hate & other words || h.s au

seven

"I have another hypothetical question."

"Okay?"

"If your worst enemy has seen you at your lowest and helped you then, would you -- if given the chance -- poison him because you don't want to owe him anything? I mean, there's nothing worse than owing your enemy something, right?"

"I'm starting to think this isn't hypothetical."

Sensing that Adam is onto me now, I quickly retract my question. "Nevermind. You don't have to answer it. Dunno why that question popped into my mind -- so random, right?" And then a forced, very awkward laughter escape my throat. Meanwhile, Adam is looking at me like I'm a weird creature that he's never seen before. I cough into my fist and then change the topic, "So, I've been thinking... Do you think I should create an Instagram account for this bookstore?"

"You haven't done it?" Adam looks and sounds baffled so I pick up my phone and open up Instagram. I click on the add account option and proceed to filling up the required details. Good thing I have more than one email so I can use it for this new account. I'm in the middle of thinking of a username (I have a few options in my mind) when Adam asks, "Can we go back to the poison question?"

"No, we can't." I tell him without looking up from my phone. I don't know how much he knows about what happened between Harry and I last weekend, and I don't want to risk divulging too much to him. So it's best if we avoid talking about it altogether.

But Adam has a different plan. From the corner of my eyes, I can see that he's moving closer to the counter and leaning against it, "Do you think Harry tried to poison you?" I shrug -- it's the safest answer I could think of. But much to my dismay, Adam isn't just a pretty face. He's pretty good at reading people too. "So you do think he'd do something like that to you."

I look up and give him a pointed look, "Can you blame me?"

"I've known Harry for as long as I've known you, and I know both of you would never do something like that," Adam claims, his eyes never leaving mine to prove to me that he's confident of his statement.

I kink an eyebrow at him. "How're you so sure about that?"

"You and Harry are too nice to poison someone," he answers simply, like it's something he's thought about prior this conversation. "Even if that someone is your supposed worst enemy."

"Maybe he has a secret that we don't know about."

Adam rolls his eyes and shakes his head, pushing himself away from the counter. "That's a reach and you know that," he says to me as he rearranges the books that are on display for this week.

I glare at the back of his head, offended by the accusation even if he's right. So what if I file Harry's kindness as his attempt to murder me? It's the only explanation I could think of and I'm going to hold on to it although there's a strong probability that it's not true. But then again, there is such a thing as killing people with kindness and maybe that's what Harry was doing. The conclusion is, I have to be more careful around him after this and keep a close eye on him in case he tries to pull a weird stunt again.

Realising that I'm going in circles now, I decide to push this whole did he or did he not poison me discourse to the back of my mind. Instead, I focus on the Instagram account I've just created. I went with @wardsbookstore because it's straightforward and people won't have trouble looking for it. Once I've picked a profile picture for that account (it's a picture of books that I took yesterday), I turn to Adam once again, "What should be our first post?"

"A picture of the storefront would be a good place to start," he suggests.

"Great idea!" I exclaim as I leave my spot behind the counter and make my way out of the store. Since the bookstore is empty at the moment, Adam follows me out. He stands next to me and watches as I take pictures whilst giving me suggestions on how to take better pictures. An idea pops into my mind. "You know, you should be in the picture. Maybe more people would come if they know there's a hot guy working here."