Dearly, Detested

cinco

29 days before...

After the proposal, everything went awkward. They only communicated when they need to. Greggy blames himself as he brought back the memories of them that was supposed to be long gone on the back of their heads.

But he needed to do it to make the show realistic.

So he paid no mind just as he did 20 years ago when they stopped seeing each other. Their engagement was the talk of the country, who would've thought that the rival company owners were in a relationship for about four years?

Only to announce that they're already engaged.

They've already agreed on an interview with LIFE Entertainment. It was going to be on Greggy's house where a white gazebo was placed on the side of the swimming pool.

They were already there and was just waiting for the media to come around and get things done.

Both Irene and Greggy were reading through the lines and remembering all the little details they shared together in their relationship.

Irene kept a safe distance between them, she was starting to get softer with him but the memory of their past love story made her all bitter again.

Hating him was probably the only thing she could do to stop herself from falling in love with him all over again.

Their friend(?) ship was a toss of mixed signals. One day they're fine, the other they're bickering.

A doorbell rang and their eyes shot to the door. "Nandyan na sila... Ligpitin ko na to..." She looked at him and pointed at the papers.

They gathered all the papers and made sure left no trace of their plan. She piled it up on her hands and began to walk away from the living room before she turned around and called him.

"Greggy?" He turned around, "Saan pala to?" She pointed at the papers with her mouth.

"First room to the right." He smiled. Irene nodded and went upstairs while he opened the door and greeted their guests.

Irene opened the door of the first room to the right, just as he instructed. She went directly to the desk, placing the papers neatly on top. Then she noticed a picture frame.

Her eyes squinted to get a better view of it and what she saw made her speechless. It was a picture of them on an arcade with her holding a little horse stuffed toy.

She shook her head and went out of the room as fast as she could, leaning on the wall and closing her eyes. She blew air out of her mouth before she took a big one and composed herself.

Downstairs, Greggy let their guests in and to their gazebo where the interview will take place. He apologized in behalf of Irene as she was upstairs.

"May nilagay lang upstairs, bababa rin yun." He smiled at the media interviewer.

"It's fine, Mr. Araneta." She smiled and settled in to the chair in front of Greggy. For just a few seconds, Irene emerged fron the door and smiled at the interviewer.

"Hello... Sorry ha... I was just placing something upstairs..." She smiled as Greggy pulled her a chair to sit on.

"Okay lang po, Ms. Marcos." The interviewer smiled, "I'm Danica from LIFE Entertainment, I'm the editor in chief." She introduced herself.

"Hello... Good afternoon." Irene and Greggy greeted her back, shaking her hand with theirs. "Should we start na ba?" Danica smiled.

Greggy smiled and nodded, reaching out for Irene's hand to hold, "Sure, thank you for respecting our privacy..." He told Danica and the rest of the members of the media.