A/N: This one's in Jade's POV.
"- so if you're free next week, I was thinking that maybe we could have dinner with them, maybe by Wednesday. What do you think? Are you free next Wednesday?"
"Babe? Jade?" David, who is sitting across the table, taps your knuckles and effectively interrupts your thoughts of... you're not even sure what.Sand? The ocean? Nape tattoos? Those images have been filling your mind for the past two days. Probably a hangover from the photoshoot. What you're sure of is you've been zoned out for five minutes. You feel a little guilty for not paying attention, but you can't help it.
David, as nice as he is, almost always talks about business stuff – mergers, acquisitions, deals, stocks. This has been the case since you came back, and even before you left. If you wanted to talk about those stuff, you would have stayed in New York for your MBA. It's not as if you don't like talking about business - it's just it's almost all he wants to talk about. He barely asked you about the magazine shoot – just a cursory "how was it?" and nothing else. You didn't even want to have lunch with him today because you were pretty sure that his meeting this afternoon with a bigshot client is all he would talk about. You weren't exactly wrong.He spent the first twenty minutes talking about that and spent the next ten talking about his trip to China in two weeks.
Or maybe you're just nitpicking his faults because you're not in love with him, you never were, but you can't break up with him because you have known him practically all your life and your families have agreed that the two of you are "perfect" for each other. Perfect, as a business transaction, you think. You do not want to take for granted the privilege that you have, but the pressure of being a Tanchingco is too much sometimes – all the time, if you really want to be honest.
Go figure.
"Sorry, I was thinking about, um, my schedule for this week." You resist the urge to bite your fingernails and take a sip of your iced tea instead."You were saying something?"
"Oh. I was asking you if you free next Wednesday for a family dinner," he tells you. "We haven't had dinner with my parents since you came back. They're excited to see you. We should have dinner with them before I go to the mainland."
"Yeah, sure."You figure it wouldn't hurt, even if you're not exactly the biggest fan of his parents. It might appease your dad, who's kinda mad at you for taking the magazine cover without his approval. Your dad can be such a control freak sometimes (all the time), and that's putting it mildly.
"Great, I'll tell them later. Anyway, do you want some dessert? We could grab some ice cream across the street." He's looking around the restaurant, a popular ramen house ten minutes away from his office that you insisted you wanted to try. You stare at him as he takes in the establishment. David is nice, if a little dry and boring. And he's one of your best friends. But there's just no... spark. There never has been and you figure that there never will be. You think maybe if you try hard enough you can generate that spark –that connection, that passion and fire that people always talk about. But you've been trying for basically the past ten years. Still nothing. "This is a really nice place, no? Wasn't a fan of ramen before but I'm glad we tried something new."
"- and Althea, listen, they are insisting that you take the project. It's a big deal. You'd be kind of dumb not to take it," says a woman walking behind where you are seated. Hearing the name immediately makes you think of Althea, your photographer from two days ago, and you smile at the thought of her. You should probably get her number from Jeremy, just to catch up and maybe hang out a little. You were sincere when you told her you wanted to be friends.
