CHAPTER 21 : Plans

When Luna got home, she immediately called Alicia. She just needed something to distract her.
“Hello?”
“Lunaaaa! You would’ve loved it here! Wait, are you okay? You looked tired and sick.” Alicia excitedly replied.
“I'm just having trouble sleeping lately. Really? Let me see your room!” Luna replied, trying to dismiss Alicia's concern and worries.
"Are you sure you're okay? You should rest, we'll talk later."
"No. I'm really fine. Come on, show me your hotel room and the view." She lied.
“Yes! Let’s facetime so that you can have a good look at my hotel. I miss you already. I wish you are here.”
“Sure! Wait a minute.” Luna then walked to her vanity mirror to check on her face if she still had puffy eyes from all that crying and facetimed Alicia after putting on a bit of concealer on her undereyes and some tint on her lips.
“Look.” Alicia motioned her phones around her hotel room to give Luna a little sneakpeak.
“That looks nice and relaxing. How was the view outside?” Luna gave the enthusiasm to Alicia despite still feeling down and heartbroken.
“Wait. I’ll show you. OMG! It’s so nice! Come here already.” Alicia pouted and walked towards the large windows to slightly open the curtains.
“I’m so jealous! I should’ve come with you!”
“You need to be here. Please.”
“But I still need to look for a new condo for us.”
“What? No need. We can look together when we come back.”
Luna just smiled at Alicia and pouted afterwards, “But I’m packing our things already and didn’t pay the rent for this month. We only have a week to look and move our stuff.”
“Well, you can still pay for this month tomorrow.”
“I already told the landlord that we’ll move out.”
“Why so sudden? I know we’ve planned this before I left, but this isn’t like you. You used to plan and carefully think everything through before making a decision. Did something happen?”
Taken aback at Alicia’s on-point observations—as expected from Luna’s best friend, she would feel that something was up—Luna was silent for a brief second before managing to give a response. “Nothing. Just staying here makes me think about our unemployment. It makes me sadder.”
“Are you sure that’s all? Nothing happened? How are you and Clell?”
“Alicia, please. I called to talk about you and your vacation. Let’s not talk about me this time.”
“Well, if you say that nothing happened then I believe you. I’m just worried and concern about you, you can’t blame me for that.”
“I know, Alicia. Moving on, so what time did you arrive there?”
“I arrived at around noon time here. Do you know the first thing I did the moment I arrived at the resort?” Alicia’s eyes were glowing when she was telling Luna about her day, and Luna couldn’t help but smile at Alicia’s facial expressions.
“What?”
“EAT!” They both laughed at that. Luna’s voice echoing at their empty apartment.
“As expected from the great Alicia. Did you really just go there to eat? Really?”
They couldn’t stop laughing at Luna’s teases. “Let me guess, the next thing you did was sleep the whole day?”
Luna’s accuracy made Alicia burst out into fits. “I swear to God, you know me so well.”
“Well, those years of being together surely helps.”
However, that fun and laughter suddenly turned out into missing each other’s company. The then so happy atmosphere had turned into something gloomy.
“I miss you!”
“Me too, Alicia!”
“Take care over there.”
“You too and have fun.”
“I will. Oh, why don’t you contact Ciro to help you with moving out.”
“You know what, that’s a great idea. Bye, Alicia. Love you!”
“See you soon, Luna. Love you!”
Knowing that talking for too long would only make them miss each other more, they both decided to end the call. Now that Luna’s alone again, the sadness came creeping back into her again.
“Now that I’ve finally decided to let someone in my life again. To let myself feel again. To let myself be vulnerable again. He turns out to be a wolf. Why? What did I do in my past life to deserve this?”
“I need a distraction. Should I really call Ciro?”
"Is it fair to only call him when I need something to distract me? It feels like I am just using him. He doesn't deserve that."
Luna went inside her bedroom, looking for something to distract herself. At first, she thought of writing a poem, but she couldn’t even make the first verse so she stopped. Her next idea was to get back to sketching, since it had been a while since she last drew something. However, no matter how much she tried on thinking and conceptualizing what to draw, her brain won’t cooperate. So, even if she was having second thoughts, her last resort was to call Ciro.
“Ciro! Are you busy?”
“Ahm. Excuse me, may I know who this is?”
“This is not Ciro?”
“Yes, young master is reading in his room right now.”
“And he left his phone outside?”
“I’m afraid so, Miss. He dislike being disturbed when he is reading. If you would let me know your name and how are you acquainted to him, I would let him know right away if the matter is urgent.”
“Uhmmm, yeah! Sure. Please tell him that Luna called. I’m his friend and former officemate.”
“Is the matter urgent, Miss Luna?”
As much as Luna didn’t want to lie, she was also really determined and eager to have someone to talk to and distract herself, so she gave him an alibi. “Ah, yes. It’s about work.”
“Didn't all the employees with less experience at your company got laid off?”
“Ah, so you know about that, too?”
“I know everything about young master.”
“Yeah, we’re planning to find a new job. I bet you didn’t know about that? Can you please tell him to call me right away?”
“I will surely do, Miss Luna. Just wait a moment.”
Ciro’s butler put Luna on hold for a brief moment and Luna was just patiently waiting, tapping her pencil on her sketchpad.
“Hello?” Luna was startled at Ciro suddenly speaking on the other line that she jolted of and dropped her pencil on the floor.
“Ciro! Are you busy?”
“Hmm. I am not at the moment, is there anything that I can help you with?”
“You always know what to say.”
“Hmmmm.”
“Let’s go party and drink.”
“Not really the type to go on crowded places. If you really need something to distract you, you can come over here instead.”
“Right now?”
“It’s already late, you can come over tomorrow if you want.”
“Wait! How did you know I need some distraction?”
“Just an inkling.”
“You and your accurate hunches.”
“See you tomorrow then?”
“See you! What will we do there anyways?”
“Watch a movie? Camping? Cook? I don’t know.”
“I’ll think of something. Thank you, Ciro.”
Ciro immediately cut the call without saying goodbye to Luna, but knowing Ciro’s personality, Luna just smiled and went ahead to her bathroom to take a hot bath. She felt exhausted and despondent, still, out of everything that had happened to her within one day.