I Want You To Be My Last

Part 7 : Gifts

His schedule was packed until early evening the next day, and Gulf was thankful he had managed to send S a reply that morning while he was in the car with P'Best on their way to work.

Two meetings with two different brands produced great results, and Gulf walked out from both with an accomplished smile on his face. P'Best hadn't stopped grinning since they were told the contracts would be sent to them in a few days, and he was grinning still when he'd received another call - Gulf later realized it was P'Bermb calling - redirecting them to drive back to GMM Grammy building to finalize the collaboration project Gulf was offered to be a part of.

Before he knew it, it was well over six and he was tired and starving when the meeting ended. P'Bermb and P'Best both looked elated when the three of them exited the building, and Gulf couldn't say he didn't share the sentiment. He did, but it was hard to verbalize stuff when he honestly didn't know how to phrase them without sounding like a total drama queen. Things were looking up for him and his career, and he honestly didn't think he would make it if it weren't for these two men holding him up and believing in him even from the very beginning.

They had dinner at a fancy restaurant in Siam Paragon, at P'Bermb's insistence, and Gulf agreed because, how could he not? Plans were revisited while they waited for their food to arrive, both men making sure they got Gulf's inputs as well as they went through Gulf's numerous work commitments laid on the table.

When they were done, P'Bermb left first, leaving Gulf's manager with a hearty thump on the back and Gulf with a curt, "Good job, Nong. Take care on your way home, you two. I'll go ahead first."

They were in the car heading home when he found out he had three missed calls from Mild, a couple of offline messages from him too.

Surprisingly (and sadly), there were no messages from S.

Suppressing a sigh, he decided to check Mild's messages. The first one read,

You free tonight? There's something waiting here for you.

Gulf frowned, confused, certain S didn't say anything about leaving any gift before his flight to Beijing.

The second message read,

Oh, and you might want to collect it here yourself. There is no way I am walking out of here and delivering this shit to you. No freaking way, okay? So come here before Champ decides to throw it out. He's been looking at it like he's contemplating between eating it or throwing it into my face, no kidding. Text me back, you dick, or I'm throwing this out myself.

His confusion turned into full blown curiosity now.

He was about to call Mild back when P'Best's voice asking him a question startled him.

"So, tomorrow, I'll call you in the morning to confirm if the scheduled interview for Maya in the afternoon will push through, okay? Otherwise, tomorrow might be a free day, finally."

Gulf chuckled at that, and remembered he was supposed to call Mild to say he would try to go meet him tomorrow before lunch when he realized he probably wasn't going to last that long. He probably wouldn't be able to sleep tonight if he didn't go and check what that thing was supposed to be, so, fuck it.

"P', is it okay if you drop me off at P'Mild's instead?" he asked, hoping he didn't sound as thrilled as he felt. His manager arched one elegant brow at him in question and threw him a quick look.

"You're not planning on getting drunk, are you? Just because I said that afternoon job might not push through didn't mean you could -"

"I wasn't planning to, I promise. Maybe just a few shots, of course, but that's it. I'd rather sleep off this exhaustion than drink it off, you know that."