He Was a Friend

/50/ He needs to know. /

Louise stared at the photos that were uploaded by the official Outbreak account in their SNS. There were two photos with good shots of them – one was during the gun start of the Outbreak race when all three of them rushed as the first batch; and the other one, when they reached the finish line and they were all looking up at it.

Fun times, she smiled sadly.

Her eyes moved to Art's photo.

I have to tell him soon... He'll be more hurt the more I delay this.

It was Sunday, just a day after Lawrence' and Grace' wedding. She lacked sleep because she had been thinking of all the events that unfolded that night. She was particularly thinking about her newly discovered... feelings.

She blushed and grabbed her hair in frustration.

What is it with that guy, that he can make me wrapped up in his little finger like this? she fumed.

She closed the SNS application and opened her laptop instead, to start her weekly auditing. But her memory of that man's chuckles just can't get out of her mind. She leaned on her seat, crossed her arms and legs, closed her eyes – and tried to clear her mind so that she can concentrate.

Whew. Yes. Just like this—

"What the? Who?" she snarled when she felt someone's hands covered her eyes.

She heard her staff laughing, as she struggled and tried to remove them.

It's definitely a guy, given the big hands. And only two guys can do this.

She moved her hands towards the perpetrator's wrist.

"ERIC," she warned, after tapping his hands away. He heard his loud laugh as he removed his hands from her eyes.

He then pulled out one of the bar stools beside her and comfortably sat there.

"I never did that to you before, how did you know it was me?" he asked as he drank a gulp of her coffee. "Don't tell me you memorized my hands? We've never held hands before. At least not yet with malice," he added, with a smirk on his face.

I can't believe this guy.

She sighed as she retrieved her coffee back. "It was your bracelet, dummy. Art had leather ones."

Eric looked at his titanium bracelet. She was actually the one who gave that to him on his college graduation day.

"Uh-uh. So you've actually marked me when you gave this to me, huh?" he grinned.

She rolled her eyes, while trying to avoid her embarrassment.

"Speaking of Art, I'm not seeing him recently," he added.

She heaved a deep sigh and looked at her phone.

I have to message him at least, that we need to talk.

"I don't know, actually. And we have this foundation day celebration next week, I have to check with him on some stuff," she bellowed, while massaging her temple.

"Oh, it's foundation day again. I forgot. Overnight again, I bet? Am I allowed to come?"

"Will you not go if I stop you?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

"I'll gate crash," he proudly declared, before drinking another gulp of her coffee and sprinted out of the cafe with all her staff laughing.