JossBas: Is It Really Meant to Be?

Chapter 24

A/N:  The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Joss' POV

I wanted to kick myself for accidentally calling Frank by Bas' name.

It was just because when Frank played the first song on my playlist, it was the same song that Bas played when we were driving to my beach house, and it reminded me of our happy peaceful time together just before my disastrous and tragic discovery that Bas loved Godt and not me.

Along the way to Frank's agency office my mind had been going through those happy moments with Bas on the beach, so much so that when Frank turned to thank me for the ride, I had said, "Anytime, Bas..." and when I realized my stupid error, I corrected myself "... I mean, Frank."

But it was too late. I had seen the sharp look of pain in his eyes before he turned away, and it filled me with so much guilt.

I felt I had to do something to make it up to him.

I sent him a text message before I drove away.

"Please text me as soon as you finish your project. I would really like to treat you out to lunch or dinner, whenever you're available."

I waited a few minutes for his reply. When I did not receive any, I assumed that he must already be talking to his manager, so I decided to drive to the mall.

I window shopped this and that store, mostly men's clothing stores. I found a light blue T-shirt that said "Thoughtless, thoughtless, thoughtless, but very sorry for it".

I decided to buy it and give it to Frank over lunch or dinner, whenever he was available.

After I paid for it, the cashier placed it inside a gift bag and handed it to me.

I walked around some more and when my stomach started to grumble, I looked at my watch. It was already past noon. I still had not received a reply text from Frank.

I decided to text him again.

"Still busy?"

When I still did not get any reply after several minutes, I headed for the Food Court that offered many choices of different international food booths. I chose to order some Philippine food from a Philippine food booth.

I ordered a plate of lompia, which is a kind of Philippine spring roll, which was accompanied with a red sweet and sour sauce, and a plate of chicken adobo which had a vinegary soy sauce kind of gravy on it, and a side order of rice.

For dessert, I ordered their shaved ice with assorted sweet stuff. It tasted really good.

I was really hungry by now and I finished up all my food order in no time at all.

After lunch, I walked around the mall some more.

I would be distracted from time to time by some window offers by some shops, but my mind was mostly on Frank.

I was starting to get upset that he was ignoring my text messages. I mean, I'm sure that his agency had given him a lunch break. He could have replied to my texts during his break.

Oh well, I thought I better head back home. I was starting to get bored with window shopping.

When I got home, I placed the gift bag on the coffee table that was in front of the couch, where Frank could easily see it when he got home.

I had given him a duplicate key to my front door so he could let himself in without having to buzz for me to open the door for him.

I took a cold beer from my fridge to cool myself down and then decided to take a nap.