Chapter 26. Allyce, you’ve got a lot of nerve.
Allyce stared blankly at the glowing words on the screen: “I don’t have time”.
Ha! Who cares…
Allyce threw down the phone cheerfully, with a cold expression. When office hours were over, she was the first to storm out of the office.
When he arrived home, he found it empty; Severo had not yet returned.
Allyce turns around, takes two apples out of the fridge and lies comfortably on the sofa, eating them and watching TV.
By the time the variety show he was watching was over, it was 7 o’clock and his stomach was growling, but Severo had not yet returned.
Irritated, Allyce called a food delivery service. After eating, she fell asleep on the couch before she had time to prepare her food parcel.
In the middle of the night, Allyce woke up suddenly to feel someone hugging her and asked tiredly, “Who is it?
Severo’s voice came from somewhere above her, his warm breath hitting her face: “It’s me”.
Startled, Allyce’s mind cleared in an instant. In the light of the room, she could see Severo’s face. She tried to pretend to be impassive and struggled to get down. Put me down.
“All right!” Severo said, but he walked over to the bed and then put it down.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.
Allyce pursed her lips and rolled over, burying herself under the covers.
Severo saw that Allyce was ignoring him and sat on the edge of the bed, in a good mood: “Are you angry?
Allyce ignored him.
He continued, “Something really happened before”.
“I don’t care! I don’t care. Just let me sleep, okay?” Allyce sat up and gave him a cold look, then buried herself back under the covers.
Severo’s expression changed slightly and he stopped talking. He turned back to the living room, cleared away the empty food packet and then went into the bathroom.
Hearing the door close, Allyce slowly pulls the blankets down. With her head covered in this weather, she almost dies of heat.
It was then that he realised that Severo did not smell of cigarettes or alcohol. On the contrary, he smelled very fresh. It seemed that he had not been out partying.
…
The next morning, when Allyce woke up, no one was there.
Walking into the dining room, he saw breakfast on the table and the sadness on his face vanished.
He sat down and began to eat, unable to explain what he was feeling.
Was he really so angry yesterday that he didn’t even make her breakfast? And what had he been doing last night that made him come home so late?
Thinking about it, she realised that she knew very little about Severo, but he knew everything about her family background and had even slowly begun to understand her habits and personality.
Shouldn’t she also try to get to know Severo a little better?
This thought kept going round and round in Allyce’s head. Even as she went to work, she thought about it.
As soon as he sat down, he heard his colleagues whispering.
“My boyfriend didn’t come home last night. What if he goes out with another woman?”
“Ask him yourself.
“How can I ask him? I’m worried, but I’m afraid to call him and ask him. It’s not like you know him …”
“Then get close to him …”
Stalking?
Allyce’s jaw dropped when she heard that – was it necessary to harass a man if you wanted to know where he had gone?
Anyway, it seemed you couldn’t ask him to his face even if you wanted to.
“What are you talking about? Harassing who?”
Suddenly, a clear female voice interrupted the conversation between the two companions. allyce looked up unconsciously and saw a familiar figure.
“Lucila, you’re back!”
“Yes, yesterday, today I came to work. What are you talking about? Who are you stalking? Is there something suspicious about your boyfriend?”
“Oh, he’s never …”
The girls became louder as they chatted.
Allyce looked at the girl known to her colleagues as Lucila. She looked at her in disbelief and then ducked her head hastily.
Lucila, her best and only friend in high school, but ….
…
Throughout the day, Allyce didn’t move much as she sat in her seat, as if in a daze.
When it was time to leave work, it suddenly started to rain.
Allyce, who had brought no umbrella, frowns and is about to run away when someone next to her hands her an umbrella: “I’ve brought two umbrellas. I’ll lend you one. You can give it back to me tomorrow.
Allyce froze in place. The owner of the voice was Lucila, the girl she had seen in the office that morning.
“Well … Why don’t you take the umbrella, don’t you want it?” Lucila turned to see Allyce’s face and froze as well. Her voice was a little hesitant as she asked, “Allyce…. Allyce?”
“No… No, you’ve got the wrong person.” Alarmed, Allyce responded hastily, turning and running straight into the downpour.
Lucila followed close behind, catching up with her before she got too far away. She grabbed Allyce’s collar with one hand, “Allyce, how dare you not contact me and come home, damn it! I’m sick of this …”
Drenched by the rain, Allyce’s face turned pale. Seeing that she could no longer escape, she just looked at Lucila and said nothing.
Lucila looked at her fiercely: “Say something! Have you lost your voice since you left the country?”
Allyce looked at the toe of her shoe and whispered: “Sorry …”.
“You …”
Hearing these words, Lucila became angry and wanted to scold her severely; however, someone suddenly pushed her away. If she had not held on to the fence when she was pushed, she would have fallen to the ground.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
Lucila, who had just been forcibly removed, came face to face with Severo, who was holding an umbrella and looking her up and down with anger in his eyes.
“What are you doing? Get out of my way! It’s none of your business.
Allyce sensed Severo’s hostility towards Lucila and quickly pushed him out of her way.
Severo’s expression turned cold: “Well, even if you catch a cold in the rain, it’s none of my business!
“…” Allyce fell silent as she met his gaze.
…
In the café, Allyce and Lucila had changed into clean clothes and were sitting across from each other. Severo was waiting outside in the car.
Allyce stirred the coffee in front of her nervously, “How have you been …?”
As soon as she spoke, Lucila interrupted her: “It’s none of your fucking business.
“It’s been four years, why are you still so rude?” said Allyce quietly.
“Oh! So you know it’s been four years. Shit! At the time, we applied to the same university. But when the semester started, I realised that you were no longer in the country …” Despite the harshness in Lucila’s voice, her eyes turned red.
“I’m so sorry. …” Thinking back to that year, Allyce felt the same way Lucila did.” At that time, my grandfather insisted on sending me abroad. I haven’t had time to tell you about it …”
In fact, she was afraid to tell Lucila because she couldn’t involve her only real friend in the mess.
“If apologies were that effective, we wouldn’t need the police. Lucila glared at her, “You haven’t even contacted me since you got back, Allyce, you’ve got a lot of nerve.