Cosset You Forever

"What am I doing?" squawked Lulu. "I'm trying to get past. Why are you getting the way?" Lulu focused her disapproval on Angela and slipped two pairs of disposable slippers on the ground for her and Nita. Angela tried to mellow her painful arm by rubbing it. 'Take it easy,' she reminded herself. 'She's only Arvin's sister. Don't get mad. Take a breather.'

When the entry was sealed shut, Lulu stood in front of Angela, browsing her pajamas up and down. "It boggles me why you think you could ever hold a candle to Nita. You're a little girl. When I see Arvin I'm going to ask him, 'Why let this riffraff in?'

Angela pulled a resentful face. "Riffraff? Little girl? Well, you're a little girl too! Go ahead and ask your brother if you think you're so great."

Lulu couldn't believe in her ears. "My god! How arrogant you are! Do you know Who I am?"

"Of course, I do! You are Arvin's sister, Lulu!"

"And yet you still behave so rudely! The insolence!" Lulu's vision was red with fury. In any other situation, she would have welcomed Angela, and Angela would in turn bestow flattery on her with an air of pomp and parade. But the opposite was true. It was a moment of bedlam.

"You're not the only princess!" caterwauled Angela. "You have no right to query me and it's really impolite for you to talk to me in this way!" Although Lulu was the little princess of the Gu family, Angela was the apple of her parents' eye!

Arvin sensed something wrong outside. He turned off the faucet and heard the hullabaloo. He dried and dressed quickly.

He held the doorknob, but decided to listen quietly first. He smiled as he listened to Angela's dissonant clamor.

Actually, he changed his mind, and decided to let the histrionics play themselves out.

"Wow!" said Lulu, eyebrows raised in stupefaction. "Then, tell us, whose princess are you?" The cornered expression returned to Angela's face.

All this was Nita's doing, she supposed. But she had no proof.

Nita, as it turned out, had tried to get some dirt on Angela by hiring someone to tail her, find out which family she came from. Angela had started living with Arvin by that time. "I'm Arvin's little princess!" she finally replied.

At the door of the bedroom, Arvin almost laughed.

Nita and Lulu swooned in distress. "Shame on you!" shouted Lulu. "If you say that in front of my brother he will throw you into the ocean! You're nothing but fish food."

Angela shut her eyes to subdue their nasty barbs. "You don't think I will?" She reopened her eyes full of alacrity. "He wouldn't dare throw me out! Nobody will sleep with him if he does! And then he'll definitely feel lonely!"

Her talk was provoked, scared, and random. All she wanted was to irritate them!

And she meant sleep in bed, not sex, but she couldn't help how it sounded now. A few days before, Angela and Arvin had slept in the same bed uneventfully.

However, Lulu and Nita didn't know that. Now they were under the impression that Angela was a slut trying to show off her prowess.

Nita clenched her fist. 'I didn't know they'd had sex?'

It appeared that she had overlooked and underestimated Angela's capabilities.

"Angela, you are so shameless!" Lulu's innocent ears could withstand no more of this. Her cheeks became as ruddy as a drinker's.

"I'm not shameless! I have a question for you! Is your brother married?"

Lulu shook her head.

"That's right! He's not married and I'm not either."

'No!' Lulu opposed, "Although my brother is not married, but he..."

"Enough!" A cold voice interrupted Lulu words.

They all turned and stepped back. It was Arvin. Angela ran, and fell like a sheet into his arms. "Arvin, help!"

Arvin patted her head, and glanced at the intruders indifferently. "Why are you here?"

Lulu stared aghast at her brother and her arrogant attitude died away.

Nita answered bashfully, "Arvin, Lulu and I were just passing by! Never mind!"

Lulu stood out boldly and spoke for Nita. "It's not true! Brother, Nita arranged a birthday party for you by herself. Why did you leave so early?" She peered behind his shoulder. "Does Angela have something to do with it?"

"Yes!" said Arvin, unflinchingly.

Oh, how Angela's heart grew at Arvin's cold charisma! She embraced him and took him to her bosom. She hadn't expected him to be so open about their relationship.

Despite Nita's characteristic strength, she couldn't help crying. So many times tonight, Arvin had been responsible for her dejection. "Arvin, what about Rosa?" 'Rosa?' wondered Angela.

Arvin paused. "I don't want to hear her name anymore... Never come here again without my permission, do you hear me? Both of you!"

What was he hiding? Nita nodded, knowingly.

She turned to the door. She changed her shoes as fast as possible and left without saying goodbye.

"Nita!" Lulu's lungs were giving out with so much screaming. She departed shortly after, refusing to face her brother.

The apartment became quiet. Angela looked at Arvin with heed. 'Rosa'

The name scarred her. Was this name the force behind Arvin's disinclination to love her?

The sky grew darker and darker and the night became noiseless.

Time passed agonisingly slow. They looked at each other when they had gotten into bed. Everything around them fell away into the periphery. They couldn't see anyone else, but themselves. Arvin said, "I'll tell you whatever you want to know."

"You have a foot in two camps?" She pretended to ask casually.

"She disappeared for seven years." Maybe he did have a foot in two camps. After all, he was Rosa's fiancé.

She looked into the middle-distant pensively. 'Disappeared... for seven years. Arvin must be overwrought. He must feel very sad. So...he did have a foot in two camps.' Of course, Angela could only speculate as to the ramifications of his mind. She couldn't truly know its depths, and she would have to be satisfied with whatever answer he gave. But...how could she?

Her only solace was to say, "Of course, I can't say you have a foot in two camps. Because...we are just friends."

He loved her dearly and hugged her into his arms tightly.

Angela had kept her distance before, but she nestled in the crux of his arms. Gradually she faded into unconsciousness, breathing low and softly.

Touching her face, Arvin was lost in thought. He came to a decision.

'Angela,' thought Arvin from his inmost heart, urging her to hear his prayer in her dreams, 'Wait for me.'

The next morning, Angela turned over in the bed, and hugged against his strong chest.

Under a spell, Angela rubbed her eyes and found the handsome face. "You're up...it's so early."

Arvin enveloped her in his arms. "I'm used to it."

Angela kissed his. "Good morning, Big Wing!"

"Good morning, Angela!" He lowered his head and kissed her coral-colored lips.