Three

   "Hey, Miss," a young man said to Faith, admiring her from head to toe and lucked his lower lip.  "Wow! You're gorgeous," he added in appreciation of her beauty.

Faith turned away from Mr. Fish to where the voice was coming from behind her.  'Oh! He must be from the family of apes. How can he be so ugly? Ugh!' she pondered as she shook her head and her face expressing discomfort.

How could the handsome man be mute and the unmute one be ugly?

The man from the family of apes smiled and asked her, "Are you with someone or do you mind if I —"

Faith, noticing she had really wasted much time on scanning the men instead of focusing on her own problem which was starting to make her uncomfortable, quickly said, "I won't mind if you just show me the restroom," she blurted and could boldly see the disappointment written on Mr. Apes' face, but disregarded.

When he was also quiet for a while, she had thought he was not going to give her what she needed, but thankfully, he showed her the restroom. "Thanks,"she said and left the two men standing and ran slowly to the ladies room. 

"HI, dude," Mr. Ape said to Mr. Fish, but no reply was given, instead, Mr. Fish walked away. 

———

Adamson walked away from the crowd while his girlfriend smiled at him from the pub. She was sitting beside the cold man who was his friend. 

"Hi, love," Adamson said, which made his friend suddenly look at him, then averted his gaze and shook his head. 

'What was wrong with guys calling their girls all sort of pet names?' Desmond wondered. That was how he had said when he gave his address speech, calling the woman all sorts of pet names which made him laugh sardonically all through the speech. He was still pondering on that when Caleb came into view.  He had called him earlier as if he was there already, why was he so late?

"What's up, dudes?  Hi, pretty lady," the new friend said, referring to the woman beside Adamson. 

"HI," the lady said and took his offered hand in a shake.  "I'm Cynthia," she added with a smile. 

Desmond made a face at that. Did he forget to mention that she was the type  that cheat? It was written all over her smile. 

"I am Caleb," the new friend said. "You're a gorgeous lady. Pleased to meet you,," he said in withal. 

Adamson decided to speak up for himself, knowing the kind of person Caleb was. He used his good looks to attract girls, do it with them and dump them. 

"Sorry. I back off," he surrendered his hands up, then faced Desmond and winked. 

Desmond smirked. "How come you're so late? You called me as if you were here already," Desmond said, obviously showing his lack of interest in what they were saying. He was not cut out for such discussions since he knew his friends to be flirts, though how Adamson now seemed to be so much a love fan was still a miracle to him. 

"Oh! I'm sorry," Caleb apologized. "I was suddenly delayed by an unexpected visitor," he said. 

"Okay," Desmond replied. "So, is the person still at home while you were here?" 

"No, she's gone," Caleb answered. 

"She?" Desmond teased. He knew what always ended  up with his 'shes'. 

"Yeah, a long time friend that just found out where I live. She came back from the states recently, so she decided to pay me a visit," Caleb explained. 

"And?" Adamson interfered as he kissed Cynthia's forehead. 

Caleb grinned from ear to ear. "Of course, I —" 

Desmond widened his mouth in shock. "Gosh! Don't tell me you did that to your long time friend that only came for a visit. How could you —" He was beginning to get angry. When would his friend grow up and stop sleeping around? 

Caleb laughed hard. "Chill, bro. Why are you making it sound as if I raped her?" He paused as he watched Cynthia sashayed out of their presence. The lady was curvy in all of the right places, but she was the forbidden fruit. No go area.  He resumed talking, "Look, I have loved that babe since we were in school. You've got to be smart, come on." 

"Smart? That's your definition of being smart. Wait, did you say you loved the girl?" Desmond laughed. "You're out of your mind, bro. How could you say you love someone and did that out of the blue? Was that love? I'm sure she left crying,"he said. How could he think and act as if what he did was right after all? His type of friends were the reason women always filled his office. They break their hearts without their permission. How could such people believe in love? 

He had once preached heaven and earth to a certain young woman that was brought to him by her friend. The woman had hardened her heart about loving again and it took him several forced appointments to be able to convince the woman of the need to love and be loved. 

That rule excluded him, though. 

"Come on! She actually started it and I couldn't just turn her down," Caled defended herself. 

"Oh, my! Women are crazy," he exclaimed as he rested his forehead on his palms with his elbows on the table that held their drinks. He took his cup and gulped down the content and asked the bartender to refill his cup.  He decided to mock his friend who told him love was real as he awaited his drink. "Is that what you call love, Adamson?" Desmond asked. 

"Desmond, haven't you had any feeling of seeing a beautiful woman that made your heart flutter and about to explode?" Adamson gave his reply. 

Desmond held his gaze with Adamson as if he could not comprehend what he had just asked.  'Earlier..' he thought,but was interrupted by another question thrown by Caleb. 

"Or you will be so mesmerized by her beauty and attraction and temporarily become mute? Not because you don't know what to say, but you just couldn't when she asks you something," Caleb put in, which earned him Desmond's full attention, but he said nothing still. He was only toying with his refilled cup of wine. 

'Earlier...' Desmond thought again. 'That woman from earlier.' She had asked him politely to show her the bathroom, but he had become so mesmerized by her beauty, as his friend said, that he was unable to give her a reply. Not that he did not want to,but he could not bring himself from looking at her. He had taken his time to study her features, most especially her supple lips that brought out an angelic tone. But..... 

Was that love? 

Of course not. Love would never happen to him again. But what his friends had given as instances had been what happened to him. Were they present at the scene? They weren't. Caleb had not arrived then and Adamson was all over his girlfriend before he left.  He did not even have a specific reason for going out and he had stood at the hallway, admiring the work of art in a frame which had the painting of an ocean wave before he had been called with the sweetest voice ever. 

Desmond tried to remember what the woman had called him. 'Vampire. Goblin. Animal,' he thought and shook his head as he remembered what the young woman had settled on. 

A fish. 

Was she crazy? She must surely be able to think like that. And that made her a crazy beauty. He had to admit he found her attractive, but that was not too big of a deal.

"You see?" Adamson interrupted his thought. "You've felt that before, right?" 

"Of course not. So, you're still on that?" he lied and laughed slightly. "I am no longer thinking about that." That was a big lie. He rose to his feet and added, "I guess I will leave now. I am fagged out from the day's work. See you next time, buddies." He patted his friends' shoulders. 

In awe, they watched him stride away.