Chapter Five

"BYE, GIRL! We're good, right?" Liria asked when they're all in the parking lot and just saying goodbyes before they part ways.

Bella learned that everything was Liria's plan—to locked Theous inside her room to have some fun. She's so annoying!

"Fine!" Bella said as she kissed Liria on the cheek. Then she turned to Terrence and hugged him tenderly. "You still have time to runaway, you're not married yet. She'll just make you suffer with headache once your married," She warned that Terrence just answered with laugh as he shook his head.

"Sorry, Bella, but I'm so in love with her silliness and all of her." Terrence even kissed Liria on the forehead that made the later so happy as she looked at her with wide mocking smile.

"Sorry, Bella. We're solid and so in love. And you said we're already good! Why are you still mad?!" Liria pout at her.

Bella just laughed as she hugged her again before saying goodbye for the last time.

When the engaged couple walked to their car, Bella turned to her back and instantly met Theous eyes, he's just observing her full of seriousness, she just raised a brow to him.

Since that scene on her room, he didn't talked to her again and just quietly observing her, like he wants her to do something. But she have no idea what the heck he wants. And after that blissful moment at her bed, she felt annoyed to him because he's so vague. He acted so sweet all of a sudden, then he's like 'Who are you?' in just a snap. He's so annoying!

Theous just shook his head as she opened the car's door for her. Still, no one talks even if they're both inside his car now.

I'll just sleep this boring ride!

Bella sat properly as she took out her scarf from her bag and used it as her blanket. She's easily cold when riding a car.

But right at the moment she closed her eyes, she heard Theous sighed but she just kept her eyes closed.

"You knew you're easily cold but you chose to wear that short shorts," he said kinda annoyed but Bella just shrugged it off as she focused on sleeping.

But after a moment she felt the car's aircon suddenly became weaker and that made her smile secretly.

Well, he still cares... hmm.

A dream...

Bella opened her eyes when she felt Theous leaned his forehead on hers and she saw that his eyes still closed.

She still cannot believed that he claimed her first kiss, and she's not feeling anything wrong about it. She actually like every seconds of it.

When Theous opened his eyes, they instantly found hers and its full of sadness and tenderness, then his hand lifted to touched her cheek.

"Do you really have to go?" she asked with hidden hope that he'll say 'no'.

Theous gave her a brief smile and nodded his head. "Things been planned long time ago, Carabella. I can't cancel going to London." Now he moved back. Like the spell was broken.

"Then, you're really not coming to my birthday?"

"Sorry, maybe next year."

Bella sighed, she's really sad that he can't cancel his flight to London for some days, is it really that urgent for him to go there?

She panicked when he walked to go to the door. He's leaving already. Just like that?! Like he didn't just took my fist kiss! No explanation?

"Theous, I want you to be my escort! You're actually the one I wanna be my escort!" she kinda shouted that made him stop walking.

"Oh, you finally see me now?" Theous said that Bella didn't hear properly because her heart was beating so loud inside her. She felt like she just confessed to him.

"W-what did you say?" she asked frowning.

Theous turned to look at her, "I'm really sorry, Carabella. I can't be your escort." He said full of certainty, they just stare at each other. Her eyes was full of hurt while his was wary, then he cursed as he run back to her to hugged her tightly... like he don't wanna let go of her.

Theous buried his face on her hair, "This is such a wrong timing! Why now, Carabella?" he kept on murmuring but Bella misunderstood it.

"You mean my birthday's wrong timing? Cool!" she said angrily as she pushed him away from her. "Fine, I can find another escort, yes, maybe my birthday's not that important. Thank you for checking on me, Theous. I will stop crying now. Get out!"

She's really mad at him right now. She cannot believed that he's this insensitive. But to her surprised, Theous gave her a sweet but sad smile as he tapped her hair.

"That's right. It'll be easier for me to leave if you're mad at me. But don't stay mad for too long. I'll be back," he even winked at her before finally leaving her room.

He left her there with great confusion. She clearly have no idea what the hell he was talking about.

"I'll never understand him." He's always like that, so vague.

Bella laid on her bed sighing deeply as her tears started falling. "Why you're so difficult, Theous!"

Back to reality...

Bella was awaken when she felt that the car's not moving. When she opened her eyes she realized that the car was parked and they're in a private parking lot.

She sat properly and wiped her eyes. She's still drowsy and that dream of her past about Theous was still vivid in her mind. Like it just happened yesterday. And the pain of that scene was breaking her heart again.

Bella just sighed and looked around her, realizing that Theous was not on the driver seat.

"Where is that man?" she asked to herself frowning while she's looking at herself on the rearview mirror and saw that her hair was a messed. She shook her head and instantly combed her hair using her hand.

Then she noticed that Theous was standing on the side of the car while talking to his phone. Of course, as always!

Bella rolled her eyes as she looked at the outside, and now that she's fully awake, she recognized the place that they're parked right now.

They're at her favorite restaurant here in Bay, Laguna, The Garden Pond.

Her smile instantly became wide, as she giggled happily and went out of the car.

Theous turned to her when she closed the car's door, he just finished talking to his phone.

"Why you didn't wake me up?" she asked him while walking on the other side of the car where he's standing.

And she cannot help herself to study his face, specially because of her dream about her first kiss that he took was still fresh inside her mind.

"You were sleeping soundly, and I made sure first if they have available cottage. I also ordered food for us so it'll be ready once you wake up," Theous said in a very unusual calm voice.

Bella just kept on studying his face. She's feeling weird because in this kind of situation, he already shouted at her and called her a burden or something offensive. But he didn't, instead he did her a favor.

Am I still dreaming?

Because there's no trace of any annoyance in his face, he's juts staring at her normally calm.

"Oh, by the way, Tita Bea called to asked if we're already near the rancho but I told them that we gonna be late and will just have lunch here. There's a traffic at the express way earlier that's why we didn't get there on time," he explained as he locked the car.

Bella just continued watching him.

This is a mystery for her, because he's not even frowning and it's making her nervous. What the hell happened while I was sleeping?

Theous caught her staring at him. She cleared her throat and stand straight. Damn, stop acting weird, Bella!

"A-ahmm, I-I'm sorry if I was just sleeping the whole ride," she said tacking her hair behind her ear as she turned her eyes on the restaurant.

Now, she can't look him straight in the eyes because of that stupid dream, and because of her foolish imagination that kept on playing that kiss inside her mind. And because of the way he's looking at her right now, it's making her so soft inside. He look sad about something.

Also, why the heck he's acting weird today? She like it more if he's rude because that's easier for her to hate him, not like this that he look like he cares. Dang it!

"It's okay, I understand that because of Caliber Shot you're always lack of sleep." And again she find herself staring at him when he smiled at her as he hold her hand. As in, they're holding hands, with fingers intertwined. "Let's go. I know that you're already hungry." He gently pulled her to the restaurant.

And her heart was like riding a roller coaster alone as it screamed so loud inside her.

Bella secretly pinched herself to make sure that this is not a dream, but she instantly realized that it's not a dream when she tripped at the steps of the restaurant's entrance. She almost fell if not Theous swiftly caught her and help her to stand up straight.

"Are you okay?"

"Y-yes. Sorry, I didn't noticed that there's steps."

Great! How embarrassing, Bella!

She just smiled at him awkwardly when he continued staring at her. Then after a moment, he sighed.

"I think you're still sleepy. But we need to eat lunch because it will still take an hour before we arrived at the rancho."

"N-no, no. I'm fine. I just really didn't notice there's steps. I swear!"

"Okay." Then Theous hold her hand again on a same manner as they're finally inside the restaurant.

Dammit, heart, calm down. He's just being gentleman. This is unusual, but I think he became gentle when he's hungry. She said to herself because that's the only reason she can think of why he's this caring to her suddenly. Not that he's not like this before but this is not the Theous she knew now.

"Ouch!" she said after she bumped on his back this time. Theous suddenly stopped walking and she didn't notice it because she's busy analyzing him inside her head. Stupid, Bella!

And when she looked up to him, she saw him smiling at her, more like giggling. What the heck?!

"You're cute when zoning out but can you please be with me right now, Carabella?"

"Oh, y-yes. You were saying?"

He shook his head and put her hair behind her ears, "I'm asking you if there's something else you wanna eat that I might not ordered yet?"

"Ah, I'll tell you when I saw what you ordered."

Theous nodded and the waiter guided them to the floating cottage of the restaurant.

And again, her mind became busy thinking about Theous, his hand that's holding hers warmly and tightly, his eyes that looked at her full of care, and his lips that so generous to give her his sweet smiles... she cannot believed that all of that happened today, at this moment.

And again Bella was stopped at her discussion with herself when she felt a hand hold her cheek.

Theous hold her cheek and before she could ask a question, she felt his lips gently kissed the side of her lips.

And her heart was near to have heart attacked, specially when she saw that Theous's giving her a serious look.

"Tell me, who's this guy that kept on making you busy thinking about him, huh?"

"A g-guy? Who? I'm only thinking about you—"

Bella instantly hold her mouth as she looked at him full of shocked, then she felt her face turned red when Theous slowly smiled at her sexily. Dammit! Why am I so good at embarrassing myself?!

"You're thinking about me the whole time?"

"I'm not! Stop, I didn't say that! Erase that on your mind. I'm not think—"

She stopped talking when he leaned his face closer to her. "It's okay, Carabella. I don't mind if you kept on zoning out as long as I'm the one making you busy inside your mind." And he said that like a whisper and it's so sexy.

Because of that she just found herself staring at him full of awe, like a fool who so in love. Dammit!

And she just realized her foolishness when she heard someone cleared his throat and they both turned to the waiter that assisting them.

"Sir, Ma'am, your cottage and food are all ready. Enjoy your lunch and just call me when you need anything," the waiter said politely.

"Okay, thank you," Theous said calmly as he hold her hand again and guided her to the floating cottage.

Bella's sure that her face was hella red right now. What's wrong with me today? Argh!

Her attention was caught by their table full of her favorite food here at the restaurant. Theous ordered all the local food that she loves!

But her attention was fully caught by the beautiful bouquet of white tulips that's on the center of the bamboo table of the cottage.

She turned to Theous with frowned. And again, he's smiling at her sweetly. Damn, he's handsome!

He's looking at her intently like he wanna see every bit of her reaction, he took the bouquet and gave it to her.

"For me? But why?" she asked really surprised but she can't help her smile as she took the flowers.

"My peace offering. I'm sorry, Carabella. I'm sorry for shouting at you and being rude back at the mall, and I'm sorry, if entered your room without permission and saw you naked—"

"I'm not naked!" she corrected and slapped his shoulder.

He just laughed, "Oh, yes, you're not naked. Sorry. Anyway, please accept my apology?"

"Well, now I know why you're acting so nice today. And I like it a lot even if you made me nervous with the changed of attitude. And yes, I accept your apology, and these beautiful flowers are majority of the reason to that. Thank you, Theous," she said before giving him a peck on the cheek.

Honestly, she's not expecting him to say sorry because he rarely say that to her before. But she can't not accept his apology when he did so much effort today.

Theous was just staring at her seriously after she kissed him then he bite his lower lip while his eyes were still watching her and it's making her nervous. Her heart wanna go out of her chest to give him a kiss personally. So foolish!

"What?" she asked that cannot help to swallow because she's nervously excited for some reason.

But Theous didn't answer and after a moment he just leaned his face closer like he's about to kiss her, good thing she moved fast and stepped away.

What the hell is wrong with him? We're in a restaurant!

"Okay, let's have our lunch now. I'm hungry!" she said and hide her nervousness on her laughs as she sat on the cottage's chair.

"Yup, let's eat. I'm hungry too." But he said that soullessly.

And when Bella looked up to him, she saw him pouting, like a kid who didn't get what he wants. She just laughed and pulled him to sit beside her.

"Don't you think you ordered too much, we're just two. We can't eat all of this," she said changing the topic.

"But they're all your favorites," he said still pouting. So cute!

Bella just smiled at him and nodded her head. "Fine, I'll eat everything. Thank you,"

Theous smiled back and tapped her head. "That's my Carabella!"

And they started eating their lunch joyfully.

Bella's still in awe but she she's glad that finally she could feel that her friend-enemy's back. It's been a long time but she's glad that they could finally hang-out without cursing each other.

But she got one problem... its her heart.

After they finished eating, they head straight to the car and continued their travel to the rancho, because her mother and grandmother kept on calling them asking if they're already near. Looks like the women of her family's so excited to see Theous again.

Bella smiled as she looked at the beautiful tulips that Theous gave. This was not the first time that she received flowers but these tulips felt different. They're special for her, because Theous gave them.

"Do you really like the flowers?" Theous asked suddenly that made her turned to him. His eyes were on the road.

"Yes, I really love them. Thank you. It's really nice to received beautiful flowers." She smiled at him when he looked at her briefly.

Now, Theous's smiling as he focused on driving. "I'm glad that you love them. I'm actually the one that picked each one of them, because the florist said that it's more special that way, and white tulips are the best gift when you wanna asked for forgiveness. And I think she's right."

Bella giggled and turned to the beautiful tulips, "Well, I'll say you have talent, all of them are beautiful."

Then, Bella looked back to Theous, still smiling. She's really feeling good today. Suddenly, the annoyance, and irritation that she's feeling whenever she looked at him was gone now. Actually she can't stop herself from staring at him. He's so handsome and she don't wanna stop her eyes from admiring him.

Well, just for now!

She realized that even if two people were away from each other for a long time, if they're really are special for each other, it'll be easy to forget the past and start a new.