Coffee and Cigarettes and Everything in Between

Winter

"She's worried you know." A voice from behind me suddenly says surprising me and I almost choked from the milk I'm currently drinking. 

"What the hell Gi! You almost scared me!" It's Wednesday. She shouldn't be here. I look at my wristwatch, it's almost ten in the morning. She's supposed to be in the firm working and I swear I didn't see her when I entered our apartment earlier.

"Well you scared Karina too last night." She says as she open the fridge and pour herself her own glass of milk.

I averted her gaze. "By the way what are you doing here? Don't you have work? Why aren't you at the firm?" I ask her trying to divert her attention.

She leaned on the kitchen counter. "I'm working from home today since I have a case. I have the papers with me in my room."

"Congratulations in advance Gi. I know you'll win it." 

"Thanks but there's still a lot of work to do." She says as she close her eyes probably resting them for a while. 

I put the glass in the sink and washed it. I was about to go back to my room when Giselle suddenly spoke. "Have you texted or called her yet?"

Her. Karina. I thought Giselle has forgotten it already. "Texted who?" I tried to play dumb. I'm not ready to talk about her.

She opens her eyes. She's giving me a knowing look. "There's only one her Winter. And please don't change the topic this time."

"I don't know Gi. Should I?"

She walked towards me and smacked my head lightly making me stumble backwards. "She's your girlfriend you ! Of course you should text her or call her or anything after the stunt that you pulled last night."

Should I? But she left. You told her to go. What do you expect? I told myself. Yes I told her that.

Did I meant it? At that moment, yes.

Did I expect her to actually leave? Yes.

Did I hope for her to stay despite of my words? Yes.

"She's worried about you Winter." Giselle says bringing me back to reality. She sighs and gives me a little smile. "When you weren't answering my calls and texts and when you didn't came home last night, I called her. I asked her if you were with her but she said no. That's when I knew you were in your studio. That's the only place you go to when there's something bothering you." She says rubbing my arm with a smile still on her lips. She knows me too damn well.

"She asked me if we should report you missing or whatever or that maybe we should look for you. She was worried, I could tell from her voice. But I told her you're good and that you'll come back in the morning." Shaking her head she continued. "She's really into you Winter. I don't know what happened between the both of you last night but talk it out with her."

Yes last night. Last night with James.

Treat her well or else I'll take her away from you. His words from the first time I met him at the café months ago came running back to my mind last night.

I'll take her away from you...
I'll take her away from you...
I'll take her away from you...

Was all the words that played in my mind the moment I saw him. And him knowing more about Karina's preferences didn't help either.

Karina prefers banana milkshake. Heck he probably knows her more than I do. 

I drove to my studio last night to think, to paint, to let out steam but nothing happened. I only ended up staring at a blank canvass for hours until I eventually fell asleep.

"If this is about James, I'm telling you there's nothing to it Winter." Giselle says making me look at her. Does she know? Does she know that James used to pursue Karina? I guess the look on my face described what I'm thinking since Giselle answered me.

"He said they went out for a date or two back then but Karina dismissed him apparently. They remained friends though. Plus I'm dating him now. So I really think there's nothing to worry about Winter." She says as she finished her milk.

I narrowed my eyes at her still not entirely sure about James. "Then why didn't he told us that when you asked him last night about how he and Karina knew each other?" 

She smiles. "My question was for the both of them so why didn't Karina also