Chapter 65: LXIV

THE TWO ENDED UP in an ice cream parlor inside a mall.

The ice cream parlor was smaller than what Laia expected, especially with how it was the asshat's choice of place. What primarily caught Laia's eye also was how the paintings on the walls seemed to be painted by a child with a very broad imagination.

Especially with how one painting clearly depicts a creature shaped like an ice cream giving out smaller ice-creams to the animals who were lining up to receive the ice cream and proceeding to enjoy their free ice creams.

"Do you like the paintings?" Samuel asked after motioning the girl to sit near the said painting that caught her attention. 

Laia nods, her eyes now moving to another painting that depicted the same creature this time having a tea party with its friends who resembled him but were of different colors. "The artist has a nice way of portraying life,"

The boy nods. "Yeah, the owner's kid is a good artist,"

"Oh," Laia glanced at the front and saw a kid sitting there. She subtly points to the kid. "Is that the young artist?"

Samuel cranes his head to see who Laia was pointing to. Spontaneously, he beckons the kid over making Laia narrow her eyes at him. "Brian, come here!"

"What are you doing!" Laia hissed.

He merely laughs at her reaction and when the small boy had arrived at their table, Samuel makes him face Laia when he initially hid behind the boy's chair. "Brian, say hello to Laia,"

Brian peeks cautiously and shyly waves. "Hi,"

Laia returns the small boy's wave with a wave of her own. "Hi," She gestured at the paintings that filled the ice cream parlor with a dream-like atmosphere. "Your paintings are wonderful,"

The small boy glances at Samuel who beckons for him to respond. He intertwined his chubby and small fingers together and shyly mutters a word of gratitude before running back to the counter, hiding behind one of the staff who chuckles at the boy's actions.

Laia smiles and waves again at the small boy before returning her attention to Samuel who was looking at her with the same look that she doesn't quite understand. "What are you looking at?"

Samuel laughs, resting his chin above his right hand. "You, who else?"

"You are annoying," The girl says, keen on avoiding the boy's gaze as if her life depended on it. "Are we not going to order?"

"I thought you needed more time to look at all of the paintings," Samuel gestured at another set of paintings behind Laia. "The owner doesn't mind much if we take long to order since she's an old friend,"

The boy's revelation made Laia temporarily pause in her steps and she turned to him with a curious expression, obviously wanting him to elaborate which he unexpectedly does after he settled next to a painting that strangely looks like him. "Blair's an old friend and she's the mother of Brian who portrayed me as snow angel here,"

He points to the painting of an angel which was painted white all over except for its chest which was left blank. Laia raises an eyebrow at her companion after staring at the painting longer than she expected. "Is this you?"

Samuel glanced at the painting. "I guess," He walks back to their table after that, making Laia decide to return as well when a few customers had entered the ice cream parlor and made their way to see the painting. 

"Do you like how he," Laia didn't know how would Samuel react to her question but she continued anyway. "uh, how he painted you?"

"It's alright," Samuel sipped from his glass of water. "Brian always had this peculiar way of portraying people as fictional beings and I'm apparently not an exception even if I'm his favorite uncle,"

"You're cousins with the owner, then?"

What did Laia expect, of course, the asshat would be related to the owner of an ice cream parlor which probably already had many branches except the one they are in.

However, she did not expect his answer. "No, we're not related,"

The boy suddenly leans in to whisper. "She's an ex of Sawyer's,"

Laia's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets as she scanned their surroundings to see if anyone might've heard. To her relief, everyone seemed distracted with their ice cream. "You can't just drop something like that in the middle of a public place!"

Samuel rolled his eyes and gestured at the customers who are actually farther from the two than Laia thought. The nearest customers were a couple five tables away and were excessively flirting.

Their flirting may or may have not led to kissing when they thought that nobody was looking.

Nobody except Laia as usual.

Grimacing at what she witnessed, the girl quickly averted her gaze and instead looked at the painting above Samuel's head instead. "What's that painting about?"

Samuel turns around to see what the girl was looking at. "Ah, that's actually one of Brian's first paintings,"

He traced the patterns of the painting with his fingers carefully, as if seeing the work of art for the first time. Laia kept his eyes on the movements of the boy's fingers and realized that his fingers actually looked more elegant than hers.

Glancing at her own fingers, Laia scowled. Seeing her chubby and short fingers reminded her of how they hindered her progress in learning the guitar.

"What's with the scowl?" Samuel asks.

"Nothing," Laia looked away from her fingers, folding them in her lap instead. "Should we order now?"

"If you want,"

Laia raises an eyebrow. "I'll call the waitress, then,"

Samuel nods.

Laia catches the eye of one of the waitresses which she beckoned over. Walking towards them with a pleasing smile, the waitress hands them two menus and patiently waited for their order.

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"Just vanilla ice cream for me, please," Laia says after looking at all the choices and seeing how expensive even one scoop of an ice cream is.

"How many scoops? Toppings?"

Laia shakes her head upon remembering that choosing toppings would be further expensive. "I'm good,"

Samuel suddenly leaned it again, making Laia almost jump in surprise. "You don't have to worry about the money,"

"I'm really good with just a scoop of vanilla ice cream," Laia insists.

However, the boy clearly doesn't believe her. Fortunately, he didn't insist further and leaned back to his chair. He then addresses the waitress who was looking at him. "A parfait, please,"

"Okay," The waitress takes the menus. "Fifteen minutes,"

Laia nods to the waitress as a response when the boy in front of her seemed to be in another bad mood after checking his phone which vibrated after he said his order.

After a moment of silence between the two, Laia decided to start a conversation. "I didn't know you liked parfaits,"

"I don't like it,"

"Then why choose a parfait?"

He shrugs. "I just want to buy the most expensive choice in the menu,"

Laia was about to voice out her opinion regarding the asshole's unnecessary bragging when she noticed that the boy lacked the usual passion in his voice as he spoke those words.

Almost as if he was merely saying the words without any meaning to it.

"Like back at the mansion," Laia whispers to herself when the asshole glances at his phone again and starts massaging his temples. "Are you okay?"

He smirks. "What's with the concern?"

Great, he's trying to change the topic. Laia restrained herself from rolling her eyes in annoyance. "One of your admirers messaging you endlessly?"

"Are you jealous?"

"You are fucking annoying," Laia scowls. "Though on a serious note, what's got your panties in a twist? Did someone message you bad news? Did someone make you mad? Is it one of our classmates--"

"Laia,"

The girl quickly shuts up when the boy addressed her by her given name instead of the usual use of her surname. "What?"

Regardless of the smile on his face, Laia could see how he was actually already irritated. "You're here to have dessert not to interrogate me, remember?"

Deciding not to irritate the boy further, Laia focuses on how her ice cream (or at least she thinks is her ice cream) was being made.

She also takes notice of how Brian had a sketchbook in his hands and seeing that he was lost in thought while holding a pencil, Laia thinks the small boy was probably finding inspiration for his new work of art.

Just as she was about to tell Samuel about it, the boy abruptly stands and leaves without another word after placing a couple of bills on the table, the grip on his phone terrifyingly tight.

"Samuel!" Laia calls out after the boy.

Unfortunately, the boy does not look back. Not once. He does not even stop in his steps.

Realizing that all the customers had their eyes on her, Laia sullenly returns to her seat, confused and visibly frustrated at what just happened.

"What the hell," Laia mutters, grabbing the bills that Samuel left on her hand. "Why the fuck did he just leave out of nowhere--"

At least he left the payment, Laia thinks as a way to console herself.

Great. She probably looks like some sort of gold digger right now to the customers who witnessed the whole scene.

Scratch that. Not only the customers but also the staff and even young Brian who even dropped his sketchbook in the process due to what just happened.

"Ma'am, your ice cream," The waitress reluctantly places the parfait next to Laia's order. "Uhm, your parfait?"

"Uh," Laia sheepishly anywhere but at the waitress who was looking at her with sympathy. "My friend left,"

Laia internally facepalmed at her words.

"I see," The waitress places the parfait back on her tray. "Enjoy your ice cream, miss,"

Laia awkwardly nods and was about to start eating her ice cream when Samuel appeared on the door.

With Amethyst.

Wow.

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