Carl looked at Richie like Richie has completely lost it.
'A murderer?' Carl mentally scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Richie, I've been stressed out lately and all this time I thought you were only looking for attention but now I realize that the video games you've been playing are beginning to mess with your head," he said.
"but I..."
"…I don't wanna hear any of your cooked-up stories okay?" Carl said in a husky tone interrupting Richie before he could speak up.
"Okay fine!!" Richie yelled and went back to his room.
He regretted telling Carl about Carlos being a murderer in the first place.
..
The time was a few minutes past 10 pm and Carl was in the mood to sleep. He was just on his sweatpants without wearing any shirt.
Carl lay down on his fine, exotic king-sized bed and all he could think of was Anne. He had the strong urge to text her so he brought out his phone with the intention of sending her a text.
'where are you? I really miss you' Carl said in his head as he was typing the message to send to Anne.
He was about to press send but his thumb was dancing around the keypads and after much hesitation, he cleared the text.
"she's not going to reply to me anyway," he said to himself and dropped his phone.
He closed his eyes to sleep but he couldn't. Rather, he was reminiscing the moment when Anne was with him on his balcony and how he almost kissed her.
Carl groaned and turned to the other side of the bed. He placed one of his pillows above his head and shut his eyes tight so he could sleep but it didn't make any difference. He couldn't stop thinking about Anne. It was as if his brain was intentionally messing with him.
"FUCK!!" Carl yelled out of frustration and threw the pillow off his face.
He sat upright on his bed, massaging his temple with his forefingers.
"Why can't I stop thinking about her? She doesn't even love me" he muttered to himself
He brought out his phone and tried calling her but her number was still unavailable.
'is she ghosting me on purpose?' Carl thought.
He got up from his bed and went up to his balcony to clear his mind off her.
While he was standing at the edge of his balcony, his eyes were fixed on the beautiful shining stars and the bright full moon which reminded him of Anne.
"Why did I end up falling in love with her" Carl asked himself.
He heard a beep from his phone and he hurriedly check his phone with smiles all over his face, expecting a text from Anne but it was a text from Sasha.
Carl nearly rolled his eyes after seeing that the text wasn't from Anne. He felt happy already, thinking that it was Anne who had just texted him.
What a disappointment!
He tapped on the notification and the text came out boldly.
'Are you up?' from Sasha.
"hmm… this is odd. Why is Sasha texting me this late? I hope she's okay" Carl said.
'Yes, I am. You good?' He replied to her text
Sasha smiled when she saw Carl's reply. She was lying down on her bed next to her husband who was sleeping.
'yeah I'm good' She replied to Carl.
'how's your arm?' She saw another text from Carl.
'my arm is good, I got discharged from the hospital this evening' she texted him.
Carl was beginning to feel sleepy as he was texting Sasha
'Okay, that's cool. How's your husband?' he replied to her text leaving the balcony to his room.
Sasha rolled her eyes when she saw Carl's text asking her about her husband.
Her husband, Steve woke up and he saw his wife, Sasha, facing the other side of the bed, texting.
He wondered who she was chatting with instead of sleeping.
"honey, who are you texting this late?" he asked suspiciously.
"It's no one," She said and immediately switched off her phone to sleep.
***********
THREE MONTHS LATER
It's been three months since Carlos had been in a coma and Anne still hasn't shown up. As for Carl and Richie, they're now on good terms.
Richie is getting better in his academics, topping his class as he should while Carl, on the other hand, hasn't been genuinely happy inside of him.
He has not seen nor been in contact with Anne for up to three months now and it bothers him. He has no idea how long he would be like this until he finally sees her.
However, Carl has been working effortlessly to keep his mind off Anne and be more focused on his job as a prosecutor but whenever he's less busy or during late hours at night, he thought about Anne.
He was still hoping to get a text from her or at least a phone call but there was none. He has tried her number several times with numerous texts but he got no feedback.
It was as if Anne has literally disappeared.
Presently, it's a Saturday morning and as usual, Carl was at the gym working out his biceps and his chiseled abs.
He was shirtless but he was putting on black knee-length joggers that slightly held his waist, revealing his Calvin Klein underwear waistband while his feet were graced with red sneakers that could cost a fortune.
Carl was dripping in sweat and breathing hard from all the workouts. He has been lifting weights and doing some resistance training to keep fit and maintain his sexy, well-defined abs that can literally make any woman drool.
He took a face towel and cleaned his face with it. After that, he kept the face towel around his neck and he started drinking water from a water bottle.
Coincidentally, Sasha walked into the same gym with her gym bag, ready and prepared for some workouts. She was wearing a grey tank top with leggings and her arm looked completely fine like she wasn't even shot in the first place.
Fortunately for her, her eyes met Carl who was standing a few feet away from her.
Her lips were slightly parted as she watched Carl gulping water from the water bottle. Her eyes traced the sweat that streamed down from his neck to his toned chest and down to his six-packs.
Sasha bit down her bottom lip. She had seen Carl shirtless before but this time, Carl's body appeared to be sexier and she suddenly felt hot on the inside.
She smiled subconsciously as she was lustfully admiring his chiseled muscles, wishing in her head to just wrap her body tight in his embrace and feel his warmth.
She didn't understand why she felt this way but it started when Carl became extra nice to her when she got shot. He showered her so much attention and made sure was okay until her wounded arm got healed.
Carl was just being a nice and caring friend but Sasha has started feeling some type of way. She has never been treated that nicely before mostly because she didn't have any friends apart from Carl. All she cares about is work work work and she barely has time for her husband.
Carl threw the empty water bottle in a trash can and to his surprise, he saw Sasha smiling lustfully at him. He mistook her lustful smile as a friendly smile and he smiled back, waving at her.
He walked closer to her and Sasha swallowed hard as she watched him getting close to her. He looked so hot and breathtaking.
"Good morning Sasha, what's good?" Carl said
"hum… everything's cool. It seems like you work out all the time because you look so ripped" Sasha giggled softly.
"Nah, just Saturdays. How's your husband?" he asked and Sasha's mood changed.
She hated it whenever Carl asks about her husband as if he was reminding her that she was married.
"he's out of town," she said.
"Oh alright," he said
"but now that my husband is out of town, you can come over to my place whenever you're less busy," She smiled
"Ever since I got married, you and I haven't been that close anymore. Only work keeps us together" Sasha said
"That's right. I'm only respecting our boundaries because you're a married woman. I wouldn't like it if my woman gets too close to another guy" Carl said.
Sasha delivered a fake smile but she was upset on the inside that Carl turned her down.
In Sasha's case, she's not just a married woman, she's eight years older than Carl. Yes, age is just a number but Carl can never look at her that way. His heart belongs to someone else and he sees her as just a friend.
"Okay, I understand," Sasha said.
"Yeah, see you at work on Monday. Take care of yourself" Carl said to her and she left to do some workouts.
Carl wore a hoodie he collected from his gym bag and left the gym, hanging his gym bag.
He walked down the road and to his greatest surprise, he saw Anne but her side view, amidst the crowd, walking very fast.
Carl tried to fix his eyes on her so he wouldn't lose sight of her because she was almost lost in the crowd.
Carl had a big smile on his face as soon as he saw her. He felt overjoyed to have finally seen Anne. It was the first time he has smiled like that in three months.