Power Outage

Gael realized what he did after the phone call with the room service operator ended. He shook his head, baffled with himself why he did what he did. He suddenly remembered what Oliver told him earlier. He was just following a request from a brother who was concerned about his sister—nothing else.

He thought of knocking at Angela's door but decided against it before he could even reach his door. "There's no need to get involved with her," he told himself—what with his plan on pursuing the lawsuit. He talked to his lawyer last Saturday and he was told that it was a bad idea to associate himself with Angela.

"...So keep your dîck in your pants," said Savannah—his lawyer friend.

His upper lip twitched at the memory. He definitely had no plans on sleeping with Angela. That wasn't what he came here for.

Soon, the room service arrived. Gael strolled towards the door and allowed the attendant to wheel in his order and gave the man a tip before he left. He watched as the attendant rang the doorbell to Angela's room but after a few attempts, there was no answer.

"You know what, maybe the guest is still asleep. You can leave the set here and I'll give it to her later," he told the attendant who acknowledged his request, knowing that Gael was the one who ordered food for the other room.

A couple of hours later, Gael tried to knock on Angela's room but there was still no answer. He thought that she must still be sleeping, so he had the food taken away and just left her be. He already tried anyway. If she gets hungry, she could get her own food.

However, when lunchtime came, he still hadn't heard anything from the other room. Perhaps she was still sleeping? That could be possible since she also slept in yesterday. Without thinking much, Gael minded his own business.

He worked remotely for a few hours and made calls for their family business. It was four in the afternoon when he was already officially bored. The pathetic sky still hadn't stopped crying since eons ago, and he was stuck in his suite with nothing else to do.

He'd consumed most of his phone battery watching random videos on the internet. The last fifteen minutes were spent on friggin' cat videos. And he didn't even like cats.

Drifting his stare outside his balcony, he saw the dense, turbulent clouds. Gael sauntered towards the tall window and watched as the angry waves slammed the shore. It was a scary sight and he hoped that the sky would lighten and the weather would calm again.

He glanced at his watch—a titanium Jaeger-LeCoultre—and saw that it was almost five in the afternoon. He realized that he hadn't noticed any activities from Angela's suite—not that he could hear whatever she was doing in there, but she hadn't left her room since and had not ordered anything either. Gael kept his door open since lunchtime to let some air inside, so he would have noticed if she asked for room service.

Wondering if she was alright, he grabbed his black hoodie and wore it on him with the hood up. He left his suite and went to ring Angela's doorbell, knocking a few times in between rings. He was about to call for the front desk when she hadn't answered the door after many tries until the door suddenly opened.

Angela stood by the half-opened door, looking pale with slightly disheveled hair. She squinted her eyes and tried to make out the figure outside her door. When she recognized him, she asked in a croaky voice, "Do you need anything? Isn't it like four in the morning?"

Gael knitted his brows in confusion. Had she been sleeping the whole time?

"No. It's five in the afternoon," he said.

She blinked, trying to organize her thoughts as she was still disoriented from having woken up just a minute ago. She gingerly grabbed his wrist to check his watch and then she looked at the sky. It finally registered to her what happened, and it only happens to her when she's extremely stressed. "I… slept through an entire day."

She fell asleep at about ten in the evening the previous day, which meant that she was asleep for nineteen hours. Her whole body ached and she leaned against the wall for support. "Did you need something?" she asked again, not knowing why he was there.

Sighing, Gael dug his hands in the pockets of his black joggers. He studied her pale face and he couldn't help but feel slightly bad. "Your brother called me earlier. I can't ignore his request. I'm going to grab a bite. You should come with me."

"It's okay… I'll just call in for room service—" she said just as her stomach growled in protest, cursing her out. Her hand flew to her stomach and she cleared her throat.

He scoffed, scratching his temple with his index finger. "The power's out since morning and the resort's on a generator. Room service can't bring the food up here at the moment. I called just several minutes ago. We are to go to the restaurant if we want to eat."

Left with no choice, Angela nodded. She honestly didn't have the energy to argue with him, so she decided to set their differences aside. Then, she excused herself to wash up and change quickly. When she came out of the room, she was in a beach maxi dress with short sleeves.

"What?" she asked when she noticed him looking at her.

"Don't you have any thicker clothes?"

"This is all I have. I didn't anticipate that we would experience such crazy weather."

"Whatever." Gael turned around and started walking. "The floor's slippery. Try to keep up."

Just then, the lights went out again and everything became dark.

"Aw!" Angela rubbed her nose when she bumped into his hard back. He had stopped so abruptly as soon as the lights were out and she was right behind him. "What…"

"It should come back in a few…" he said.

The two stood still in silence, waiting for the lights to turn on again. It was extremely dark in the hallway and Angela couldn't see anything at all. Apart from feeling the warmth that's radiating from his back due to how close she was to him, she could feel the coldness surrounding them and hear the sound of heavy rain outside.

A bolt of lightning struck followed by thunder soon after. Angela stifled a cry at the same time that she grabbed fistfuls of Gael's hoodie from the back.

He slightly turned his head sideways when he felt her grasp his clothing. Next, he heard a faint chanting from her but it soon ended seconds later. Unsure of what to do, he stood frozen with his heart racing. Why was the light still out?

An emergency light flickered on at the end of the hallway, but it was still mostly dark and the floor was slippery. He took out his phone and turned on the flashlight. "Let's get going," he said.

When they started moving again, he felt very uncomfortable, feeling his clothing being held from behind. He rolled his shoulders but it did nothing to relieve the uneasiness.

"Oh, for fûck's sake!" he muttered when he removed her hand from clutching his hoodie.

Turning around, Gael had a hard expression on his face and he sighed. "What am I gonna do with you?!" Then, he grabbed hold of her hand and began to walk with her in tow. 'Better,' he thought.