Gael and Angela reached the exit and found themselves having to stand in line. The thunderstorm had become heavier than when they got there earlier. With the strong wind carrying the rain sideways, only half of the hallway was passable. Therefore, only a single line moved and they had to wait for their turn to reach the lobby and cross towards their suites.

They didn’t talk while they were in the queue and it gave Angela the time to think about what happened so far. And everything was surprisingly okay. Both of them were civil, and although he could appear a little bit mean at times, she thought he wasn’t entirely bad. Because of that, she wondered if those times that he did push her buttons—did he really just do that on purpose to spite her?

There were so many questions that ran through her head but she brushed them off and just looked at the scene before her. The sky was so dark that she could barely see anything past the barrier that leads to the beach. And the rain was so violent that she got scared thinking about the possibility of floods if it wouldn’t stop raining soon. Who knew this would happen? She shivered when an icy wind swept in their direction.

Unbeknownst to this lady who was lost in her thoughts, Gael had been watching her the entire time while he stood behind her. There wasn’t really much to look at apart from her. The fûcking sky was bawling as if it was devastated over the final episode of a TV drama that had a tragic ending. The wind was strong—it reminded him of the time he visited Norway years ago and the wind storm was so strong that they could hardly walk forward without getting pushed back—the wind at this moment wasn’t as violent but he still hated it.

Especially when he saw her shiver. Stupid storm.

Without him realizing, he was already unzipping his jacket. And when he did realize his actions, he only paused for a brief second. This didn’t mean anything else. He was simply doing what a normal human being would do towards other human beings. She was cold—he had a jacket. He didn’t care about the wind. His logic seemed to work pretty well. That was all the self-convincing that he needed.

Then, he unceremoniously tossed the jacket over her shoulders.

Angela’s breathing hitched when she felt something suddenly hit her back, but when she soon realized that it was a jacket, she turned around to face Gael.

Her brows knitted in confusion as she waited for him to say anything but he didn’t. The man wasn’t even looking at her—his stare went past over her head as if he didn’t do anything just now. So… Was she supposed to act clueless too… or? Nah. “Thank y—”

“Move,” he said.

“What?”

Planting his hands on her shoulders, he carefully spun her around and ushered her to move in the line. Her feet naturally moved and soon, they reached the lobby, which thankfully wasn’t crowded anymore. Then, they were back to ignoring—or not talking—or whatever they were doing as they headed back towards their floor.

There were only a couple of emergency lights that lit up the hallway. When they reached the door to her suite, Angela turned around to face him and said, “Thanks.”

Gael only nodded. He didn’t think that he needed to say anything else because he thought that talking would be overstepping when he only needed to do the bare minimum.

His eyes landed on the hood of his jacket that was still on her and he wanted to fix it to cover her head. Then, subconsciously, he reached out but before he could even touch the hoodie, she suddenly flinched; her shoulders were raised and her eyes were squeezed shut.

Angela didn’t realize that she did this. But at that moment, memories of two different men flashed in her head.

~

“I can ruin you, Angela! Remember that!” Evan yelled.

~

“You think I need your money? I can buy you, Angela Su. And I can ruin you,” said Gael in his abrasive voice.

~

Gael basically said the same things that Evan did. She told herself that they weren’t the same people. She already knew this. But she hated that because of those stupid words, she was reminded of what Evan did to her that night.

“Hey.” Gael patted her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

His voice snapped her out of her trance. She briefly closed her eyes and cleared her throat before she faced him again.

“You,” Gael started, his brows slightly knitted. “Why did you react like that? Did you think I was going to hit you?”

Angela was quick to shake her head and formed a small smile on her face. “No… Oh, right, here…” She started shrugging his jacket off her.

He found her quick shift in expression weird, but he didn’t push it anymore. “It’s okay. You keep it for now. I have another one with me.”

She didn’t want to linger around anymore so she nodded and decided to return it to him later. “Thanks. I should…” she trailed off, jerking her thumb over her shoulder and pointing the door behind her.

“Yeah. Okay.”

The sudden awkwardness in the air made Angela want to leave fast. She hurriedly opened her door with her key card, and her hand reached for the lights like an idiot—of course, only to remember that the lights were still out. She completely forgot that there was no electricity and that her phone was also dead when she took it out to use the flashlight. Why was she always ditzy whenever he was around?! She wasn’t usually like this.

Clenching and unclenching her hand, she struggled to think of what to do. Her suite was pitch dark and it was scary as hell. Should she just go in blind? Hope she wouldn’t stub her toe, then fall and hit her head somewhere? Gosh. What to do. What to do.

Gael, who was still standing behind her, called, “Angela.”

She was chewing on her bottom lip when she turned to face him. Then, he asked, “Do you want to stay in my room for the meantime?”