"It's so quiet here."
Alexis let her eyes roam around the soft glow of the sun glimmering on the surface of lake water. Had she known there was a place near the wedding, she would have carried her legs long ago to here, excusing herself from the drama. To think she even accepted the suggestion of a stranger she didn't even know one hour ago, doesn't even know now, is wild. But what is even less wilder about the day anyway.
"Thank you," Alexis this time looked behind her to find the silent man standing still watching the lake water drifting slowly on the surface as if that's the only thing to look at in the whole surrounding. As if he wasn't the person who suggested she walk out of the wedding to lessen her frustration. As if he wasn't the man who made her walk 100 meters in her pathetically long satin. But somehow knew she would be responded with another silence. He didn't look like the talkative type. He was more like Idon'twanttotalk and youcangotohell type.
But Alexis wasn't going to give up at all. She came here to scream and she will scream, even if her lungs tear out today.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
The lake returned her scream back with a bit of distortion. She screamed some more, not realizing it was more than ten minutes since they reached the lake. She looked back, finally realizing she never warned him what she was going to do. But to her surprise, she found him looking at her while his hand offered a glass she left behind on the bar. Holding a wine bottle in another hand.
Cool, wine would be perfect for their outfit. Whiskey would be too raw. Surprisingly, Alexis didn't question where he got all those and is it even safe to get drunk in an unknown place with a stranger. She has never been so daring and careless about her security. But somehow this man felt like someone safe, someone who wouldn't hurt her.
"How did you know my name?" Alexis wanted to blur out the first question that she wanted to ask him for a long time now. She wasn't being careful today, but she at least needed to know this.
But she restrained herself. What if he is an actual criminal and she is going to die now? He can be a smuggler, after her organs. But why not keep the best part for the last? Or else she won't get to know other things about him, also the wine was too good to leave behind just to die by the hands of a killer with his freaking killer looks.
Well, it was an undeniable fact he was handsome. He wasn't just handsome, he was handsome, handsome. Like really handsome. I would like to draw you and hang your portrait on my wall type of handsome now that she finally decided to observe him as a human specimen, her one of the favorite subjects of passion. Too artistic, too quiet.
Instead of asking the question she wanted to ask badly she started with something different.
"Are you a magician?" and gained a little eyebrow lifting show in response.
Alexis lifted the glass this time, to point out how he somehow magically appeared with wine and glasses. He somehow understood and pointed his index towards something behind her.
Alexis didn't understand at first but then found her eyes hovering over a small cottage. It wasn't that small, but it looked like one compared to the large lake.
Who is the luckiest person to live here? The lake view was insanely mesmerizing, so was the placement of the cottage. Now this place no longer looks like a government property. Did they just invade someone else's property and he just stole these glasses and wine from them? It sounds wild but she was up for it. As long as she can feed her empty stomach some booze to forget the turmoil of emotions.
"Thank you," Alexis said under her breath as her eyes drifted towards the glass he extended, almost half of the glass was filled with rich wine. She could smell it. Good start to the new journey, she thought.
"This place is good for screaming," she blurted out another statement knowing she will not be responded to again.
Aleis found the man looking at the water of the lake again. That stare was unconditionally lonely, she could feel it. There must be a story of his too, just like hers. She wanted to know it before she could spill out hers. It's no use just to be vulnerable alone when her listener is going to be a stranger she didn't even know.
"Thank you again for helping me, back there. I needed that," she took another attempt to strike up a conversation.
She found him looking at her with his pale brown eyes again. The afternoon glow was almost piercing his eyes, making him look even better than he was already looking. Oh to have a model like him for shoots, Alexis wondered.
"You're welcome."
Amazing. He didn't even ask anything about the awkward situation he witnessed at the wedding which she starred in. Not like she cared for him or wanted him to bring that up himself, but still? A little bit of curiosity is normal, isn't it?
"Sooo…? Can I ask which side you are from? The groom or the bride?"
Here it goes again. That eye-contact. She wasn't good with these eye-contact things. But looks like this man likes to talk to people looking into their eyes. More like looking into their souls.
"Venessa and I used to cross our path a lot due to our work."
Aelxis's mouth was instantly shaped as 'o' but she didn't dare to spell a single sound as she wanted him to finish.
Arthur didn't continue, he just put a full stop there. Venessa was a journalist, a little bit older than Alexis, that she already knew. But she didn't know what this man did for a living. He didn't look like someone who is just a journalist, more like someone who will own a few journalists. Was he a model? Then she should have seen him somewhere right?
But the most important part of this was that Alexis could catch what he meant by that single sentence.
Giving up on the idea that he might continue, Alexis let herself speak, "so you're telling me you just watched your ex-girlfriend getting married today and now you're drinking with the ex-girlfriend of your ex-girlfriend's husband? My God, this is messed up."
She did add it being messed up in the end but she couldn't help but chuckle a bit too loudly contrasting the quiet surrounding. Arthur stared at her, somehow looking a bit taken aback by her reaction.
"Im so sorry, haha…ah…it's so funny and at the same time so pathetic," her eyes became watery as she laughed even louder that can't be specified as chuckle anymore.
Now it fully made sense. The way Venessa freezed just after seeing Arthur beside her explained the situation a lot.
"Aww man, now I think I don't know Venessa at all. She is a sweet woman, but she never let me know she was dating a hot shot. I mean I'm sorry but you're hot. Her loss," she closed her one eye teasingly, but her compliment was genuine although she knew she wouldn't be getting any reaction at all.
"Well, so many unpredictable things happen in life, don't they? Even I also thought my first relationship will last forever and I will marry that guy, settle down with him, overcome all the problems together until I die and what not, forgetting about what age I'm living in. So silly and old school, isn't it? But now? Look at me! Here I am attending the wedding of the same person I thought I would spend the rest of my life with while he ghosted me for months and getting married with someone else after breaking up with me on the phone."
Alexis felt his gaze become darker.
"You saw him, didn't you? Being all dressed up and still getting mad at me for showing up. I should have just kicked his balls and scratched his face with my pretty nails," she gestured how she would have done it while talking.
"Why didn't you?" surprising Alexis, Arthur replied, returning her gaze.
This time, Alexis couldn't reply. She just smiled, although her heart and head both ached and it was killing her. How can she tell this stranger that if it wasn't for her self-respect, she could have begged Stefan not to leave her. It was so shameful to admit that she was still in love with that crude man.
She was so scared to admit that she couldn't forget a single thing about him even after one year of no physical encounter.
And the lemon cake? It felt like a joke to her. He hated having those and she always joked how she would make him eat lemon cakes beside her until he died.
Was it to mock her or he suddenly started loving lemon cakes? She doesn't know that. She doesnt wanna know that.
Maybe knowing too much will bring out another side of the page that will be hard to handle for her. Its already been too hard for her. Too hard.