Chapter 41

Elyana's POV I instantly panicked when I didn't see him on the table. I went inside to double-check because all the tables inside were not visible from the outside of the store, but right after I walked in, an angry gay popped up out of nowhere, stunning me. "Where have you been?" he asked. It was evident in his eyes how furious he was when he looked at me, making me feel frightened. "I-I just looked for a store nearby to buy tissue. They don't have tissue paper inside the restroom here, and I used the restroom of the convenience store." I lied, stammering. "Liar," he whispered with a smirk, but enough for somebody that close to hear. "Where have you been?" he asked while maintaining his furious eyes on me. The way he asked that question, it seemed he knew I was lying. The clinic where I went was only across the street, and he made me think that he was the person looking at me when I went out of the door. I was forced to admit where I came from because of the conclusion I created. I walked outside the establishment and told him everything outside because there were customers who would possibly hear me. Afraid of his gaze, I had no choice but to lower my head while talking. I was expecting him to get mad and nag at me, but he remained silent all the time, and when I was in the middle of explaining, he suddenly asked me to stop. Clueless, I raised my head to ask him why; however, he made me frown when I saw him looking in a particular direction. A man was looking at us, and right from the moment our eyes met, he hid from a van parked beside him. "Get in the car, Ellie," Felicity ordered me. "Do you know him?" I asked, but he ignored me. I had no choice but to do what he said. I didn't know who that guy was. Sure enough, he was a foreign national because of his pale white skin and eyes, which were different from the typical brown eyes of Filipinos. "Who is that person? Do you know him?" I asked repeatedly when I got inside Felicity's car. "No, I don't know who that creep is," he answered sassily, but even though he didn't tell me, I felt there was something he knew that I needed to dig into. "It seems you do," I provoked, making him sigh and forcing him to speak. Did he think he could lie to me? As I said, I knew him very well, and he couldn't escape. "I'm certain that I don't know him. If I knew, I would have approached him and confronted him. It's scary when someone checks on me like that. I know I'm too gorgeous, but that one is giving me a bad vibe. We never know; maybe he is a kidnapper and planning to exploit me somewhere," he answered, hugging himself as if the man we saw would take advantage of him. He made me roll my eyes. The stranger's body wasn't even as fit as his. "Your imagination stinks. I thought you were a Filipina girl, modest, but you have so many inappropriate thoughts. You don't even know if he was only looking at you—on us because he wanted to ask for direction or something." "You don't know what's inside people's minds these days, girl. Better to be careful than be sorry," he replied. He was right. It only happened that gay had so many strange ideas to make him think about somebody as a bad person. We decided to leave the place and go back to the mansion. On our way, I was preoccupied. I remained looking into the road and giving the gay some peace. "Are you okay?" he unexpectedly asked. "Yes, I am," I answered as quickly as possible without removing my eyes from the road. When we arrived, Felicity got out of his car before me, and he hurriedly entered the mansion. I couldn't help but watch him walk and disappear from my sight. 'What's wrong with that gay?' I thought before stepping out of the car. "Welcome back, Miss Elyana!" a servant greeted me. "How was the treatment, ma'am? Did it hurt?" she continued, and two other servants approached me as well when they heard I was there. Both were still carrying their cleaning tools; one was holding a duster, and the other was carrying a basket full of different kinds of cleaning chemicals. Both had a worried look on their faces, and I knew by then that the sympathy they had for me was genuine. I smiled while looking at their faces. "It was fine. It didn't hurt at all because of the anesthesia," I answered, and all their faces brightened as they heard my answer. "By the way, I want you to call everyone. I have plans for this coming Christmas," I announced, and I almost laughed at their reactions. Their eyes widened in shock, and they nearly screamed at the top of their lungs out of happiness. One of them covered her colleague's mouth. "S-sorry, Miss Elyana," she apologized. "Don't be sorry. Call the others, and tell them to go into the garden. I will be waiting there." I muttered and asked one of them to get papers and pens. When everyone was already there, including the two guards, I started giving them instructions. I asked them to write down two simple things. Something they had been dreaming of having as a Christmas gift since they were young that they still hadn't received and stated the reason why they wanted that gift. All of them looked at me with confusion at first, but after whispering to each other, they eventually started writing on the piece of paper. "Once done, put everything here inside this bottle," I instructed. I put a bottle on the center table with colorful stones as decoration to show them. They looked like children inside the classroom, all busy with their activities, and after a few minutes, they finished one by one. They folded it and shot it inside the bottle. "I'll keep all of these, and all of you will find out what you will receive on Christmas Eve." The garden was filled with excitement from them. I took the bottle with me right after telling them they could go back to what they were doing. The next day, I woke up early, planning to go shopping for Christmas decorations. I went down to the kitchen to find the most talkative servant we have, whom I named Daldalita because of her loudness and non-stop talkative mouth. "Where is Daldalita?" I asked the servant I met when I got down from the stairs. "She's in the pool area cleaning, Miss Elyana," she answered. "Okay, thank you," I said, but when I thought I might need more than one to help me buy what we needed to decorate the whole mansion, I asked her too if she wanted to come with us. She was a bit surprised. "T-to where, Miss Elyana?" she inquired. "I'm going to the mall today to buy decorations for Christmas. It's a shame that we still don't have any decorations when our neighbors' houses already put lights in front of their houses," I explained. "Y-yes, Miss, I want to come," she eventually replied. "Where are you, girls, planning to go?" The maid and I turned our heads to the person speaking. Felicity's radar was quite impressive to hear what we were talking about because he was still right in the middle of the grand staircase, and he managed to hear what the servant said. "We're just going to buy some Christmas lights to hang around," I answered and I turned to the servant right after. "Please call Daldalita and tell her we're leaving in a few minutes," I politely ordered her. I heard he was going to his office that day, so I would be free from his nagging mouth for the whole day that he was out of my sight. "It is okay for you to go out even if you still have patches?" he asked while pointing to the thin bandages and bandaids I just applied to the area where it wasn't fully healed. "I have something to wear to hide these on my arms," I told him. I knew he was about to start again in his mother-dragon-nagging mode. "Who are you taking with you?" he asked, looking at me seriously, which indicated he was about to disagree with what I was planning that day. "I'll be taking Daldalita and the servant awhile ago. I have the driver and am going to tell the houseboy that I'll be taking him with us too," I answered, making him raise his eyebrow. "Why are you taking that many people? Are you planning to buy everything in the mall today?" Felicity said. It was obvious he was trying to make fun of me, but I wouldn't let him. "Well, I'm planning to buy a lot, and we are going to buy groceries today as well." "You can ask them to buy what you need. Just list everything and send any of them to the mall. You can even order online. There are so many ways to go shopping without leaving the house, girl. Your wounds are not fully healed, and your wound would get infected." "I want to go out too and pick decorations by myself. Is there a problem with that?" I didn't understand why it seemed he wanted to stop us from leaving. 'O-okay, whatever," he uttered coldly and walked away. That wasn't the one I was expecting him to respond to, but luckily he eventually surrendered. I went to the kitchen to have breakfast first. I saw him making himself a sandwich. He picked up two slices of wheat bread and heated them in the toaster. He opened the fridge and took lettuce, a tomato, and the jar of his favorite chicken spread that he brought when he moved his things into the mansion. Aunt Eugene made that. I had tried that chicken spread, and I knew how amazing it tasted. I went closer to him. "Make me some too," I requested. "You have maids, girl. Ask them to make you a sandwich. This is all mine, so back off," Felicity answered without even looking at me. I got offended. It was too obvious that he was annoyed at me when I didn't even do anything. As I approached him, I smelled the shaving cream that reminded me of someone, but I tried to shrug off that thought so I wouldn't ruin my day. "I want one too," I grumbled, and because it seemed he wouldn't make me a sandwich too, I pouted and was about to leave when he suddenly changed his mind. "Go toast your bread," he ordered. When I heard him say this, I sprinted to the table to get wheat bread to toast. He took another leaf of lettuce inside the fridge and sliced me a tomato. I waited, sitting at the counter, for my sandwich, and like a child, watching him prepare it for me. "Here's your sandwich, princess," he sarcastically uttered while placing the plate in front of me. I smiled from ear to ear when I smelled its aroma. "Thank you, bakla! He didn't answer; instead, he only gave a side-eye. Felicity took his plate and mug of coffee to the dining hall. I followed him and enjoyed the sandwich he made for me. I was checking on him from time to time. He was busy on his phone, looking bothered. His phone vibrated a couple of times, and he received messages countless times. "Is there something wrong?" I asked. "H-huh?" He was unexpectedly stunned, acting like he wasn't aware I was there. "I was asking if there's something wrong," I repeated. "No, everything is fine," he replied, taking a sip of his coffee. He placed his phone on the table, and I tried to check if I could see what he was doing, but the screen was too dark for me at that distance to see anything. I guessed he noticed I was checking his phone for him to pick it up and move it to the other side. He went back to eating. I went back to my food and asked a servant to give me a coffee too. While waiting for my cup, Felicity's phone suddenly started ringing. He picked it up right away and, without a word, left with his coffee and unfinished food on the plate.