The Ex Chronicles

5: Mix Signals (Formely A BFF's Kiss)

Arnold has been consistent in always being around. He would pick me up after work or bring some food at my office for me to share with my colleagues. They would often tease us but we would just brush it off. Some people would probably be swept away by his gestures but not me.

I'd often go home alone and just give the food to my colleagues because I am not ready to forgive him yet. I do not want to be rude and take advantage of him. But what he's doing just makes me want to avoid him even more.

I know that he was just doing this because he wants to earn my forgiveness. Perhaps he wants to show that he is sincere in admitting his feelings towards me. However, it doesn't sit well with me that he was being chummy with another girl.

It still baffles me that someone can admit their feelings easily while also flirting with another girl. Where's the sincerity in that? Sometimes it makes me wonder if he's just doing this because he wants me to act like his girlfriend for his mom while I'm also getting into it as well.

If I must admit, I might have agreed with Arnold's proposal and got it over with if only I didn't saw him kissing another girl. Half of me wanted to let it go and half of me still couldn't understand why he couldn't introduce that girl to his parents? There won't be any pretensions as she deserves to meet his family. Why drag me into this?

Just because I live with him in Two-Storey? Didn't he just admit that his mom knows that the Two-Storey was already for lease before Mr. Tanael made a contract? Why do I need to get involved in all of this when he can actually just introduce that girl to them?

If Hero finds out that I'm falling for Arnold, he'd definitely gloat about it. He would flood me with "I-told-you-sos." Then, he'd probably be more protective of me and would stop me from doing stupid things. Or he won't because he knows that I can handle myself like an adult.

———

I left work early today because I had to meet another classmate from elementary days. It wasn't anything personal. In fact, I had to meet him because I am going to write about him.

What was supposed to be a meeting for an article about him that features his achievements and accolades, became a catchup session. I didn't have a lot of friends in high school, but Krees Gonzales was one of my good friends.

I was so excited to see him again but I had to remind myself that we didn't meet because we were going to catchup. So much has happened over the past two decades. What we thought meant so much to us before, seem to be trivial nowadays. And now, he has become a successful painter and illustrator abroad.

I learned that he is already based in Madrid, Spain with his mother. However, he still travels from time to time for work and leisure. In fact, he was invited for an event here in the Philippines because of his philanthropy works.

After the interview, Krees invited me over to his place to continue our catch up session.

"How are you and Brenth?"

"Whoa! Are we really going there?"

"Was that off limits?"

"Technically... It's not. But nobody has ever asked me about Brenth for a long time. That even if my family wanted to ask about him, they couldn't bring it up."

"That's how bad it turned out?"

"Yeah. It was a bad break up."