A Sulawesi Romance

Chapter 5

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Gun's POV

I watched as Mark cut away a piece of his honey mustard chicken and placed it in his mouth. It made me nervous how he was looking and smiling at me while he was chewing and saying "Mmm... mmm..." over and over again.

He cut another piece of the honey mustard chicken and brought the fork close to my mouth.

"Try it, it's good," he coaxed me.

I shook my head.

"I told you I wasn't hungry," I said. "I just ate dinner not too long ago."

"Have some of this then," he said, pushing his glass of white wine towards me.

It looked tempting. I wondered if drinking some of it would take away my jitters.

"Fine," I said, reluctantly taking a sip from it.

It did taste good. I took another sip. And another......

Soon the glass was empty but not for long. Mark filled it up again.

*********

I wasn't drunk, just a little buzzed.

I groped around in my pocket for the key to my and Berkah's bedroom.

"Here, let me do it," Mark said from behind me.

I was startled when he pushed his hand inside my pocket and pulled out the room key.

He effortlessly unlocked the door and pushed it open. He stood aside so that I could go inside first.

I was about to step inside when I remembered something.

"Mark, I have to place new soda cans and water bottles inside the vending machine in the lobby," I said.

"It can wait till morning," he replied.

"Berkah will get upset with me when he comes back tomorrow," I said worriedly.

"He won't, I promise," Mark said firmly.

I shrugged and went inside my room. Mark followed closely, his shoulder almost touching my back.

I turned around to face him.

"Were you serious about keeping me company for the night?" I asked.

"Do I look like I'm just joking?" he countered.

"If you're not, well, I'm grateful for your company," I said. "That floating image probably shows up only when someone is alone but shies away from two people."

"You could be right," Mark said. His facial expression was unreadable.

I hoped that he wasn't thinking that I was stupid for believing in ghosts.

"Gimme a second," I heard him say as he fished out his phone from his pocket.

"Hey, Abby," I heard him say on his phone. Abby was the evening receptionist.

"Would you please ask Mrs. Puangmalee to go into my room and bring my pajamas and boxer shorts to room 6A?" he continued.

Mrs. Puangmalee was the head of Housekeeping. Berkah had introduced me to her. She seemed very motherly to me.

"I will take my shower while you wait for Mrs. Puangmalee, if you don't mind," I said.

"No, wait, I will take my shower with you," he said.

His straight face broke into crinkles as he giggled at my shocked expression.

"I was just kidding," he said.

I quickly stepped inside the shower room, upset with myself for taking him seriously.

After my shower, I dried myself and draped my towel around my waist and stepped out of the shower room.

"What the hell," my eyes widened when I noticed that Berkah's bed had been pushed beside mine to form one big bed.

"Are you sure that you want to have to jump out of bed to run to mine when you wake up during the night and see the floating image by the door?" he asked, his eyebrows raised.

"No, no," I said. "I think what you did was a good idea."

Mark nodded with a pleased expression as he headed for the shower room.

I quickly put on my bed clothes and climbed into my bed by the wall.

I must have been so tired, since it was my first day of work and had a lot of strenuous physical tasks done during the day, because before I knew it I had dozed off.

I was awakened by someone shaking me gently.

"Hey, if you don't get up now, you will be late in clocking in," someone was saying to me.

I opened my eyes to see Berkah bending over me.

Wait, where was Mark.

I slowly got up and scooted over to the edge of the other bed.

"Why did you push my bed beside yours?" Berkah asked, a tiny smile lifting the edges of his lips.

I was at a loss for how to answer his question. I was afraid of what he might think of me if I told him why.

Instead of answering him, I bent and started pushing his bed away from mine.

"No! No!" he protested. "I like it the way it is!"