Chapter 15 - XV (2/2)
Mrs. Chen narrows her eyes at the asshat but does not deny it. The rest of his neighbors seemed to agree as well, much to Laia's chagrin.
The asshat took their silence as his cue to explain. He glares at Laia for a split second and beckons her over. Laia didn't want to, but she knew the misunderstanding had to stop. She didn't know it would end up like this!
”I'm not cheating on my girlfriend,” The asshat pulls Laia close to his side. His right hand lightly caresses her shoulder making Laia shiver in disgust. She hopes no one noticed it. ”She's just a little clingy and emotional these days, assuming that I'm married after I wore the promise ring she and I bought on our anniversary last year,”
His neighbors nod in understanding. Laia fought the urge to barf at how cheesy the asshat's lines were.
”Nonetheless, I am thankful for you defending her honor despite everything being a misunderstanding,” The asshat even bows deeply to his neighbors. ”I promise to not leave my girlfriend wait outside my condo unit for more than a minute next time,”
The asshat's neighbors all seemed convinced and left one by one, except for the middle-aged lady who stayed and continued still looking at the asshat and Laia with skepticism on her face. She turns to Laia. ”Is he honestly telling the truth, dearie?”
Laia wanted to say no but doing so would only lead to their group report never being done. She relents and nods. ”Yes, Mrs. Chen,” She smiles at the kind woman. ”I apologize for the whole fiasco, it's just the mood swings,”
Might as well go with the flow that she's really pregnant.
The older woman nods and even chuckles. ”I remember when I was pregnant with my first child,” She seemed to glow with happiness as she reminisced. ”I was so moody all the time, I even started getting jealous of our dogs!”
Asshat laughs at Mrs. Chen's revelation. Laia stole a glance at the asshat and realized that he was genuinely laughing.
Mrs. Chen sooner realized that she had to leave, saying that she still had to call her daughter. She waves goodbye to the two.
As soon as the asshat locks the door to his unit, he frowns at the girl in front of him. ”What the fuck was all that, Lopez?”
Laia was about to respond when she realizes that the asshat still only had a towel to hide his private parts and she turns away. ”Change into some decent clothes first, asshole!”
The asshat was momentarily stunned by the girl's reaction but complies nevertheless. As soon as the asshat walks towards what Laia presumed to be his room, the girl walks towards the living room and sits down on one of the couches, taking in the unit.
It was very huge for a single individual. The living room alone was half as huge as Laia's house, and Laia even whistled at how organized and neat the kitchen looked. The asshat even had his own bar. It's hard to believe that he's probably just eighteen or nineteen.
Laia doesn't know when was the asshat's birthday so she's not sure.
Long story short, Laia concludes that she cannot and will not probably be able to ever afford the asshat's condominium unit.
The asshat returns shortly, wearing a robe. Laia frowns as he was only wearing shorts underneath the robe, but it's better than the asshat walking around with only a towel covering his dingdong.
He sits down on the couch directly in front of Laia and crosses his legs. He looked like he was waiting for an explanation, and Laia, despite not wanting to explain, knew she had to for it was definitely her fault this time around.
”You didn't open the door after I knocked five times,” Three times, Laia internally says but doesn't say it out loud. ”I decided to act a little bit to make you go out but you still didn't, and that's when Mrs. Chen and the rest of your neighbors helped me--”
”More like made everything worse,” The asshat massages his temples. He seemed to be having a headache. Laia wasn't sure if it was because of the earlier fiasco, or because of something else. ”Anyway, at least it's over. I'm too tired to argue with you,”
Laia agrees with a nod. ”Temporary truce,”
The asshat nods and closes his eyes. He leans his head back, continuing to massage his temples. Laia awkwardly fumbles with her phone to text Shane in the group chat.
However, before she could send a message in the group chat, somebody knocks on the door loudly.
Asshat grumbles in annoyance and didn't seem to have the motivation to open the door. Laia looks at him, waiting for his next action.
It's not like Laia knows how to operate the weird passcode thing beside the door of the asshat's unit, so she can't offer her help. She didn't want to offer help either blindly, for everything inside the asshat's unit seemed to be more expensive than everything Laia owned.
She doesn't want to risk it.
The asshat turns to Laia, his eyes now opened. ”Do I really have to open the door?”
Laia fights the urge to laugh. She cannot laugh at any of the asshat's sarcastic remarks! ”I guess so unless you want another fiasco to happen. Shane does acting way better than I do,”
Which is true. Shane, who was part of the play, was great at characterizing her character even from the readings. Laia notes to herself that she should get Shane and Jake as her group members if they ever have to performance-task that involves acting.
The asshat groans loudly but makes his way to the door, grumbling all the way there.
Laia lets out a laugh for the first time that day.