"We need to wrap it up within 3 days, remember? We can't slack off at all today."
Alexis warned her team for the last time of the day because everyone seemed to have that laid back energy passed on their faces. All happened for the party yesterday which she can not blame them for.
"Take it easy, Alex. Have you ever seen us fall behind the schedule?" Kim tried to relax her.
Alexis sighed a bit. "That's because I never let that happen."
"You won't this time too," he winked in agreement.
"So the breakfast we talked about, are you up for it?"
Alexis checked the time before glaring back at Kim. "It's past 12."
"We can do brunch."
Mathew was setting up the camera a little beside them. His expressionless face looked rather scarier and Alexis was afraid to look at him directly for obvious reasons.
"Wanna join us, Mat?" Kim asked.
"No thanks, someone needs to be here."
Kim nodded a bit before excusing himself. He could clearly sense Alexis's discomfort and guessed the source could be something related to Mathew.
"Hey," Alexis dragged a chair beside Mathew who was still busy checking the adjustments of framing and sat on it.
Mathew didn't seem to have any intention to reply back and that scared her even further.
"Why are you so quiet?"
"Because there's nothing to say."
Alexis rolled her eyes. "It's impossible for you to have nothing to say at all. I think you even started talking before you were even born."
"Haha, very funny."
"Hey, come on, tell me what happened?"
"Are you asking me that, Alex?"
Mathew looked a little bit hurt and Alexis didn't know exactly what was the reason behind it. She knew she did something wrong but didn't know which part made him act like that.
"Listen, it's not like how it looked. He is someone I know and I know what you saw yesterday looked a little inappropriate, but nothing like you assumed happened there," Alexis tried to reassure him.
Mathew looked at her directly this time. He wasn't bothered about if it was inappropriate or not. That's not what he cared about. What made him uncomfortable was a whole another reason.
He had been seeing her work with him over the years and one thing he clearly knew about her was that she is extremely professional and careful about her work relationships. She can never in her life imagine something happen with him and he knew he needed to be happy with whatever she was offering him.
He was, in fact, happy with the friendship and understanding they had shared until now. But yesterday changed everything and the thoughts inside him were a mess.
Alexis was simply in her bathrobe with her door ajar while a man leaned close to her, too close to be not calling it intimate.
He never saw that man before but his face was indeed familiar. And what bothered him most was he was sure it wasn't her first time encountering the man. They have a history. It was clear as daylight.
And yet he knew nothing about him. That almost felt like he couldn't even be her friend all this time to know anything important about her life.
Alexis felt deeply puzzled as she didn't know what exactly Mathew was thinking right now. How can she explain the fact that Stefan is not someone who will harm her, at least not physically. Mathew must have been feeling responsible for that reason.
Last night after he appeared from the corridor, Alexis forced Stefan to excuse himself, abruptly explaining to Mathew how he lost the way to his room and ended up asking for help from her. The hotel service came just after a minute of that and the matter was resolved for the night. But she knew Mathew wouldn't close the topic until he got the whole view.
"He is Kim's friend. Apparently Kim invited him. I know you are worried about me but it's not like what you think at all," Alexis tried to explain as much as possible without seeming suspicious.
"And?" Mathew urged her to continue.
"And?"
"What is he to you?"
Alexis felt like her lungs were out of air. She successfully failed to convince Mathew, didn't she?
"What are you talking about…," she almost murmured.
"Lying isn't your cup of tea, you know that," Mathew sighed in disbelief.
Alexis looked away and saw Ron and Tina sorting the background tools for the current online scene. Only if they could come over here right now and save her from this conversation.
Alexis suddenly got reminded of Arthur. If it was him, what would he say? Would he push her to tell or would he say that it's fine if she doesn't wanna talk about it?
He would definitely say the latter, right?
Mathew was a good work friend of hers but she knew Arthur is someone who can be more than a good friend for her. Somehow he understands her so well without even knowing and yet he doesn't wanna be friends with her at all.
Mathew wasn't exactly pushing her, she knew it. He was just worried about her and maybe a little frustrated about how secretive she was about her life problems. It wasn't his problem, in fact, the problem was her all along. Because she has stopped trusting people. Stopped letting them inside her personal space long ago.
"He…he is someone I know from my college," Alexis replied slowly with great difficulty.
"That's all?" Mathew asked again after a minute was passed.
Alexis closed her eyes as a breath of discomfort left her. What was the point of leaving her past behind and never looking back at it at all if it's going to be resurfaced again and again?
She was completely fine for some years but now these are coming back to bother her again, aren't they?
Mathew squinted his eyes a little at nowhere and returned his gaze back to her. "Don't tell me it's that bastard that an ex-boyfriend had in college?"
Alexis tilted her head in response, "Kind of."
"Oh God, give me some patience! What the fu*ck is he doing here?"
Mathew's eyes instantly changed from hurt to anger.
"I told you he is Kim's friend," Alexis did tell him she had an ex-boyfriend in her college days and she was kind of out of business because of that relationship. But still, she couldn't understand what made him so angry about her ex showing up at her workspace.
"And you think that's the only reason he is here?" Mathew almost couldn't believe it.
"Don't be ridiculous, if it was something else then he would have tried to show up anytime. Why is he showing up after all this time?" Alexis tried to calm him down as she didn't want to go into the details.
"I don't know but I think you should avoid being with him alone," Mathew suggested, his tone calming down a lot.
Alexis nodded a little in response.
She couldn't tell him the man had a divorce in process and it is very likely to happen that he is here for her.
But spelling the problem won't make it go away, it will only cloud her mind. She didn't even want to count the possibility as one.
And even Mathew couldn't believe it himself after what he saw yesterday. If he isn't wrong, there was indeed a chemistry between them. It was undeniably present there although Alexis's eyes dripped with hatred.
But there's a saying, when hatred turns into love, it can be the strongest one. Because hate is the most alluring and strongest emotion existing in this world.