Rain Again (Completed)

Chapter 5

It wasn't the busy road or the fact that his flight got delayed and his first meeting with the potential buyers got postponed that made Alex turn so stiff with stress on his way back to his apartment.

It was the feeling in his chest.

It was the wind around him that felt charged with electricity the moment he walked out of the airport and into this small but quite splendid city.

Asthel. 

Looking around at the beauty of the city, he could only think of the one person he didn't want to.

Kate.

She was a lover of nature and would have enjoyed sitting by the many lakes and parks he caught sight of while driving.

His hands clenched.

A memory flashed before his eyes, Kate in the passenger seat with a serene smile on her lips, one of her hands stretched out the rolled-down window. And she had momentarily closed her eyes as if trying to soak in the moment's essence, looking so utterly angelic. He had been captivated by her.

Alex groaned and shook his head, realizing he was again thinking of her, the memory drifted away, and bitter ones took their place. Quickly, he rolled up his now-opened window and chased her out. Chanting again and again in his mind like a bloody spell, reminding himself what kind of a vile person she was, how she had betrayed him, how she had cheated on him. So far it caused his anger to only grow. Day after day, this agony inside him would only increase without ceasing. The mission of forgetting her was nowhere close to seeing any success.

Forgetting love is like standing against a tsunami and still somehow staying alive. 

Alex felt like he was burning, and nothing would be able to stop this hellfire inside him until his entire existence will be vanquished. 

Suddenly, his phone rang, bringing him out of the dark abyss of his mind. Glancing briefly at the name on the screen, he ran one hand through his hair in frustration. Here he was, trying to forget someone, and this woman was annoying the shit out of him by calling him continuously on the phone all the freaking time. Befriending Maya was proving to be quite impossible to handle with all her whining and nagging. 

At first, he had thought Maya was the way to forget Kate. But whenever he was with her—he only ended up comparing the two. And now, after that one drunk and foolish night with her, the tabloids after his romantic as*, and her father wanted to meet him—for the devil knew what—Alex was merely one inch away from doing something totally drastic. These days, he didn't even care what consequences those drastic actions would bring. 

He was past staying sane to care anymore. 

It might be because of how horribly dead every second he felt inside.

He realized he was colder than how cold he was before Kate. It was almost numbing.

He was used to suffering from all the games and betrayals of people around him. But that suffering had gone to an impossible level due to Kate. He should have known better—he had been blinded by her goodness, her hopes, her dreams, her light, but he should have known that there was none in the real world with such innocence. Everyone had darkness within. His parents had—as they betrayed one another and went their separate ways soon after. 

Kate was no different. It was proved at last. And with that, the only light in his life was put out abruptly.

Now, he hated everything and every single people in his life. Like a black hole, all the hatred and agony consumed him in leisure.

-- 

Folding the next cardigan and putting it on top of the other ones, Kate picked up the whole pile. Now, it was so huge that it covered most of her view of sight, making it difficult to see where she was going. But that was not exactly a problem for Kate. She knew every corner of the boutique that well. She could even walk around here and do all the work with her eyes closed.

However, there was just this one complication in her way of walking blind, the ferocious store manager—Ellie. 

Ellie, the human bulldozer, was the epitome of clumsiness. 

"Aaaaahhh...," Kate shrieked in shock when Ellie suddenly ran into her. All the cardigans from her hands flew away in different directions.

Ellie was screaming too when they both plunged into a rack, the purses kept on it dropped down around them and some non too gently on their heads.

"What the hell, Ellie?" Kate huffed, pushing herself up to a sitting position.

Ellie had probably gotten hit too hard. She sat up next to Kate on the tiled floor, groaning miserably. "Oh, Kate, I think that new purse is made of stone."

Kate rolled her eyes. A smile crept up on her lips. "I would have told you to watch where you're going," she said, standing up and looking around to see the cardigans and purses all around the floor in a mess. "But seeing I've already told you that a few hundred times, I would just ignore the whole deal."

Ellie sighed and hopped in, after groaning some more, to help Kate pick up everything and put them back in their designated racks. "Sometimes, I get this gut feeling, Kate, that someone had cast a voodoo spell upon me. Otherwise, why do I always keep stumbling around, running into people, making things fly around—do you get what I'm saying here, girl?"

Kate smiled and rolled her eyes again.

All the staff had left for the night, but not these two. Kate—because of being the manager and business partner, and Ellie—the store manager, had to stay back late for the closing almost always.

The account was already closed an hour ago, and now after keeping every item in their respective places, Kate and Ellie were coming out the front gates. They halted on their step, seeing Victor jogging toward them with a massive grin.

"Girls," he greeted them with a shit-eating grin on his face.

Kate and Ellie both raised a brow at that.

"Jeez! Did you win a lottery or something, or one of those coupons that give people two-holiday tickets to Honolulu?" Ellie snorted.

Victor's face scrunched up. "No, but it's something extreme like that."

A smile automatically began forming on Kate's face seeing Victor so excited. "Ah huh, and what is that exactly?" she inquired.

Victor winked. "For now, I would just celebrate it with yaa two over a gallon of ice cream and tell you all about it when the deal is final."

"So a new deal this is?" Kate laughed when Victor almost dragged the two women by their arms to his car on the curb in excitement.

"The biggest one in the small history of my business. I will be one of their buyers if the meeting tomorrow goes well. And nope, not going to tell you the name of the company. I want to see the surprise on your pretty faces and laugh at that." Victor beamed, unlocking his car.

Kate prayed silently for Victor to get what he wanted. He was not just her savior in more than one way. He had become a friend she could lean on in all situations. He had such a big and kind heart that sometimes amazed Kate. It was almost impossible these days to find someone like this, and she was thankful for meeting him.

Among all the hurt and pain—Victor, Ellie, and rare people like them made Kate believe in the joy and goodness of the world. Because heavens knew she needed them more than the air to breathe. Her broken heart was still going on soaking in the light that emanated from these rare gems in her life.

~

So, Alex's in Asthel now, and as all of you can obviously predict - they're going to meet soon. But what will happen after that? Let's wait and see. And oh, also... Victor getting what he wants so badly might just be the beginning of trouble again. Stay tuned to see how the drama unfolds. ;)

Pls don't forget to VOTE; COMMENT; FAN/FOLLOW and SHARE! That would make me so happy that I will probably hug you all to death. (Hope you wouldn't mind!)

Take care till the next upload.
Love yaa all,
Lara.