"So how have you been?" Alice asked calmly setting her purse on the table after having taken her cell phone out looking like she was unbothered by the by how surreal this moment was.
"Good," Off responded shortly voice a little strained. He was still trying to take in the fact he was sitting in front of Alice, his most recent ex-girlfriend who he dated for 3 years and who he hasn't seen in close to a year.
"I've also been good, thanks for asking," Alice said sarcastically with a little eye roll smiling afterwards to let Off know she was joking. Off smiled back at her tight lipped feeling awkward and unsure of what to say.
He had really been shocked when Alice called him 2 days ago asking to meet up claiming she just wanted to talk. Off had been so shocked to even get a call from her that he hadn't asked what she wanted to talk about, merely just agreeing to meet up with her on a day they were both available.
He was lucky that P'X had given them a couple of days off to rest before they went to the beach to shoot the last scenes. This meant he hadn't met Gun since they shot at the dorms and Gun didn't have to see him acting jittery and guilty. They had only been messaging and calling each other the past 2 days, Off claiming he had meetings with P'Boy and Gun's last message to Off saying that he was going out for lunch with his girl friends today.
"I bet you were shocked to hear from me right?" Alice asked after an awkward silence had taken over the table for a while.
Off nodded "Yeah, I mean you did curse me out and told me to go to hell the last time we met so," Off finished with a little shrug.
"Oh my gosh I can't believe I said that to you," Alice said with an embarrassing laugh cupping her face in distress.
Huh. It's funny when they used to date Off used to find it absolutely adorable when Alice cupped her face like that everytime she was embarrassed. Right now however he just sat there looking at her his heart rate steady and not at all affected by the action.
"It's okay, a lot was going on back then," Off offered consoling her.
"That's why I wanted to talk to you actually, though I didn't think we'd be talking about it as soon as we got here but I guess it's better to just get to the point," Alice said sitting up in her chair and taking a sip of the cocktail she had ordered earlier.
Off just sat there and waited for her to start. He randomly found himself thinking about Gun wondering if the little shorty was also out there drinking somewhere but quickly shook himself out of his thoughts instead focusing on the moment.
"Gosh where do I even start," Alice said putting her drink down on the table. Off had chosen to meet at a small upscale mall on the outskirts of Bangkok where he was hardly ever noticed. He did kinda regret it however knowing he was probably going to have to pay the bill for both of them and bitterly thinking about how a cocktail was the same price as groceries for a week at this place.
"Well I guess I should start with why I broke up with you," Alice said suddenly snapping Off out of the little daydream he had just lost himself in.
"What do you mean?" Off asked a little confused. He recalled how Alice had broken-up with him after she saw pictures on the internet of Gun sitting on Offs lap and mistakenly misjudged it for Off having feelings for Gun which wasn't true.... well at least it hadn't been true at the time.
"I'm sure you still think the reason I broke up with you was because of some picture on Twitter isn't it?" Alice asked shocking Off to the core.
"Wasn't that the reason?" Off asked even more confused now.
Alice snorted. "No, why would I end our 2 year relationship because of a random picture of you and Gun." Alice asked shaking her head. "There was more to it than that and I felt like before I properly move on, you deserve to know the truth," Alice finished softly looking Off in the eye.
"Off.... This is hard for me to admit after all this time but... er... for the last 2 months of our relationship well....er I had been cheating on you," Alice said quietly dropping the ball on Off and guiltily looking down at the table.
Off slowly sat back in his chair.
He thought back to how he had frantically tried to reach out to Alice following the day she broke up with him to explain that she was overreacting and that he had no feelings whatsoever for Gun. He remembers feeling a little resentment for Gun at the time thinking if he hadn't bothered him by sitting on his lap then maybe he would still be with Alice.
He recalled crying to Tay about the stupid reason the person who he thought was his soulmate had left him and getting laughed at by Tay. He recalled all those sleepless nights laying in bed trying to think about where he had gone so wrong, thinking about it so much to the point that it had given him insomnia which still affected him today.
He sat there in disbelief looking at the girl who he had thought at one point was a literal angel tell him that she had cheated on him. He expected to feel his heart break into a million pieces or to feel extremely hurt by what Alice just said. This girl had been the center of his world after all for such a long long time. But sitting there all Off could feel was blindsided and disbelief.
Huh.
"I'm so sorry, so very sorry Off. It's just I couldn't handle it anymore. I was always just your dirty little secret. I knew it wasn't your fault, that it was because of your work that we had to keep hidden but I just couldn't take it anymore. I always felt like I was never your first priority, always losing out to your work or to Gun. Before you start I know that nothing was going on with you and Gun, though I always suspected Gun might have had feelings for you. You had done nothing wrong and were trying your best to balance everything. I knew that, I knew all that but I still felt so lonely, so incredibly lonely even though I was in a relationship with you," Alice said choking on the last word as tears started rolling down her eyes.
Offs heart ached as he saw her cry and he quickly reached into his bag and brought out a handkerchief before handing it to her with a soft smile trying to console her even as he took everything in.
"Alice..." Off trailed off really uncertain about what to say in this situation.
Alice laughed at his response which made Off feel a little better, hating to see the person who used to be very important to him crying in front of him.
"It's okay you don't have to say anything. I'm not here to ask for your forgiveness, though I'd be happy if I did get it. I know I don't deserve your forgiveness after what I did and you have absolutely every right to hate me but I feel like you deserved to know the truth about what happened back then. I may have been too much of a coward back then but I decided to get the courage to come clean to you, you're such a good person Off and you were so good to me, you don't deserve to have that hanging over your head like that when I was the one who was in the wrong." Alice said after she had wiped off her tears though her eyes still remained teary, her makeup still looking unaffected even though she was crying, Off noted impressed.
He reached across the table and took her hand in his to comfort her" I don't hate you Alice, I could never hate you", Off said trying to console her but also being honest. Off surprisingly didn't feel angry at her at all. He did feel a little betrayed to find out that she had cheated on him but he didn't feel angry. If Alice had told him back then when she was breaking up with him that she cheated, Off knew it would have absolutely devasted him.
Now though he had gotten time to heal even though he hadn't even been aware of it. Sitting in front of Alice and seeing her cry but only feeling concerned for her as his nong and not because he still had feelings for her made him aware of just how much he had moved on. Alice had been a important part of his life for a long time and he'd always have a soft spot for her hence why he'd immediately agreed to meet up when she had asked but now, there was someone else who was important to him, who took up all the space in his heart that Off didn't have any space left over to feel hurt about what Alice had just confessed to him.
"You're surprisingly responding a lot better than I thought," Alice said after she stopped crying and was blowing her nose.
"If you told me about it then, I probably wouldn't have responded as calmly as I did now but a lot of time has passed since then. I get why you lied to me, I'm not angry at you Alice, thank you for telling me the truth," Off said softly patting the back of her hand again and getting shocked when Alice burst into tears again.
"Oii what now?" Off asked concerned getting up from his chair and kneeling beside Alice as she continued sobbing.
"You have no idea how relived I am to hear you say that Off, I'm so so relieved," Alice said still sobbing.
"Oii it's okay, Alice. Calm down okay, everything is fine, you're fine, I'm fine, it's all okay," Off carried on rubbing his hand across Alice's back calming her down.
Off carried on kneeling by her side until she calmed down and stopped crying. It felt surreal to be so close to her that he could smell her flowery perfume wafting into his nose after all this time. He vaguely noted how this used to be his favorite scent but right now all he missed was burying himself in Gun's warm vanilla smell.
"You're such a good guy Off," Alice said once she had recovered and Off was back in his chair.
Off snorted thinking back to the filthy things he had just been thinking he'd do to Gun once he got his hands on him again, missing the shorty a little. "No I'm not," Off said shaking his head.
"Yes you are, I mean I'm sure you still act like an asshole most of the time but overall you really are a good guy," Alice said smiling sweetly at him.
Off coughed "Er I mean it when I say I appreciate that you told me the truth but do you mind if I ask you why you're telling me this now?" Off asked changing the subject still finding compliments awkward.
"Ohh Err I'm getting married next month and I didn't want to go into my marriage with any demons or skeletons," Alice explained softly seeming cautious about Offs reaction.
"Whoa you're getting married?! Congratulations! I'm sure your wedding is going to be topclass knowing you," Off joked genuinely congratulating Alice. He felt happy for her finally finding her happiness after finding out how unhappy she had been while they were together.
"Of course! You won't even believe how gorgeous my wedding dress is," Alice said animately sensing that Off was genuinely happy for her. They carried on chatting friendly with Alice excitedly showing him pictures of what everything was going to look like and catching up with everything else in their lifes.
He didn't think this would ever happen but it felt nice to be talking so friendly with Alice without any animosity, their past and the way they had hurt each other finally truly behind them. It made Off feel like he had really truly moved on from that part of his life and he was ready to move on to the next part of his life with a little shorty hopefully by his side.
Off was done wasting time. He was ready to be with Gun without regards with how long they would last or what everyone would say. He didn't care. Already he had messed up once with Alice when he kept them hidden out of fear of what everyone would say.
He wasn't going to make that same mistake with Gun.
"It was really nice catching up Off, I'm really happy I decided to give you that call," Alice said as they stood up from their table after Off suggested they leave missing his shorty way too much and wanting to tell him that he loved him immediately.
"It was, I'm really glad everything is going well for you. Come on I'll walk you to your car," Off said as he lead the way to the entrance of the restaurant.
"Meh meh meh aren't you just such a gentleman, lead the way then, even though you don't even know where I parked my car" Alice said with a laugh from behind him.
Off stopped in his tracks as he realized Alice was right and he didn't know which way to go to get to her car.
"Come on let's go," Alice said laughing as she slipped her hand onto Offs arm and pulling him towards the entrance. With her heels on she was roughly the same height as Off and they continued walking side by side with Alices arm around his.
Off wasn't too bothered by Alice touching him knowing from experience this was something she did with all her friends, male and female, just her way of being friendly.
"Were you planning on sniffing out my car or something," Alice joked as they neared the entrance but Off didn't hear her as something had just taken his attention.
He saw the last person, THE ABSOLUTELY LAST PERSON, he wanted to see right now walk into the same restaurant that he and Alice were about to exit.
"Awu Gun what a surprise!" Alice shouted out before Off could stop her causing Gun and the person he was with to turn in their direction.
A shell-shocked and guilty looking Gun who was holding a huge bouquet of white roses and was standing next to Mike who had his arm wrapped around Guns shoulder and was holding onto what Off could see was Guns Gucci tote bag, looked up at Off who was standing side by side with Alice who still had her arm wrapped around Offs arm.
.... Well fuck.