It was the first weekend of February, the month of love; the streets were clogged with snow and couples. Zane and Winter were walking home after their work, hand-in-hand, talking among each other. Since Winter didn't know about Ahan being caught, she was still staying at Zane's house, which she was quite enjoying as she didn't have any restrictions like before.
They were planning to stop by his home as Zane needed to drop the groceries before going on their date. When they were in front of his doorstep, Zane informed her, "I have a friend coming over tomorrow for an assignment."
"Who? Leon?" Winter asked in confusion.
Zane chuckled and took out his keys. "He is not the only friend I have." He pushed open the door and started saying, "It's Mel—" he was interrupted by a sweet feminine voice.
"Welcome home, Zane," Melody wished.
Winter couldn't help but scrunch her nose in disgust as her eyes landed on the pretty redhead.
Zane kept the groceries on the floor and closed the door before saying, "I thought you were coming tomorrow morning."
"Ah, yes, actually I was bored today. So, I thought of coming over and finishing the assignment within tonight," Melody chirped and turned her attention towards Winter. She already knew about Winter staying with Zane for the time being as he told her. "Oh, hello, Winter."
"Hi," Winter said flatly and walked past her, taking the bags of groceries from Zane.
"Zane, should we start—"
"Give me a moment, Mel," Zane told Melody and ran after Winter. He could tell from her expressions earlier that she wasn't amused with Melody coming here.
"Aunt, the groceries." Winter placed the bags on the counter with a thud and immediately went upstairs before Kalen could even say anything.
As Winter was about to close the door to her room, Zane put his foot in between to stop her. She scowled at him and went to sit on the bed, crossing her arms.
He sighed and said, "Winter—"
"What is she doing here?" she demanded, sounding angry.
"For a group assignment," he answered and went near her.
"Are you going to do it now?" she asked and he nodded. "What about our date?" She arched an eyebrow.
"We can postpone it to tomorrow," he suggested.
Winter looked at him as if he had grown two heads, her nose flaring in anger. "You will postpone our date for Melody?"
"What else choice do I have?"
"Well, send her back home," she grunted, gritting her teeth.
"Does it even matter? Today or tomorrow, we need to get the assignment done," Zane reasoned out.
"First of all, why did you even give her the permission to come over to your place?" she questioned. She couldn't accept some other girl, especially Melody, being in the same bedroom as her boyfriend alone.
"Okay, would you have preferred me to go over to her big mansion, where there's no one, or would you have her come here, where you and Mom are present?" he countered, making her fall silent briefly.
"I would prefer you guys to go to a freaking crowded library," she bellowed.
Zane wanted to bang his head on the wall, yet he took a deep breath and tried to maintain his calm. "What's your exact problem with Mel coming here?" He couldn't figure out what got Winter annoyed every time he mentioned Melody. After all, Melody has always been such a good friend to him.
"I don't like her," Winter asserted, raising her voice a little.
"I didn't think you were this petty, Winter," Zane let out in disbelief.
"What do you mean by that?" She got up and stood in front of him, raising an eyebrow.
"Just like I won't have problems with you having guy friends, I expect you not to have problems with my female friend either," he stated calmly.
Winter scoffed and formed her fist in a ball. "Fine then. That history class guy who asked me out four months ago, what was his name I forgot, I am going to study with him at his place tomorrow, and you have fun with your Melody."
"What?" he exclaimed, but she didn't reply and pushed him out of the room. "Winter, open the door. I'm not done talking. You're just being immature right now." He knocked on her door yet received no response as she was busy puffing her cheeks.
"Zane, is everything alright?" Melody asked from the staircase.
"No, it's alright," he replied and looked at Winter's door for the last time. He sighed, planning to pacify her later. "Let's get started on the assignment."
Once Zane and Melody went inside his bedroom, he was going to let the door remain open but she insisted on closing it as she didn't want to be bothered by the outside noise.
After a few minutes, Winter quietly opened her door and peeked out. She frowned as she saw Zane's door was closed. "How much privacy do they need?" she grumbled and tiptoed near the door, trying to eavesdrop. Before she could attach her ear to the ear, she backed away. "No, eavesdropping is bad. I'm not the jealous type of girlfriend. I just don't like that girl," she told herself as she clearly knew about Melody's intent to woo her boyfriend.
Taking a deep breath, Winter opened the door and peeked her head inside, attracting Zane and Melody's attention. She glanced at the reference books scattered on the portable low table and their distance, which was thankfully an arm's length, otherwise, she would have thrown that girl out of the window. "What would you guys like to drink?" Winter asked with a tight-lipped smile.
Zane scanned her suspiciously, trying to trace any malicious intent within her words.
"I will have the same as Zane," Melody said with a bright smile.
Winter stopped herself from grinning dubiously as she nodded and went away. She came back with two cups of black coffee in a tray. As she was about to serve it, Zane took the tray from her, afraid that she might drop the boiling cup of coffee on Melody. Winter glared at him. Normally, he wouldn't be that cautious, but he remembered that Winter was on her periods.
He is even serving the coffee to her himself. He doesn't even do that for me, Winter thought and rolled her eyes, still standing there, waiting for her plan to succeed.
Melody took a sip of her coffee and spit it out. "Eww."
"What's wrong?" Zane inquired while Winter suppressed her laughter.
"There's no sugar," Melody complained, making a disgusted face. "Did you do this on purpose, Winter?"
Zane slapped his forehead and looked towards Winter, who just shrugged. "Actually, the thing is, I don't have sugar with my black coffee, so she thought you wanted the same," he explained. Even though it was true, he knew Winter had the common sense to ask a guest about their sugar requirement, so she did it on purpose.
"Well, she should apologize for her mistake then," Melody said.
Winter rolled her eyes and walked out of the room.
"How childish," Melody muttered.
"Mel, I have told you not to say anything against Winter in front of me," Zane let out and started typing on his laptop again.
"Yes, sorry." Melody rolled her eyes and started working on the thesis as well as stealing glances at Zane. Just as she tried inching closer to him, the door opened and Winter walked in with her books in hand.
Winter flashed the two of them a sheepish grin and said, "You guys are studying, so I thought I should join you guys. Don't worry. I won't disturb you."
Zane shook his head in disbelief while Melody restrained herself from frowning. Winter sat on the study table because she couldn't memorize while sitting on the floor. But soon she realized she couldn't concentrate on her studies as she heard Zane and Melody laughing over some mistake of the professor. She still tried to keep her sanity but when she saw Melody leaning closer to Zane to show him something, she grabbed her book and barged in between the two, making Melody kiss the book in her hand.
"Baby, can you help me with this?" Winter said, putting forward her calculus book, pointing at a random math.
Zane gaped at his girlfriend, who was showing him a math that he explained to her just yesterday and also because she was using endearment. "Sure." He sighed and started explaining the problem to her while she got closer to him as much as possible.
Melody tried her best to contain her jealousy and muttered under her breath, "She should have just died from committing suicide that day." It went unheard by Zane but Winter clearly heard it and looked at Melody in disgust.
Even after the math problem was solved, Winter didn't move and remained seated in between Zane and Melody, but she didn't bother them anymore and concentrated on her own studies as they worked on their assignment.
After two hours, their assignment was over and Kalen offered Melody to have dinner with them since it was late. Winter pouted but didn't object. She hurriedly grabbed the seat next to Zane when Melody was about to take it.
On the other hand, Zane found everything that Winter was doing to keep Melody away from him extremely adorable. Even though she was boiling with jealousy, she still was the kind person he fell in love with. Therefore, once the dinner was over and he was conflicted, she told him, "You should walk her home. It's not safe this late." She added with a glare, "I will deal with you when you come back."
Zane smiled and nodded his head before going out with Melody.
"Won't your girlfriend mind?" she asked.
"She's the one who told me to drop you home," Zane responded proudly, and Melody was surprised.
After he came back, he found Winter on the balcony of his room. When she felt his presence behind her, she growled. "You have no idea what I feel like doing to you right now."
Zane chuckled and wrapped his arms around his waist from behind. "What exactly?"
"Like throwing you off," she responded flatly.
He rested his chin on her shoulder and mumbled, "Are you going to stay angry at me?" She nodded curtly. "But why are you mad? Don't you trust me?"
"I do. More than anyone else. But Melody doesn't give me a good vibe. She is pretending to be nice. Whenever I see her, I feel like strangling her," she let out.
"She's genuinely nice, and she doesn't have any feelings for me. Otherwise, why would she tolerate me dating someone?" he reasoned out.
"You are really clueless." She slapped her forehead dramatically.
"You're one to talk," he retorted, earning a glare from her. "Still, what you did today was very wrong and immature."
"You would know if you were in my position. How would you feel if I were behind the closed doors with another guy?" she spoke up, and he understood her point because he would also drop boiling coffee on that guy.
"Okay, sorry," Zane told her and softly kissed her chin, making her breath hitch.
"I'm sorry too," Winter said, closing her eyes in pleasure as he trailed kisses over her neck. His kisses upon her neck started a fire within her that no one else could ever ignite. "Let's always apologize when we are at fault without extending our fights."
"Was it even a fight?" he asked in confusion.
"Well, I had full intentions to fight with you because I'm on my periods." The two of them chuckled.
"By the way, you are not going over to that Jake's place tomorrow to study, are you?" he teased.
"Who the fuck is that?" she let out, and he laughed.
The weather was starting to get cold enough to make their bodies shiver, yet they had to remember what really mattered, which was to keep their relationship warm, no matter what.
