My Words Are Law

A part of the jigsaw Puzzle (2)

The days passed by without any mishaps. So far, Samantha had only been staring at her, and while she was actively trying to wedge between the two (thank god for that), she didn't resort to violence.

"This is a good analysis," Chryses' said as he browsed Amaryllis' work.

She raised her eyes to meet his, sweeping her thoughts to the side and focusing on the task at hand. It had been a month since they'd paired up, and she was doing her best to speed up the progress of their project. It's better to end it quickly and move on. "I've also managed to gather some additional information that may be useful... I sent the file to your account."

Chryses raised his brows. "So quick of you, as always."

She cleared her throat before replying. "Well... Since I'll get even busier... later." It wasn't entirely a lie. What with working part-time at a cram school and a cafe shop, she'll end up getting swamped with assignments and projects if she doesn't make haste.

"Of course... You're working part-time, after all." Chryses nodded understandingly as he fiddled with the pages of his notebook.

Not knowing how to reply to that, she nodded along with him.

"I'll look at the file you sent me later then." He smiled at her amiably, the corners of his eyes crinkling.

The charming act startled her. Even more so when she caught herself smiling back subconsciously. Scary... If she didn't know any better, she would have been effortlessly misled by his actions. "Th-thank you very much, but yours are much better. Let me know if I missed out on anything."

"Hnn... Okay. Let me do another quick review."

Chryses leaned back as he fixed a serious gaze on the screen of his expensive laptop. She felt anxious at the abrupt change in demeanor. It felt like she was awaiting God's judgment, so to distract herself, she reached for the refreshment in front of her. Considering his high IQ, she was not too far off with her thoughts. She was too nervous to drink it earlier when they were talking as his eyes were glued to her the whole time, but now that he was deeply focused on the monitor, she decided it was the best time to relieve her parched throat.

The sweet concoction relaxed her nerves, and she shifted her gaze away from her partner towards the street below. The second floor of the café they were lounging at currently overlooked the busy road through the fixed, transparent eight-foot casement window. It was nearing lunch, and she wondered if the meeting would take longer. After her first class ended, she excused herself from Mia to meet up with Chryses for their project, but she promised that she would absolutely eat lunch with her. However, it was already 11:45 am, so she might very well be stuck here for lunch.

How taxing...

They've been working in the library previously, so to suddenly bring their work somewhere over an hour away from the university without any prior warning was quite unexpected. Her mind reeled back to the horror of reading his message that said he was waiting for his clothes to dry at a cafe. She was perplexed by his curt excuse, so he explained thoroughly that a café employee accidentally spilled coffee on him. To compensate Chryses, the employee offered him a spare dress shirt from the waiting staff while he did the errand of delivering and retrieving the soiled clothes from a laundry shop.

When the staff returned, he regretfully informed Chryses that it would take a while as there was an influx of customers waiting for their clothes to get washed.

After this short narration, Amaryllis had no choice but to meet him at the said location. It didn't mean that she believed his words, however. Such a coincidence was too unrealistic, but when she arrived and saw him wearing a shirt with the café logo printed on the back, she swallowed her bitter remarks and prayed to God for forgiveness.