Lorelei was staring at her phone for a while now. It's been hours since she sent her message but Jace hasn't replied anything, not even an 'okay.' She was growing impatient because she doesn't like stalling the progress of their presentation.
"Lei, you've been staring at your phone since earlier. You waiting for a call or something?" asked Amari while getting a piece of pizza from the box.
The three agreed to have dinner at Lorelei's place because Amari was too lazy to cook and Sam didn't want to buy his groceries. They had pizza delivered and as if luck sided with them this time, it was on promo (buy one, get one!).
Lorelei shook her head, "Nah, it's nothing." She grabbed a slice as well and started munching it. She suddenly remembered that she hasn't told her friends about her and Jace living in the same building. "Ah right! Did you guys know?"
"Know what?" Sam replied while opening the other box of pizza.
Lorelei grabbed a can of cola and popped it open, "Jacey lives in this building too!"
Amari almost choked on her pizza. She grabbed a glass of water in front of her while Sam was patting her back. After taking a sip, she put the glass back on the table, "WHAT?!"
"Uh-huh," Lorelei nodded as she took a bite of her pizza slice again.
"So you guys are basically neighbors all this time?" Amari added.
"Well, I wouldn't really say 'all this time.' I don't think I've ever seen him around here before though. Maybe he just moved recently or something?" Lorelei shrugged.
Sam got his back off from leaning on the couch, "Which unit does he live in? Oh, and let's invite him for dinner!"
"Yep yep! The more the merrier!" Amari agreed and the two gave each other a high five.
"Shall we message him?" Sam queried.
Amari faced her body to Sam. She nodded and patted Sam's arm excitedly, "Go, go, go!"
"Hey, don't bother messaging him. He didn't even reply to me yet and just left me on read!"
Amari narrowed her eyes as she turned her head to Lorelei. "Hmm," she paused as if suspecting something, "Is that why you've been staring at your phone the whole time?"
"Pfft. As if!" Lorelei took a sip from her can of cola while Amari squinted her eyes more at her friend. "Okay, fine. I'm waiting for his reply, you happy now?" Lorelei confirmed.
Amari shrieked and swatted her friend's arm, unable to contain her enthusiasm. Lorelei, on the other hand, was busy blocking Amari's hands.
"But it's not what you think! I was merely asking him to send his part so that I can revise it or something, you know!" Lorelei defended, "And besides, I don't think he'll ever reply though."
"Oh, we're not you, sissy. I'm pretty sure he'll send us a reply," Sam's words oozing with confidence.
Lorelei chortled at his words, "Yeah, right. Good luck with that!"
Quite some time has passed but there was no reply from Jace. Sam checked his phone but ended up returning it inside his pocket, "Welp, I guess your right, Lei. He really doesn't reply." He shrugged then.
"See, I told you shouldn't even bother," Lorelei was now picking up their empty cans of cola and pizza box.
Amari checked the time on her phone while helping Lei clean up "Hey, dumpling. We should go home now," she said to Sam.
"Why don't you guys just sleep over here?" Lei invited them.
"Nah, we good. My mom said she'll be visiting early tomorrow," Amari washed her hands on the sink, "And besides, Sam doesn't really sleep over at our places."
Sam and Amari grabbed their things and proceeded to the door.
Lorelei opened the door for them, "I won't walk you guys out any more. Take care!" They exchanged hugs with each other and bid their goodbyes right after.
Right after her friends left, Lorelei took a warm bath, dried her hair, and did her usual night skincare routine. She lied down on her bed and opened her phone to browse her social media. She checked her mutuals' stories and there she saw one from Jace. It was a picture of a dining table with food on top of it. At its center, there's an earthen pot filled with what looked like a kimchi stew. There were other sidedishes beside it as well.
"Oh, wow. Didn't know he cooks though," Lorelei murmured. She tapped right and the next one was a picture of a woman's silhouette looking outside a window. Lorelei's brows meet upon seeing the photo, "Is this the girlfriend Sam was talking about?"
Lorelei saw a username tagged on the story, She tapped it to 'check' who it was, fortunately, it wasn't private. There was nothing special neither about the account nor the posts. It was filled with cats and pictures of food and sceneries probably from traveling.
Lorelei scrolled down further and saw a few posts with Jace in it. Lorelei tapped one of those. It was Jace on his knitted sweater smiling so lovingly with an orange tabby cat in his arms. Lorelei realized she never saw him smile like that. It was different from the smile he gave his friends, nor the ones he gave her friends.
"Gosh, why do you smile like that?" she said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. She didn't know why she sounded irritated. Was it because he never smiles at her like that? Or was it the fact that he hasn't sent his part because he was busy spending time with a woman? Either way, Lorelei didn't know the exact reason. She ended up just shrugging the thought off, "Whatever. It's his life. I have nothing to do with any of his business."
Just as she was about to go back browsing, Lorelei read the photo's caption saying 'love of my life.' She sneered at the caption. Lorelei decided to stop browsing and threw her phone on the other side of her bed. She covered herself with her blanket and tried to sleep.