Luke had his eyes on both of us. I glanced towards him and she was with a woman carrying a clipboard. She wore a black suit paired with a pencil skirt and black heels. She, too, was looking at both of us, obviously confused. She tucked a tendril of her hair behind her ear and cleared her throat. The man, whose name was Killian, seemed to break out of his reverie. “Sir, we have five minutes till the meeting.”

The lady spoke beside her softly. He didn’t pay him any mind. “This is my best friend since childhood.” Lucas spoke as he placed an arm over my shoulder. “He’s the one that I’ve told you about.” Every muscle in my body seemed to be paralyzed. I can’t move. Breathing was becoming difficult as the seconds ticked by. His beautiful face remained passive, but I can still feel his eyes shooting daggers at my direction.

Why was he this upset?

Was he mad because I just left him a note?

My mind tried to unravel what Killian was thinking. “Ah,” Killian finally spoke. There was a hint of venom in his tone. A spark of anger started to flash right before my eyes. “I see you’ve let a stranger into my building.” He sounded arrogant, condescending and the spark of anger that I was feeling started to spread like wildfire.

I saw Luke’s expression changed. It was a mixture of surprise and irritation. “My apologies,” I began. The anger bubbling inside me helped my frozen muscles to thaw and my throat to open so that words may come out of my mouth. “I’m Reidyr.” I let out a hand and tried to be civil as much as possible.

He just stared at my hand. The woman beside Killian was waiting for a response. Lucas was waiting as well. As soon as I got the feeling that he was not going to take my hand. I just let it drop to my side.

I felt Luke tense beside me. Obviously, he was confused and irritated how Killian was acting. What’s painful was the fact that he did not acknowledge that we’ve met a few weeks ago, me saving his life, and what’s more unusual is, it was as if I’m looking at a different man.

I can’t find any glimpse of the man I shared a whole night with. I bit the inner sides of my cheek and the stinging pain in my chest intensified. He switched his eyes to Lucas, cold and accusatory. “I don’t appreciate you bringing unwanted guests into my building.” He said acidly.

The sudden rush of humiliation washed over me and the woman beside her shot me an apologetic look. I tried to give a polite smile but the longer that I stayed here, the closer I was to exploding in anger. He looked at me dead in the eyes. “If I see you again in this building within the next five minutes, you better believe I’m calling security and throw you to jail for trespassing.” I knew he was serious.

I just don’t understand the animosity and resentment towards me, as if I’ve done something cruel for him to act this way. “Are you serious?!” Luke raised his voice garnering a few eyes from the people in the lobby. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!” he continued. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

This is not good.

I decided to set aside whatever I was feeling, even though it took most of my self-control and sanity to do so. I grabbed his wrist gently. I could feel the brim of my eyes starting to water.

Fuck. Don’t cry Reidyr, for Christ’s sake. Not here.

“It’s okay.” I whispered to Luke. He shot me a questioning look. “What?” he hissed.

“This is,” I glanced at him shortly and he was still sending out daggers in my direction. I

f looks could kill.

“His building. I’ll talk to you soon.” I gathered whatever common decency was left in me. I looked at him and gave a smile.

“It was nice meeting you, sir.”

“You have three minutes left. Get out.” He walked past me, intentionally bumping my shoulder. Luke had to catch me a little, so I don’t lose my footing. I started heading towards the exit of the building.

“Reidyr, wait!” Luke called out. I can’t look back as tears were falling across my cheeks.

Fuck.

“I’ll talk to you later!” I called back without looking. As soon as I went out of the building, the bite of the cold wind welcomed my exposed skin. I felt my chest being crushed into million pieces as I started running away from the building as if my life depended on it.

I found myself walking mindlessly around the city. I was calm but obviously the pain in my chest would not subside. I received multiple missed calls from Luke but right now, I don’t want to answer his calls.

I needed to breathe. I don’t know if someone is playing a prank at me. Out of all the seven billion people in the world, Luke’s business partner had to be the same man that I had an intimate encounter with during vacation. I massaged my temples and still could not believe what has transpired in the past hour.

I was thankful for the solitude and the cold weather. It did help, even just a little, of easing the emotional turmoil I was having. The way he looked at me with such hate was etched in my brain. It was painful. What I didn’t understand was the reason for such hostility towards me. Was it because I left without saying a word?

Did I do something to upset him that much? My mind was trying to make a reason out of it, but nothing really came up. What was painful was he treated me like I was a criminal. A delinquent. Someone who could commit a crime in his building. He thought so low of me that it was insulting. A mixture of anger, confusion and embarrassment ran so thick in my veins currently that it was emotionally exhausting.

I decided to go back to my apartment and just rest. I did not realize that dusk was looming in as I took every step on the wet and cold pavement. As soon as I arrived at my apartment, I thought about getting something to eat but after what happened, I just didn’t have the strength to shove food down my throat. I hung my coat by the coat rack, dropped my keys and wallet and went upstairs to take a hot shower.

The warm water felt delectable. I washed my hair and skin and the tears were threatening to fall but I looked up reflexively, tried to hold it in. I dried myself and put on a clean white shirt and a pair of boxer shorts and lay on my bed. Physical and emotional exhaustion took over rapidly and I resigned to sleep with a heavy heart.

The sound of the doorbell woke me up from a dreamless sleep. I looked at the time it was past two in the morning. I swung my feet off my bed and started descending the stairs. The doorbell kept ringing which was getting annoying. I didn’t even bother looking at the peephole to see who it was. As soon as I opened the door, Lucas was at the doorway. His eyes fuming with anger.

Great. Can I just go back to sleep?

“Where the fuck you’ve been?! I’ve been calling you multiple times and you’re not answering my calls.” He pushed past me and went into the living room. “I’m doing fine, thank you.” I replied sarcastically. I closed the door and sat on the sofa, lay my head down and closed my eyes. I was still feeling sleepy.

“Reidyr,” Luke’s tone was clipped, and his irritation was palpable. You can almost taste it. “Lucas,” I replied, still with my eyes closed.

“Are you alright?” I heaved a sigh. “Yes,” it was a fat lie obviously. “What was that about?” I looked at him trying to act as if nothing happened.

It’s best that he doesn’t know.

In retrospect, if Lucas knew what happened between Killian and I, it would just compromise his relationship with him.

Also, I would look like a lunatic. I mean obviously Killian will deny that we’ve met although I know Luke will believe me but still…this would be for the best. It’s best that he doesn’t know. Everything just got complicated quicker than I expected. “What was what?”

“Have you guys met before?” Leave it to Luke to read things between the lines. “No.” I deadpanned. “I’ve never met him before.”

“I know Killian. He’s one of my closest friends since college. He wouldn’t act like that without any reason.” I shot him a look. “Why don’t you ask him? I don’t know the guy, I honestly don’t.” The fact that I could look Lucas in the eyes and lie like this felt so wrong in many ways. After this whole debacle, I better win an Oscar for the greatest pretender and liar that walked the earth. “Did you ask him?” I repeated. He remained silent.

“Well?” he wasn’t answering my question. He looked at his side, purposefully averting my gaze. That’s the look when I knew he did something stupid. I crossed my legs on my seat and palmed my face with both of my hands.

“What did you do now?” I prayed to God it was nothing extreme. He was still silent. He placed his hands behind him and looked down at the floor. “Lucas,” I was becoming annoyed.

“I punched him in the face.” Yup, it was something stupid alright. I stood up and grabbed his hands. It was slightly bruised. I looked at his face and surprisingly, he was unscathed. “He was being an asshole. He doesn’t have the right to talk to you like that. He doesn’t know you.” A pang of guilt just slapped me right across my face.

He knows me, sort of.

I thought but dismissed it immediately. “Sit,” I ordered and went to the kitchen and grabbed an ice pack. I came back and pressed the ice pack gently on his knuckle. “I don’t know what’s gotten to the man. It was the first time I saw him act like that. He’s usually calm and collected unless he’s speaking with his subordinates.” I didn’t say anything. “I’m sorry.” He continued. I rolled my eyes.

“I shouldn’t have asked you to come if I knew he’ll act like such an ass.” I shook my head. “It’s not your fault. Maybe he was having a bad day.”

Great job, Reidyr. Now you’re defending the man.

He eyed me intently. “Are you defending him?” He said as if he just read my mind. This is the reason why I never should have opened my mouth. “I’m not.” I tried focusing on putting an ice on his knuckles. “I’m not condoning what he did. He was an asshole, yes, but what I’m saying is maybe he’s just going through...something.”

“But that doesn’t give him the right to be a douchebag, especially since he knows that you’re not just some stranger I allowed in the building. He knows you’re like a brother to me, Snowflake.” I gave him a smile.

“I know…just give him some time to think.” He raised his brow. I just hope he doesn’t get suspicious. “You’re the most understanding person I’ve ever met in my life. Your future boyfriend will be a very lucky man.” I snickered. “Yes, rub it in my face that I’m still alone and single.” He grabbed the iced pack from my hand and placed it on the table then looked at me directly in the eyes.

“After what happened withꟷ” his eyes went to the outline of the necklace hidden under my shirt.

“Don’tꟷ” I warned.

“Let’s not do that, Luke.” He placed a hand on my cheek. “Sorry,” he smiled apologetically. “What I’m saying is, any guy would be very lucky to have you.” I was flattered how Luke thinks so highly of me.

Then the flattery turned into disgust as I knew I just lied to him about Killian and me. It’s not like we’re in a serious romantic relationship, it’s just that…telling him about it would just muddle things even worse...at least, that’s what I tell myself.

A few days passed since the Killian incident, and I found myself rummaging through my bookshelf. I have had a couple of my books since I was in college, but I can’t find my worn-out copy of Manuel Pratique by George Dandelot vocal technique book.

As a musician, we also must develop our vocal technique not just our technical technique when playing the organ. We were taught that our vocal technique also helps with our technical approach and rhythmic adjustments with whatever instrument we’re playing.

Right now, I’ve been rusty with my vocal technique as I pushed myself more on the technical instrument playing. I sat on my carpeted floor in defeat and noticed that the book was missing.

I placed the books back on my shelves one by one until an idea came to my mind. I rushed to my laptop and looked for a bookstore within my area. As my search engine filled up the information I needed, I took a screenshot of the three nearest bookstores, grabbed my coat, essentials, and headed straight to the door.

The first bookstore that I went to was three blocks away from my apartment. Sadly, the book was not available. I went to the next bookstore and again, unavailable. The last bookstore was the furthest out of the three which I had to call in an Uber. After twenty minutes, the car stopped in front of the establishment.

Downtown Books. I went out and hoped they had what I’m looking for. I started looking for the music section of the bookstore. After ten minutes of looking I can’t seem to find it. I was starting to lose hope.

I went directly to the counter and asked the woman working at the register. “Hello ma’am, do you have a copy of Manuel Pratique by George Dandelot?” I asked, hoping they would have a stock.

She pushed her glasses on the bridge of her nose and looked at her computer. “We have one availableꟷ” as if on cue, someone beside me placed the book that I was looking for on the counter. The woman gave me an apologetic look.

“This was the last stock sir.” I sighed in defeat. I guess I’ll just have to order online. I gave her a smile. “It’s fine. Thank you, ma’am.” I turned and went out of the store. Darn it. Someone beat me to the last copy. I started walking the pavement and started calling in an Uber. I was obviously frustrated.

Looks like vocal training will have to wait. I stopped about a few blocks and waited for my Uber to arrive when I heard someone call.