A ROYAL SURPRISE

🎀Chapter 15🎀

"You always gain by giving love"
-Reese Witherspoon

*~*~*

I haven't seen Ale in a week, ever since we left the club. Up until now, I still don't know what happened after I took those hash brownies or whatever it is that they call it. I wonder if he's ignoring me. Did I do something wrong? Say something stupid? I am not suppose to be worried, but I am.

Aside that, my shift at the hospital is going smoothly. I'm getting used to going early as Dr. Coben suggested.
He still gives me the creeps, but I'm simply focused on doing my job.

My thoughts are hazy, and this causes me to bump into someone, walking out of the coffee shop. The red velvet packaged cake that I was planning of having tonight along with some movie marathon, is on the ground, and my lips are moving, apologizing to the person I bumped into without looking up, whilst trying as much as possible to salvage whatever I can from my my cake. It's useless. My lips quiver, and I inwardly roll my eyes. Stupid baby hormones.

"Lovely?" My head whips up so fast I'm sure I'll suffer a whiplash. I gasp, hands shaking, looking at the person infront of me, not believing my eyes.

"Gerald?" I whisper, not still comprehending what I'm seeing.

There was only one person who called me Lovely, and that was Gerald, the boy I kind of dated when I was fourteen. It happened so long ago, I don't even remember.

"Wow, it is you" he licks his lips, pausing "You look so mature and beautiful now"

"Uh... thanks?" I face palm inwardly.

"Why don't you join me for coffee, I could get you that cake. I'm sorry it's in this state" he says, smiling at me.

Oh Gerald, ever the gentleman.

"Uh..." I trail off, not knowing if it's a good idea. I don't take coffee, and I'm the reason he likes coffee now, because I used to take so much of it, he began to love it just as much as I did. It'll be weird if I don't drink coffee with him. But I'm pregnant and I'm not ready to let that out.

"I won't take much of your time Eufy, I just want to have some time with you" he says and I can't help but nod.

Seated on a table in a corner of the shop, I sigh, not knowing what to say to him.

"You're awfully quiet" he notes.

"Gerald it's been what? Five, six years? We didn't end on a nice note either. You can't blame me if I don't know what to say to you" I shrug.

"I understand. And I'm sorry. I still regret what happened between the two of us"

I scoff, shaking my head, "Is it wrong of me if I don't believe you?" I roll my eyes.

"No, I don't expect you to after everything that happened. But we are adults and more mature now Lovely"

I wish I could tell him to stop calling me that. Lovely. The name he gave to me after I first introduced myself, what he called me during our relationship; if I can even call it that.
What we had was merely a thing, without any label, but I still loved him, and he hurt me. And I buried whatever that we had so far back, that at some point in my life, I lived as though I never knew him. Forgave and forgot.

"You're right. We are mature. You know, at some point, I didn't see whatever we had as a mistake anymore, because it helped me to grow"

"I'm sorry I hurt you" he says, his face distraught and nothing but sincerity in his eyes.

"It's in the past" I shrug

"Can I at least be your friend?"

"I guess. I don't think about what happened anymore, so I don't see why not. We are going to treat this as though it's the first time meeting"

"Lovely, at a point we had good memories-

"Ones that you threw away and gave it no importance" I cut him off

"I was naive"

"I'm mature now"

"I get it"

"I'm glad you do" I respond, my face stoic.

"I just hope that you forgive me"

I scoff, "You don't have to tell me that. I did it long time ago. My life doesn't revolve around you like it used to Gerald, and I'm not pinning after you like I used to either. You lost that importance"

"Lovely-

"Can you please stop calling me that?" I snap "It's either Eufy, Eufy-Loviette or don't call me at all. I would be fine with that. You walked out of my life and I still survived" I roll my eyes.

"Eufy I'm sorry" he says, mentioning my name as though it tastes bitter in his mouth "You loved me and-

"I was a child. A teenager. I had just started to see life. A boy was interested in me. It made me giddy, I didn't know what I was doing"

He nods, "Friends?"

"Friends" I agree, seeing nothing wrong with being friends. Afterall, friendship is all I can offer now.

"I'll get going then" I get up from my seat.

"What about coffee?"

"I don't take coffee anymore" I look away

"You really have changed"

I look back at him, "I'm glad you noticed"

"I could get you the cake?"

"Changed my mind. Lost my appetite. Have a good day Gerald" I say and walk out of there, before he can say anything else.

He's pushy and persistent.

I can't believe I met him, I can't believe I met Gerald. I loved him, at least I loved him for what I knew love to be back then.
I introduced him to a friend of mine, someone I was so close to, that is until we lost contact. I introduced him to her, and I thought they were just friends, but I was wrong. As he told me he loved me, he told her he liked her. At the time, I liked to keep our relationship inclusive, so my friend didn't know that we were a thing. And he played the both of us. Even after she knew, she still liked him and I didn't have the heart to forbid her from dating him. So they did. They dated. They had a thing. Gerald shamelessly flaunted his relationship infront of me. That is, until we moved. Before that, I ended things with him, I was so hurt. I loved him and he took me like a fool. He threw my heart away into the trash, he stomped on my trust, and he allowed my love to slip through his fingers. He chose her over me. Again and again and again. I got tired. And I was happy when we had to move to another state. Away from him. Away from everyone. Then, life was so much easier. It was easy for us to just carry our bags and bolt. But now it's not like that, I can't keep running away from the problems that run after me. I'll have to stay and face them head on, like I just did with Gerald. And all in all, hope God is always by my side.

That's all that matters, God by my side.