Chapter 3

"It's finally nice to meet you," Michael smiled, dimples showing up at the sides of his lips. Cute.

Men with dimples look very cute, they look more innocent when they show it. Though I openly admit that men and innocent don't fit in the same sentence.

"Skylar had mentioned about you a lot of times," he added.

Skylar sat alongside me as I gave her a sideways glance before turning to look at him. "I don't think she had said anything good."

Skylar rolled her eyes.

"I was captivated by a few things though," he avowed.

"Like what?"

"Like how you have a passion for hoarding pen caps."

The grip on my orange juice tightened as I processed his words. To be honest, I was hella shocked. No one knew about this secret of mine. No one except for Skylar and look how she betrayed me.

People might think that I was overreacting. But they have no idea how embarrassing it was to have someone you trust spill about your deepest secrets. They probably would have reactions like these, including Michael—

Pen caps?

Really?

Do you still learn ABCs?

Who even collects that?

Then there's my hand raising slowly.

Oh, God. So embarrassing.

Skylar must pay for this.

I passed her a very hard glare while she looked away from me as if nothing was revealed.

"You weren't supposed to say that," Skylar reminded him. Michael just gave her a knowing smile.

"What else did she say?" I asked him, trying hard to compose my calm self.

"Your hobbies. You like singing, playing ludo, watching sports and trying new dishes. You like Indigo colour. You hate taking selfies. You like chocolate flavour ice-cream. Your biggest dream is to visit Dubai and the list just goes on. But I can keep going if you want," he offered.

"Um, no. It's fine," I awkwardly said. "Sad to know that you know everything about me and I don't even have a clue about you."

"So I'm coming to the conclusion that she never told you anything about me."

I inclined a bit closer to him over the table, managing to keep a proper distance between us and whispered, "I don't really pay attention to half the shit she says."

"I heard that you bitch." She glared.

I stuck my tongue out at her. Tit for tat.

He chuckled, amused by our everyday routine.

"In that case don't worry then, you have plenty of time to get to know me." He grinned, he looked really cute when he did that. A part of his dark blonde hair fell on his forehead which gave him a look of his teen-self. May I even add that his mesmerising blue eyes were undeniably attractive.

I separated my lips apart to ask something when Skylar's phone beat me in as the calm music of her ringtone reached every corner of the wall.

She looked at the caller ID before returning her gaze back to us. "Sorry, but I need to take this call."

She apologetically smiled, getting up on her heels she rushed out of the room.

I bit the side of my cheek from inside. If I was mad before then I was beyond it after she left me, all cold within these walls with a completely strange man. If I put these in candid words, I quite had an uneasy feeling about him.

Michael cleared his throat, snapping me out of my reverie. I tittered. "Sorry."

The upward curve on his lips reassured me that he didn't mind. "You wanted to ask me something?"

"I was just wondering if you had any weird hobbies like me."

"Um... if you want to know something weird about me then you should know that I like playing cooking games on the computer," he said, not even being bothered that he had imparted one of his secrets to a stranger.

"Well, cooking games are fun."

He nodded before rerouting the conversation. "So, I heard that the school you work at will officially close down tomorrow?"

I nodded as I slipped a spoon of white sauce pasta in my mouth. "Yes, it will."

"You worked over there for two years. You must be downhearted because of it."

I must salute the unlimited memory chip in his brain. He was so correct about everything, even the small thing was saved by him. This guy was a lot with many surprises.

I awkwardly chuckled. "I don't really feel that depressed, it's all about a part of living. I might get a better job in future."

His blue eyes sparkled. "Optimistic, I see."

I shrugged lightly.

"Was it amusing to you?"

"Very." He chuckled. "I don't see girls like you every day."

"Well, today might be one of your special days."

I involuntarily smacked my head. How come I was uneasy before and flirting now? It was foolish of me, but little time-pass wouldn't matter, would it?

"I'm flattered," he said, taking a piece of his beef into his mouth.

I quickly thought of diverting the topic and putting a stop to my embarrassing self. "You are a defence lawyer like Skylar, right?

He nodded, taking another small portion of beef in. "I'm a newbie right now."

I ohed. "You seem pretty close to Skylar."

"We did our internship together."

I sniggered. "She is a short-tempered woman, how did you manage to keep up with her?"

"Let's just say I got habituated to her."

I laughed at his comment. It was pretty easy to piss her off. However, she never really was angry at me after we grew close to each other. It was as if she never felt bad for whatever I say to her, although, she was a year older than me.

The door softly opened as Skylar peeked through the door. "I'm sorry for ruining the date, but Heaven we need to leave."

***

My sight on the restaurant vanished when Skylar dagged me further down the road. She had a firm grip on my wrist pulling me alongside her. I didn't get her to why she was behaving so eerily like this.

Well, from the start it was her plan to push me in for another unwanted blind stupid date.

"Skylar, what happened? Why are we running as if we have stolen something expensive?" Clear confusion lay in my voice as I asked her for the millionth time.

Skylar took the action of abruptly ceasing us to a stop, turning to look at me as our chest rose up and down catching up our breaths. "Heaven, just know that this wasn't intentional. I never meant this."

The cold breeze of night air brushed us, my body seemingly shivered when a chilly cold sensation ran down my body. I was sort of shivering.

Few strands of her hair fell on her face as she tucked it back behind her ear.

"I'm sorry, Heaven. I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have brought you here. It's my fault. It's completely my fault. If I were more cautious—"

I grabbed Skylar's shoulder, shaking her back to reality as her hazel eyes met mine. Her lips slightly quivered due to the weather and eyes glittering under the streetlights.

"Skylar, don't worry, I know what you do you could never do anything which would bring harm to me. I know that. I know you. So, calm down and tell me slowly, hm?" I said softly as she attempted to calm herself, yet, it wasn't ample.

"That guy back in the restaurant—h-he isn't a human. He is a werewolf," Skylar barely muttered the last part, but it was enough to shock my body. Back there, I knew he seemed quite different. His physique was much broader and muscular; it was no different than a human body, but something just didn't quite resolve with me.

"How did you get to know? The phone call?"

"There's a girl named Sarah, she called me. I thought it was a work-related call and picked it up. But then apparently there's this gossip going on that Michael is a werewolf and she called me to know if I knew about it," She uttered, looking down at her feet. "Heaven, I'm really sorry. I should've known about this before."

"Skylar, it's fine. It's just a small issue. You don't have to shed tears for that. I understand," I solaced her.

She wiped off a tear and said, "I might be over-reacting, but I'm just afraid of losing another best friend."

My eyes softened as I gazed at her. Skylar always had a feeling of fear of losing me. She thought I would leave her if she were to make any mistake. She felt insecure about it and I had to reassure her every time she felt that.

Her former best friend—Riya left her when she found her werewolf mate. They both were pretty close enough to call sisters. When Riya found her mate, her time with Skylar lessened. Skylar didn't mind it at first, but as Riya's bond grew with her mate, in due course, she forgot about Skylar completely. After that, Riya hung out more with her pack mates. This made Skylar feel upset because she used to make excuses to avoid their meetings. I understood her. It's very hard when your own bestie does that.

Skylar might look like a tough girl, but she was very soft and sensitive from inside and I don't intend to bring pain to her. She meant a lot to me. I couldn't even think of overlooking her.

I wrapped my arms around Skylar pulling in for a warm hug. The place, the time and the weather might not be a precise spot to display our emotions, but I could care less about that. Skylar mattered more than anything to me. "You will never lose me, Skylar. I'm not like Riya. We both are very different. And whatever happened is not your fault, so stop crying."

We stayed like that for a minute before I pulled away softly to notice that her eyes were swollen, glassy and red . I sighed looking around our dark vicinity.

"I'm worried. Do you think we can reach home safely?" I changed the subject to come onto the fact that we didn't hae transport to go back home and the night was too dark for the two ladies to wander without any safety measures. I did have a car but wasn't in the mood to drive.

Skylar chuckled, dabbing the tears under her eyes with the handkerchief. "Don't worry, we'll be safe."

I turned back to give her a disbelief look. "How are you sure about it, Miss Genius?"

"Jace has his men watching us, " she said as she walked past me with a small smile.

My mouth was wide open as I stood like that for a while before turning back and catching up to her. "You mean they have been watching us till now!?"

"It's alright. They didn't hear anything we spoke, although, they will go and report him that I cried."

"Are you shitting me right now?"

"No Heaven, I'm not. I understand you, even I had to go through the same phase when Jace forced me to have a few of his pack members to watch over me. It's annoying, but don't you worry Heaven, I'm sure they didn't hear a single syllable we uttered."

"Unbelievable." I sardonically laughed.