A Drink After Watching P—

"Why do you want to watch this anyway? You get scared easily…" Gael wondered.

Without taking her eyes off the screen, Angela hugged a pillow and answered, "I already told you, I enjoy the mystery and the thrill…"

A few minutes in the first episode and there was already infidelity and violence. She gasped when the scene shocked her and kept her eyes almost halfway hidden behind the pillow as she continued to watch. That was the thing about horror films and series—you'll definitely be surprised.

They didn't talk for a while as they glued their eyes on the T.V. And when the scene started to become eerie, she gripped the pillow so tightly until her knuckles turned white. And then what do you know? The next scene surprised her—a female character was shown pleasuring herself.

Gael cleared his throat as he looked away and brushed his hand on his nape. In the next second, a male character was doing it this time. He snapped his head back at the screen when he heard the heavy grunts of the man jerking off. He froze for a split second before he swung his legs off the bed in an attempt to stop the episode.

However, before he could even move further, Angela had already dashed towards her laptop—she unplugged the HDMI cable, closed Netflix, and slapped her laptop shut in lightning speed.

"Umm… Y-You know what... I'm not really in the mood to watch anything at the moment," she said as she put her laptop in her luggage—as if not seeing it would make her forget what she just saw. How did she end up seeing that when all she was expecting was to see some ghosts or the supernatural or anything scary at all! Was that so hard?

"Yeah, me neither," he muttered in a low voice as he sat on the bed.

Meanwhile, Angela stood by the door as though she was afraid to even get near him, her cheeks were flushed and she began to fan her face. Why the hell was she feeling like a teenager? She was no longer a virgin for goodness' sake, she had watched porn—for research purposes, and she even wrote adult scenes in her books. So why?!

Gael was no better. He couldn't even look at Angela for fear of doing something he shouldn't be doing. A minute passed and his wild mind started to think if she had planned that all along. She wouldn't do that, would she? He believed that it was the first time that she had watched that series, so she couldn't have known what was going to be happening in it. Nah, he was thinking too much.

The awkward atmosphere grew thicker and if none of them would start talking, it would be even more difficult to move past whatever was happening in the room at the moment.

Just then, Gael's phone rang and he almost sighed in relief until he saw the caller's I.D. flashing on his screen that said: "Honey"

He hesitated for a bit as he gripped his phone in his hand. There was a part of him that didn't want to answer the phone call, but he would not forgive himself if he didn't. "I have to take this," he murmured, his voice nearly inaudible as he got up and walked out of the door. He passed by Angela, but he didn't even look at her.

"Hey… Is everything okay?" she heard him ask on the phone just before the door closed.

Angela let out a long sigh when she felt that she could finally breathe again. She went to the bathroom and splashed her face with water. "Get yourself together. This isn't like you," she scolded herself in the mirror. Then she gave her cheeks gentle slaps as though that would make her feel 'normal' again, smiling as she headed out of the bathroom.

She didn't know if Gael was coming back as it had been fifteen minutes since he took the call outside, so she kept herself busy and decided to outline the next chapters of her book.

Not long after, the door to her suite opened and he came in. She was writing down her thoughts when she mumbled, "I thought you weren't coming back and I figured you were on a work call, so I tried writing a little…"

She didn't lift her head or glance at him, but she could sense him standing by the door through her peripheral view. "You know, that short clip that we saw—I mean the one from the beginning, that gave me an idea and I just need to write it down before I forget it. You don't know how many times a sudden inspiration came to me before and I failed to take note of it—I ended up forgetting the entire thing. I hated it…"

When she still didn't get any response from him, she finally looked up and put down her pen. From where she was sitting, she could barely see his eyes very well, but she was sure that there was something different in his expression. If she was not mistaken, she swore that Gael looked somewhat in low spirits but was trying to hide it. "You—"

"Angela…" he called despite her already looking at him and he took a few steps towards her.

"Yes?"

"Would you like to have a drink with me?"

The sudden invitation caught her by surprise and she stared at the small smile that he formed on his face. It seemed out of place with his slightly reddened eyes. Her brows furrowed in confusion when she tried to figure out what happened to him. "You want to drink… like alcohol?"

Gael threw his head back and laughed, the traces of despondency leaving his face. He had completely changed his demeanor from a couple of seconds ago. Digging his hands in his pockets, he hrugged. "I don't know about you, but I could use a drink after that attempt you did for making me watch porn—"

"Oh, my god! That was not porn! And I wasn't..."

"Mhmm. Suuuuure."

Angela scoffed, knowing that he was teasing her on purpose to brush off the otherwise awkward atmosphere earlier.

She glanced at her notebook and bit her bottom lip before putting her stuff aside. Looking up at him, she nodded. "Okay... A drink sounds good."