The Way to a Man's Heart

Chapter 19

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

Tae's POV

I could not believe what I was seeing. I had to pinch myself to make sure that I was not dreaming.

"Ow!" Tee squeaked, looking at me with much confusion written all over his face.

Oh oops I had pinched his arm instead of myself. But suddenly his attention shifted from me to Pavel.

"Pavel!" Tee called out. "Fancy meeting you in this restaurant! You want to introduce your boyfriend to me?"

I winced at the words 'your boyfriend'. It was painful and hard for me to accept that Dome had left me for a new boyfriend. No wonder he was no longer interested in trying to patch things up with me.

I had to find an excuse to leave the party early. I knew that I wouldn't be able to swallow any food or drink. Or maybe I should finish up a whole bottle of the white chardonnay that was brought to the table by the uniformed waiter. That way I would be able to drown my sorrow.

"Tee, this is Dome, my boyfriend," I heard Pavel saying to Tee. "We haven't been boyfriends for too long. Actually it is only tonight that he has accepted my proposal to be his boyfriend."

I saw Tee extend his hand to Dome and Dome accepted it saying, "My pleasure to meet you, Tee. Please make sure that Pavel behaves himself at work. Don't let him go chasing all the pretty girls or handsome guys in your building."

"Actually that's my building, or maybe I should say my father's building that you're referring to," I could not help interjecting.

Dome met my eyes for the very first time tonight. He had always avoided looking at me whenever we had to meet.

Suddenly Dome said to Tee, "Will your company suffer a big loss if I were to ask Pavel to quit and work for me instead?"

A sudden hush fell on all of us. We were all too stunned by Dome's question.

Pavel was the first to recover.

"Let's discuss it in private first before we make any decision, how about that, sweetheart?" Pavel gazed lovingly into Dome's eyes.

I forced myself to swallow the small amount of the white chardonnay that I had sipped from my wine glass, but I started coughing and sputtering instead because some of it went down the wrong pipe.

"Are you okay?" Tee asked me, cupping his hand and using it to pound on the back of my neck.

I nodded. I could not bring myself to speak, afraid that doing so would only send me into another round of coughing and sputtering.

Suddenly Dome's father turned his attention to him.

"Son, don't I get the honor of being introduced to your partner?" he asked. "Does he know that today is my birthday?"

"I'm sorry, Father," Dome said, quickly nudging Pavel to move forward. "Father, this is Pavel, my..." I could clearly hear Dome choking or swallowing hard on his spit before he continued to say, "... my... he is my boyfriend starting tonight."

"How long have you known each other?" Dome's father asked.

"One week," Dome said at the exact same time that Pavel replied, "One month."

They looked at each other awkwardly, before Pavel said quickly with what seemed to me like forced laughter, "It seems to me like it's been a month but you're right of course, it has only been a week. It's just because so much has happened between us in just the span of a week."

I started coughing and sputtering all over my wine glass once more.

Tee cupped his hand once more and started pounding on the back of my neck.

Then he leaned to me and whispered, "It seems to me that I am missing out on something important but I can't quite put my finger on it."

"Don't entertain that thought," I said. "It will only send you in the wrong direction."

"Why don't both of you sit down while we wait for the food to be brought to the table," Mrs. Ratthanaphast spoke for the first time.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry, Mom, where are my manners," Dome said, looking very much mortified at being remiss about introducing his new boyfriend to his mother. "Mom, I would like you to formally meet Pavel, my new boyfriend."

Pavel bowed to Mrs. Ratthanaphast before saying, "It is my honor to finally meet you, ma'am. I have been pushing him to invite me over to your place so that he can formally introduce me to you but he has kept on postponing it."

"That's his personality," Mrs. Ratthanaphast said. "He thinks things very carefully and for a long time before making an important decision."

I will never know what made me say, "It didn't take him long to decide to break off with me."

"I knew it!" Tee suddenly squealed. "I knew it! That is the missing piece of the puzzle that has been on my mind this evening."