Drowning In Your Love

A Fresh Start

After Five Years

Sarawat had been nominated for National Book Award for his latest novel, 'Once In Blue Moon'. It was the real events that had transpired in his life when he encountered Brett. He had changed character's names and kept all their personal information confidential. Only people who had been involved knew it was a true story. For the rest of the world it was another well written fiction. Sales had been quite high and there was talk of adapting it into a drama. He was attending the function with Mew and his publisher.

It's been five years since he last saw Tine. At first he almost went searching for him but stopped himself. He wasn't ready to accept Tine and he was sure Tine needed some space as well. He was glad they had thought of opening bank accounts under Tine and Gulf name. He deposited money every month even though Tine had told him to not do it anymore. He couldn't help it. How can he just pretend everything was okay? Worry plagued him day and night. How would Tine survive out there? He had no family, friends or relatives. Only person he had by his side was Gulf. If they got in trouble, who would help them? Who could they ask for help? He knew even though Tine had his number, he wouldn't call him.

He could hardly focus on anything. He had stopped working on his novel, he hardly went out of his room, he moped around all day. Mew had come up with the idea to have someone keep an eye on Tine and Gulf. Wat brightened up instantly, that was the perfect solution. He hired a man to follow Tine and Gulf around, making sure they never got into any trouble or nothing wrong happened to them. He was instructed to protect them all cost. Of course he knew it was wrong thing, he was discarding Tine's wishes and privacy, but what else could he do? He couldn't keep Tine by his side because of everything. His father would never approve of that and a part of him understood that.

If he told Tine about this, he would obviously not take his help so this was the only way things could work out. He didn't pry in Tine's personal life. He had told the bodyguard to only inform him something happened to Tine or Gulf, however minuscule. Mew tried his best to hide it but Wat could see how he needed to know every single day that Gulf was doing fine. That's how they kept their sanity intact and got some work done at the same time. In the beginning Tine and Gulf stayed at a motel but soon they rented a place with the money Wat sent them. It was small but enough for two of them. They decorated it beautifully and were quite content with the place that will be their home from now on.

They started out by working random jobs as waiters in restaurants or cafe, delivery guy or in convenience stores. It was hard but they held out. They didn't have college degree so it was quite hard to get any good paying job. Tine had told Wat to stop sending them money every month but he didn't listen. Gulf said they should save it and open a bakery with it. Tine had refused at first. Running a bakery was no joke. They didn't know anything about business at all to open a bakery out of blue. But the only thing they were good at was baking. They started out small, they only took small orders for a party or celebration and delivered pastries, cakes or cupcakes. They hadn't rented out a place for their shop yet. They didn't get many orders at first. Once or twice a month. There was hardly a need of shop for that.

But soon words spread around and they got some loyal customers. They had saved enough money to open a shop. They named it Penelope's Bakery. Tine had been quite surprised at how easily they had got the place and license for the shop but didn't think much of it. When Wat had learnt that his boy wanted to open a shop, he had made sure things wouldn't be hard. At first, he had thought of placing orders under different name and address but stopped at the last moment. Tine was working hard to turn his life around, his efforts were genuine. It would be wrong to deceive him into thinking that he was successful. If he ever learnt the truth, he would be devastated.

He had full faith in his boy, he knew Tine would make something of himself and that turned out to be true. His shop was doing quite well and Wat was proud of both of them. Wat and Mew ordered from the bakery once every month. It made them feel a little closer to the boys. Wat's father was doing pretty well too. In beginning, he hardly stepped out of his room. Wat's aunt and cousins had taken care of his father and now he was better than before. Derek had taken control of business once again and things were going smoothly. Brett had been killed in the prison by other inmates. Wat just hoped his death had been a painful one. Everyone was moving on with their lives.

Though Tine pretended to not be interested in Wat but couldn't stop himself from reading every news article or instagram post about him. Tine had read all of his books including his latest novel. He couldn't stop the tears when he reached the part where Penelope had died. He felt a stab of guilt but pulled himself together. Being as handsome as Sarawat was, there were many fan pages and fan club posting about every little move he made. He was nothing short of celebrity in his own right. Tine was glad he was doing well. It made him happy to see Wat being successful.