Emotionally drained and famished for skipping lunch, Summer made her way to the parking lot where she had parked her car in its usual spot.
Her scalp and the back of her neck kept tingling with the feeling that someone was watching her. 'I'm just being paranoid,' She stayed overtime to brief her team on what had happened in the meeting with the CEO after everybody had finished the work already assigned to them. They all decided to go out and grab a bite at some fancy new restaurant after that, they didn't neglect to send out an invitation to the CEO through his assistant knowing all too well that he could never spare time for such things.
It was just them making a conscious effort to loosen up.
While Summer encouraged her colleagues and supported them to go through with their plan, she excused herself telling them that she had a prior engagement. 'Gabe is considered a prior engagement, right?' She tried not to feel too guilty about blowing her colleagues off, at the end, Summer learned the hard way that while everyone else's feelings mattered, her well-being came first.
She nodded at that afterthought when her car was finally in view, 'My precious baby,' Summer mentally greeted the car she loved so much. Though it was troublesome to take out a loan for it, her Mini Cooper was worth every drop of sweat she put into repaying the loan with interest.
Summer took her phone out of her pocket and called her brother as she opened the door and hurried inside with an increasing sensation of an invasion of privacy taking over her, she locked the doors and felt better almost immediately when her brother answered.
"Sunny! I was just about to call you! How weird is that?"
Summer smiled as she slumped down in the driver's seat and released the breath she kept locked in her chest, she quickly decided to rest for a couple of minutes before she drove back home while she chatted with Gabe, "I just left the office, if you're somewhere close, do you want to grab a bite with me and then maybe crash at my place tonight as well?" She squeezed her eyes shut at the sudden embarrassment; it was as if she was the younger sibling that needed looking after, not the other way around.
There was a long pause that embarrassed Summer even further, she wasn't supposed to rely on him now when she still had a chance of finding the man that the Gypsy called 'true love', but it somehow became like that a bit too early for her calculations.
"…That's… actually perfect! I'm in this new restaurant not too far from your workplace,"
As if on cue, Summer's stomach grumbled, "Argh, I skipped lunch because my stomach was tied in knots, glad you're already there, send me a live location please~"
"I told you not to worry too much," her brother jumped to the wrong conclusion. "You'll feel better once you eat, sending the location now, bye!" Gabe ended the call without waiting for his sister to say something.
She took her phone off her ear and glared at the black screen wondering why her brother became ruder ever since they changed states. 'Or was he always like this', Summer couldn't decide, they grew much closer when the two of them separated themselves from their family home. Back in Summer's hometown, she always considered herself closer to her older brother Michael than Gabe.
Little did she know what the brother she was getting to know better had cooked for her in that restaurant.
***
"…Patrick?!"
"Hi! How nice it is to see you without a car window between us!"
Patrick made his way to a confused looking Summer while she was busy eyeing the brown jacket she gave her brother for Christmas last year, 'He is definitely here, so why didn't he mention he was with somebody alread- gah!,' Summer's train of thoughts made an abrupt stop when she was pulled into a bear hug by her childhood friend. With her face squeezed between his bicep and chest, her frown turned into a smile at his familiar musky perfume, the man didn't change it once ever since she could recall it, the hug and the perfume, both of them reminded her of their high school days.
"There you go!" He encouraged her when she finally hugged him back. And after the long discussion he had with Gabe, he found himself hoping that his hug wouldn't be the only thing he received back from her. He let her go a little too fast for his liking, "I heard someone is cranky because they're skipping meals,"
Summer rolled her eyes, "It's the other way around, don't even get me started on what happened today, you'll get secondhand embarrassment," Summer walked to where her brother's jacket was taking it as a universal hint that she should sit in his place. She wanted to let Gabe know subtly that not telling her he was with Patrick beforehand was annoying and then not so subtly yell at him back at her place, but The sight of her favorite dish on the table waiting for her to just open her mouth and put the fork in was all it took for her to forgive Gabe, 'Patrick is on my okay list anyhow,' she really didn't mind dining with a friend.
Patrick smiled, "I see you still like Italian,"
"The word you're looking for is 'love',"
The smile on Patrick's face wavered but Summer didn't notice that as she was busy taking a big bite of her Fettuccine Alfredo.
"You talk, I eat," she said between bites.
Patrick's grip squeezed his side of the table as he thought about his next move, the calculative person that he was, he decided that he had been presented with the perfect opportunity to do what he had been reluctant to do for a long time now. He had to be honest with both, himself and the woman sitting across from him.
"I'd love to sit and idly chat about the weather since you look like you had a tough day, but I can't do that,"
Summer raised one eyebrow at her plate, wondering what that was all about out of the blue. But her mouth was too full to ask for an explanation.
"Gabe told me about the Gypsy,"
*Cough!*
*Cough!*
*Cough!*
Patrick pushed his untouched water glass forward to Summer who was choking on her Fettuccine Alfredo, she grabbed the glass and took a few sips letting her appreciation seep through her eyes as she nodded at Patrick, then she reached for the napkin she had placed on her lap and dabbed her mouth dry with it. She took a few breaths as she searched her friend's face, it didn't look like he was laughing at her, but it didn't look like he was mourning her loss either. She tilted her neck to the side, "What are your thoughts about it?".
"I think you should take it seriously,"
Summer's eyebrows went up and down in surprise which was mixed with another wave of appreciation, Patrick had always been a reliable guy, and right about now, any advice that came her way would be highly appreciated.
"That's why I think you should go out with me,"
She nodded thoughtfully before really registering what he had said to her, she froze mid-nod when his words finally sank in. Her index finger gestured between the two of them going back and forth, her body trying to confirm that her ears heard the man sitting across from her correctly.
"Aha, you and I," Patrick confirmed with a serious expression on his face.
It was the moment Patrick had been waiting for, and this wasn't new, it had been a bit long overdue, he started crushing on Summer right around high school, and by the end of that, one of his nightmares was the fact that he was friend-zoned by his crush still. He lost all hope when they went to different universities but when she contacted him again to let him know that she'd be moving and to ask for a recommendation for her brother, hope blossomed again in Patrick's friend-zoned heart so badly that he ended up ending things with his girlfriend at the very same evening.
But the look on Summer's face right now did not help soothe his nerves. She placed her napkin next to her half full plate and stared at the food with a bemused expression, "Since your opening sentence was about the fortune-teller, then I believe you heard the prophecy," Summer wanted to double check if Patrick pitied her and wanted to go out in an attempt to save the life of one of his friends. While that was noble and all, it really didn't fulfill the purpose of the prophecy.
"You're not dying on Valentine's Day," he said with a dismissive tone. While the Gypsy did Patrick a favor by pure coincidence, she took it too far with the death sentence she decided to place on Summer's neck.
Summer looked at him with a spark of anger in her blue eyes, "that's not the part I was talking about,"
Patrick nodded, he wasn't a fool who could not follow, this was the part about 'true love' and he couldn't help the wave of heat that spread through his chest, "Do I have to make a marriage proposal to be taken seriously then?"
Summer gave him a cold look that said she took his words as sarcasm when he was being dead serious.
"That damned friend zone…" He murmured under his breath too low for Summer to hear.
"Excuse me?" Summer didn't hear what he said but it sounded like he was swearing.
He leaned forward, "…We have known each other for years Summer, I'm asking you to take the woman's words seriously, and I'm asking you to go out on a date with me,"
Summer didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this point.