Chapter 54: Chapter 54
The silence that comes from him not answering screams bad, bad idea in my head.
Gweneth you are crazy! What were you thinking? You have only met him once and you are telling him to spend time with you? I gave an awkward smile. Cringing like crazy inside.
"You know what? Never mind—forget I said anything. I was scolding and beating myself up the second I turned around. I was walking down the sidewalk when his hand grabs my arm and makes me look at him.
"You are so fast on your feet for a small woman. I haven’t given you my answer yet." He says. "Your silence already tells me it’s a rejection. I am just saving myself the time of hearing it." He laughs when I says that like it is funny. I ask him what’s funny and he says me. "Me?"
"Yes you." He prompts. "You took my silence for a rejection? Never heard of the saying silence gives consent?"
"Ihave. But yours kinda gave the opposite vibe."
"Where do you wanna go?"
I look around absentmindedly. I don’t got anywhere in mind. One hand is more than enough for me to count the places I love and have been to in Manhattan. All I know is that I want to go somewhere. A place that is far and can be fun. There should be tons of places like that. "I don’t know. Anywhere? I just don’t want to be alone right now. You seem like a great company I could use for that." He gives me a long look like he is searching for something in my expression. He expression darkens into a frown. "What? What’s with the look?"
"You didn’t perhaps go back to that cheating boyfriend of yours did you?"
"No."
"Then what is it?"
I let out a weary sigh, "I don’t want to talk about it. And I thought you said that you were around to see someone. Have you done that?"
"No. He can always wait."
"He?" My ears picked that and underlined it. "Is the person your boyfriend?"
He pulls a disgusted and irritated look. Taking a step back like I had just insulted him. "Oh gosh you didn’t just say that. I’m not gay! I have never been gay in my life and I never will be."
"Sorry." I apologized. "But you said he, so I naturally thought. . ."
"That is the worse thought you could ever have of me. Or anyone for that matter." He somewhat scolds.
In that split moment, he brought my stepdad to my mind with that action. I made sure to find out and be certain that I wasn’t disrupting him from anything important before I kick off with the outing. He had brought a car. A flashy yellow Bentley. Cherry nightclub must be bringing in a lot of money. It could also be that he was born money.
The first place we went to was an ice cream truck not too far from where I live. I wanted to drop by the apartment to change into more comfortable clothes and shoes—perharps slippers. But I did not want him to know where Annie and I live. To everyone who saw us, we were a sweet looking couple on a date.
I first did some explaining to the lady at the ice cream truck that we weren’t an item. And then at the cheap clothing store where I bought a pair of cute fluffy 5 dollar slip ons when one of my shoe heel broke off. An incident that kinda added to the day’s list of embarrassment for me.
Sam offered to pay but I didn’t let him. He sort of overreacted on the issue of my broken heel by wanting to take me to a boutique to get a new shoe. I did not agree to that idea because I did not want to owe him something that expensive.
I could never contend with the skyhigh price tag.
Him being with me was already enough. We also went to an amusement park where a man approached us with a camera and offered to take a picture of Sam and I. Also commenting that we are a nice looking couple.
Of course we posed for him. It was just pictures anyway. I went along with the dating assumption and did not bother explaining me and Sam’s relationship to the ticket salesperson at the cinema where we got our movie tickets to watch fifty shades of grey. He paid for that.
My wallet could not contend any longer. If not for Annie, I would have been stone broke and not have anything to spend at all. As the movie went on deeper from how the two leads met, so does the cringe that I shouldn’t have watched it with Sam. It would have been better if I had seen it alone. I have been skipping it. I had no idea it was this hot.
This kind of movies are seen with a significant other. Which seemingly, everyone else in the room is but us. Sam was all calm. He didn’t even blink at the sex scenes. He was either chewing popcorn or drinking his soda. When those ran out, he was now staring blankly at the screen, looking calm while I was battling a heat that I do not know if it is due to a faulty air conditioner or the steaminess of the movie.
It gets to a point where I could no longer pretend to be composed and keep it in. I undid the rope at the neck of my blouse to let in a little air. Sam asks if I want us to go out for some fresh air? I declined because I wanted to see how the movie ends. If they would still end up together despite the male lead toxicity. They didn’t. It was at the end that Sam told me that the movie isn’t much of a standalone but part of a trilogy. "We can come watch it sometime." I faintly hum in agreement when he says that. But I know that it would not be happening. I barely got through the awkwardness of his presence in there. Why would I want to repeat it?
"How did you like it?" He suddenly asks.
