Kill for Love

Chapter 36 - I'll Be Watching You

Her hands are starting to get cold, and her heart is now beating crazily. She bit her lips to control her shivering. She suddenly feels cold. She tried to be as calm as possible while putting her phone back on her shoulder bag. She hugged herself and started caressing her shoulders to calm herself down. Suddenly, she got distorted from reality.

“Are you cold?” Gaus asked her.

Cytherea didn’t respond. She just continuously caressed her shoulders.

Lemnos stood up and took off his leather jacket, and put it around her shoulder. Cytherea was startled when she felt a warm, soft thing that was now wrapped in her shoulder. She looked up and found Lemnos beside her. She forced a smile. Lemnos went back to his seat.

“Are you okay? You are shivering,” Lemnos asked as soon as he sat on the chair.

“I’m okay. I just feel cold for some odd reason.”

Lemnos was not convinced that Cytherea is okay. He can still see that she’s shivering not from cold but from something else. Her eyes are uneasy, and she keeps biting her lips. 

"I'm not trying to be rude or anything like that, but I can tell you are bothered about something. You know you can always tell Gaus or us, whichever you preferred. Ever since you looked at your phone, your expression changed." Lemnos looked at her intently. He was hoping that Cytherea would tell them what’s bothering her.

Cytherea took several deep breaths. She was hesitant to tell them or not, but she knows that eventually, she will have to be honest with them since they’re going to help her anyway.

“Umm,” she started. She took a deep breath again. She is getting all her courage to tell them about the text message. 

‘If Astilbe is watching me right now, he will know that I told them about the text message that I just received from him. Is it going to be safe?’ She thought.

She looked at Gaus and Lemnos. They were both looking intently at her. By their looks, she can tell that they are waiting for her to tell them why she is acting really strange. 

She took another deep breath again. She was about to tell them when her phone suddenly beeped again.

She took her phone again from her bag and read the message.

Go ahead. Tell them I’m back.

Her eyes widened as she read the message. She immediately handed her phone to Lemnos, which he accepted right away.

His face turned serious. He clenched his fist. Gaus, who was also curious about what was on the phone, moved closer to Lemnos and peaked behind his back. Gaus’ jaw dropped as he saw the text message.

Cytherea doesn’t want to cry. She wants Astilbe to see that she is a brave and strong person. That she is not someone he can toy with. Even though deep inside, she’s already crumbling. She doesn’t want to give him the satisfaction that she is starting to be afraid of him.

Suddenly, the music playing in the coffee shop’s soundbox got distorted like it was a broken record. Then after a few minutes, a different song was played.

(Playing: Every Breath You Take by The Police (c))

Every breath you take

Every move you make

Every step you make

I’ll be watching you…

Cytherea’s eyes widened. She looked at the barista. She thought that the barista had something to do with the song. But the barista also looked confused while looking at the soundbox. She looked like she didn't have any idea what happened to the music and why it was changed to a different song.

Every single day

Every word you say

Every game you play

Every night you stay

I’ll be watching you…

Cytherea started to look around the coffee shop. She is looking for a suspicious-looking person. There were only seven of them inside. The barista, her, Gaus, Lemnos, a man who looked like in his fifties, who is busy typing something on his laptop; a man in his twenties, who was writing on his notebooks with a lot of books that were opened in front of him; and another man, who was just sipping his coffee like he was enjoying it while looking at his phone. He was silently banging his head to the tune of the music like it was his favorite. The man looked so familiar to her, but she couldn’t remember where she saw him or might have met him. She looked at the guy intently. The man noticed her and immediately smiled at her as a recognition flash in his eyes.

Cytherea immediately turns her head away as the guy stands up. She started to break out in a cold sweat. She can see from the peripheral view that the guy is still smiling while walking towards her.

Oh, can’t you see

You belong with me

How my poor heartaches

With every step you take…

“Carlos!” Gaus exclaimed. Cytherea looked at Gaus and saw him looking in the direction of the man. He was still smiling.

“Do you know him?” Cytherea curiously whispered. She leaned closer to the table so that Gaus can hear her.

“Yep, didn’t recognize him? He was one of the players at the annual party. He is the general manager of the HR department in Emerald. His name is Carlos Matthias,” Gaus answered, smiling.

“Oh!” Cytherea embarrassingly covers her face with her right hand. She felt ashamed for mistakenly accusing the guy. Even though she didn't voice it out, she was still feeling guilty.

"Why?" Gaus asked, confused by her reaction.

She smiled awkwardly and was about to answer when the man reached their table and said, "Hi, Boss, Mr. Usoro, fancy seeing you both here." He turned at Cytherea and smiled. "Hello, Miss Swan. How are you?"

Cytherea smiled timidly. 

"I'm good. How about you?" She answered.

"I'm also good, thanks. I just dropped by to say, 'hi.' See you at the office, Boss!" He put his hand on his forehead like a soldier doing a salute to his commander. "Bye, Mr. Usoro, and I'm looking forward to seeing you again, Miss Swan." He smiled and winked at her before leaving them.

Lemnos shook his head. He knew Carlos, and he is known to be popular with women. And it looked like Cytherea got his attention.

'It looks like I'm not the only one who sees her beauty," he thought.