though. After all, pillows were supposed to be soft and incapable of moving on their own. Her consciousness slowly started to seep in, Emily moving her body to press it against whatever felt so warm around her. A light smile appeared on her face and just as it was about to widen, she opened her eyes, reality hitting her immediately. Right next to her, serving as form of warmth was no one but Giovanni. Her eyes slowly widened as she gave her surroundings a quick glance, catching Giovanni’s arm wrapped around her. He was hugging her. He probably had been hugging her all night. Crap, they probably cuddled all night. The urg
After departing from each other for a while, Emily and Giovanni emerged from the different rooms they had booked and met in the corridor, ready to spend the day together. There was a glint in Emily’s eyes, mirroring the one in Giovanni’s eyes as he nodded and led the way out of the hotel to meet the chauffeur he had hired waiting for them. “Shall we?” “Yes please.” The chauffeur helped them with the door and they stepped into the car, immediately marking the beginning of their adventure for the day. They spent over six hours outside, hitting different stores and restaurants but both of them could swear it wasn’t that long. After all, they were having so much fun together they didn’t realize how quickly time was passing. Their first destination was a high end shopping mall Emily had found on the internet after a couple of minutes of browsing. For her, it was just an opportunity to feed her eyes since she was in a foreign country but for Giovanni, it was an endless opportunity to s
Their morning started on a good note as just as planned, they got ready to head back home. Giovanni’s private plane was on standby, ready to take them back to the U.S and knowing it was a school day, he suggested them leaving early enough so they could get back in time for Emily’s afternoon classes. It was an offer she didn’t refuse, considering the fact that her afternoon class was an important one. Excitedly, they checked out of the hotel and had the chauffeur drive them back to the airport where they took the plane. They got in, had their luggages tucked in and in no time, began their three hours long flight back home. “I don’t think I’ve mentioned this but thank you for the trip,” Emily had to say to Giovanni. “It was my first time abroad and it was fun. It was the perfect break I needed from school and all of that chaos.” “It’s nothing, you’re welcome,” he nodded at her. “I’m glad I could make it worthwhile.” “I guess so,” she chuckled. “It was great.” “The wedding is in
“Emily! I missed you!” It had only been the weekend but Tyler was being dramatic as he gushed out on how much he had missed his best friend. She didn’t mind though, immediately hugging him back and allowing herself remember how it felt to be back around him. “You love me,” she pouted as she pulled away from the hug. “But then, it’s understandable.” “Oh please,” he rolled his eyes and laughed. “How was your trip anyways? Was Giovanni an ass? Do I need to head over to his office and make him pay?” “No, silly,” she pulled him back towards her, leading the way to their class. “And even if you wanted to do that, you’re a bit late. He just dropped me off few minutes ago.” “He did?” Tyler immediately looked turned around in a useless attempt to spot him around. “Ah, I see. Anyways, on a more serious note. How was your trip?” “I’ll fill you in on the details later,” she replied him. “But for now, let’s get to class. We’ll be late if we spend another minute chatting.” They quickened th
“A divorce.” “Get a divorce.” “You can get a divorce later.” “You’d just get a divorce later.” Those words echoed in Giovanni’s head as he stood few meters away from Emily, eavesdropping on the conversations he clearly had no interest in. His intention was simply to walk up to Emily and then get her to leave with him so they could head over to the stores and begin shopping when his ears picked up the familiar dreaded words, pushing him to immediately freeze in his feet. Divorce. No matter how hard it tried, it refused to stop ringing in his head, now accompanied with Emily’s laughter. She was laughing. It was a joke to her. A divorce was nothing but another joke to her.She was planning a divorce. Everything she did. Every single thing that happened between them was simply going to end in a divorce. That was her grand plan. It was hard but he quickly managed to pull himself together, immediately turning to walk out of the garden. He didn’t stop until he was in front of his ca
Several months later… “And that’s a wrap for today.” August raised his head over his macbook to take a glance at Giovanni, genuinely amused as those words escaped his lips. Months ago, he was the boss that didn’t care about things like a stated closing hour. He worked till whenever he pleased and only left the office when it was beginning to feel too late to be in the office. But now, he was a completely different person- he never spent a minute past 4pm working. “Alright sir.” “Yes, sir.” “Thank you for today, sir.” The sounds of papers shuffling filled the air, followed by the scraping of chairs as staffs rose to their feet, hitting the floor with their heels as they rushed out of the meeting room. In no time, the room was left empty to no one but August and Giovanni, preparing to do the same. Except Giovanni was more nervous than August could ever be. “You leaving work by exactly 4pm would never cease to amaze me,” August had to comment. “I guess love really does change
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Giovanni watched August loosen his tie as he nodded, seeming convinced on the decision he was about to take. After what seemed like an eternity, they were both done with work for the day and naturally, were supposed to head home. But August had decided he wanted to visit a bar and of course, drag Giovanni with him. A sigh escaped Giovanni’s lips as he watched his best friend finally free himself from the clutches of his tie, dancing a little as he shoved the little piece of clothing down his pocket. Though he wasn’t sure what exactly he was expecting when he called Tyler several hours, he was sure that wasn’t it. “Yes,” August nodded, flinging his arm across Giovanni’s shoulders, earning a shudder from him. “I’m just going to drink a little then head home.” “A little?” it was hard to believe he wasn’t drunk already the way his words drawled. “August, you intended to drink just a little yesterday?” “That was yesterday,” he waved his fingers in
August woke up with a headache, serving as a dreadful reminder of how the previous night went. Dozens of bottles of wine, hundreds of honesty laced words. And of all the audience to have accompanying his foolishness, it just had to be Giovanni. “Fuck,” he groaned, reaching for his phone. He could remember Giovanni driving him home after he drank himself to stupor but that was all. He couldn’t remember anything else- like how he had gotten into his bed or how he had gotten his phone next to him. “Shit, what’s the time?” He swiped his phone unlock to check the time but literally immediately, his eyes caught something else. It was his call log. And sitting prettily at the top was a missed call from Tyler. It was more than enough to cure his hangover, his eyes immediately widening. A missed call from Tyler? How did that happen? When did that happen? Why did that happen? For the hundredth time, he let out a groan, realizing he still had no memory of what happened the previous night
“You think you have a crush on August?” Tyler took in a deep breath, sitting up as the words finally escaped from the clutches of his throat. After weeks and weeks of denial, he had finally decided to come clean to himself. And finally, his best friend too. “Yes,” he nodded, his heart racing in his chest. “I think I have a crush on him.” Emily’s expression was unreadable for a while, wavering between shock and confusion. She always knew there was something fishy going on between him and August. She knew there was more to their relationship than he was admitting but couldn’t frankly figure out Tyler having a crush on him. “Are you surprised?” Tyler swallowed as he asked. “Disappointed? Dis-” “No, no,” Emily quickly interrupted him. “It’s nothing like that. Shocked? Yes, I am, a little. But disappointed? I’m not ‘dis’ anything.” “Oh,” he broke into an awkward chuckle, his chest feeling a lot lighter. “Well, yeah. I know you’re probably wondering how it all happened but I guess,
Emily feet remained glued to the ground, shock flooding her veins. Not just shock though- she had a couple of other emotions running through her. Anger, deceit, betrayal- to a name a few. Her sister was fine? Stacy was fine all along? She was just hiding from her and making a total fool out of her with the consent of both her parents? All along, her disappearance was just an act put in place by her and her parents because she didn’t want to get married to Giovanni? She didn’t want to believe her ears but with every second that passed, the brutal truth was slapped onto her face all over again. It was slowly making sense and finally, the anger in her grew and overpowered every other emotion she felt. Without hesitating for even a second, she balled her fist and immediately pushed the door to her parents’ room open, revealing herself to them. “Alright dear. We’ll call you some other time to- Oh my God, Emily.” Her face grew cold as she stared at them, watching her mum immediately
Their ride to Giovanni’s had only lasted a couple of minutes when his phone vibrated by his side, signifying a text message. Busy with driving, he immediately asked Emily to check what it was on his behalf, the duo immediately realizing August needed Giovanni’s presence for something urgent. Needless to guess, something work related. “I could cancel,” Giovanni suggested, noticing the disappointed look on Emily’s face. “Tell him I’m busy or something. I don’t have to-” “No,” she shook her head, refusing his offer. “You don’t have to.” “But-” “It’s probably important,” she flashed him a weak smile. “And come on, you’ve been away from work for a while so it’s probably really urgent. You should go. I’ll be fine.” “Alright then,” he nodded in return. “But I’ll drive you home first. Do not even try to object to that. I’m driving you home.” Already disappointed at their time together getting cut short abruptly, Emily had no intention of wasting the few moments they could spend togethe
Giovanni: I'm outside.A text from Giovanni had never given Emily that much joy. And without wasting a single second, she grabbed her bag and dashed out of the classroom, heading to the parking lot to meet the man responsible for her bundle of joy.Her temporary goodbye to Tyler was quick. And thanks to her all sense of reasoning being overshadowed by her happiness, she couldn't notice how absentminded Tyler was as he mumbled out a reply.But that didn't matter. Not at the moment.In a flash, she found herself at the parking lot, her head shot up as her eyes roamed around excitedly. In barely a minute of searching, she found him waving at her and eagerly rushed towards him."Hi.""Hi."Awkwardness threatened to settle between them, Emily quickly fighting back by breaking into a light chuckle. Followed by a blush creeping towards her cheeks as he remembered everything that transpired between them twenty-four hours ago."Hev.""So how was your test?" Giovanni asked. "Did it go well?""
With head hung low, Tyler managed to drag himself back to class. Darn that test he needed to write. Scrap his grade that needed to be saved- all he just wanted to do was head back home and get busy with anything that was going to prevent him from thinking. But he had no choice, hence had to be in class whether he wanted to or not. “Tyler!” The second he stepped into class again, he heard Emily call out his name. “Here.” He looked around him and realizing the professor was still yet to arrive, he walked towards her with a sluggish nod and returned to his previous seat. “Who did you head out to meet?” She asked immediately without wasting a single second. “Who was it? What was so urgent?” “Nothing,” he looked away. “It was nothing.” “You went to meet someone,” she insisted. “Who was it?” “I didn’t meet anyone.” “Was it a girl? Ah, is it a girl? Is there a girl you’re hitting on?” “No, it’s wasn’t a girl!” “I thought you said you didn’t meet anyone,” a full smirk appeared on
Tyler got on his toes and as quietly as he could, he picked up his clothes from floor and threw them on. August was still asleep and he couldn’t be more glad for that. It was the perfect opportunity for him to sneak out of the house without waking him up and in the process, starting unnecessary drama. Just like he did the previous night, he had a lot of emotions running through his veins. Confusion, nervousness, anxiety- the list could go on. But at least, one thing he was glad he wasn’t feeling was regret. Regret for sleeping with August. He spared his sleepy self a quick glanced and sighed, immediately getting the last bits of his things. All ready to leave, he walked out of the room and in no time, was successfully out of the house. “Crap.” He had classes in the morning and a test in the afternoon. He didn’t feel particularly great about himself though, making him contemplate ditching both of them. But he immediately remembered he couldn’t. It was a major test and unless he wa