❝I just need you
and
some sunsets.❞

28

FIXING
修正

. . .

Getting a call from Emily wasn’t something I expected on a Sunday morning.

When my phone flashed with her name, my hand immediately retreated from holding the device. A thousand questions were raised in my head, but one stood out of all: Should I answer?

I wondered if she was calling because she finally knew. My palms turned sweaty, and my stomach did an abnormal churn. If so, then I was so unprepared. A possible scenario played in my head, so I squeezed my brain for anything fruitful I could say. First of all, she needed to know Blake lied to me as well.

I gulped. My throat was dry, so there wasn’t even anything to swallow. My teeth harshly caught my lower lip in between, and I sweated abnormally. I pondered whether I should call Blake or Noah before answering her.

Curiosity got the best of me when I answered, “Hi?”

“Hey!” she greeted. “I finally bought a mini cooper, Cass! Noah told me you love this car, and I thought, how about we go hang out together? You know, just a girls time out.”

What?

“Oh?”

“He said you wouldn’t mind… I’m sorry if—”

“No, it’s fine,” I interrupted. “I’m very happy for you and would love to go out!”

I didn’t know what made Noah suggest that to her, but if he had a plan, I had to go along with it. He promised me the day before that his plan would start.

“Awesome! Coming to pick you up in minutes.”

I called Noah numerous times to question what he was getting to, but he never answered and even left my texts on seen. If he didn’t want to tell me what was happening, I had to get along and go with the flow despite my stress.

I saw her standing in front of my building with her shiny, baby blue mini cooper. Indeed, a nice car. She didn’t look bothered the slightest, which assured me she didn’t know any bit of what was happening behind her back. Or maybe she did but was good at keeping herself calm.

I was overthinking. As much as I recalled, Noah hadn’t told her yet, though.

I walked up to her slowly, weighing my options. The blonde smiled once she saw me. She looked stylish in baggy jeans and a loose top, perfect for a sweltering day.

“Hey. You look dashing!” She offered me her politest smile. “Hop in.”

I couldn’t tell whether she was sincere or merely trying to be polite. I was in a simple floral dress that stopped at my knees.

Emily drove by the seaside, a place I was at before with her boyfriend. I couldn’t help being reminded of Blake every now and then. I extended my arm out and bathed it under the sunlight. Although the weather was hot, the car’s speed generated a nice breeze to hit my face. The smell of sand and sea soon filled my nostrils, and I couldn’t help but smile.

I felt a nudge on my side. “Here. Take these sunglasses.” Emily handed me.

I smiled. “Thanks. I forgot to bring mine.” Of course, I did. I wouldn’t have been surprised if I forgot to wear shoes even.

She drove until we reached an empty place that looked over the sea from afar. The view was breathtaking. She urged me to get off, so I did and leant on the hood of the car.

Emily opened the trunk and got a takeaway paper bag out. “I got fooood, baby!”

I gawked at the bag. “Dang, I didn’t even smell that, Em.”

She laughed. “Get your nose checked, but for now, let your tastebuds enjoy.”

Emily handed me a meal and leant on the car beside me. She took a bite of her burger and moaned in delight. “This sandwich will never disappoint me.”

I stabbed my straw in the coke paper cup and just… played around with it. I was on a new level of flustered. Just a few days prior, I made up my mind to hurt that girl, to take what was not mine under the excuse of her mistakes. But there she was, unknowing and treating me as if I were her best friend to have an enjoyable time with.

I felt filthy again, and it built a lump in my throat. I thought I was past that. How was I supposed to treat her then? What were her true intentions?

“Why aren’t you eating?” her voice beside me scattered my thoughts.

I quickly put on a smile and ate a chip.

Emily looked over at the sea, inhaled the smell, and commented, “Blake loves the sea so much. He asked me to be his girlfriend here.”

I shuddered at the mention of his name, moreover at the memory she mentioned. My eyes rolled. I was about to puke when I didn’t even eat much. I took a huge sip of the cold drink to refresh myself, which didn’t work well with my gag reflex.

I cleared my throat. “Speaking of him… simply curious. How did you guys get together?”

Her cherry-red lips gaped. “Well…” she trailed off. “He and I… We both weren’t at the best place after leaving our exes, especially him after being engaged.”

“Why did you break up with Noah anyway? I never understood exactly why as his best friend,” I said in a tone I hoped would make her guilty.

She shrugged sadly, holding a pain I couldn’t interpret in her blue eyes. “Although we dated for a long time, at the end of our relationship, we learnt we didn’t fit each other as much as we thought. He wasn’t as attached to me as he first was when we started dating, so I figured staying with me wasn’t to his liking anymore…”

I didn’t understand. It sounded as if she left him because he wanted her to. She even pretended to be sick on their first breakup. From my dating experience, when guys acted like that, it meant other girls were catching their attention.

“I see.”

That was not as dramatic as I expected to hear at all, or maybe she liked to keep details private. It reminded me of what Penelope said, how she had threatened Noah with my past. Maybe she didn’t mean it and merely tried to keep Noah by her side. Perhaps I shouldn’t bring that up, considering she was going through therapy.

She smiled at me again. “So, when Blake and I met and shared our problems, we clicked. We liked each other and related to the same pain.”

Quite frankly, my mind was far off from my body for the rest of the hangout. I sufficed with nods and hums, barely eating the chips. Emily drove me back home after we watched the sunset.

“Well, Cassandra, see you at the university reunion party!”

Before she left, she had stepped closer and hugged me. Was she trying to declare a friendship? Because I wasn’t really in favour of that, but I hugged back anyway. Why did my stomach churn again?

Despite the many questions I didn’t know the answer to, I knew one thing.

I didn’t want to do the ugly as much anymore… she didn’t deserve it. She ruined all my expectations of her. Or should I say: she fixed them?

. . .

ehem. thoughts?

expectations for next chapters?

do you think Emily’s sincere?

what do you think Cassandra will do?

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