Reminder: Right before her final exams Ayana flies to Gabriel's town to spend a few days with him and review. Gabriel still has to go to work, though. As for Maaj, she and Mary are frantic as Snowy is about to have Mr. Fluffy's babies. I was about to open the fridge to get a snack when I heard a car parking. It didn't sound like Gabriel's. A door was closed and footsteps could be heard before someone knocked on the door. So I went to open it, cautiously. Only to face... Anne. "Anne? What are you doing here?" "I just came to see Gabriel. Is there something wrong with that?" I stayed silent, unsure of how to answer. "Err, well, no. He's at work." "Oh! I thought he would be staying home since you are there." "Well I'm studying for my exams, and he couldn't change his schedule... so we just take whatever time we can have together..." "Yeah, well... whatever. Just tell him to call me when he gets there will you?" "Yeah, sure. Does he have your phone number?" "Of course he does! What do you think? We've been friends for longer than you've known him," she said with disdain. "Oh yes. Sorry, I was just... well... making sure so he could call you back. You know..." Just shut up Ayana, you're making yourself sound more stupid than you already are. " Just tell him to call me. He knows where to reach me," she said, seeing me fall silent; and with that she left. I thought that I should have asked her what it was about instead of asking for her phone number. Oh well... too late. "Hi Ayana, I wasn’t expecting to see you here. Gabriel said you were studying all day long..." "Yeah well, I decided I needed a break." "Already? It's only 10:00am." I made a bit of a face at that and Cindy looked at me more deeply. "Well tell me what you want to order and I'll join you with a coffee." "But your clients?" "Oh don't worry, it's rather calm at this hour." "All right then," I said knowing I wouldn't be able to avoid her. "Ok, so tell me what's wrong," she said a few minutes later, sitting down with our cups and two Chai Teas. "Hue? What did you say?" I asked. It seemed that the cakes' smell made me forget what was going on. "What happened this morning to make you come here? Gabriel said you were very serious on following you studding schedule, so I'm guessing something went wrong. You didn't have an argument with Gabriel now, did you?" "No. Things are great with Gabriel. That's not the problem." "What is it then?" "Anne came by," I said, just like if everything could be explained by those words. "And..." I hesitated for a second. Cindy was Anne's friend. And I didn't want this to be misinterpreted or something, I didn't want to get Cindy on my bad side either. But as I looked at her, she was only smiling and inviting me to keep on. So I decided to trust her. "Whoa, you sure needed to get all this out, didn't you?" Cindy said, winking at me. I must have looked hurt because she quickly added, "Don't worry. I'm just kidding, I'm glad you trust me enough to share that, and I understand it's not easy to talk about it with Gabriel, he is a guy. He sees things differently. And he doesn't know everything." "What doesn't he know?" I asked intrigued. "It's not my role to tell you. Only Anne has the right to." "Well I doubt I'll ever find out then," I said, almost pouting. "You never know... You know, Anne isn't a mean girl. She's had her hard times, and Gabriel was always there to help her get back on her feet. My personal feeling is that she's afraid you'll steal the time she gets with Gabriel." "But I don't want to steal anything. It's not like I'm here all the time anyway." "Yes, but when you are here, he tries to spend all his time with you, for the very reason that you are rarely here." "Yeah I guess it makes sense. I didn't see it that way. But I still don't understand her. It's not like I'm having a night stand with Gabriel or anything. I love him-" "Does he know?" "Know? Know what?" I asked confused. "Knows that you love him, silly." "Yeah, of course he does. I told him the day he told me. It probably sounds very cliché. But I didn't dare to tell him until he did." I felt my cheeks reddening while I looked at Cindy's amused smile. "Anyway, that's not the point. What I mean is that well, I think it's serious so I feel she shouldn't act like that." "Eileen seemed serious too. And they dated for a long time. It didn't stop him from getting hurt." "Yeah, he told me. But this is a relationship; and in a relationship you can never know how long it will last. I mean come on, I look at my parents for example, they got married, had me, lived a few great years together, but it didn't stopped them from getting divorced. You can never know... and there is nothing Anne can do to change whatever happens with our relationship. Well, apart from breaking it off early because of her attitude towards me and hurting both Gabriel and I that way." "I understand what you mean, but you know it's Anne. She has her own way of thinking. My best advice is to act like yourself with her. As far as I've seen, you're a very sweet girl, and you really do care for him. Give her time, let her find out who you are, and you'll see, things will get better." "Yeah, if you say so." I was doubtful, but there wasn't really much to say to that. Unless I wanted to make myself look more stubborn than I was. "Hey, do you think I could buy her with gallons of ice cream instead?" "Well I'm not sure it will work, but you can always give it a try." She paused. "Oh, and changing the subject, I know you don't have much time with Gabriel, but would you like to eat with Andy and I tomorrow night?" "Oh that would be a great idea. I'm sure Gabriel would love too as well." "Good, well I'll call you tonight, to see with Gabriel what the best time would be all right?" I nodded. "Well I think I better go back home. I still need to study for those bloody exams, so..." "Yes I understand. I wish I could drive you home, but I can't really leave the bakery." "Don't worry, walking feels good, and it doesn't take that long anyway." "Well see you tomorrow then." "Yup you sure will," I said with a smile. "Bye." "Bye." On my walk back home, I had all the time I needed to think about what Cindy has said. It made sense, even if there were things I wish I could know to get the whole picture of Anne's behaviour. But I also realized that there was no point in making a big deal of it, especially with Gabriel, since he didn't seem to realize that Anne's attitude wasn't exactly nice. After all right now my exams mattered a lot more... and whatever good time I could spend with Gabriel of course. As you can expect, as soon as we stopped kissing I told Gabriel that Anne wanted him to call her back. Of course he asked what she wanted and I could only shrug my shoulders. He called her and ended up on the answering machine, to my disappointment as I really wanted to know what she was up to. I would find out at some point after all. "Gabriel, you know what?" I told him in the morning. "What?" "You snore." I grinned. "I snore?" I grinned even more looking at his surprised face. "There is no way" "Oh there is, I heard you last night, I even had to tickle you to make you stop." "Really?" "Yeah." "Is that why you kicked me in the middle of the night?" "What? I kicked you?" "Yup. You almost castrated me actually." "You're kidding!" "I'm afraid not." "Gosh I'm so sorry. But, jeez, what a couple we make, you snoring and me kicking... Good thing I'm going back to Vancouver in two days, or I would be accused of spouse violence or something." "It's all right, you're forgiven anyway, it's not like you were doing it on purpose in day time, then I would be really worried." I smiled at him and snuggled in his arms, enjoying the few more minutes I had with him before he would have to get ready for work. Later that day, we drove to Cindy and Andy's place. Their house was in a friendly looking neighbourhood, some houses even had kid's toys scattered in their yards. It made me wonder if Gabriel's friends were thinking of starting a family. The house itself had a cosy look, and as Andy welcomed us inside, we were wrapped by warmth and good smells cooking from the kitchen. But as we brought the bottle of wine in the living room, I realised there was an extra plate on the table. I didn't remembered Cindy mentioning any extra guest, so I was a bit surprised, especially since there only was the four of us in the house. I didn't say a thing though. A few minutes later, we sat dawn on the sofa to have appetizers, and Gabriel asked, "Who's the extra plate for?" "Oh we invited Guillaume and Anne tonight, but Guillaume couldn't make it, I think he has a date," Andy told us with a wink. "Oh who is it?" Gabriel was more curious about the love life of his friend than anything else. I saw that Cindy was eying me from the side, checking my reaction. I smiled and tried to follow the situation, although I felt betrayed and trapped by Cindy. I came to have a relaxing evening with Gabriel and his friends, and now I had to face the only one of them that made me feel uneasy and obviously had something against me. When Anne came in, she looked at Gabriel and smiled, then turned towards me and made a face, just like she had been forced to have a bit in a lemon. How nice. Well, I guess at least I wasn't the only one who couldn't hide her feelings. She still said hi, though. In the next couple hours, Cindy worked really hard to create a pleasant conversation between us, but if everybody interacted, Anne completely ignored me. It was like I wasn't there, if I said something, she would answer to somebody's previous comment. If I asked for water and she was the closest to the carafe, she wouldn't move an inch and Andy or Gabriel had to give it to me. Nobody made any comments about it though, and I didn't react to any of her words, after realizing what she was doing, I did the same, and never said a thing when she talked. The atmosphere of course ended up being a bit chilled even with all Cindy, Andy and Gabriel's efforts. A snail's race would have been more entertaining. "What? Are we going on a hike or something? I’m really not in the mood you know;" I said, troubled. "Just trust me," was Gabriel's answer. He brought my hand to his mouth and kissed it before giving me a little spank pushing me towards the house. "What the? ... What's that?" I said facing the pile of uncut wood and the axe in his hand. "You're going to cut wood." "Are you crazy? Is this a punishment?" "Nooo! How can you think that?" "I don't know; maybe because holding an axe doesn't seem like a treat!" "Err... don't you have a punching ball instead?" "Nope. You'll have to try that one." "Err, how about I say that I don't want to get my anger out?" I said, slowly backing up. " Nuh-Uh. You won't get away that easily, my dear. I'm going to teach you." "You're insane!" "I know, but that's why you like me right?" he said teasingly. I stuck out my tongue but gave up. There was no way I would find the right words to get out of it. When Gabriel had an idea in mind, there was no way to get it out. He could be as stubborn as me at times. "All right, all tight. Show me, and I'll try not cut my legs off." I said and was rewarded by a kiss. "I still don't understand how it's supposed to help me to get a wood cutting lesson, though," I said when he handed me the axe back after my first attempt." "It's easy, just imagine that it's not wood that you have in front of you, but the person you feel mad at. I do it when my boss drives me crazy, and I swear, it works." "Oh! Is that why you are always so much in control when you come back from work? Do you go to the back of the house and slam the axe into the wood until you feel good?" He laughed. "Something like that." Then he took a few steps back to be out of the dangerous range of the axe. "Now give it a try." I started trying to aim, and putting weight into the axe. I have to admit that it's hard to aim and cut anything when you are laughing from your own pathetic tries. Every time the axe hit the wood, I felt the vibrations in my hands, and looked at the tiny not even an inch deep marks on the wood. But Gabriel didn't make fun of me. No instead he congratulated me for every little progress I made. Over half an hour later we were standing in front of the oddest possible shapes of wood pieces. Some looked like they had been attacked by some unknown animal. Some seemed were so chipped at the end from the many failed attempts of getting through the wood, that we could have made matches with them. But who cared? I felt better, although sweaty and hot. "So how many weeks can we last with all the wood I cut?" I asked." He looked at the little pile of wood, rubbing his chin like if he was in deep thoughts. "Oh, I would say at least an hour an a half." he blinked and grinned. I pouted a bit "Yes, but don't worry, winter is far, and I'll have you come often to cut the wood." "In your dreams!!! I won't come for that!" "Oh and what will you come for then?" "You." He smiled and kissed me. Then made some little sounds, like a dog smelling the ground. "All right my little wood worker. I think you need a nice good bath now. You're stinky. Go inside, I'll put the axe away." Some time later, Gabriel was sitting in the sofa, a warm drink in his hands, and an other one on the table ready for Ayana when she would get out of the bathroom. He looked at her, she was like a bubbly thing, talking smiling, laughing. She was the sunshine of his days. He felt like before her life was in black & white and that she suddenly brought
Ayana on her previous visit met some of Gabriel's friends, including Anne, who didn't seem to pleased to see her dating Gabriel.
"Well is he here?"
Of course I was in no mood to study after that. I guess I'm too emotional; the slightest thing can mess up my concentration. I looked at the paper spread on the table and at my notes that I was to study... I sighed, grabbed my purse, tied my shoes and started walking down the road, towards the town. I had no idea how long it would take me, as I had only done it with the car so far. But walking was the best thing to calm down and empty my mind. I was starting to regret that I had nothing to drink when I reached the main street and saw the sign of Cindy's bakery.
Hey, cool, maybe I could go and get a drink there. I pushed the door, a little bell warning the worker's of my arrival, while I enjoyed the welcoming warmth and pastry smells. Cindy's bakery had a few tables available, and you could always get some warm tea or coffee there. At this time of the day it wasn't crowded at all. Cindy greeted me with a warm smile.
"Well see, it doesn't come from this morning only. It comes from the first time I met her. At the concert... she... well I don't really know how to explain it. But she pretty much threatened me. She said something like she didn't want me to hurt Gabriel. That she knew how girls like me could be and all. To be honest I'm not really sure what she meant. But it seems to me that since that time it's a Cold War between us." I took a breath.
"I don't feel comfortable when she's around, so of course I make mistakes. This morning she was asking for Gabriel, and stupid me asked her if he had her phone number. And she didn't take it well, and it just seems there is no way we can talk, and I don't like that. She is Gabriel's friend, I can't make an enemy of her. And I don't know, maybe I'm dreaming, but I just get this feeling that she is kind of jealous of me. But Gabriel keeps telling me she is just protective, and that they are like siblings and well, I really don't know what to think." I finished in a rush.
This time Cindy cracked up, making a few customers look at us.
That night I also discovered something about Gabriel.
I couldn't sleep, I kept on thinking about what both Anne and Cindy had told me. I was laying still though, so as not to wake up Gabriel, when... he started snoring! It wasn't a very loud snoring, not like what you ear in movies and all. You could qualify it as a loud breathing maybe, if you were to be very polite. But it was snoring.
I tried to hide a chuckle, but didn't managed that too well. It didn't matter much though as it had no effect whatsoever on him. I couldn't believe I had never noticed it before. Well it was true that I would usually fall asleep like a baby: in no time; and when asleep, very little could wake me up.
I wondered if the snoring was an usual "habit" of Gabriel, or if he was only congested. But what really bothered me was; how was I going to fall asleep now? I doubted I could rest in Morpheus' arms with the locomotive sound next to me. So I tried to recall all the folk's recipes to stop your partner from snoring. I whistled, kicked him lightly and moved him, nothing. There was still the solution of putting my hand over his mouth, but I was afraid he wouldn't be able to breathe anymore, so I went for the only thing I knew might wake him up: tickling! And guess what? He didn't wake up, although he moved a lot, but he did stopped snoring, and in his sleep, he grabbed me and held me tight against him. Soothed by his breathing, I fell asleep at last.
Gabriel laughed and held me.
Thankfully I was saved by Gabriel... talk about a guy in shinning armour. He decided as soon as dessert was over and a few polite exchanges were done, that we needed to go back home because he had to go to work early in the morning, and I had more reviewing to do. I nodded vigorously at his call and went as fast as politeness allowed. That girl spoiled my evenings and turned things crazy. The only thing I could be thankful for is that Gabriel actually saw Anne's behaviour. He couldn't pretend she was just adjusting. She had been plainly impolite and rude. On the ride back home, whenever he could, Gabriel held my hand. It was soothing to know he was there for me, but I was still mad.
As we pulled in front of the house, Gabriel turned towards me:
"Go put some outdoors clothes and meet me in the back of the house."
A few minutes later I was back outside, puzzled and wondering what the hell he had in mind. Then I got to the back of the house.
Gabriel smiled.
"Well, this isn't punishment. It's just a real great way to get anger out of you; and I want to share it with you."
So for the next 15 minutes Gabriel showed me how to hold the bloody heavy axe, how to balance my weight and what the right movements were.
"That's it?"
She came down, her hair still wet, her cheeks a healthy pink, with little twinkles in her eyes. She sat down and started telling him about her plans after the exams, Maaj's wedding and what she wanted to do.
