CHAPTER 28: GAME OVER

Bowie let his eyes wander all over the café, purposely avoiding looking at Flora who was seated opposite him at the table. Flora, on the other hand, was desperately trying to catch his eye. She finally gave up and slammed her hands down on the table causing the plates and cutlery to crash back down with a clang. The other patrons of the café all turned to stare at them. Flora couldn’t care less.

“What the hell is it with you?!” she shrieked in frustration.

Bowie glared at her.

Finally, some attention, she sighed.

“What the hell is wrong with me?! What the hell is wrong with you?!” Bowie yelled back.

“What do you mean?! You’re the one not answering my calls!”

It was as though a screaming match was taking place and in front of a crowd of spectators too.

“Why do you even care?! You who would rather run off and spend the night with some other guy on the night of out date!” he shouted.

“Oh, so that’s what it’s all about then?” Flora screamed. “Me not wanting to sleep with you?!”

“No! That’s not what it’s about! It’s about you sleeping with other people!”

Flora fumed. “ Bowie Lai! Just who do you think you are to me? Do I have to get your permission now to sleep around? We’ve only been on ONE date!”

Bowie stared at her with anger. “Yes! You’re absolutely right. Who am I to you? I’m nobody to you and you’re nobody to me. Why should I care who you sleep with?!”

“Exactly!” Flora shouted back.

“Exactly!” Bowie repeated.

They both glared at each other. Flora’s anger was the first to subside though. She sighed. “Look, I didn’t sleep with anyone that night. I was with Karen,” she told him calmly.

Bowie threw his hands up into the air. It was obvious his anger hadn’t subsided yet. “Oh, great!” he exclaimed. “You’re not only sleeping with men, you’re sleeping with women too! You’re such a slut!”

You could almost hear the gasps go round the café as soon as he said those words. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. As sudden as he had said them, Flora laid a stinging slap across his face. She stared at him with hatred in her eyes.

“I never ever want to see you again, Bowie Lai. Good riddance,” she said before turning her back and striding out of the café.

Bowie just stood there, the impact of the slap slowly sinking in. He couldn't believe he had just called her a slut. Great, just great.

Flora slammed the door angrily behind her causing Jessica and Louis who were in the living room to jump. They looked at each other, eyebrows raised. “I guess her meeting with Bowie didn’t go too well, eh?” Louis remarked.

“Hmm…” Jessica got up. “I’ll just go see if she’s okay.”

Louis grabbed her hand. “Don’t forget to come back,” he grinned. Jessica playfully flung his hand away and went to look for Flora.

“Flo?” Jessica knocked on Flora’s bedroom door. No answer. She tried the knob. It wasn’t locked. She pushed it open and walked in. Flora was on the bed just staring up at the ceiling. Jessica sat down next to her. “Okay,” she sighed. “What happened?”

Flora sat up suddenly, still seething with anger. “The idiot called me a slut! I hate him!”

Jessica didn’t even blink an eyelid. “Hate him? It doesn’t sound like hate at all. It sounds more like love,” she chuckled.

“Love?! Are you mad, Jessica Lee?! He just called me a slut, woman!”

“Yea, so if you didn’t like him or love him, why would him calling you a slut bother you so much?” Jessica reasoned. “The Flora I know wouldn’t care less what people thought of her.”

Flora was about to retort but decided against it. She wondered what Jessica had just said. She was right. Why was she so bothered with what he had said? Flora shook her head. “No! Jeez, Jess. I don’t even know if I like him. How can I be falling in love?!” she exclaimed.

Jessica shrugged. “Who can understand the mysteries of the universe?”

“Arghh!” Flora screamed as she collapsed back into bed. “I don’t need to understand the mysteries of the universe! I just wish I wasn’t so confused about everything!”

“There, there,” Jessica tried to console her. “I guess you’re just not used to the idea of falling in love but it really isn’t that scary,” she said dreamily.

Flora sighed. “Hellooo…could we get back to me? I don’t need you going goo-goo-gaga over Louis right now.”

Jessica grinned at her friend sheepishly. “Oops, sorry.”

“You know,” Flora pondered. “Maybe I should just go away for awhile. Forget everything that happened here. And if that doesn’t work, at least it’ll give me some time to think things through.”

“No,” Jessica disagreed. “That’s just running away and it’s not going to help solve anything. Going away isn’t going to make things better. You’ll still have to face it when you get back. Furthermore, what am I going to do without you around? I can’t handle let alone run the agency all on my own!”

Flora grinned and hit her friend with a pillow. “Maybe it’s time you learned how to.”

“I can’t. I’m too old to learn anything,” Jess pouted.

“Well, you weren’t too old to learn to fall in love,” Flora smirked.

“That’s different,” Jess grinned. “I had a damn good teacher.”

“Anymore of those damn good teachers for me?” Flora sighed.

“I could be your teacher…”

Both girls turned. “You!” Flora yelled. “What the hell are you doing here?! Didn’t I say I never wanted to see you again?!”

Bowie stood at the door to Flora’s bedroom, his eyes gazing fixedly at her. Louis was behind him, gesturing for Jess to leave the room. Jess got up and walked towards him with a grin. When they were outside and out of earshot, she chuckled. “Clever boy. Where did you find him?”

Louis lifted his hands. “Hey, it wasn’t me. He just turned up at the doorstep.”

“I’m sorry,” Bowie apologised. He was still staring fixedly at Flora. “I’m sorry about all the things I said earlier. I really am,” he sighed. “I really want to make it work between us, Flora. I guess when I heard you didn’t go home that night and was probably in the arms of another, I got pretty jealous.”

Flora continued to ignore him.

“I guess you can call me a pretty old-fashioned guy. I believe there’s a person for everyone and when I saw you for the first time at Qbar, something went ‘ping’ inside of me. From that moment on, I just couldn’t stop thinking about you. That was when I knew you were the one for me. My soul mate. I’ve not looked at another woman or thought about another woman since that day.”

Flora still hadn’t said anything. Bowie took a deep breath and continued anyway. “I know this may be pretty hard to believe, but I love you Flora.”

He paused, waiting to see her reaction. There was none. Flora continued with her silent treatment. Unknown to him though, Flora’s anger had long subsided and even though she didn’t show it, she was really listening to every single word he was saying.

“Flora, look,” Bowie sighed. “I won’t blame you if you don’t forgive me at all. What I did just now, it was way out of line. Me, the dork. How can I go around judging other people’s behaviour?”

Flora finally looked at him. “Shut up.”

“Flora…” Bowie pleaded.

“No. Just shut up. You talk too much.”

Bowie sighed forlornly and hung his head.

“Hey, you dork,” Flora called at him. “If you’re done talking, when are you going to kiss me?”

“Hmm…there are no murderous screams coming from inside. You think maybe they’ve worked things out?” Louis asked Jessica.

Jessica smiled. “Ah…the mysteries of the universe are a wonderful thing, aren’t they?”