"I ASKED for an iced coffee. Does this look iced to you?" The customer before me yelled, slamming the disposable cup in her hand on the counter.

A few drops of coffee flew out and spilled on the marble counter, also staining my white shirt with a faint brown dot. Several customers had turned our way and some even had their phone cameras angled towards the direction where we stood.

I bowed my head, "I'm sorry."

I must have lost my mind.

Adrian gently pulled me back and stood in front of me, shielding me from the woman who seemed like she would hit me at any given moment. She looked so strong, I would be a fool to not cower in fear and be happy that someone was there to protect me but at the same time, my saviour turned out to be the guy I was weary about. The guy who was friends with my ex behind my back.

"I'm sorry, I was the one who got your order wrong," Adrian said calmly, "I'll get it changed."

He told lies so easily that it sounded like the truth. He lied about his education and pretended not to know about someone. What more did he have under his sleeve? Murder?

"But I saw her. She was the one who poured the drink," the lady said.

Her tone seemed to have gone a little lower on seeing Adrian. I mean, who wouldn't give in at the sight of his face? I should have known that there was a possibility that he belonged to Thomas's friend group when I saw him. They were all good-looking bastards whom I was unable to decipher their strange attitude towards me.

"I'll get your right order," Adrian repeated, "Please give me a minute."

He walked off into the backroom, dragging me along with him. As he closed the backroom door behind us, I yanked my hand out of his grip and looked away.

"Is something wrong? You've been out of it all day," Adrian said, drawing closer to me.

"I'm fine. You should attend to the lady before she fumes up again. I'll tend to the dishes."

I tried to walk towards the sink when he pulled me back to stand before him, "Is this about your ex again?"

I finally looked up into his eyes. His gaze on me had a dark shade of displeasure but it also seemed like he was genuinely concerned for me. Then again, why would I believe his eyes when every other thing about him was a lie?

I slowly took my wrist out of his grasp and stared up at him, "I'm fine and please stop grabbing my hand. My wrist hurts."

I headed over to the sink and picked the only cup. Glancing at the far end of my left, my eyes met that of Adrian for a quick second before I was back to reviewing the cup.

"Surprise! I already served the customer," I heard Clara's voice as she walked into the back room, "Thank God I didn't wait for you to come do it yourself. She would have probably hit me. You owe me one."

I turned to stare at her but she was solely focused on Adrian with a cute smile on her face.

"Thanks," Adrian replied and walked out of the back room.

"Clara," I called out as she was just about to follow suit, "Thank you for yesterday. I tried to talk to you all evening but we've been busy. It must have been so bothersome to listen to me rant, right? I'll get you a drink when we close and we can just relax together."

She was not someone I could understand but she was there for me when I needed someone, so the least I could do was to properly say thank you.

"Why?" Clara asked with a straight face, "Just because I listened to your pathetic love story doesn't make us automatically become besties. We're not friends, just coworkers. And if you don't mind, I'd like for it to remain that way."

With that, she walked out of the back room. The sound of the slammed door reverbed around me and hit me hard that we had both walked out of each other's lives. How could we be close after what I had done to her? I must have been delusional to believe that. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe the break of our friendship had saved me from a great danger that she would cause me sometime in life. I didn't understand her, anyway.

I set the clean cup amongst the others just as Clara walked back in, taking off her apron.

"Clean up for me, I cleaned up for you yesterday," she said while walking into the private room, "Mr. Lenin's out, so just keep the key in his drawer when you're done. I told Adrian also."

"Are you going somewhere?" I asked, walking into the private room also as I dried my hands with some serviettes.

She drew out her handbag and stared at me, "Just avoid me the way you used to, will you? What are you? An obsessive stalker?"

She walked out of the backroom and I followed her. I was fine with our friendship being over, I was fine with us avoiding each other, and I was happy to not have to put up a smile at her when I was weary of her. I was fine with it all but why was I still trailing after her?

"I told you to wait for me in the car," Clara heartily said, rushing over to hug a guy who was standing at the entrance.

I wore glasses and was partially blind even with it on but I could still see the love in his eyes. It was quite different from the gazes I had seen her other admirers give her, it was even different from what I had seen in Thomas's eyes when he looked at me. The melting stare and his soft smile said it loudly; this man was smitten with Clara.

He was most likely the boyfriend she had been talking about all the while who did all that she wanted. She was lucky to be loved openly and freely by him but then again, it looked like she wasn't even aware of her privilege.

Clara turned to Adrian, "Bye."

Just as she walked out, I joined Adrian behind the counter and took out a yellow duster to clean the left side of the counter.

"I never knew she had a boyfriend," Adrian said wiping the other side of the counter as we backed each other.

"Are you interested in her?" I asked.

He didn't reply. Of course, this was going to be a bummer for him. The girl he fell in love with already had someone and she might never look his way. Even if she did, he would never rank first in her life. His romance story was much worse than mine.

Right, my romance story.

I cleaned the surface of the counter as Adrian and I never said a word to ourselves after my unanswered question. I heaved a sigh of confidence and let go of the yellow duster on the counter. Turning 180 degrees, I met with Adrian's back.

I rested my forearms on the counter, "Adrian."

"Yeah?" He looked over his shoulder to stare at me.

I stared at him like his face would give me the answers I was looking for.

"Do you attend Boxford?" I finally spat out.

His face slowly turned sour, horrified. He must have thought I would never find out because he was wearing a silly nose mask.

"You've once seen me there before?" He asked.

"I've seen you there... a couple of times... with my ex," I held a straight face.

He let out a soft laugh and looked back at the counter he was wiping, "Your ex? Who?"

He laughed again, "Are you sure I was the one you saw? You use glasses, so you could have mixed it up."

"You didn't answer my first question. Adrian Everhart, are you a student of Boxford College?"

He remained silent for a while before speaking up, "I am."

"Before I take any step to find out myself, is there something going on that I don't know about? Like the connection between you and Thomas."

"There's nothing," he said, cleaning the same spot on the counter over and over again.

There was definitely something.

"Then, why am I just finding out that you two are friends? And why did you act like you didn't know him or his relationship with me?" I yelled.

"Maybe you never noticed that I was there all along. The only person you were focused on was Thomas."

He was too good of a liar.

"Look at me," I said, "Let me see how far you can go on with lies before your eyes sell you out."

He finally dropped his duster and turned around to face me, "Do want to know the truth?"

I exhaled, staring at the expression on his face. His brows were relaxed and his gaze was sharp. His lips looked straight but on second look, the left corner tucked upwards like a smirk was being initiated.

"If I didn't want to know the truth, I wouldn't have asked those questions. Tell me what the hell's going on!"

"I'm here to keep an eye on you," he said at once, "Thomas sent me here to spy on you."

"What do you mean spy? Thomas sent you here to watch me, even as we're dunzo?"

He stared at me, ignoring my question.

This little freak!

I darted over to where he stood and gripped his chin with one hand, drawing him closer to me, "Look me dead in the eye, Adrian. I'm not here for mind games. Why did Thomas send you here to keep an eye on me?"

We stared at each other as he couldn't just seem to look away, my glare wouldn't let him. Let me see you lie to me, Adrian. Try to lie to me with your eyes also.

"He and the whole group suspected that you were cheating on him, so I offered to keep an eye on you," he said casually.

"And what did you tell him?" I dug my fingers into his chin.

"Why do I have to tell you?" He asked, "You'd just cry about it anyway."

He laughed, "Devin. That's his name, right? I told Thomas about your little fruit juice date here with Devin the other day. And of course, I texted him on the night you had an altercation with the girlfriend. That was the reason why he came down to the cafe."

I let go of Adrian's chin, taking a step back as I felt the boiling anger settle in my stomach, "So, you are the cause of my breakup with Thomas? You couldn't even ask me what was going on between Devin and me! You keep on lying and lying and lying, now your piled-up lies made me end up this way! If you couldn't even get your facts right for me whom you pretended to care about, couldn't you at least do it for your friend? He must have felt so insecure to stoop this low. How could you do this to him?"

Thomas stared at me, then slowly blinked, "Do I look like I care? To be blatantly honest, I always wanted the both of you to part ways. It was getting on my nerves, seeing you two together all the time."

A smirk overtook his lips, "So, yeah. I plotted your break-up."

---------------
Tip: Annabelle is quite famous, since she has modelled for some huge brands.