WHEN YOU'RE CLOSER

CHAPTER 4

His presence was nowhere to be found around me for the whole week. However, he sends me flowers every day— pink roses to be exact. It's sweet. That gesture is sweet for me. That is enough to reassure me that everything's fine. Our relationship was not real, I know, but thinking about it makes me want to be in a relationship with him. A real relationship. No pretending and such. 

Landon is a sweet and gentle man that everyone could dream of. A caring man who will think about your feelings and do his best to assure you that there will be a problem between the two of you. 

"You're spacing out," says Loly with worry. "You can rest, Aster. Come on, I can handle the cafe today by myself. You should go home, okay?" 

"I'm alright, Loly," I assured her and smiled. 

"I don't believe you, Aster. You've been lost these past few days. Is it because Landon hasn't visited yet?" she asked curiously. 

"Silly, of course not." I chuckled while I shook my head. 

"Quarrel?" she asked, raising one of her brows. 

I shook my head. "If you have forgotten, last week he came here and gave me a dozen pink polo shirts. You think we quarreled over that?" I asked and focused on doing coffee. 

"Yeah, right." She shrugged and answered her phone when it rang. It took her a minute and she ended the call. "Sorry. I have an emergency and I need to go, Aster." She says, panicking. 

I let her go and after that, I closed the cafe since I had to go home too. Landon just texted me that we have to meet and attend their family dinner. He then fetched me outside my apartment. 

"My hunch was right, after all," he muttered and smirked. 

"What was that?" 

"You'll be wearing what I gave you." He pointed at my pink polo shirt that I paired with white jeans. 

"What? It looks good on me," I reasoned and shrugged it off. "And I've been wearing one every day. My customers will think of it as my uniform as of now." 

He laughs and says, "Then make it as one, love. Your cafe is pink, above all." 

I make a face at him. I retouched my makeup while he was busy driving. After I was done, I gazed at him to check him out. As usual, he's wearing a light blue polo shirt and jeans. And when you look at his face, he has a pointed nose, pouty lips, an intense jaw, and most importantly, his fox eyes with glasses. As I am staring at him, I cannot stop myself from thinking that I am his girlfriend — a fake girlfriend. 

"Done checking me out?" he says teasing me which makes me blush. 

"Shut up," I hissed. 

"You haven't even realized that we're already here, love." He teased even more. 

He's right. The car was already parked outside their house and we were still inside his car. 

"And why haven't you told me?" cocking my brows. 

He laughs and says, "I've been calling you but you're not answering. You just keep on staring at my face, love." 

"Stop it, I'm getting shy now." I pouted and he laughed loudly. 

He gets off the car and opened the door for me. I glared at him when he didn't stop laughing. Instead of stopping, he kept on getting louder. 

"Landon!" I yelled. Yet he ran towards the house and left me no choice but to go after him. 

"Aster!" both of his parents shouted when they saw me enter their house. His mom ran towards me and hugged me firmly. "When Landon told me yesterday that you'll visit today, I cooked every meal I could. Hope you'll love it, Aster. Anyway, how are you doing?" she asked me and let go of our hug.