“God, it’s so cold! Can you drive a little faster?”

I complained as I rubbed myself together while looking over at the window’s car. My stomach was grumbling non-stop since Lawrence mentioned hot pot.

Even though the car’s heater was turned on, the cold still pierced inside my thick grey sweatshirt and black leggings and boots.

“If you haven’t notice sweetheart, there are a lot of cars in front of us. Do you want me to ram on them?” Lawrence retorted, attention on the road.

I rolled my eyes.

We were not like this at first.

We were polite as we put up our good girl, good boy image. However, as time goes on, we kind of let ourselves loose until I could practically do and say anything in front of him.

Frankly, I was much more comfortable with Lawrence now than with Elliot.

Lawrence already knew and saw ‘everything’ there was to know and see about me, so what was the use of holding my image?

Same goes for him, the more he got to know me, the more he became comfortable with me.

Bzt!

I grabbed my phone, and my eyebrows twitched. I took a peek at Lawrence before I answered the call.

“Elliot?”

“Hey, you know the drill,” Elliot said on the other line.

I laughed a bit before I narrated my day to him.

It was an everyday routine.

If Elliot was not by my side, he always called me every day without fail. In the morning, in the afternoon and the evening. I was annoyed at first, but after a few days, I got the hang of it.

“I’m so envious. You’re going to eat hot pot?”

I almost saw his frowning face and couldn’t help a giggle.

When it came to Lawrence, I didn’t hide anything from Elliot except for our past. Probably to ease my guilt.

“Should I take out some and send it to you? Where are you anyway?”

“Currently in Philadelphia. Sorry, a little busy at the moment. But if I have the time, I’ll come and visit you.”

I heard the guilt in his voice, and my heart softened. “Don’t worry about it. Lawrence is keeping me company.”

“Hmm . . . I’m getting jealous of how close you two are. I hope you won’t replace me with him,” he said, joking.

I bit my lips and took a sidelong glance at Lawrence, but the latter’s expression didn’t change one bit. His eyes were still on the road.

I joked back, “Who knows, if you continue to be absent from my side . . . I just might.”

It became dead silent. I wanted to get out of the car and let myself be hit by a ravaging truck, so I could also have amnesia like what happened to Estela.

Why can’t I think before I open my damn mouth?

“Zoe . . . sorry, what was that? The signal is kind of bad at the moment.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “I said. You don’t have to be jealous. Lawrence and I are just friends.”

It was more like I was reassuring myself than him.

After a while of talking a bit more, we said our goodbyes just in time Lawrence parked his car outside of a well-known Japanese restaurant in New Haven.

Lawrence remained stoic as he got out of the car and opened the passenger door for me.

“Thanks.”

I flushed the awkwardness out of my system and went ahead into the restaurant.