Gael never intended to get laid that night. But fate never asked for his permission to meet Angela.

What started with a harmless and casual flirting ended up with them in bed together. It was hard to say who actually started it.

Maybe he did, and now he was getting what he was craving for.

Or maybe it was her too, and he was giving her the satisfaction she desired.

It could be him, and he was being selfish right now for going after who he wasn't supposed to touch. She was innocent. He shouldn't have given in.

It could be her just wanting to release all her frustrations—whatever they were. And he knew that she was frustrated. And lonely. And pissed—for whatever reasons. And he was okay.

He was okay that he was being used for her own selfish reasons.

He was okay that she was using him… because he was using her too.

It was one fûcked up cycle in which the two of them, world's fûck ups, just wanted to forget everything else.

It was like yin and yang where they were seemingly opposites of each other and didn't belong in the same world, yet at that moment, they complemented and attracted each other.

The hour before sunrise…

Gael woke up with a throbbing headache and the sound of his smartphone buzzing on the bedside table. He squinted his eyes and found Angela sleeping next to him bare naked like he was with her back facing him. Her head laid on his upper arm while he had the same arm wrapped around her tiny waist.

Grabbing his phone, he checked the caller I.D. and tightened his jaw when he saw that it was Giovanni. He had asked them not to disturb him for at least a week, and yet here they were a few days later, disturbing his much needed holiday. He briefly closed his eyes, knowing that if his uncle was calling, it was definitely important.

He answered calmly, afraid to disturb the woman sleeping beside him as he rolled out of bed carefully. He spoke on the phone while grabbing his underwear and pants, then got changed really quickly. The call didn't last long as it ended before Gael finished buttoning his shirt.

Exhaling out a sigh, he sat on the bed, rubbing his nape while composing himself. His vacation was short-lived, and it was now time to go back to where he really belonged.

Gael turned to look at Angela who had shifted and turned towards him. She was still fast asleep, not even aware of the phone call he just had.

'It's a shame,' he thought as he watched her face. He would never see her again.

But that's how one night stands work. You're supposed to leave the morning after and do the walk of shame.

Though for him, the shame wouldn't be because he slept with someone he just met. It would be because he was walking away from a woman whom he thought was nice—she deserved someone better than him.

Gael leaned towards her and tucked her hair behind her ear. The upward curling of her lips when his fingers grazed her skin made him softly smile. Pulling the blanket to cover her up decently, he pressed a kiss on her exposed shoulder before he whispered, "It was nice meeting you, Angela."

Then he walked out of the suite and never looked back.

…

Angela didn't mean to write about Gael and make him the lead for her book. But a few days after that night, she still couldn't get him out of her head.

Her mind was a mess, and so was her life. She had no idea what she wanted to do. Surely, she didn't want to have anything to do with their family business.

She went back to her old routine, ignoring the fact that whenever she saw a man or talked to one, she would subconsciously compare them to that man she met on the island. Crazy how she thought she knew Gael so much when they had only met that night—they even kept each other's personal lives a secret.

She was in denial, and when she could no longer take it, she started scribbling her thoughts on a journal. Whenever evening came, she would start writing her thoughts, satisfied that at least the pen and paper had her back. It was her safety bubble.

That's when she wrote the first sentence of her first book: Falling in Love With the Mafia Prince.

~

"I'm going to kill him…" Kayla fumed.

~

Angela didn't really hate Gael enough for her to kill him. But she hated that he existed somewhere in this world. Somewhere far away from what could have been.

'It's a shame,' she told herself. But that's how one-night stands were supposed to be.

…

Present — December 7

Looking at Angela, Gael couldn't help but feel nostalgic about everything. From what they had months ago, to what they had three years ago.

Thinking back, he could understand why Angela didn't believe him. Apart from the game and the little joke, the underworld's existence wasn't exactly made known to everyone unless one was involved with the mafia.

Just like the party game, the world of the mafia was divided into sections. A few of which were: The mafia, the informed minority, and the uninformed majority. And he knew Angela belonged to the latter. She might have heard, known, or read about it wherever, but people who weren't directly involved with the mafia remained innocents.

He couldn't really blame her because he was once an innocent of this world before he knew who his father was.

Feeling stuffy, Gael alighted the car and rounded until he reached the passenger's side. He opened the door and bent down to her side. She remained seated while he squatted next to her.

With a lot of things still bothering him, he reached for her hand and asked her one of the questions that had been on his mind—even if he knew he shouldn't.

"If you had believed the first time I told you, would you still have come near me?"

It took a while before Angela found the guts to answer him. And when she did, she looked at him straight in the eye and shook her head. "No."

His jaw ticked as he listened to her next words.

"Maybe not. I don't want to get associated with your world," she added.

Gael thought so. Nothing was shocking there anymore, but it still stung when he heard it. Everyone feared him and his family, and only a few stuck around even after knowing the truth. So what did he even expect?

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath before opening them again. And then he questioned in a level tone, "I understand you're mad about something else. If it's not about this and if it's not only because I didn't call again, then what is it?"

Angela retracted her hand from his firm grasp. She hated that she didn't hate the warm feeling that it gave her when he held her.

After a moment's reflection, she spoke with a gloomy sigh, "You can't honestly think that I would believe… that you're clueless about what you did to me when we were on the island?"

The deep furrowing of his brows indicated that he was still baffled as to what she was referring to until she continued, "How you wrapped me around your finger and played with me? How you planned everything just so you can get your revenge on me?"

The confusion on his face slipped when he realized what she was talking about. And it felt like he had just been hit by a truck.

"Really, Gael?" A wicked smile that was laced with pain and anger painted Angela's face. "You wanted me to write the best story I would ever want to write?"