Chapter 2

She realizes that there is only towel covering her naked body. His presence makes her feel stumbled.

"You do not even knock!?,"she said in disbelief. She tightens how she hold her body towel.

"Well, it seems like it." he shrug his shoulders and look at her from head to toe.

"What do you want?," she asked confusedly.

"I just want to know if you are done eating dinner?," his voice remains calm, but the moment his foot started to step forward. She cannot help, but to get crazy thinking of what to do.

"What are you doing, Apollo!?," with her voice quivering, she is clearly scared of what he is up to.

"Walking," he simply replies. She shake her head and release a deep sigh before she get the courage to remind him of how frazzling she feels.

"You get out, Apollo. You are crossing the line," his forehead creased.

"You should not be entering random rooms just because you feel like doing it. It could be a crime," she warns him of his action.

"It is not a crime 'cause this is my property too. I cannot be called trespasser, so?," he looks up grinning like a devil. Emily looks at the different corner of the room trying to calm down her racing heartbeat.

She close her eyes and regain her composure. She persuaded herself to not be intimated.

"Well, if you are here for something to talk about. Give me a minute, I will get dressed first," she said coldly and did not wait for his response. She randomly pick some dress, bra, and a panty before she confidently left him inside and close the door of the bathroom. She had to make sure first to lock it before starting wearing what she got from the closet.

After almost 5 minutes of thinking whether to stay inside 'til he will get bored and leave or face him 'cause she is done. She chooses to go outside.

He is still there calmly sitting in the chair facing the bedside table. As he notices her, they are both silent, just surveying each others' look.

She does not really changed much. That is what he thought. She is still as captivating as the sunset. Her body became more slimmer and hotter than yesterday.

"What are we gonna be talking about?," Emily interferes in his moment of fantasy. She is walking so fast and sits down in the head of the bed, making sure they are distance away from each other.

"Do you have any subject of a topic to suggest?," her brows shut at that stupid question of his.

"I would not love talking to you, Apollo. Can't you sense it? Why would I even initiate?," Apollo clears the lump in his throat before opening his mouth.

"Emily, you should not talk like that to your soon to be older brother. That is so disrespectful," her hands are shaking out of being so pissed off.

Apollo cannot help, but to say something nasty too, just so he can ease the insults she got from Emily.

"Even if I would be carrying your family's name, what I treat you today won't ever change. Remember that," she fires back. He look intently and directly at her eyes.

"Why? You should have make amends with me 'cause you are becoming part of the family. But if not, there might be a reason for it. I will be glad to know, but I guess I already knew why," instead of throwing to him what is the nearest things beside her, she chose to pinch her finger. She is scared to the possibility that he is maybe right. She did not speak.

"Mind to tell me?," hearing him teasing her only triggers her hatred towards him. The guts of him acting so cool and unproblematic in front of her is adding more fuel to the flaming anger she feels for him.

What Apollo made her feel in that cruel summer remains fresh and is as alive as the the old city during new year.

"Making amends? I only does that to the people I value. In your case, it is so unnecessary. Who does that to a stranger?," she sounded like a villain saying those words at him. Apollo's hawk-like eyes become more deadly as it ever was.

He cannot believe her calling him a stranger. Even so, he triggers her more.

"Strangers never dare to taste each others," Emily lost all her patience at what she hearsd.

"Shut up! What are you spilling out of a sudden?," she is now standing fumingly mad.

"Oh Emily! You are the first one who started it. Am I a stranger to you? Seriously?"

"What now if you are a stranger to me? Why do you care? I forget you long enough to forget why I needed too."

"Really? I had still clearly remember how you begged to feel my touch. How you moa-.," she cuts him off.

"You shut up, asshole! After all these years, you are still reminiscing on that forbidden lifeless affair. How stupid of you!," she even pointed a finger at him.

"Oh great! You remembered it now. I thought you have forgotten it all," he playfully said enjoying the cannot be painted expression of Emily.

"'Cause you are mentioning about it. Is it worth remembering tho? It will just waste my time," she said and rolled her eyes.

"Don't you missed it? The way I made you feel? The pleading? The wanting to feel how good-," she cuts him off again but this time, it makes him stun for a minute.

"Oh! Come on, Apollo. If you are thinking that I would die to feel your touch again. Reserve it for some cheap chick here. There are so many hot men in Manila. Men that can do better than you. So much better that I would crave for it 'til now. Comparing you to Simone, I would rather bowed and kneeled down to him all over again, 'cause unlike you, he got the balls."

Emily's words are like daggers with poison all hitting directly at Apollo's heart. He is like paralyzed for a moment. If lying is the key to win over an argument towards Apollo. She is willing to lie again and again just to see how he suffers and how much he deserves it.

Realizing that she made him speechless pushes her to attack for more heart-wrecking lines.

"Do not be so arrogant, Apollo. Nothing is special to you. With that being said, you are nowhere close for being irreplaceable."

He feels he had enough. That is too much to process. He suddenly stand up to leave, but he notices her reaction. She gasps and had that familiar intrinsic response since then. He realizes something. He would not still have that effect on her if she is true to her words.

"Really, Emily? I do not understand why you are so angry at me and what made you say those words. But if your intention is to break me, of course, it shoots straight to the heart," hearing him admitting that he is hurting make her pleased.

"Anyway, 2 years had passed. I should have not be surprised of how much you have changed," Apollo said, but not particularly saying what part of her. What he meant by that was her bold side that she reveals awhile ago. Then he steps forward straight at where she is standing. He is trying to test if his speculation is right.

Emily feels being glued on the floor. She stiffened as she saw him coming.

"I am not gonna rape you if that is what makes you looking so nervous. So chin up sister, before I would probably think that you had still did not forgets about me long enough," that whisper coming from Apollo while smiling devilishly automatically sent shivers down to her spine.

She is still holding her breath as she watches him leaving the room. She shake her head before she lay down in bed—annoyed by what he told her and scared that he might know that he is right at his presumption. As she look at the ceiling, all of the memories with him in the past flashes like someone is in the verge of death recalling the years they have lived with.