The Opposite of Hate (Upper Crust #1)

Chapter 32

Chapter 32
"Love"

Magulo ang isip ko nang bumalik ng Oxford. I brought with me the reports Laverne found. Binasa ko iyong lahat. It was the answer to a lot of unknown things from the past involving my parents and Tita Caroline. It's way chaotic and complex than I thought. So maybe they never bring it up. Hindi ko alam paanong nakakaya pa ring pakitunguhan ng mga magulang ko si Tita Caroline after what she did. Siguro ay napatawad na nila, but letting her near them? I couldn't.

I turned to my phone. Pang ilang beses na itong tumutunog. Calls and messages from Aris that I couldn't respond to dahil sa dami ng iniisip. Hinayaan kong matapos ang tawag. I shut down my phone and i slammed on the bed.

I hated him. He hated me. And now we are here, at this point we're sharing our lives together. Having this rendezvous. Pero hanggang kailan? Naglolokohan lang ba kami?

Maybe it's a good thing Aris isn't here. Mas lalo akong hindi makakapag-isip. His presence always clouds my thoughts. Mula noon hanggang ngayon.

"Are you alright?" ani Uma pagkatapos ng lecture namin sa sumunod na araw. I wasn't paying much attention kaya nang matawag kanina ay halos hindi nakasagot. Hindi naman iyon pinalampas ng prof kaya nakatanggap ako ng konting pangaral kahit iyon pa lang ang unang beses na nagkamali ako.

I nodded. "By the way, I brought your book. I'll return this now. Good read. Thank you."

Kinuha ko sa bag at inabot sa kanya.

"Sure. Don't mention it. I have more of this kind if you're interested."

We both stood up and left the room. We decided to go the café, kung saan ako madalas noong bago pa lang dito. I am surprised to see Colt and Agatha there. May iba pa silang kasama. Sila paalis na, kami kauupo pa lang.

Colt wiggled his brow at me, with a smile on his lips. Agatha was eyeing me which I don't really care about.

"You know, in order to get ahead and defeat your enemy, you have no choice but to get closer to them." It's another episode of her monologues. Before going here for her MBA, she was a psychometrician. She has broad readings, too. Kaya magaling at marunong siya sa maraming aspeto ng psychology kahit hindi psychologist.

"So, you're close with Agastya now?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, she's a waste of time."

Natawa ako konti.

"But there's this person back in Delhi, he is always getting on my nerves. Sorry for the word, but I really hated him. I consider him an enemy because we would always clash at work. He hates my guts the same way I hate his."

That made me pause and stared at her talking with so much passion. More passionate than her family issues.

"And I actually had to make peace with him, well, with a hidden agenda, of course. It was because I came to the point that I wanna crash him once and for all."

Tumigil siya saglit para inumin ang kape niya. Naghihintay naman akong tapusin niya ang sinimulang kwento.

"I thought I had it all figured out turns out we were playing tug of war."

"What do you mean?" I wasn't able to stop myself from interrupting her.

"He was doing the same thing I did. We ended up catching feelings for each other and then when we both learned about each other's motives, then we badly hate each other... Worse than before, actually."