Cover (Story) Girl by Chris Mariano

Author:Chris Mariano
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chris Mariano

Chapter Ten

“HELLO, MIN HEE?” Gio greeted when his phone rang. It was the weekend after their sightseeing trip—and a day after their almost-kiss. She hadn’t contacted him ever since they parted but he had also been too distracted by work to worry. Leaving early the day before meant he had a lot of ground to make up today, so he had already warned his mother that he would be late getting home.

But it wasn’t Min Hee on the other end of the line. “Sorry, sir, do you know the owner of this phone?” the speaker addressed him in Aklanon.

“Yes, is something wrong?” he asked, worried.

“Not really, sir,” the man said. He named a bar near Station 1. “We found this phone here and this was the only local number in it. We wondered if you knew the owner.”

“Yeah, yeah, I do. Uh, I’ll be there soon,” he said.

Well, he was almost done with work anyway. He did a final check, said good night to Yeban on duty, then made his way to the bar. He figured that once he got the phone back, he could return it to her hotel. Thankfully, it was a short tricycle ride away, and the bartender seemed to be eager to hand the phone over to someone else.

Gio half-expected the phone to be the cheap one that Min Hee had been using to text him. To his surprise, she had nearly lost the more expensive one, which probably explained why there were no other local numbers stored there. Except his.

Huh.

That definitely was not how he remembered it.

“Thanks,” he told the bartender and turned to leave. But just as he did, he caught a familiar figure half-draped over one of the low tables.

“Min Hee?”

She looked cheerfully dazed. “Mr. Museum! Come and join us… me… us!”

Gio walked towards her, holding out her phone. “There are better ways to not answer your phone than leaving them for strangers to find.” He sat down beside her. “Are you here by yourself?”

Min Hee waved a lazy hand. “Oh, Da Kyong was with me.”

“Where did she go?” he asked, craning his neck to see if the other girl was around.

“Leave her alone,” Min Hee said loudly. “Wait… do you like her?” She raised her glass to him and pointed accusingly. Vodka spilled all over the table, even splashing on his jeans.

“Wha—no.” He shook his head. “I mean, of course I like her. I was just wondering where she went.”

“You so like her because you think she’s smart!”

“I think you’ve had enough, Min Hee,” Gio told her, putting her drink down.

“But we’re celebrating!” she pouted.

“No, we’re not. Come on, I’m taking you home,” he said firmly. He counted five empty glasses. Things were going downhill fast. He gestured for the check and their waitress sidestepped a fire dancer to hand it to him.

“Why don’t you drink some water?” he asked her as he settled the bill.

Min Hee shook her head. “I can’t pour myself a drink.”

“Don’t be lazy,” he scolded her.

“I’m not!” Min Hee protested.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.