Criminal Love

8. Best Friends?

The next morning

Yue begins to wake up and stretches her arms and legs wide, yawning noisily. What day is it today? She remembers it's Sunday and that she went to a party the night before. "The party! How did I get here?" she mumbles to herself but does not recall much.

She figures Dylan must be in his apartment, so she decides to go there and ask him where her phone is because she is searching everywhere, but her purse is missing. It turns out, Dylan left it in the car and Yue doesn't know.

Yue knocks on Dylan's door, nothing. She doesn't like it that he's not answering. She pounds again, nothing; a third time, banging with both hands loudly. Is he really not home? How can that be?

Bothered by his absence, Yue darts back to her place to check on her laptop where he might be -she can monitor his movements with the tracking app. Blessed chip on his wrist!

The time the computer takes to turn on feels like an eternity, and Yue taps her fingers nervously on the desk. As she is typing the login pin, she hears the elevator ding outside and then someone humming... It's him. Relief.

Yue snaps the laptop closed and flits back to her bed, pretending to be asleep when she hears the code on her door being hit.

Why was she so worried? Was it because she might lose her job if Dylan disappeared or was she terrified to lose him? The answer that her heart gives her is not the one she expected. Her feelings are growing stronger.

Would it be so awful to be in a relationship with Dylan? Does he even want a relationship with her? Whatever the answers to those questions are, Yue needs to deal with her divorce first.

Being friends is the only option for the time being.

Dylan places a bag and Yue's purse on the kitchen table and goes straight to her bedroom, where he finds her under the blankets, hair adorably tousled on the pillow, makeup smudged, which makes her look like a sweet panda, long lashes that caress her skin, and her cute foot hanging out of the bed. Picture perfect. Still, why is the foot catching cold like that? It's disturbing. The first thing Dylan does is tuck the stray foot under the sheets.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," he whispers, squatting beside her.

Rolling away from Dylan, Yue pretends to keep sleeping. He moves her hair behind her ear and leans over to kiss her tempting chubby cheek softly with his warm lips. Yue cannot help but sigh. Why did he do that?

"Hey... I brought breakfast," he tells her in a gentle tone, placing his hand delicately on the curve of her waist.

Yue smiles. "Sounds good," she says and yawns, covering her mouth with her hand. With the phone and Dylan turmoil, she forgot to brush her teeth.

Yue goes to the bathroom to tame her hair and make her face presentable, and Dylan goes to the kitchen to set the table up.

When Yue sees her face in the mirror, she winces. Geez! If he thought I was even slightly attractive last night, today the enchantment is gone for sure!

◇◇◇

"So, what did you get?" Yue asks, coming out of the bathroom with shorts and a t-shirt on.

Dylan gives her a good look and likes what he sees: his sweet neighbor is back. The sexy woman from yesterday kind of scared him a tad, mostly because his newly discovered jealous side cannot take it when men ogle her, it makes his neck veins throb.

Dylan lifts a cloth he laid on the table and uncovers two delicious croissants, two glasses of pulpy orange juice, a black coffee and a caramel latte, and a little vase with daisies.