Coated love

Chapter 2: Forgotten

"It's like you had decided to forget about me so soon." Was the reply from the other end. 

Harmony thought of who it could be, because it was obviously a male voice. She wanted to think of one of her relationship in the past, before answering: "could you please remind me of whom you are?" 

He replied "It's Philip, the one that gave you a ride last weekend. Do you remember me now?" 

She was surprised and replied calmly "Now I remember, but why did you use an unknown number to call me?" 

"I just wanted to hear from you and know how you are doing. I sent you messages, which you didn't reply. You didn't care to call me back since then. I felt like you were avoiding me. That was why I called you with an unknown number." He replied. 

She felt guilty for not replying his messages. The truth was that she didn't save his number, because she deleted all the calls on her call log, forgetting to register his number, that made her to disregard the texts and deleted them immediately thinking they were stray texts, because she was ignorant of the sender. She simply told him: "I am so sorry about all that and I wasn't going through my text messages, because I forgot to register your number before deleting the numbers on my call log."

"I will call you one of these days." He said in a calm voice. 

"It's alright. I will be expecting your call, but please use your number so that I could register it." She replied him. 

'At least, I still remember the last three digits of his number.' She thought as she tried to recall the memory of his phone number. 

He replied "Of course, I will. Take good care of yourself." 

"Thanks, I will. And you too." Was her reply, before he cut the call.

Harmony woke up the next day and prepared to go to work. She felt so happy to hear from him for after a week of  anxiety to hear from him. Although she recalled Celia's advice and despite the fact that she desperately wanted to hear from him, she wasn't happy for him to use an unknown number to contact her. She started having doubts about him, feeling insecure and asking herself if he is for real. She decided that she would contemplate on the relationship before accepting him. Celia might have advised her to give him a chance and use the opportunity to make research about him before concluding anything, but she  has to be more careful with what she observes about him. 

At the supermarket, she was a bit distracted by the memory of the call last night. Thanks to the people that came in to shop, which made it easier for her to focus on the task she had at hand. At break time, she walked up to where Celia was to ask her if she was free by then. Celia was less busy when she approached her and she gladly accepted her invitation. She asked Celia of Pamela. 

"Pamela travelled to see her parents, but she will be here tomorrow." was Celia's response.

They chatted on their way to the nearby restaurant and Harmony decided not to tell her friend just yet about the call last night. When they got to the restaurant they took their seats and went through the menu. Harmony ordered for rice and fish with tropical fruit juice and Celia ordered for the same thing, but she chose pork meat instead of fish. 

As they were eating a male voice interrupted them by saying: "Good day, ladies. May I sit here and eat with you?"

"Good day. Of course you can, have a seat." Was Celia's reply. 

"Thanks." He said as he took a seat next to Celia. 

Celia replied: "You are welcome."

They continued eating before the man started speaking again: "I hope you don't mind us to introduce ourselves?" He requested and continues: "My name is Vincent, but you can simply call me Vin. I would like to know your names."

Celia replied: "It is nice to meet you. My name is Celia and this is my friend Harmony."

"The pleasure is mine. Do you live around this vicinity?" He asked.

"Well, we work around here. We came here to eat something for our break time. And you, do you live around this area?" Harmony asked him. 

"No, I don't live around here, but I actually came to meet someone." Was his reply. 

Vincent is a handsome man, he has a slight-tanned skin with a chiseled jaw with hazel eyes. His hair is golden and styled to perfection, his muscles popped out through his sky blue shirt as if he had worked out for a reasonable period of time at the gym. He was also wearing a brown trousers and a pair of dark brown shoes. He looked elegant in his outfit. 

'Have I met this man before?' Harmony thought deeply. 'It's like there is something familiar about him which I could not remember.'

"Harmony, it's almost time for our break time to be over. We have to hurry up." Celia alerted as she observed her friend's level of concentration while eating her meal.

Once the ladies were through eating they called the waiter to pay their bills, but Vin told the waiter that the payment was on him. They told him not to worry, but he insisted that he paid for their meal. They exchanged contact with him as he requested from them and they left him at the restaurant to get back to work. 

"He is so cute." Celia said on our way. 

"Yeah, I agree with you. It seems that you like him." Harmony said to her as she saw her friend blushing. 

"Sure, I like him. That doesn't mean I will start to throw myself at him." She admitted. 

They reached the supermarket just in time and went to their posts. It was close to evening time when a handsome tall man with a sharp jawline with golden hair darker than that of Vincent came into the supermarket along with Vincent to buy some stuffs. He was wearing a dark gray suit. His appearance screams power, elegance and authority. He is a bit fairer than Vin, but they both look alike. They came along with another man, who seemed to be a butler.

"Hi, Harmony. How are you doing today?" The fairer man greeted.

I was puzzled and thought to myself: 'Did he get my name from Vin or does he know me from somewhere?'

"I am fine, thanks. How may I help you?" Harmony replied with a professional smile.

As if he read her expression, he said: "Have you completely forgotten about me or are you deliberately ignoring me?"

"I don't know who you are and I am not ignoring you on purpose." She said dismissively. 

'There is something familiar about this man, but I don't seem to decipher what that is." She thought. 

"My name is Philip, do you remember me now?" He said with a smirk.

"Oh! Is that you, I am so sorry for not recognising you at first. You know, that first day we met, I didn't acknowledge your face so much due to the time of the evening." She said with an apologetic smile. 

"It's alright. This is my brother, Vincent. Vincent, this is Harmony." He introduced them.

"We met some hours ago with her friend at the restaurant you told me to wait for you." Vincent said with a little smile as he brought out his hand to shake hands with Harmony.  

"You both look so much alike with a little difference. Are you twins?" Harmony said as she shook hands with him.

"We are not twins, he is my immediate older brother. He is the first son of our family." Vincent replied. 

"Really! When I saw the both of you coming in I thought you were twins." She said smiling. 

"Where is your friend Celia? I thought you both work together at the same place." Vincent said with a curious expression on his face.

"Yeah, we do work together. She is at post for now, but I can call her for you if you want." Was her reply to Vincent. 

Vincent replied immediately: "Sure, I would love to see her."

"So Philip, how was your day? I hope that it went well for you." She spoke to Philip to avoid making him to feel neglected. 

"Hmm, my day was fine. How about yours?" He spoke with a gentle smile which made him look more handsome.

She replied: "My day was fine, thanks for asking." As she was through with answering Philip's question she decided to call Celia.

"Harmony, do you know that -" Celia suddenly paused what she was about to say as she was astonished by the sight before her.

Harmony almost jumped with joy to see her friend as she was about to call her. Harmony could tell that Celia was as surprised as she was when she first saw them both.

"Good evening!" Celia greeted the men still looking astonished. 

Vincent replied her immediately: "Good evening. I hope that you had a nice day. This is my brother Philip, Philip this is Celia, Harmony's friend. The three of us ate together at the restaurant."

"It is nice to meet you, Celia." Philip said as he shook hands with her.

"It is nice to meet you too." Celia responded calmly and quickly returned to her post, because people are gradually coming in to buy some stuffs.

As Harmony was wrapping the items that the men bought, she still maintained a professional smile. 

Philip said: "So you work here, I never saw you when I come around to shop. For how long have you been working here?"

"For three months now, although they sometimes change our posts." Was her reply.

"That sounds interesting. I will give you a call one of these days, hopefully this weekend."

"It's alright, have a nice time." Harmony replied as they step out of the threshold of the supermarket. 

'Now I understand perfectly well why I was thinking that Vincent looked familiar to me. Could it be that Philip asked him to have a secret investigation about me?' Harmony thought deeply. 'If that is the case, he will never get any useful information about me, as far as I am concerned.' She assured herself with a smirk and continued her work till it was time to go home.