"He was just a petty criminal who had nothing to do with the angels of death but arresting him lead to the broker and the vampires who got captured. The kidnapped students are okay..." Josh was saying over the phone and Kaiwan sighed as he picked up the newspaper for the day.
Lingerie thief from a thousand women arrested was written in bold letters on the newspaper.
"Arrange a place for them to be placed and protected for about a month."
"Yes sir...but is everything okay?"
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"You don't sound like yourself."
Of course he didn't.
"I'm fine, don't worry about me and get to work." He said and hung up.
He was supposed to have dinner tonight with Katherine. It was Zuriña's idea for a reconciliation and she'd even suggested they spend two days with her before they went back.
Katherine and Zuriña were busy in the kitchen when he walked out.
"This weather's nice this evening." He said, standing a little distance from his sister.
"Yeah, it is not bad." She replied, dicing the spring onions and he reached for the meat on the counter.
"This meat looks fresh."
"It has just been defrosted."She said and he returned turn the meat to where he'd picked it. "I see."
This was really awkward, he thought to himself. It was even worse than the time he had gone on a blind date in college and his date had turned out to be his ex-girlfriend.
Should he just act like nothing happened between them so far?
He picked up the meat again and she was about to ask if he could take the spring onions to Zuriña when he hung the meat over her face,just like how they used to do when they were young.
"Sizzling sizzling, the meat is cooking." He smiled and she frowned.
"Is this supposed to be funny?" She asked
"No."
"Then get this off my face."She replied and he lowered than meat.
"I'm sorry, I'll get you something to wipe it off." What was going on with him? he wondered and she turned to him.
"Bring those upstairs." She said, referring to the meat.
"Sure."
Wanting things to go back to the way they were was probably asking for too much. At least Katherine no longer thought he had abandoned her but that didn't mean she wanted to be close to him like before. He should be grateful Zuriña got them to have dinner, a part of him told him.
Zuriña was at the entrance to the rooftop and he was surprised to see her standing there.
"Come check out what Katherine did." She smiled.
"What do you mean?" He asked and she grabbed him by the hand and pulled him into the rooftop and he was shocked to see the entire place lighted up and covered with flowers, reminding him of the day they'd had dinner with their parents again, after four years.
"Katherine, did you make all of this by yourself?" He asked and she shyly looked away.
"It was nothing... Let's eat."
She had gone out of her way to recreate that night, he thought to himself as the girl settled down to eat.
Zuriña pounced on the meat while it was raw and he guessed Katherine already knew she was a vampire too. The two girls had spent time together during that period.
"I feel kinda bad that I'm the only one eating the grilled meat. Are you really okay with not eating anything else?"
"Of course..." Zuriña replied amidst mouthfuls. "... it's better when it is raw because it is nice and chewy."
"Yeah, I can see it looks delicious." she thinned her lips and she proceeded to grill the meat.
"Katherine." He called and she turned to look at him.
"Yeah?"
He clenched his fist, sad it took him this long. "I'm sorry, I swear I will do anything I can to turn the world back to normal, just like how you wanted it."
A piece of meat came flying to his face and she tilted her head.
"Sizzling sizzling, the meat is cooking." She said and he laughed.
"What was that? What's the point of doing that when you're going to do it so awkwardly?" he laughed as he walked over to sit opposite her. "That's payback for what you did earlier. Didn't you think you are too old for that?"
"Look who's talking." He said and they all burst into laughter.
"I'm going to call it a night." Zuriña said, a while later.
"How come?You should stay a little longer." Kaiwan said.
"I'm really sleepy now that I'm full so I better retire to bed. Good night, guys."
"Good night." They chorused and she turned to head in.
They fell into silence after she left until a few minutes later when Katherine said.
"Thanks for not forgetting about me."
"I wanted to say the same thing." He said softly before he raised his head to the lights.
"When did you put up all this? Looks like it took you a while... and I think you might be remembering it different from me the lights aren't in the same place." He said and she raised her head to look up at them.
"Wow...how did you even remember? It's no surprise that the lights were set up differently. Zuriña was the one who put up the decorations."
"What?" he was surprised.
"She's really something else...I mean she's got her problems but she prefers to concern herself with other people's issues." She said and dropped her head, a sad smile on her lips. "Actually she told me not to tell you, but I didn't want to take credit for all of this when she put in so much effort." she said and he turned to reach for the flower beside him.