“Babe! I’m at Illani” An unknown number sent me a message

I messaged back “babe? Is this a wrong number? Who is this?”

“It breaks my heart that you forgot me. It’s me Jonathan” he replied.

I called him, he answered after a ring, “hello babe?”

I answered excitedly “babe! Oh, my ghod! How can you not tell me ahead of time? I would have picked you up from the airport.”

“B*tch no! I had someone pick me up” he said confidently.

“Another boy toy?” I replied, teasing.

“Oh, hon no, no, no, I have a project here for a movie, so they called me ahead so we can plan the designs”. He replied,

“Babe, that’s amazing congrats, but let’s not talk about business. How have you been?” I asked curiously.

“Why don’t we meet for coffee? I’m staying at a hotel so let’s go out shopping!” he replied, and I could detect the excitement in his voice.

“Yes! sure! Shopping spree, Just like before?” I said jokingly.

“Of course” he replied.

“Okay babe, tomorrow, 10 am, we have got to start early and let’s go to the Continental Shopping Mall.” I replied.

“Sure, babe, see you tomorrow”. He replied and hung up.

It feels so surreal, talking to him. I miss him, I miss them all. I haven’t felt this good since I got back, which I just realized has been 3 years ago, almost 4 years now. I kept on thinking it was two years ago, but wow, 3 years is a long time. I have been away for so long. I used to see them 6 months a year. I remember meeting all of them in a music summer camp. We used to play our own different instruments, just like an orchestra. I loved that summer so much I begged my parents to study at their school every half of the year. Which they agreed. Remembering those fun memories lifted my mood even more.

I didn’t notice my husband had come back from his errands. I was a bit startled when he asked “Yena? You, okay?”

I nodded smiling

“Then why are you crying?” He asked, looking worried.

I touched my face, and I really was crying. I wiped it with my hands and said “I’m really OK”, then smiled.

Then I remembered and said “by the way, I’m meeting an old friend tomorrow at the Continental.”

He nodded and said “Okay”

He came near me and hugged me, and I hugged him back. We stayed like that for a while, then he said “Are you hungry? I brought you your favorite, but you can only choose one. Korean fried chicken or teriyaki or orange chicken?” and he walked with me out of the room.

I smiled and said, “I want all of it!”

He looked at me with a sad face. “I won’t get any if you get all of them.”

“No it’s all mine” I said with a cute expression on my face and we both ended up laughing.

We went to the kitchen, and he bought 6 pieces of each, so we shared those 18 chickens together.

The next day, I was too excited to wait, so I went to the mall an hour earlier, about 9am, just as the mall was going to open. I went to a café and asked for an Iced latte, to refresh my morning. I texted Jonathan that I was at the café beside the mall, since it was less crowded compared to inside the mall.

I was shocked by what he sent, “babe I’m already at the mall, I can not wait.”

As far as I can remember, Jonathan has never been early nor on time since I have met him.

So I took my latte and left. I saw him at the mall. As expected of him, he has always been gay, but he always liked to dress like the most classy rich man I have ever seen. His black hair is in a semi-leaf cut, sharp dark brown eyes, natural red lips with his signature white coat, white slacks, brown leather shoes and a red handkerchief with silver cufflinks as well as a silver watch. I waved, smiling, and ran towards him. He looked at me with a big smile and wide arms. I hugged him, and he also hugged me as tight as I was.

“Jonny?” I whispered

“Oh princess, stop with the Jonny, we are not 8 anymore, I’m now the fabulous Joan” he said in an amused tone.

I looked up at my tall hot friend.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“What are you looking at? In love with me already?” he said, smiling.

I replied with a flirty tone “I might have at first sight” and giggled.

“Your boobs look bigger now, you can be a pillow” I said, lying on his chest. He always works out to have a better figure.

“Now, babe are we just going to keep hugging or are we going shopping?” he said with excitement written all over his face.

“OK. OK. My treat, buy whatever you want.” I said, showing him the black card like I always did before.

“Oh, please babe, I’m no peasant, I’m as rich as you know” he said arrogantly, and showed me the same card.

I proudly look at it.

“Oh babe, you have missed three years. What do you expect?” he said arrogantly at the same time with a sad expression.

I locked my arms in his and said, “Tell me everything!”

“No. Tell ME everything.” He looked at me curiously and suspiciously.

I unhooked my arms on his, looked at him and looked down embarrassed. “I got married”

“What?!” He looked shocked, disappointed, angry, curious, and had a lot more emotions. I can not name it all.

“Yeah” I began to feel depressed.

“And you didn’t even think of inviting any of us?!” he had not fixed his emotions, yet he looked like a mess.

“I-I couldn’t. I lost my phone the moment I got there and when-when I wanted to go back, there were things that k-kept me from going home, no matter what I did. A-And I couldn’t find any of you on any platforms. I don’t even know how you got my number.” I said and started crying.

He didn’t answer, and I couldn’t help but cry even more. What have I done? He’s going to hate me, not to mention, all of them. What am I going to do?

Then I felt him hug me. “Don’t cry, you know none of us could ever get angry with you when you start crying, our cute little princess poppy”. I tried to stop crying, and he gave me his handkerchief.

“Now let’s go shopping. I’ll treat you since I made you cry” he said, wiping a tear from my eyes.

I nodded and hooked my arms to his again. And started to go around different stores while talking.

“You know you are so unlucky. Remember your long-time crush. What did we call him again?” He thought for a bit and then suddenly said, “Oh yeah! Helio, Lily’s brother you met probably 12 years ago now.” He said with enthusiasm while checking out some clothes.

I nodded, curious.

“A week after you came back here, her brother went to stay with her for like 2 weeks, and you missed him. I always thought you were going to marry him someday. He is one hot ass, by the way, you have good taste.” He said and winked.

“Stop it, I’m already married, and I met him only a few times, A FEW TIMES!” I said embarrassed.

“Well, that didn’t stop you from asking Lily about him, and his baby pictures, didn’t it? You kept daydreaming about him. None of us can even imagine you marrying someone else.” He said teasingly.

I went silent and as red as a tomato.

“Even Lily was very supportive of both of you getting together, what was it that she said, “If you married him, you’d be sisters for real”?” He said, thinking deeply.

I slapped his arm and said, embarrassed and annoyed, “Stop it already!”

“OK. OK. I’ll stop. You might overheat” he said, laughed and walked forward. Then he turned to me and asked curiously “What’s your husband like? I hope he is better than our Helio, or it would just be a losing deal.” He said, thinking deeply.

“He is alright, we were arranged by our parents when we were young. I planned to come here to get all my documents and go back, as you are already aware. And when I couldn’t go back, I did what my parents asked, and I just fell in love with him after dating him for a couple of months, then decided to marry him, since that was what my parents would have wanted. He is rich, a director, tall, blond hair, and blue eyes he is quite handsome, of course. I think that’s it.” I told him with as much detail as I could give. We walked around in silence as I assumed he was thinking of something with how serious he looked.

“What bothers me is why you never told us, you were already arranged to marry someone” he said suspiciously.

“Well, it was because I didn’t love him and, as you have said, I liked Lily’s brother and didn’t plan to marry him after my parent’s death, since no one was going to nag me about it anyway”, I said, feeling guilty about what I just said.

It was a while before he replied “So… are you happy?” he asked this time seriously.

“I am. In a way, my husband is sweet, and I do love him, but I can’t help but feel like I miss home too much. I have no one here, other than my husband and in-laws,” I said while checking out some shoes.

“No, I mean are YOU happy?” He said with a more serious and ominous tone. I was silent for a while. He waited for my answer and didn’t talk.

“No” I said sadly.

“Oh, yeh. You said you had no one here? Didn’t you have the whole semester every year to make friends? That’s basically 4 months, 8am – 5pm classes, 4 days a week, for like 12 years. So how did you have no friends? Did you wait every half of the year to have fun with us?” he asked, a bit more confused now.While I was putting on some shoes.

“Well, if you remember, I once said when we just started to become friends, I used to spend my time studying all the time. I had no time for friends, but at camp all I did was play instruments and talk with you guys. It was later when my parents agreed for me to transfer to your school for half the year that I had slightly more fun in school”, I said, then I heard him sigh and I looked at him.

“So, you are telling me that you not just had the worst childhood, but your world also revolved around us? If I hadn’t come here would any of us ever find out” he said, and he looked stressed.

While I was looking at the shoes, I nodded, and then I remembered “well I used to play in my husband’s house when we were young and stayed there sometimes growing up”, removed the shoes and signaled with my hands to tell the size I needed to a nearby sales clerk.

“Thank ghod, for a moment I thought you were some anti-social psycho” he said and laughed half-heartedly.

“Whatever, this place seems depressing. What a couple of losers! Don’t even know how wonderful our princess is” he said, sounding annoyed as well as confident.

I just giggled and said, “Are we going to keep talking about me or are you going to tell me how all of you are?” Then the sales clerk came with the shoe size, and I tried them on.

“Well, basically just the same as you left but richer” he said, grinning.

“Do elaborate”, I said curiously, bought the shoes and went out.

He took a moment to reply and explain everything “Well, I have become a famous fashion designer, and owner of a clothing brand in Zetiana, called here for business. As you already know, Lily owns her own cosmetics company. Since she graduated as a chemical engineer and medicine in dermatology, her parents helped her with the company at first but just 6 months ago her parents let her manage it on her own, Julian, became a musician and music composer. If I remember correctly, he probably knows how to play a lot of instruments now. And Angelo is our personal hacker or online developer and detective. And he is responsible for finding your number, which he got in a few minutes. He probably also already knows you are married. You didn’t tell us, and he probably already told the others, so good luck, that guy has a temper. I pray for your husband”

I giggled and said “yes, can you please help me with that. I’ll probably visiting in less than a year anyway. I’ll just explain by then.”

“How about we take a break? I think we already bought a few, and I’m tired. When I checked the watch, I found it was already 11.

We went to the parking lot and, of course, Jonathan would not get just any car. He had a sports car. What a walking gold bar. He helped me with my bags, and I got inside the car.

He took me to an expensive restaurant that wasn’t very far from the mall. It was a rooftop restaurant of a 5-star hotel.

We went in intertwined our hands like we used to and got to our table to order our food, “Even your taste hasn’t changed. What is with you, pizza and burger? We are in an expensive restaurant, and you order pizza and a burger?” he said, annoyed and questioning.

“Well, I like pizza and burgers, we can have fish and chips if you want or pair it with an expensive wine” I said and giggled.

“Did you think I was ordering cheap wine?” he replied, insulted.

“My rich friend, has become richer, alright!” I said, smiling with both my hands on his and squeezing them tight.

“So, are you not going to let me meet your husband?” He asked invested.

“I’m her husband”. We heard and found that Michael was walking towards us with a grim expression, but my eyes darkened when I saw who he was with.

“Oh nice to meet you!” he put his hand out and was met with a fist on his face.