Martini Kisses (epistolary)

n a r r a t i v e

Her heart's hammering against her chest. She calls out his name, but he never stops, never looks back at her. His hands are balled into tight fists, his gait quick and heavy.

The mask of betrayal and shock on his face returns to the forefront of her mind, and her stomach dips.

She knows what he's thinking, knows what could possibly be running around his head.

Milly calls out his name once more when they make it to his car, eager to get a response.

He ignores her and instead pulls out the car remote. With a click, the door unlocks.

"Pasok," comes the biting order, hard, frosty, and heated with suppressed anger, and she flinches, but she also expects that.

She follows the command with a shaky sigh. Her hands are growing colder, and her heart's still pounding in her chest, but she can't even start explaining herself because she doesn't know how.

Kai's still refusing to look at her even as he gets into the driver's seat and starts the engine.

The tension in the air floats over them, and dread fills her to the point that she can feel the lump lodged in her throat.

An angry Kai, she's seen before. That's nothing new. They fought all the time before. But a furious Kai? Not yet. Not lately, and certainly not at her.

She threads her fingers together, pressing them tight against each other to stop her hands from shaking, and bites her lip to think. Rapid thoughts are racing inside her head, million miles an hour, yet she has nothing. Her mind feels like an empty canvas, and she doesn't know how to start explaining herself to him because she also knows how she and Spiro looked like when he saw them. Shit.

She turns to him, feeling more and more nervous with each passing second. Except the downturn of his brows, and the cold, hard line set on his lips, his face is unbelievably blank. Like the calm before a storm.

Her eyes rake over the deathly grip he has on the steering wheel. She's sure he's simmering from underneath, yet it doesn't reflect on the way he carefully maneuvers the car on the road.

"Where are we going?" she gets to ask when her nerves finally calm down a bit.

"Condo. Mag-uusap tayo," that's all he says, and he doesn't acknowledge her anymore until they arrive.

A shut down.

He flat out shut her down.

Milly bites her lips again.

She doesn't know how to placate him because she admits it. She messed up. This one's on her.

***

"Baba," Kai orders an hour later when they made it to the tower. He kills the engine and gets off without sparing her a glance.

Milly sighs for the nth time that time and reluctantly does as he told. He doesn't bother waiting for her. He continues to the lobby without saying another word, and she follows him quietly, fingers still locked together, all the way up to the penthouse.

She feels it, what she's been dreading all this time. She feels it coming—and she wants to stop it—but she doesn't know how.

Doesn't know how to fix this.

Doesn't know how to pacify him without giving in to what she's sure he'd ask again.

Doesn't know how she can force herself to give what she doesn't have in the first place.

When the door shuts closed behind them, Milly finds her voice again. She reaches for his hand. "Kai..."

But he yanks it away from her as if her very touch burns him.