Chapter 19: Chapter 19

A cycle on her head.

A whirlwind on her stomach.

Angel did something she did not come here to do,

It is so shocking that both men let her go at once….

She vomited!

The splattering of puke echoes through the hallway entrance of the prestigious and exclusive bar only for the elite.

“What the heck!”

“Are you okay?”

And though both of them let go of her hand, Kyle’s initial reaction was to shrieked while James’ voice is filled with concern as he pats Angel’s back, making her feel that she did not do anything wrong.

Angel glared at Kyle.

“It’s because of that stupid drink! I should have let you die!”

Angel can’t even walk straight and struggles as she walks towards Kyle, trying to grab his collar.

“Come here, you jerk!”

“Get lost! You’re so disgusting!”

“hmph! You’re are so annoying!”

Even if these words might seem harsh, you can obviously sense the closeness between them. It is a reality that James can see crystal clear, he might have been ten years too late, but he will never give up – he lost her once, he is determined to never lost her again.

“Let’s go. We need to clean you up” James caught Angel’s hands, smiled sweetly at her, and assisted her inside the car. “You should also come. I think you can help yourself in the back seat. It seems you are sober already,” James is quick-witted- he sees passthrough Kyle’s games and masks- something the latter doesn’t appreciate.

“I’ll just call a cab,”

“YAAAA! Come here! I ought to wack your face” Angel made some weird noises as she demonstrated how she would “wack” Kyle’s face if he would not come with them. She hit her head on the corner of the car window when she tried to put it back inside the car after her artistic demonstration.

James and Kyle’s eyes met when both of them chuckled because of Angel’s actions. Both of them seem to shoot laser beams with their eyes at each other.

James looks at Kyle intentively, recalling what Angel told him just a few hours ago in the restaurant just before she runs here to pick Kyle up.

“…he isn’t even a guy,”

“What the heck? He is clearly a guy.” James' mind is filled with these thoughts as he enters the driver’s seat, taking a glimpse of the man in the back seat through the rearview mirror, deeply thinking if there is some kind of hidden message to those words as this man at the back is clearly not a gay- at least not for him.

“I think it is clear that neither of us enjoys this time together. How about you start stepping on that gas now so I can stop seeing your face, “

“ You clearly don’t like me,”

Kyle just looked at James through the rearview mirror, “tsk tsk” he made a sound “neither of us likes each other,”

“At least on that, we have something in common,”

Silence.

Kyle did not respond to James. He did not like hearing his voice. Kyle’s mind is already exhausted with what happened today. It would have been great if Angel did not bring this man with her- at least his night would have been pleasing. Kyle glared at James, made a hissing sound that the other one did not notice.

The ride was silent, but it was not peaceful, at least for both gentlemen.

The driver reached his destination.

The car’s engine stops. The lights are turned on, it is raining again, and it seems to be raining for a while.

James noticed that Angel’s head was leaning on the side, and he thought it might have been uncomfortable, so he decided to fix it a little, but he ended up waking her.

Angel wakes up with the sight of James just inches from his face. She felt his warm breath touch her skin, his eyes, those lovely brown almond eyes that are too focused on doing something at the back of her head and did not realize that she was awake.

James smiles; as he whispers the word “ fixed” under his breath, his eyes met Angel’s.

His heart raced. He did not mean to wake Angel up.

It seems that the world stopped for some seconds as they stayed in that position; both of them did not know what to do or how to react until a force at the back hit Angel’s chair.

It’s so strong that they hit each other’s heads.

Kyle kicked Angel’s chair, “What the heck are you two doing again?!”

“That hurts!”

“Well, clearly not enough, What the heck are you doing with her?!” Kyle directed the first sentence to Angel while the second was said with a glare to James.

“It is not what you are thinking. I am just trying to….”

“What am I thinking? I haven’t said anything yet….”

“I mean, I am just….”

“ Just what?”

“Will you let me talk, please?” James said with a stern voice, but in an awkward tone, his face was as red as a ripened tomato, and his forehead was sweating.

“OMG, It is raining,” Angel said, her simple attempt to save James in this awkward situation

“That will not work with me, lady,” Kyle pulled Angel’s hair from the back seat.

“Ouch! Just let it slide. I think he is just trying to fix my head,”

“Oh, Did I wake you up?” James responded to Angel, hinting a tone of concern.

“I am a light sleeper,” Angel answered nonchalantly but with a smile.

“Light sleeper, your ass! You sleep like a Disney character. I mean, you should have seen her sleep she snores so loud, and her mouth is watering it is so disgusting, I will show you a picture,” Kyle shows James a picture of Angel sleeping peacefully inside her room, and though she did look untidy she is no less than pretty.

James smiled at the picture. He thinks it is cute.

James 1. Kyle 0. The latter failed on his mission.

“But wait, why do you have that picture?”

Kyle recalls the moment he took that picture.

When Angel gets sick right after finishing her first-ever novel series that ran for several years...

She did not want to let it go, but she needed to.

Her editor said, “we need to let go of that series, it doesn’t do well, and it takes a lot of your time ….”

Angel agreed. She is a rising novel writer. She needs to keep making novels if she wants to make a living out of it- she cannot just focus on one.

It was a sad day, it was also raining when she called Kyle,

“Hey, Can you come here? Let’s grab a beer,”

Kyle noticed her down tone and a subtle cough that she tried her best to hide, though she was unsuccessful.

“I can’t. I am busy,”

“Okay,”

“Wait!”

Angel hung up.

“What was that? She did not act cute to force me to come. Something is up.”

The busy doctor who is about to make rounds automatically stands up on his seat.

“Dr. Esteves, I have a question….” A stunning female doctor shows herself in a white lab coat and red designer’s dress inside Kyle’s office while Kyle is deep in his thoughts. She is hard to miss as this doctor looks more like a celebrity than a servant of medicine, but as if he did not see her- Kyle rushed out of the room and drove as fast as he could to Angel’s house.

“Hey! That is not fair, I also had a lot of chances to take weird pictures of you when you are sleeping, but I never saved it,” Angel smirked at Kyle, her voice sends her back to reality.

Kyle did not answer James' question, which makes the latter more suspicious.

“What is your deal? I will unlock you soon,” James stole a glance at Kyle as these thoughts ran to his mind.