8: Mishap with Date Night

"Catherine. Are you okay?" I heard Sir Mitchel's voice ask me suddenly. I looked around and saw the rest of the team, including Belle, looking at me curiously and with displeasure.

"Ah. Yes, sir. I'm completely fine." I answered Sir Mitchel, not wanting to cause any more delay in the meeting.

"Are you sure? You look so out of it, today." he asked again, and this time, I heard an annoyed snort from the person in front of me, none other than Belle. I turned to look at her and she just shrugged at me with that despicable smile of hers. I brushed it off and focused my attention back on Sir Mitchel.

"Don't worry about me, Sir. Just a slight headache, other than that I'm fine. Let's just proceed." I answered and the meeting started again.

"Can she be more unprofessional?" I overheard Belle say as soon as Sir Mitchel's door closed behind us.

"I know right. She just had to space out in the middle of a brainstorming meeting. You know Belle, I've been noticing lately, I think she's actually trying to flirt with Sir Mitchel." Margaret said making all of them look my way as I was walking behind them.

"Seriously Marge! That isn't even surprising anymore. Did you forget what happened with Sir Harvey? She needs another man to take her up the ladder." Belle said, finishing her annoying remark with a wicked laugh, enough to scare away the wicked witch of the west.

I brushed off everything they have to say about me and walked past them reaching my cubicle. To be honest, I haven't had enough sleep last night. With my sister's sudden appearance at my doorstep, my mind kept racing as to why she was there in the first place.

She said that she has our parent's full permission to move out of our family home, but I don't buy that. If I know one thing about my parents, it's that they're so controlling that they would never allow her to move out after what happened with me. No matter how much I pester and ask her about it, she still gives the same answer.

I took my phone and dialed Andrea's number, it rang a few times but then was turned off. Really! When I needed someone to talk to, my best friend is suddenly missing in action. I haven't heard of anything from her since last night and she hasn't come to work and I can't bring myself to ask Axel about it. I tried calling again and after a few rings, this time she picked up the phone.

"Where are you, Dre?" I immediately asked as soon as the call connected.

"At home, why?" she answered in the most unenthusiastic voice I ever heard her speak in.

"What do you mean why? I've been calling you since this morning. Why aren't you at work?"

"Can you come by after work?" she asked, her voice breaking into a million pieces.

"What happened?" I immediately asked as soon as I heard her.

"I need you." she just said, finally breaking into a sob.

"Okay. Calm down, Dre. I'll be right there." I said to her. I heard her say okay in between sobs and we finally ended the call. I don't know exactly what happened, but I know that it has something to do with last night. Luckily, it was almost four in the afternoon so I started cleaning up my workspace and as soon as the clock hit four, I dashed out of the office.

Zab, I'll be home late. I'll drop by Andrea's place first before going home. There are ribs in the fridge, just put them in the oven for 30 minutes. If you want anything else just message me, okay?

I texted Zab as I rode a taxi to Andrea's apartment. I immediately went up to her condo and knocked on the door a few times and then I heard someone rustling inside. The door flew open and a disheveled Andrea flung herself into my arms.

"What happened?" I asked as I was dragging her back to her unit. Her place was a mess. Food wrappers, ice cream tubs, and even cans of beer are littered across her whole place. I've known Andrea for years and she's one of the neatest people I know, she really is going through something if she allows her place to get this dirty.

"Okay. Spill it, Dre. What really happened?" I asked while starting to pick up her trash. She then flop down on her couch and bawled out again after hearing my question.

"Axel." She simply said in between sobs and my blood already began to boil.

"What did he do last night?" I angrily asked and she tried her best to control her sobs.

"He wasn't asking me to go on a date with him." She said, confusing me with what she meant.

"What? But the note asked if you want to go on a double date."

"Yeah. But he didn't mean that I'll be his date." she replied before burying her tear-stained face in her already messy pillow.

"Sorry, I'm not really following." I confessed. She raised her head from the pillow and glared at me.

"He wanted me to be the date of his date's twin brother." She explained and after a few minutes what she said settled in my brain.

"WHAT!" I screamed out as soon as I realized what she just said.

"Yes! He brought me there to be the date of someone else." with that, I finally dropped the trash bag I was holding and rushed to her side, encasing her in my embrace.

"I'm sorry, Dre. I shouldn't have let this happen. I honestly didn't know that this was what he meant by double date." I said as I was stroking her head, trying to soothe her but her sobs continued.

"I just can't believe that he asked me to watch him go on a date with another girl." she said wiping her tears from her face.

"I know this is not the time for me to ask this but how was your date?" I asked out of curiosity and without any hesitation, she handed me her phone as it flashes a picture of four.

The photo was of four people dining together. Axel was seated beside a beautiful girl with fair skin and light brown hair, smiling widely at the camera, while on the other side of the table sat opposite the girl was an equally handsome guy with a bit tanned skin but has the same light brown hair freely tousled across his head. And besides, that guy, sat Andrea, smiling beautifully for the camera, but it didn't fool me for a second.

After I handed her back her phone, I continued to ask about the night before and it took a while but she spilled every bit of detail from the previous night, and to be honest, I don't think the date was such a bust as I first thought.

"Sounds like he was a wonderful guy, Dre." I said to her, voicing out my own honest opinion about how her date went.

"I know he was. He made me feel so comfortable last night and I think that he can feel that I was having a hard time being around his sister and Axel that he tried his best to pull me away from them the whole night. He was so sweet and caring that I almost forgot about Axel, almost."

"Looks like you enjoyed your time with him, even if the night didn't go as we expected. So why are you cooped up in your condo alone and sobbing?"

"He's not Axel." She simply said and I know exactly what she meant by that.

Andrea is the type of girl who knows what she wants and she can be a bit stubborn about it, especially when it comes to love. She fell in love at first sight with Axel, two years ago, when he first started working in the company. She was completely smitten by his cold charm that even if she was on dates with other guys, her crush on him never faded. And last night, she had her hopes up that maybe, just maybe, he liked her as much as she likes him. Having that hope be crushed right in front of her must have been devastating.

"Come on Dre. I know you like Axel so much, but I think it's time for you to let go of him." I said to her, pulling out of our hug. She wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at me like she was seeing me for the first time today.

"I know, I just don't know how to do that just yet. And I didn't want to see him just yet." She said to me. I know her, it's going to take time but she'll get over this heartbreak, I know she will.

"By the way, why were you blasting my phone all day? I know you're worried about me but it was a bit too excessive. Don't you think?" she suddenly asked.

"Zab is at my apartment." I simply said, and I know she also finds it weird and suspicious with just the look on her face.