Chapter 5
“Why are you even here, Soren?” Callum asked, his tone showing how annoyed and angry he was.
“Um, well, you left your wallet at our house today when you came to help Claudia. She told me to return it to you since I was already on my way to Corvus’ house.” Soren says.
“Oh… How did I not realize?” he pauses for a few moments before saying, “Anyways, thanks. I guess.”
“No problem. Catch you later.” Soren says and leaves.
After closing the door, Callum looks at Rayla apologetically and says, “Rayla, I am so sorry about that. Soren is nice but he can also be… a jerk sometimes. Or even worse than that. I’m very sorry.”
“It’s alright. It wasn't your fault.” she says and gives him a warm smile to reassure him.
“Damn, she looks so pretty when she smiles like that” Callum thought.
“So, do you want to take a shower too? It’s been a long day…”
“Oh yeah, I would like to.”
— — —
Rayla comes out of the shower, wiping her towel using the towel Callum gave her. She finds Callum in the kitchen serving the steak he had prepared. How did he do it so fast?
Callum looks at Rayla and says, “Ah, you’re just in time.”
Rayla smiles warmly at him.
He hands one plate and a fork to her and takes one for himself.
They take a seat on his bed and Rayla takes a bite of the steak.
“Mm, this is good! You’re surprisingly good at cooking.”
“Thank you.”
“You should actually work as a chef instead of a cashier, you know.” she says, biting on to her steak.
“That’s quite a compliment. But no, I might be good at cooking but it’s not really something I’d wanna do to make money.”
“I see.”
Just then, Rayla’s phone rings. Ethari was calling her. “Just a minute.” she says putting her plate on the bedside table. Callum gives her a nod.
“Hi, Ethari!”
“Hello, Rayla dear! How are you?”
“I’m good, how are you? How is Runaan?”
“We’re also good. Runaan’s got… a bit of a cold but other than that, we’re fine.”
“Glad to hear.”
“So, how are things in Katolis going?”
“Great.”
“Have you made any friends?”
“Um, well, at coaching no, not really. But at work, yes.” She takes a sip of her water.
“That’s good. What’s their name?”
“His name is Callum.”
HearingRayla say his name, Callum stops eating and pays more attention to her conversation and Rayla glances at him, taking another sip of water.
“Is he… your… boyfriend or something?”
She chokes on her water.
“Hey, are you okay?” Callum asks, handing her a napkin.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Thank you.”
Ethari hears Callum’s subtle voice through his phone and says, “Is he at your house?!”
“Um, no. I came to his house. He invited me over for dinner.”
“Like… a date?”
“No!” Callum raises an eyebrow at her and she smiles nervously at him. “It’s just a casual hangout.”
Rayla felt like Callum almost understood what Ethari was asking her and she blushed.
“Right. Just a casual hangout.” Ethari repeated Rayla’s words, sounding like he was suspecting her. “Well, then, I wouldn’t want to disturb you. Catch you later.”
“Yeah, bye.” She cuts the call and looks at Callum nervously. “Sorry, my dads were just checking on me.”
“It’s alright.” he says, grinning.
Why was he grinning like that?
She takes her steak and finishes it up.
Callum looks at Rayla and says, “So.. wanna watch a movie?”
“Um, sure.” But where were they going to watch? He didn’t have a TV right? She scanned his apartment once again, to see if she missed the TV or something.
Callum realizes what she’s looking for and says, “We’ll watch it on my laptop. If that’s okay?”
“Oh, sure. That’s fine.”
“Great!” He goes to his desk and brings his laptop. “What type of movies do you like to watch?”
“I’m fine with anything but my favorites are horror and suspense.”
Callum didn’t know why but he already expected Rayla to say horror. She just seemed like the type of person who enjoys it.
“I like them too.” He scrolls through Netflix’s horror genre. “Let’s see…” He finds a horror comedy and asks, “Is horror-comedy okay for you?”
“Yep.”
“Have you watched the movie ‘Goosebumps’?”
“I haven’t.”
“Okay.” He plays the movie and makes his way into the kitchen.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m gonna make some popcorn.”
“Callum… I’m already full. It’s alright just come and watch.”
“What’s a good movie without popcorn?”
Smiling, Rayla rolls her eyes and says, “Fine. I’ll pause it.”
“No need. I’ve already watched it. But I love rewatching movies so it’s not a problem.” He says and makes his way into the kitchen.
He’s such a sweetheart. The past few days have been distracting for Rayla with all the thoughts of Callum in her mind. She just had a feeling about him. Does she have a crush on him? She couldn’t say yes or no to that. And one thing she knew for sure, she’d be thinking of him even more and his thoughts would be even more distracting after this night.
And wow, she had paid no attention to the movie at all.
Callum returns with a big bowl of popcorn and puts it on the bed, between both of them.
“How’s the movie so far?”
She would’ve known if she had been watching it instead of immersing herself in her own thoughts.
“Um, it’s… good.” She says, munching on some popcorn.
— — —
Rayla kept shifting in her position and that made Callum a bit concerned.
“Everything okay?”
“Huh? Oh, um, yeah. I’m just feeling a bit hot.” She was literally sweating.
“Oh, sorry about that. My air conditioner isn’t working.”
“Oh…”
He looks at the hoodie she was wearing and says, “I don’t think that hoodie is helping. Maybe you should remove it.”
She looks at him a bit nervously. “Um…”
“Something wrong?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Well… I didn’t… I didn’t wear anything under it other than my… you know…” She could feel her cheeks turn red.
Callum’s cheeks also become pink. “Oh…” He looks away and says, “Sorry.”
She quickly says, “It’s ok. You didn’t know.”
This was the most awkward situation she had ever got into.
Callum gets up and opens up one of the windows and Rayla feels a lot better.
“Is that okay?”
“Yes, thank you.” She smiles warmly.
That smile again. Callum loved it.