The private lift door opened in Alvin's unit. They immediately walked out, placing their groceries by the sofa. Then Alvin sat on the sofa, in the room. While Audia sat cross-legged below, busy with her shopping.
Audia impatiently unwrapped the box containing the handmixer she had always dreamed of. Her eyes sparkled when she saw it, the red KitchenAith handmixer from inside the box, picked it up and carefully pulled it out.
"Pray first, Di. We want to go to Depok, later," Alvin reminded, then got up from the sofa and headed for his room.
"Okay," Didi replied and put the handmixer back in. Then follow Alvin.
***
"So?" Alvin opened a conversation while on his way to Depok. Mr. Mandala's style of appearance is still 'typical' but his hair is left messy—at Audia's request. While he still wears his glasses on the grounds that he can see clearly while driving.
"So ... so ... what, huh?" Audia asked confused.
"Why can't your friends know about me?"
"Oh ...." Audia seemed to nod her head many times.
Silence for a moment. Alvin waited for Audia's next words. But nothing.
"Do you want to talk or not, anyway?" asked Alvin curiously.
"Ummm ... how, well, ... hehe ...," laughed Audia while playing with her fingers. 'Oh, I have to explain how, yes, I have to admit it, if you have sworn Mr. Mandala before. Ew? The rage is there, later,' she thought. She recalled how that annoying look by Mr. Mandala made Audia shudder.
"Didi ..." called Alvin.
"It's not ready yet, Sir, uh, honey ... hehe," Audia smirked while scratching the back of her neck that didn't itch.
Alvin sighed. His eyebrows rose.
"Well, it's enough for Erika to know first, if I'm already married. But to know about marrying whom, especially when it turns out to be with the lecturer myself, I'll just have to do it later," answered Audia carefully. "It's okay right?" she asked then.
"So I'm kind of your 'secret husband' now, then?"
"Yeah, sort of,"
"I do not want."
"Ugh, why is that?"
"The thing called marriage, well, other people should know, don't you. Why are you hiding it?"
"Give Didi some time, please?" please Audia.
Suddenly there's a ringing sound—an incoming notification, a message from a green app. Audia took her cellphone from her handbag and read the incoming message.
[Erika: "Where, you are?"]
"Who?" asked Alvin.
"Erika,"
"What are she doing?"
"Ask me where it is."
"So, what did you say?"
"Well, no response yet. You're, using a question, well, I'm curious! Just focus on driving, okay," answered Audia. Then she looked back at her phone screen, typed something, replied to Erika's message.
[Audia: "On the road. Going to Mommy. Why?"]
[Erika: "I saw you and your husband earlier."]
[Audia: "Yeah, right, we did meet at the restaurant earlier. Forgot, huh?"]
[Erika: "Not that one. But after that. I saw you, you enter the private lift in the unit. Husband, who are he? Who can have a private lift, only the rich people in the apartment."]
Immediately Audia felt weak all over her body. Alvin who saw it then asked, "Why?"
"Erika asked who are you was. She saw us in the elevator," explained Audia.
There is another notification sound from the green application.
[Erika: "Your IG is still active, right? So, check it out. Now."]
Audia frowned. 'What's with her IG?' Without thinking, Audia exited the green app and entered one of the social media apps that Erika mentioned.
Audia checked the newsfeed, but found nothing strange there. Then check the notification, the result is the same. Nothing interesting there. Go back to the green app and type a message there.
[Audia: "I've checked. There's nothing, really. What's wrong, anyway?"]
[Erika: "Wait a minute."]—in 10 seconds—["Okay, done, check now."]
Audia returns to the application with the Polaroid camera-like logo, which focuses on sharing photos. There appear to be two notification mentions from Erika's account, @erika21. Audia opened the notification of Erika's first mention and saw on her cellphone screen, a photo on one of the photo accounts of the famous model in Indonesia. Audia recognized her. Instantly her blood rippled.
Laras Pramuditoaji. The account uploaded a photo of Alvin and Laras showing off their engagement ring at the time with the caption,
'Please pray, guys :x'
An old photo uploaded two months ago, when the engagement was announced. And then, it was suddenly canceled, unilaterally, yesterday, in the absence of the bride-to-be, Laras, at the wedding.
Below the comments column is Erika's account, mentioning her Audia account, without additional words. Seems to just want to let Audia know that there is a photo of Alvin—her husband and Laras—her husband's ex-fiance in Laras's account.
Audia opened the next notification, Alvin was seen shaking the hand of his father, Supomo, and beside him clearly Audia, looking down slightly, wore an elegant white silk wedding dress and studded with Swarovski crystals, with a veil covering her hair and part of her face, at their wedding ceremony, yesterday. Caption of the second photo,
'Congratulations, Al on your marriage to my surrogate. Wish you happiness.'
The photo was uploaded about 10 minutes ago and has already received many likes and comments.
The Laras account is indeed used to endorse various fashion products, taking advantage of its popularity as a photo of the top model in Indonesia. A trend that has developed for a long time, started when the blue social media account—Facebook, acquired Instagram on April 9, 2012. So, no wonder, the photo, in a matter of seconds, has been flooded with various kinds of netizen comments.
@lalalat: you know how come the bride changed?
@gulalimaniez: yes. This is not sis Laras @laras.amore where are you?
@sarahlee: but his wife is pretty too.
@akujomblo: finally an opportunity has opened for me.
@fanslaras: heartbroken. It doesn't bleed :(
Audia ignored the other comments. Her eyes immediately fell on Erika's comment, who was also present there.
@erika21: Hey, it's you, isn't it? Her face is the same as you @didi.audia.
Under the photo's caption, an account appears—which Audia guessed, was Alvin's account, @alvin_photograph.
Curious, Audia opened the account. And she saw many photos uploaded by Alvin, the results of his 'hunting' in almost all corners of Indonesia and abroad. Most of them are panoramic, aerial, macro-micro, natural, architectural, food and beverage photos for advertisements for several well-known brands—both domestic and foreign products. All these photos that have become a source of income so far. There is only one photo of Alvin and that is the photo on his profile. Side view, the style is cool.
"Didi?" Alvin's baritone voice suddenly distracted Audia from his cellphone screen. "It's here. You want to come down, don't you?"
Audia then closed the social media application and got out of Alvin's car. Her gaze was blank. Too much information Audia received today. And Erika's question, about who her husband was, seemed to be easy to find. Even though Audia hasn't answered Erika's question, Audia is sure that Erika can guess it easily.
"Alvin ...," Audia called softly when her feet had already stepped on the street in front of her parents' house.
"Yes?"
"Erika knows about you, Alvin ...."