52 Not Friends

The resort's restaurant wasn't crowded that lunchtime because they had resumed their normal operations and a lot of guests preferred to have room service instead. Gael and Angela chose a table that was located on the left side of the room, opposite the entrance. They had already ordered their food and were only waiting for it to be served.

A waiter came by and placed a cup of cappuccino in front of Angela while Gael was given a bottle of beer. The latter watched as she took a whiff of her hot drink before taking a sip of it. His brows furrowed a bit at the sight of her drinking the coffee, pursing his lips into a thin line as he stopped himself from saying anything, and then he took a swig of his beer.

"What?" she asked in a slightly annoyed tone. She saw the way he looked at her just now and she remembered that he commented about her drinking cappuccino—which was weird for her. "Don't tell me how to drink my coffee. You're also drinking beer at this time."

Gael didn't usually drink beer as he preferred to drink wine or whiskey instead. But there was something about being at the beach that made drinking beer more enjoyable for him. "I can drink beer anytime I want," he said.

"Then, I can drink my cappuccino anytime I want," she retorted. He gave her a look and she held it, making sure that he saw as she took a noisy sip of her drink, and she smiled at him ever so fakely.

Setting the half-empty bottle of beer aside, he shook his head at her immaturity and grabbed the chance to question her. "So… last night you told me something. I want to get this straight… You have an ex whom you're avoiding because of a bad break up?"

Angela let out a tired sigh and she leaned against the backrest of her armchair, arching a brow at him. "Why do you want to know about that so much?"

She didn't deny it, so he took her response as a confirmation. Ignoring her question, he asked another one, "Are you sure that you two have broken up and he got the memo?"

A small crease formed on her forehead when she found his question a bit weird. "Of course. Why?"

"It seems to me that he hasn't moved on yet." He shrugged.

"Why do you say that?"

Gael's jaw ticked. He grabbed the beer and held it with both hands just so he had something to do. He thought about what he saw on her phone screen last night. He wasn't really snooping but it felt as though seeing the message was still invading her privacy.

He cleared his throat and lifted his gaze to look at her. "I happened to see a preview of a text message that you received when you fell asleep."

She gulped. Angela had a feeling that Gael saw a text message that he wasn't supposed to know about. "What did you see?" she probed, returning his gaze with her own careful one.

"You can't avoid me forever…" he said, reciting the text from last night.

She softly chuckled and diverted her gaze quickly at the cup in her hands. She took a sip and put it back down, taking her time to answer what he was anticipating to know.

"I no longer read messages from unregistered numbers. I delete them without opening… nor do I accept calls from those numbers," she revealed.

Gael didn't know why but after hearing her response, he somewhat felt relieved. He didn't even know the whole story, yet seeing as she completely ignored whoever it was, made him feel at ease.

"I see…" He tapped the side of the bottle, his fingertip playing with the beads of moisture on it. "It seems like it's a big deal… Your brother sounded like he was very worried about you—enough to ask me to convince you to stay here longer."

"He didn't have to do that… I would have stayed if I knew—and you don't even have to convince me."

A minute of silence passed. She didn't look at him anymore and that bothered him a little. "Angela," he called.

When she looked up and met his stare, he tried to probe, "There's something else, isn't there? Is it that bad that you can't tell me?"

Contrary to what he expected her to do, she pulled the corners of her mouth into a smile and she crossed her arms in front of her as she answered, "Why? What about you? Can you tell me everything about your past—or about your life? We barely know each other… I'm sure there are things you don't want to tell people, Gael. Whether it's the worst or just slightly bad…"

She was right. They didn't know each other that well. Despite the fact that they shared a night three years ago, that wasn't enough for them to establish trust with each other—especially with their situation at the moment where they couldn't really call each other as 'friends'. How could he expect her to tell him what he was dying to know?

Mimicking her movement, the sleeves of his shirt tightened as it hugged his biceps. He didn't fail to see the way her eyes glanced at his arms before looking back at his eyes. It was amusing for him, but he didn't show it on his face when he threw another question.

"What are you afraid of? That I'm going to judge you?"

Angela didn't know how to answer that question. At first, she thought that she really just didn't want Gael to know about Evan because she didn't like talking about her past. But now that he asked her this question, was it really true? Was she afraid that he would think less of her for being involved with the likes of Evan?

There were so many questions swimming in her head. A simple question that he asked triggered a whole boatload of confusion in her mind. Why was Gael confusing her so much? She took a deep breath and just as she was about to answer him, the waiter came to set their orders on the table.

Angela and Gael stared into each other's eyes, ignoring the waiter's presence. And he waited for when they were left alone before he told her, "Then let's get to know each other... I want to know more about you, Angela Su."