THE ELEVATOR DOOR closed before Layla or Ambert could react on Nancy’s sudden reappearance. “What just happened?” Anika asked, alternately looking at Layla and Ambert. “You both looked like you’ve just seen a ghost.” “That’s Nancy,” Ambert said. “The woman in red?” Anika said. Nancy was wearing a red shirt and blue jeans when they saw her approaching the elevator. Ambert nodded. “Why is she here?” Anika asked. “To talk to me or Layla.” “How did she know that you’re still here?”“She sent me a text message an hour ago, asking me if I was still in the hotel,” he said. “I said yes and she didn’t reply anymore. I had too much in my mind that it didn’t occur to me that she wanted to go back here.”“Shall we go back to your room?” Anika said. “She’d go there and wait; she knows that we’ve seen her.”Ambert glanced at Layla. “Shall we?”“Yes,” she answered. “If she wants to talk to me, I will talk to her.”Th
LAYLA CHANGED HER mind before she could reject Ambert’s friend request on Facebook—but she also didn’t accept it. She still wanted to reject it but she decided she could do it later. Rejecting it now would be completely rude—like, what she had just realized a few moments ago, didn’t Ambert just help change Nancy’s antagonistic mind towards her? It would be so villainous of her to do things right now that would offend him. She put hg earphone down on the bedside table and lay down on the bed, turning her back on the phone to lessen the temptation of picking it up again.Where is your heart? Ambert, and Anika, would probably ask her.It had been broken, shattered and I had put it into a trash bin, she probably would answer. And she covered the trash bin so she wouldn’t hear just in case it started beating again.She looked at her clock, it said 2:40 AM. She closed her eyes, she could still catch some sleep. Fortunately, Ambert didn’t text her again, but she probably was only able to sle
LAYLA WINCED AS Ambert started walking towards them. It wasn’t that he was painful to look at, but in her mind, she was imagining him inside a church and he was walking to towards the altar where his bride and he family were waiting. And of course she was the bride, in a resplendent white gown, surrounded by people she loved.Okay, she gently shook her head, shrugging off that wicked imagination.“Is that Ambert?” Layla heard her mother asking, though she wasn’t sure if the question was directed to her.“Yes, mom, that’s Ambert,” she heard Cedric answering. Her brother had met Ambert in the hospital after her little incident with Nancy’s car.“He’s so handsome,” she heard Lillian gushing. “Like a movie actor.”And Layla had no plans of contradicting her sister’s opinion. But what was Ambert doing here? Anika told her a chauffeur would fetch her. Was Ambert’s driver too busy to be bothered fetching her? No, Ambert’s driver would drive to the moon if he asked him. And her ho
LAYLA SUDDENLY FOUND herself underwater, swimming with the fishes, surrounded by beautiful, colorful corrals, which reminded her of their aquarium when she was still a child. Their aquarium was her favorite thing inside their house when she was still just a child. There were goldfishes around her, angelfishes, bettas, swordtails, which were the fishes that used to fill their aquarium. And looking at and feeding the fishes inside their aquarium had always been one of her fondest childhood memories. It always delighted her, and now, she was feeling that feeling again, something that had always make her feely giddy as she played with the fishes. She looked around and saw that she was also surrounded by white roses which appeared swimming in the water, too. “Layla…”That gentle voice seemed to wake her up.She blinked and realized that she wasn’t underwater and wasn’t swimming with the fishes, she still was here at the balcony of Ambert’s suite dining with him, wi
AMBERT WAS SORT of expecting that reaction—or rejection— from Layla as he stared at his phone, at the message of Layla telling him that she would never fall in love with him. And he thought, like what many had been telling him, that he was a lovable guy. What surprised him a bit was that she still delayed telling him that. She could have told him that while she was chewing on a crab leg meat he prepared for her. She probably thought it was awkward to reject him again while they were having that little celebratory dinner. They were supposed to be rejoicing, and rejecting him right there and then would dampen the celebration. It was like turning a happy wedding into a funeral—where Ambert was the corpse. He hadn’t sent her a reply. But no, he wouldn’t bother asking Layla to reconsider. He knew Nancy’s decision wouldn’t change anything. It wouldn’t change how Layla’s impression on him and on what she thought of him.But what did she really think of him? A player, perhaps, just out to pla
“THAT’S INTERESTING,” AMBERT said. “I destroyed a romance that I didn’t evenknow existed. Kindly elaborate.” Brian grinned. “And I am stating a fact. And this is how it happened, the next few daysafter we met,” Brian started narrating. “I would invite her out. You know, so we’d get to know each other and so I could impress her and show her what a gentleman I was. And it seemed to be working because after just a few dates, she would now readily say yes whenever I’d invite her out. And she wouldn’t even ask where I would take her or what we’d do. I would tell her to come go out with me, and she’d say ‘Let’s go!’ I probably would take her to Mars, the planet, the red one, and she probably wouldn’t even complain of the distance.”“Because you’re trustworthy,” Ambert said. “Remember when I let you take care of my turtles for days when I was out of the country? I usually don’t do that, entrust my pets, especially my turtles, to anyone, even to relatives. I always hire a vet or an expert.
AMBERT WOULDN’T DENY that Sadie’s eyes were the most seductive eyes he had seen and for a moment there, he felt lost and confused while staring at them. And she really was beautiful. She was even prettier in the flesh than in the photo. And she was tall, too, probably shorter by just an inch or two to Nadia. Brian stood up like a good soldier upon seeing his commander, kissed Nadia on the cheek, and sat beside him while Nadia and Sadie sat across from them. It felt like the place just became a garden and two beautiful flowers just sprouted from the two chairs in front of Ambert and Brian. Sadie was holding her cell phone but not looking at it. Both were dressed casually. Nadia wore a pink hoodie over a T-shirt and a pair of walking shorts while Ember wore a white skirt and a black spaghetti strap tank top.Sadie’s eyes glimmered at him like two happy spotlights. Her phone beeped and she didn’t take her eyes off him.“Order what you like girls,” Brian told the two women.“Oh, we alread
AMBERT DRANK FROM his glass, and put the glass down on the wooden counter top. “You didn’t ask me if I’m single or if I’m currently dating someone,” he stated. There were plants over his head, hanging from a steel frame.“Have I told you that I love plants?” she asked him, smiling, when she noticed that he was looking at the plants. Sadie poured herself and Ambert another drink without waiting for his answer. “Brian told me you’re single,” she said and the smile excitedly went back to her lips. “So I didn’t bother asking you that. Brian wouldn’t lie to me, you know. Nadia would get angry at him if he does.” “He didn’t,” Ambert acknowledged as he held the glass in his hand. “And just like I told you,” Sadie said as she smiled the fire-setting smile on her lips again. “I’m serious when I told you I want to be your girlfriend. But let me just inform you that it’s not my hobby to run after men. It’s just that… well, you’re single now, and I know you won