? ALL THE WRONG REASONS ?
? EPISODE NINE ?
AM SO SORRY THAT U GUYS HAVE START re-adING FROM HERE AGAIN ..
The following Friday night, she made plans to go to
Gypsys with her friends. She texted Justin to tell him this.
Justin: I’ll see you there.
Her: What?!
Justin: Relax! I’ll be with my friends. But look my way
sometimes, okay?
Her: 🙂
Justin: When you’re there, remember that there’s one
SMOKING h0t guy in the bar who couldn’t take his eyes off
you!
Her: Smoking h0t? Who? Oh, did you mean you?
She smiled when she s£nt him that message.
Justin: The one and only! 😉
Her: Let me get a nee-dle. Your head nee-ds deflating!
Justin: You’re unbelievable! LOL! See you later!
When she stared at her reflection in the mirror, she
couldn’t help feeling proud. She curled her hair with an iron.
It looked more reddish brown. She applied light pink blus-h
and silver and gray eye makeup to emphasize her startling
long-lashed green eyes. She wore a glittery white dress that
ended a few inches above her knees and showed her
perfect curves. The high-heeled sandals gave her extra
height and extra allure.
Yuan gave her a missed call, which meant that they’re
alre-ady in front of her building.
When they arrived at Gypsys, they immediately found
themselves a sp©t in the center of the bar.
“It had to be in the middle of the floor, huh?” Adrienne
rolled her eyes at Jill and Yuan.
“Of course. This is where the action is!” Jill replied,
laughing.
A group of guys entered and walked to the bar in front
of the bartender as if that sp©t was reserved for them.
“Manhattan rakes!” Jill swooned.
“It’s good to see Justin Adams back!” Yuan said.
Adrienne raised a brow. “What do you mean it’s good
to see him back?”
Yuan shrugged. “Lately, he’s been out of circulation.
No one saw him p@rtying at all. His love… excuse me! S-x
life seems pretty quiet.”
“Yeah. I have friends who blogs gossip here and there.
And apparently, they don’t see him much these days.
Before, he went to bars almost every night. Then it’s like he
disappeared! How lucky could we be that he’s here
tonight?”
Adrienne didn’t say anything. But she couldn’t help
smiling, because she knows exactly where and how Justin
had spent his nights lately. In his ap@rtment or hers,
watching movies, drinking on either of their balconies and
only twice, poker nights with his friends.
Adrienne stared at the bar where Justin stood. He
sported those light-tinted Cartier glas-ses again to shield his
eyes. He leaned on the bar, holding a bottle of beer in his
hand. He looked in their direction. Adrienne knew that Justin
was watching her. And because she knew her friends
weren’t looking, she smiled and win-ked at him. She noted
the upward curl of hisl-ips before she turned back to her
friends.
After a couple of seconds, her phone beeped.
Justin: St©p flir-ting with me!
She bit back her l!pto prevent herself from grinning
wi-dely in front of her friends. If they got too curious, they
just might snatch the phone from her to look at what she
was smiling about.
She s£nt him a response: Then st©p staring at me!
Justin: Impossible. I couldn’t st©p looking at you since
the day I la-id eyes on you. 😉 You’re a fox!
She grinned at her phone, then she straightened her
face when she remembered she was with Jill and Yuan.
She s£nt another message to Justin: Now it’s your turn
to st©p flir-ting with me!
She looked over to his location. She found him staring
at his phone and then he grinned wi-dely at it. He looked at
her for a while, the smile still pasted on his face, and then
he typed something on his phone. Then she saw him bring it
to hisl-ips and k!$$£d the screen. Then he looked at her
again, smiling crookedly.
Her phone beeped again.
Justin: Justin Adams just gave Adrienne Miller a
thorou-gh k!sson thel-ips!
She couldn’t help giggling this time and she knew she
began blu-shing all over. When she looked up, she found two
pairs of curious eyes staring at her.
She cleared her throat. “Nothing. Kimberly s£nt a
broadcast on chat. Medical joke. Wanna hear?”
plea-se say no! She silently prayed.
Jill wrinkled her nose and Yuan rolled his eyes. “No,
thanks!” they said in unison, much to Adrienne’s relief.
After a bottle of Breezer, Adrienne excused herself to
go to the ladies’ room. She went throu-gh the first door and
found two other doors in front of her. The door on the left
led to the men’s room and the other to the ladies’. She took
the door to her right.
As she ret©uçhed her l!pgloss, she noticed the women
around her. Some of their outfits seemed too skimpy for her
taste. She thought one or two girls had started hurling in
one of the cubicles. Most of them still spoke about how
many cute and available guys c@m£ that night and how had become. Was she really too prudish and too sheltered?
She went out the first door. As she reached for the
handle of the second one that will lead her to the bar, it
opened and two girls rushed inside. One had her hand to
her mouth, obviously trying to make it to the ladies’ room to
throw up but it didn’t look like she was going to make it.
Unfortunately, this girl had come directly in front of
Adrienne. She feared she was too shocked to react or stay
out of the way. She watched in horror as the girl lunged
forward and made a puking sound.
Suddenly, she felt someb©dy pu-ll her w@!st and yank
her out of the way. The girl vomited a meter away from her,
much to her relief.
It took her a moment to realize that whoever pu-ll-ed
her still held her. She looked up and saw a pair of gorgeous
aquamarine eyes. His hair was brown with a little tint of red.
He was looking back at her in surprise as well. A s-en-se of
familiarity sh0t toward her, which made her aware that he
was still holding her.
She took a step back from him. His eyes were
narrowed, as if he was trying to place her. His face looked
familiar too, which she found quite odd.
“Have…we met before?” he asked.
Standing half a meter away from him, she got the
chance to look at him further. He was taller than her,
probably as tall as Justin. He appeared lean, and the white
long-sleeved shi-t he wore outlined a bit of his well-toned
physique.
She would have remembered meeting him. He was
very—and she meant very—good-looking. Like he stepped
out of the covers of a magazine. But she was positive she
hasn’t seen him around yet. But something about him
seemed oddly familiar.
She shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.”
“Sorry. I thought I’ve seen you before.” He smiled,
flashing her his perfect set of teeth and de-ep, adorable
each hoped to score one of them.
She couldn’t help wondering where she’d been all her
life and what made her oblivious at how liberated the world dimples on either side of his cheeks, just beside hisl-ips.
Then he reached forward and extended his hand to her. “I’m
Jin. Jin Starck.”
She stared at his hand for a moment and decided to
shake it. “Adrienne. Adrienne Miller.”
Adrienne heard a cough behind her. She turned
around and found Justin, a grave look was plastered on his
face. Immediately, she pu-ll-ed her hand away from the guy.
The guy looked from her to Justin, and Adrienne saw
the realization crossing his face. He took in the look on
Justin’s face and immediately concluded that Adrienne was
with him.
“Well, you’re welcome,” he said to Justin, his eyes
glittering.
Justin sh0t an eyebrow up. “For what?”
“I just saved your girlfriend’s dress from going in the
trash bin,” he said cheerfully. Then he stared at Adrienne
and smiled. “See you around, Adrienne Miller.” He win-ked at
her before he exited the room.
Adrienne turned to Justin who didn’t look too happy.
“Yeah, a girl almost puked on me,” she said, pointing at the
nas-ty vomit on the floor that was now being cleaned up by a
female maintenance worker.
He glared at her for a long moment and then he shook
his head.
“What?” she asked.
“You have ten seconds to get back to your table. Or
I’m taking you there and you will have a lot of explaining to
do to your friends,” he said in an arctic-clad voice.
“Justin…” she started.
“Ten… nine…” He started counting which made her
panic. She quic-kly turned on her heels and she took a run
for the exit.
Adrienne was p@n-ting when she got back to her table.
“What happened to you?” Jill asked.
It took a moment for Adrienne to compose herself.
“Some girl almost puked on me.”
“And it’s only eleven, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome
to the twenty-first century!” Yuan chuckled.
When she peered at the bar, she found that Justin had
alre-ady gotten back to his seat. He had his back to her.
An ugly, guilty feeling gnawed her and she couldn’t
un-derstand it. Was she wrong to shake that guy’s hand? He
introduced himself to her politely, and he saved her from a
disastrous wardrobe emergency. It seemed only right to
shake his hand, no?
Then why did she feel like she was cheating? Why did
she feel like Justin had every right to be pissed off?
She took out her phone and started typing: Are you
okay?
She didn’t receive a response. She kept looking at her
phone and at the bar where Justin sat. He still had his back
to her and it looked like he was drinking quietly.
She tried again. Hey, handsome! Smile, okay?
She saw Justin looking down, probably re-ading her
message.
Finally, her phone beeped. Her heart skipped a beat
as she re-ad his message.
Justin: Can’t smile. Some guy ogled my girl.
She smiled at those last two words. My girl.
She replied: He was not ogling! And besides did you
see her ogle back?
Justin: No. But I still feel bad. So, she has to make up
for it!
Her: How?
She waited for like forever for his response. Then
finally, her phone beeped again.
Justin: She has to go on a d@t£ with me. This time, I
name the place and the terms.
She bit herl-ip. She had to keep herself from
screaming her heart out.
Her: She says okay. But you have to remember the
rules. Nothing public.
Justin: Nope. I said I will be the one to name the
terms.
Adrienne sighed. She knew in her heart that she loved
this guy. And he’d done so much for her. He knew what he’s
doing. He promised not to pressure her. So she typed her
answer and hit s£nd: All right Mr. Adams! You got yourself a
d@t£!
After a minute he responded: Now, Miss Miller… I’m
smiling all the way! 🙂
She looked at him. True enough, he started looking in
her direction, hisl-ips curved in a smile that she knew was
meant only for her.