IN THE MATTER OF MONTHS

8. Life goes on

Sarawat had again found himself in a loop, it had been a weak since he met Tine in the park, and he had again immersed himself in piles of work, he had fastened the production process of two of their data analysis apps, the softwares were in consideration process but sarawat intervened and asked them to give an approval faster. He was sure he was giving his team a very hard time, but he couldn't stop, firstly because he had been a lot productive lately, and secondly, he could not let his brain rest, he worked himself to the point of exhaustion, because if he did not he would lose himself in the chaos called Tine, when he saw Tine after all this time he was so dazed that he forgot everything else, his responsibilities, his priorities, his promise to Cheryl. Everything became a blur and all that remained was Tine, Tine in his black T-shirt, Tine and his blinding smile, Tine and his gorgeous eyes, which were rarely lingering on him anymore. He became the center of Wat's universe all over again, and then Tine was the one who went ahead and broke his spell.

Sarawat was seeing Cheryl, if they get married like his father wanted he would be Tine's brother-in-law, the thought made the bile in his stomach to rise up his throat, he was numb, he reminded himself why he had let Tine go in the first place, remembered that he did not deserve someone like Tine, tine was like a ray of sunshine, he did not need Sarawat's darkness in his life. Tine could easily do so much better than Sarawat. So, he chose to ignore it all, and put his head in his work, he had done pretty well, up until Cheryl had asked him to join her for lunch. He initially thought of refusing, the idea of seeing Cheryl right now made his head hurt, the different emotions that were swirling in his heart making him anxious.

Over the years, He had made himself believe that he was Over Tine, he fooled himself into believing that the fiery, brown-eyed beauty who had managed to keep Sarawat's attention on him from the day that he saw him had stopped affecting him, but one look at him and Sarawat was back to square one. Just like that day on that lone bench behind the music room, he had crashed in his life only to flip it upside down and Sarawat was not complaining.

Cheryl had asked him to come directly to the mall nearby because she had some things to buy before meeting him, Sarawat was again impressed that she did not thrust her shopping expedition on him and rather did it herself before meeting him, she was an independent young woman and sarawat appreciated her thoughtfulness, he waited for her in the small coffee shop inside the mall, he enjoyed cheryl's company, he was sure they could be great friends if not great lovers.

But then Cheryl arrived and with her was the walking reminder of why Sarawat could never find something with someone else, Tine. He was everything Sarawat wanted but couldn't have.

 He was wearing a red checkered shirt paired along with black torn jeans and white sneakers. His taut pec muscles peaked from the modestly opened buttons made Sarawat's breath hitch, whatever Tine wore, he made it look straight out of vogue magazine, the siblings walked up to him when they spotted him through the glass door but his eyes were trained on Tine, he heard Cheryl vaguely greet him while he stared at Tine breathlessly. Tine nodded at him stiffly and sarawat wondered if he had the same effect on tine like tine had on him? Was he dressed nice? Will Tine even notice? There was nothing attractive about his plain white shirt and black slacks. He Cursed, berating himself for not dressing up more appealingly.

"I am sorry P'Wat, did you wait too long?" Cheryl asked after they had ordered their coffee.

"Oh, No! I just arrived" he smiled at her.

"I am sorry for crashing your date khun, Cheryl dragged me here saying you won't mind" tine calmly stated, tone formal.

"I don't mind" Sarawat replied not correcting Tine about the date comment, and anyways it was a date even when Sarawat didn't want it to be.