Chapter 4

“Hey Gab! Am I late?” Emily paused to take a deep breath to calm her panting down. Damn stairs always killed her, especially when she took two at a time. “Sorry, I was caught up with eating with the girls.” Emily smiled as she placed her bag down and sat beside Gabriel.

“Hi! You’re slightly early, as usual,” Gabriel smiled as he pushed his laptop aside so that Emily could have his hundred percent attention, “So how’s lunch with the girls?”

“The usual load of gossip. Oh! We were talking about Andrew’s love life,” Emily giggled, “Hey! You haven’t told me who Andrew likes.”

“Why are you so interested in Andrew’s love life?” Gabriel scrunched up his eyebrows.

“I’m interested in love lives in general. Besides, Andrew is your friend. Why wouldn’t I be interested in knowing your friends?” Emily tossed the question at Gabriel good-naturedly.

“Oh, I see. For a moment there I thought you like Andrew,” the sentence tasted bitter on his tongue.

“He is too colourful for my liking,” Emily scoffed, “I prefer guys who are more down to earth, mild-tempered. Basically, a family guy. Someone like…” Emily ran through her list of guy friends, not noticing the way Gabriel was hanging onto her unfinished statement, “someone like Daniel I suppose.”

Gabriel’s smile faltered, but he hid it quickly with a cough, “Daniel’s alright.” He offered, reluctant to plunge into a long essay on his friend’s qualities.

“I never asked you about your love life, have I?” Emily was shocked that it had never occurred to her that Gabriel might have a girlfriend. It just seemed so natural that he was still single.

“Er, nope, you haven’t,” Gabriel shifted in his seat and hoped that the sudden interest in his love life would stop there.

No such luck. “So, do you have, like, a girlfriend?” Emily asked.

“Nope,” Gabriel shrugged, and hoped the conversational topic would move on.

No such luck again. “But you must have some girl you like?” Emily pursued, completely ignorant of Gabriel’s discomfort.

Gabriel didn’t answer immediately. He had to find a way to sway this focus on him to someone else. “I had a crush in high school, I mean, every guy does. Andrew had a crush in high school too.” Gabriel counted on Emily’s interest in Andrew’s love life to help him tide over this interrogation, while hoping Andrew would forgive him for this betrayal.

“Oh,” Emily said in a passive tone, “well, what kind of girl was she? The one you liked.” Gabriel groaned within himself.

“Just the normal seventeen-year-old girl. She smiles prettily. And she’s the president for my interact club. It didn’t last very long, so I’ve sort of forgotten about what it was like. How about you Emily?” Gabriel briefly swept over the more technical part of the affair and popped Emily a question before she could ask him a more difficult question, like “So you like any girl now?”

“Well, I just felt that friendships last longer than relationships. So I prefer a guy friend to a boyfriend anytime. Besides, I’m too high maintenance to be someone’s girl.”

“Rubbish! You’d make a wonderful girlfriend,” Gabriel gaped slightly at what he had just said, and added quickly, “I mean, you’re fun, you’re pretty, and you’re… well, I’m just saying that, you know...” Gabriel trailed off before he could say something totally stupid. Emily, on the other hand, was pleasantly amused.

“So you think I make a wonderful girlfriend?” Emily smiled and her right cheek dimpled demurely.

“Yup, that’s what I said,” Gabriel had a feeling he would not like where this was going.

“So you think I’ll make a wonderful girlfriend for you too?” Emily couldn’t resist teasing this guy. There was this blissful sense of accomplishment seeing how flustered he was getting because of her.

However, Gabriel recovered quickly from this stressful situation. He forced himself to get a hold on himself before he spilled anything that would tip the equilibrium of this precious friendship. He willed a smirk on his face and said, “You’re not trying to woo me are you? I thought you prefer a guy friend anytime?” Gabriel grew more confident as he saw Emily’s face blank out from surprise, “But if that’s what you want, I suppose I can sacrifice myself and let you kiss me.” He said, gulping at the delectable imagery he has just conjured in his mind.

Emily laughed out loud. “So, where would you let me kiss you?”

“Oh, that’s very hard to say. Maybe you can tell me where you have in mind and I’ll think about it.”

Emily blinked her eyes a few times. When did Gabriel become so flirty? “Okay, I don’t know what you did to my pal, but you best give him back. I’m missing his little school-boy awkwardness.”

Gabriel laughed. But secretly, he was relieved to have tided over that traumatic experience. “Okay, I’m back,” He said cheerfully.

Emily smiled at this new side of Gabriel she had never seen before, and Gabriel smiled back.

“So you like any girl now?” Emily suddenly asked.

Gabriel felt as if he had just been viciously bombed. He was not expected to give an honest answer right? This was the sort of questions where you can get away with just by smirking right?

And that was what he did. He gave the most conniving smile he could muster and said, “Maybe. Maybe not.” And he smirked again, for good measure.

“Oh come on, you can tell me. Please?” Emily batted her eyelids.

Gabriel just grinned and shook his head. Before Emily could protest, he continued, “We guys prefer to keep the object of our fantasies secretly guarded. Especially from the ob— their best friends.”

Emily pouted, “So does that mean you have a girl you like, and you just don’t want to tell me who?”

Gabriel wondered for a second if Emily’s frowning was because she thought he liked some other girl, or because he didn’t want to tell her. “Maybe, maybe not,” he replied elusively.

Emily looked really indignant, but she didn’t press further. She knew how Gabriel could keep a secret and no one could coax it out of him no matter what. Besides, she wasn’t sure she if she wanted to know.

Not wanting to anger Emily, Gabriel spoke again, less playful this time, “Hey girl, don’t be angry. If I really have a girl, I promise you’ll be the first to know. How’s that?”

Emily nodded in resignation. At least he didn’t have a girl yet. “You brought the statistics textbook like I asked you right?” she asked when she didn’t see it anywhere.

“Oh no, I left it in my locker. I’ll go get it for you.” Gabriel started to get up.

“Thanks.”

Gabriel started towards his lockers, thinking about the girl he had grown so fond of.

Emily was truly one of a kind. He had often marveled at how easily Emily related to her throng of friends and managed to keep in touch with all of them, and their on-goings. She knew all their birthdays by heart, and could list their siblings in ascending order of age.

He had never met a girl who even measures close. She’s really pretty, especially when she smiles, her dimples softening her features. She was very witty and could always make him laugh, even after discovering a new scratch mark on his laptop. But most importantly, she could bring out the best in him; all those faces of him that he would never show anyone else, he could freely bare before her. He knew that he would never find another friend like the one he found in Emily. She would never know how important she was to him.

After all, he was only one of the many guys she fraternized with. And if he was honest with himself, he would say that it was a miracle that they became such close friends. She has so many guy friends who were at least five times better-looking than he was, and a hundred times more out-going. But look at him; he could barely make it to the top eighty percent of that whole cohort of guys.

Gabriel deflated slightly in his confidence department. There was no way he would ever tell Emily just how much he liked her, because Emily would never regard him as anything more than a friend. Ah well, Gabriel comforted himself, at least you get to see her everyday. What more could you want?

He just hoped that Emily would not bring up the topic of his love life again. Ever.

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