Can I kindly get some more inline comments, please? 🥺🥺😭😭😭

My phone didn't have a password and when he took it, his brows furrowed in confusion on seeing it then he continued to dial a number and a moment later his phone rang.

He hung up and handed the phone back to me. "There."

"Thank you." I mumbled.

All of a sudden, he leaned closer making my breath hitch. And spoke in a low voice, "I am choosing to ignore why you have my pictures as your wallpaper. For now."

Oh, fuck.

"So..." He drawled. "Wanna explain it right now or should I give you some time to come up with a valid reason?"

I was speechless. My mind just went blank. What the hell should I tell him? That I am in love with him for the past three years? That will surely make him laugh at me.

Heat crawled up my neck and the tip of my ears burnt with embarrassment.

The only thing I could think of was to just run away from his scrutinizing gaze which seemed to burn through my soul.

So, I made an effort to move sideways but he seemed to understand my intentions as his hands shot up and he placed it on the either side of my head, trapping me between him and the door.

I held back my breath when he moved his face closer to me, tilting it slightly. For the first time in my life, I had such a long eye contact with him, his beautiful gray eyes seemed to twinkle with amusement.

When he leaned in even closer, my eyes fluttered closed on their own, my heart pounding in my chest. And his hot breath fanning my lips.

No, he won't kiss me. Never. He has a girlfriend.

I wanted to kiss him. Yes. But not like this.

For the briefest of moment, his lips slightly touched mine. Almost. As if they touched and not touched at the same time. And then he pulled back making me open my eyes.

His lips twisted up into a smirk. "That's what I thought." He whispered to himself but loud enough for me to hear. And then he just walked upstairs and I stood there frozen, trying to comprehend what just happened.

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I was the first one to wake up, one of the reasons being that I was excited to work at the cafe.

Sorin was in a deep sleep, laying with his back towards me so I did my morning routine as quietly as possible not wanting to disturb his sleep.

He works hard all day, he needs to well to rest his body 'cause he is a little bit of workaholic. Being a stalker that I am, I knew that.

After I was ready, I went downstairs but as I was about to reach down, I heard some noises coming from the kitchen.

What the fuck?

There's no one in this house beside us.

Is there a thief?

Oh God. Should I wake Sorin up? He will know how to deal with all this but what if I am just imagining things and there is no one there, then he will be furious with me.

I can do this...

With slow, cautious steps I walked towards the kitchen when a woman's back came into my view. She was cooking something.

What kind of a thief breaks into someone's house and cooks?

And she seemed to be humming as she lightly swayed her hips, wearing a black sundress.

And then suddenly, she turned around and I was a deer caught in the headlight.

I froze and so did she but then slowly, a small smile formed on her face.

And very slowly, I recognised her.

"Hello, Drea." She greeted me, keeping a plate of waffles down on the table.

Is she serious right now?

"Um..." I was lost for words.

And she came towards me, the smile still on her face. "I'm Harlow."

"Y-yeah...I know..." I managed to say.

"I am so glad I could finally meet you."

What the hell is going on? What does she want with me? Am I not like a rival to her right now?

"I know you wouldn't say the same thing about me. And sorry if I scared you earlier, I have keys to the house and I just wanted to cook Sorin some breakfast before we both leave for work." She explained and I was very much surprised by the politeness in her voice. She didn't sound bitter at all. "And yes, I made some for you too."

I didn't know how to respond.

Seeing the blank expression on my face, her smile slowly faded away. "Are you...okay? Do you need some water? You should sit down." And placing her palm over my shoulder she guided me to the table and made me sit down.

Someone please explain what's going on before something happens to me.

And she placed a plate in front of me on which was a vanilla waffle, drizzled with chocolate syrup and some whipped cream on top of it.

When I made no effort to eat it, she said taking a seat opposite to me, "It's not poisoned, I promise." And then she chuckled softly as if it was very funny.

"W-why...why ar-e you--" I stammered but then I took a deep breath and spoke properly, "What are you... trying to do?" I hope I didn't sound very rude.

"Fair question." She took a piece of waffle for herself and drizzled it with the chocolate syrup and took a bite of it and chewed on it elegantly and suddenly I felt very insecure about how I eat.

"Well, the thing is...I'll be very honest with you; I hated you when Sorin told me about your marriage. But then I realised that... it's not your mistake. You didn't want to marry Sorin as much as he didn't want to marry you. So I was hating someone who had no choice in the matter and then I stopped hating you and I wanted to meet you. I even asked Sorin about it but he refused so here I am. And yes, I wanted to kind of apologise to you...for hating you because I don't know why but I feel guilty about it." She explained.

"Oh..." Was all I could say. How will she react when she gets to know that I am in love with her boyfriend.

"Please, just forgive me, Drea. I felt bitter towards you because while I couldn't marry Sorin, you got the chance to."

I took a few seconds to reply. "It's... it's okay... there's nothing to apologise for...you are his..." It hurt me to say all that. "You are his girlfriend after all. I am the unwanted one."

"No, don't say like that. You are not unwanted, you are my friend now..."

Oh, come on! Why is she so sweet?! I can't even hate her!

"Please do eat some waffles, they are not that bad", she said softly.

I know how it feels when you make breakfast for someone and they don't eat it so I took a bite of it and it almost melted in my mouth. It was delicious.

She was looking at me eagerly. "Are they good? Do you like it?"

I nodded. "They are very good. Thank you."

She smiled widely. "I am glad you liked them."

And then we heard Sorin climbing down the stairs and soon he walked into the kitchen, fully dressed and ready to leave for office and paused, seeing us or should I say his girlfriend.

"Harlow?" He spoke, surprised.

"Goodmorning, babe." She greeted him cheerfully.

He glanced between us suspiciously. "What's going on?"

"I wanted to meet Drea, as I told you but since you didn't let me meet her, here I am."

"And I made some breakfast." She added.

"I'm getting late for work." He stated.

She rolled her eyes. "I know that's why I packed some for you. You can eat it on the way. Let's go now."

She then said to me, "Bye, Drea. I loved meeting you and hopefully, I can meet you again soon."

I managed to curtly nod. "Bye, Harlow."

She then linked her arms with him and together they walked out of the house. Getting up, I went to the living room where the CCTV cameras showed the outside footage of the house and I forced myself to watch as they both stopped near Harlow's car and how passionately she kissed him and how he kissed her back.

I just wanted to remind myself that he was and will never be mine.

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I hope my eyes don't look that red and puffy after the crying session I just had a few minutes ago.

The sweet smells of the cafe warmed my senses as I walked towards the kitchen.
Inside, Atlas was busy doing a latte art on a coffee and when he finished, I greeted him. "Hey, Atlas."

His head snapped to me. "Drea!" He looked genuinely happy to see me there. "You are a little late...I started to worry where you were."

I tucked a strand of stray hair behind my ear. "Yeah, sorry about that..."

"Ah, let it be. It's alright."

"How are you?" I asked.

He grinned. "Now that I have seen you I feel much better."

I don't have much experience but that sounded a hell lot like him trying to flirt with me.

Don't get your hopes high. No one's interested in you.

I know. I know.

I chuckled sheepishly at him and he handed me my apron. "We have a family coming in this afternoon for a small birthday celebration for their kid. So, please help me prepare a cake for them."

"Sure."

So, I spent the morning helping Atlas around the kitchen and it was quite fun especially when he kept making me laugh.

I enjoyed being with him.

After such a long time, I was somewhere, where I didn't feel suffocated.

Afternoon rolled in and one of the waitress told me that the family arrived. Atlas sent me out to serve them water for the time being.

My eyes were focused on not spilling the water that I didn't even bother to look at who was there.

As a placed the glasses down, I heard a familiar voice after a long time. "Drea?"

There he was, right in front of me after such long years, alive. My voice shook with emotions. "Adrian?"

Chapter completion on: 23/4/22
Published on: 11/522