|| Coral ||

I managed to compose myself by drowning out every thought of Wyatt by mingling with the guests who kept filling the apartment.

After thirty-five minutes of the call with Wyatt, I received a text from his unsaved number, saying to come to the basement.

Phew, thank goodness, he made it on time. Ara was supposed to get here in ten minutes and I had to be here to scream 'surprise'.

I smiled and excused myself from the guests, letting one of the bridesmaids know that I had something to take care of. I quickly took the elevator to the basement and prepared myself to meet Wyatt.

But much to my disappointment, I saw a familiar brunette instead of Wyatt. He smiled at me and held up a bag while waving at me.

"Hi, Blake." When I got near him, I peeked inside the car he was standing near, almost hoping for a speck of sand blonde. I straightened up and asked, "Where's Wyatt?"

Blake gave me an apologetic smile and said, "Um, actually, Boss was already halfway to his meeting location. He couldn't have made it on time if he himself—"

"That's why he sent his assistant instead," I murmured bitterly, earning a confused look from Blake. "Anyway, thanks a lot for coming all the way here. I really appreciate it," I told him with a big smile and took the bag containing my gift from him.

"Of course, that's my job."

I glanced at the car he stood near and remembered something Wyatt told me last night. "Did you drive here yourself?"

"Yep. Boss told me to take his car—"

"But didn't your license get seized last week?"

"Huh? When?"

Not that I didn't already know, but it was fun to get it confirmed.

"Is Wyatt's driver sick?" I brushed off his earlier question.

"Not that I know of. Why are you asking?"

I chuckled. "No reason. I have to run. You can get going as well. Thanks again. Bye." I waved at Blake and started running towards the elevator.

While I did initially feel bad that Wyatt didn't come himself, it was the result that mattered. He had even asked me, "All you need is for the gift to reach you, right?" And I had agreed to it, so it'd be unfair of me to sulk about it.

Maybe if it was the me from a couple of years ago, I would have sulked about it. But the me now knew how to express gratitude.

But in the end, what did I want?

When I got into the elevator, I took out my phone and typed, "Got it. Thanks for your help."

I got the reply just before the elevator door opened which read, "You're always welcome, Angel."

My heart skipped a beat at that.

———

The bridal shower went smoothly. We managed to give Ara a pleasant surprise and had a lot of fun for the rest of the afternoon.

I was chilling in my room while scrolling through the pictures of the sample wedding cake which I would have to pick up two days before the event itself. I made a mental note of the things I would have to do. I would have to check out the venue that was already booked and finalize the decorations the day after tomorrow. And tomorrow I would have to go and pick up Ara's wedding dress along with the bridesmaid outfits from the designer. There were also dance lessons tomorrow—

A knock on my door interrupted my thoughts.

I got up from my bed and went to get the door. I was surprised to find Wyatt.

"Hey, Angel."

If there was an award for getting swept off your feet by two words, then I would win it. Why was this happening to me? Geez!

"Hey, Wyatt. What do you want?" I tried to keep my cool and act naturally.

"I'm here to get your phone."

"Oh, right, that." I completely forgot about that. "I'll get it out. Why don't you come inside?" I instantly regretted asking the last question. Stupid polite habit!

"Thanks." I moved away to give Wyatt space to enter and closed the door after him. "Your room is as organized as always," he commented.

"I bet yours is still a mess."

He frowned. "The room service keeps cleaning up. I don't like it."

I almost chuckled while going towards one of my luggage which was yet to be opened. "Too bad, everyone isn't like you who gets comfort in messiness."

"That's true."

From the corner of my eyes, I noticed him sitting on the edge of my bed. "You should sit on the couch, you know?"

"I like it better here," he responded as if already expecting me to ask.

I rolled my eyes and bent down to unzip my luggage.

"Oh, you're looking at the sample wedding cake photos," he said, and I snapped my neck at him at lightning speed.

"How the hell did you unlock my phone?" I gaped at my phone at his hand which he was scrolling through casually.

"It's not my fault you still have the same password everywhere."

I glared at him. "Still, that doesn't mean you can unlock my phone anytime you want now. Not to mention, even if you were my boyfriend, you have no right to do so."

He smirked at me and said, "I think you forgot that it was you who asked for my password first."

I flushed, remembering why I had proposed such a ridiculous idea, and felt shameful for doing so for a petty reason like jealousy after getting influenced by some of my former friends. But I swear I was never able to use his password to spy on him. Because it felt extremely wrong to do that.

"When did you ask again?" He made a thoughtful face and his face lit up when he remembered. "Ah, right. When I was going away for university."

"So what?" I managed to say.

"So nothing. I'm just thinking how pure-hearted I used to be." I wanted to bury myself six feet under the ground when he started to bring that up. "I gave you my password without a question asked, and in return, you didn't give me yours."

"But I did later on," I reasoned. The guilt of knowing his passwords had become too much, so in the end, I gave him mine as well.

"Yeah, after two months," he taunted.

"It's because you had never asked, so I felt guilty for being unfair and had to give my password to you on my own."

"Did you ever stop to think maybe it was because I didn't need it?"

I stood up and faced him. "So what are you saying? I didn't trust you?" I trusted him just as much as he did me.

"I never said that."

"But you're hinting at it."

"Are we seriously arguing about our first year of dating?" He mock-laughed. "What are we, still high-schoolers?"

I huffed and crouched down again to ruffle through my clothes to dig out that stupid old phone so that I wouldn't have to deal with that man sitting on my bed for a minute longer.

"Ugh, where is it?" I grumbled, not being able to find it. Out of frustration, I started taking clothes out and putting them on the floor. I could tell that Wyatt was looking in my direction.

I heard him laugh.

I looked over my shoulder to glare at him. "What are you laughing at now?"

He covered his mouth with his hand and turned away his face, still chuckling. "Nothing."

I glanced at where his eyes had been and discovered a worn-out orange bra. That's when I understood. Instead of turning red like a normal girl would, I grabbed the bra and threw it at him. He stopped chuckling for a second before bursting out again.

"Why do you still have this?" he asked once he got his laughter under control.

"It's comfortable."

"But it's... so cute and funny."

I forced a tight-lipped smile on my face and gritted out, "Well, what can I do? Orange has always been a funny color on me. I'll keep in mind not to wear it when I'm looking to get laid."

"Then you should wear it all the time."

"Nope, why don't you take it and all my orange bras and underwear with yourself? I don't need them anymore."

"Even though I like you in any color, even orange, I'm not a pervert, geez," he said and placed the bra on the bed, then walked over to me. "Did you find it?"

How would I find it if he kept distracting me?

"No, wait." I was getting more frustrated by the second.

Just then he leaned over my shoulder and his breath fanned over my skin, sending me shivers. "There it is," he said, grabbing the purple phone from a fold of clothes, and turned to look at me, only to realize how close our faces were.

For a few seconds, both of us just stared into each other's eyes, frozen and forgetting how to breathe.

A ting from my current phone made us snap from our trance. I looked down immediately and he moved back.

Wyatt faked a cough and said, "O-oh, my. Look at this. This is in a critical condition." He let out a short nervous laugh.

Trying to calm my racing heart, I cleared my throat and said, "Yeah, I told you. It will be hard to fix."

He examined the phone carefully and sighed. "I'll see what I can do. I hope my friend can fix it."

I nodded and stood up as well. "Since you've got your thing, now you can go."

He wrapped the phone in a handkerchief and put it in his pocket before looking up at me with a smile. "It's already time for dinner. Why don't we have it together?"

"Not interested. I'll call for room service."

"Ah, okay. If you don't want to." He was back to head towards the door when his eyes fell on my bedside table where a photo of me and my mom was placed. "Oh, that reminds me." He turned back to me. "Is your mom attending the wedding?"

I stared at him in disbelief at his ridiculously insensitive question. "What do you—"

Then it hit me.

"You... don't know?"

★★★