From My Love to My Life (MXM) (sequel to From My Enemy to My Love)

Chapter 15

Kannika Watakeekul

I sat at my desk in my room. The door was open, but neither Alice nor Bree bothered me if I was at my desk. I wasn't even sure if Bree was home yet from work, but I had heard Alice in her room.

I finished my last read through of my edits. A math professor from the university had hired me to go over his syllabus. English was his second language, Thai was his first. We could converse in Thai to clarify anything in his syllabus that was confusing and then I could edit the syllabus to make it clear, make all the grammar correct, etc. I sent the syllabus back to him with the corrected changes and then stretched my arms up high over my head. My back popped as I did so.

A gentle knock came on my open door. Alice stood there looking shy even though she and I had already lived together for several years now.

"Hi Alice," I said, "What's up?"

"It's Friday," she said. "Are you going to a party tonight?"

"Yeah," I said.

"With Bree?"

"That's the plan," I said. "Do you want to come?" I already knew the answer though. Bree had gotten Alice to go to a few parties when she first moved in, but Alice hadn't been to any parties in a long time. Alice and Bree had once been close, but something had happened between them. Bree no longer asked Alice to go along with her to parties and Alice rarely even spoke to Bree any more. They kept things cordial since they lived together in my house and seemed to get along alright. They just weren't close like they once were.

She shook her head. Her hands clasped together in front of her. She took in a long breath before she said, "Don't accept drinks from anyone. Even Bree."

She had told that to me before and as much as I wanted to tell her that was silly, Bree was my best friend and accepting a drink from her would be harmless, I couldn't. There was a small part of me that didn't trust Bree. I couldn't say why I didn't fully trust her. She had never done anything to make me suspicious of her. It might simply be because Alice occasionally - rarely, but occasionally - advised me of things like this.

"I won't," I said. I had traveled the world and had taken all precautions. A young woman on her own needed to.

"That old friend of yours is going too, right?" Alice asked. "I don't remember his name."

"Gareth," I said. I had informed him of a few parties now and he had shown up at all of them. It was good having another friend around. Maybe it was because I had known him practically my entire life, maybe it was because he was my brother's best friend, but I could relax around him like I couldn't with others. When he was around, I felt like I could let my guard down completely. "He said he was going. He usually meets us there." It had been several weeks now since I had seen him in the park. I was worried at first that my crush on him would come back and I'd end up annoying him to stay away. Thankfully, my crush hadn't come back which meant I didn't annoy him away and we could be friends.

"That's good," Alice said. "I like him."

She had only met him once when we had gone to get coffee and he happened to be there. Bree of course had met him several times now at the different parties we went to. She didn't seem to like him right away like Alice did. But from the way she would look at me and him sometimes, I got the impression it was more that she thought I liked him and was jealous more than anything Gareth had done directly.

"Why don't you come with us?" I asked even though I had already asked. "It'll be fun."

She shook her head. "No. I'll just stay here."