"Can I come in?" Gael asked as he knocked and peered through the crack of Angela's room. He waited for her response before entering.

"Yeah, come on in. I'll be out in a minute. Just drying my hair," Angela yelled from the bathroom.

"Okay." He wandered inside the room and saw the closed bathroom door. Angela had taken a shower after eating while he'd had to get some work done in his office. He was already dressed in his usual dark pants and black shirt with its sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

While waiting for her to finish, he began snooping into her stuff that's scattered on the dresser. Most weren't things he hadn't seen before—makeup, hair products, lots of skincare, perfume. Gael decided to chat while she was still in the bathroom. "I was just on the phone with Gio. He'll be out with some friends tonight to The Knick."

The bathroom door opened a little and she asked, "What's that?"

He could see half of her through the gap while she was drying her hair, then he casually went back to checking out the different bottles on the dresser—picking up one item, reading what it was for, nodding or smirking at her choices, putting it back down, and then picking up another one.

"The Knickerbocker," he answered. "It's a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. There's a yearly event every New Year's Eve; an ultimate experience to celebrate the New Year. It's got the closest view of the Times Square ball drop." He picked up a bottle of perfume, opened the cap, and took a sniff. It smelled good. A small smile hinted at his lips as he imagined how it would smell when she wears it.

Angela sounded amazed. "I've seen that on TV. Gio's gonna be there? That's incredible!"

Gael put the perfume down, picked up the object next to it, and examined it. "Yeah. The group reserved for a party of twenty. A couple had to cancel last minute, so there's two available slots. He's waiting for me to confirm if we're going. It's an exclusive party at the Sky Box on the rooftop and they have a waiting list, but he gave us the top priority. He needs to know before noon. Do you wanna go?"

"Are you kidding? That sounds amazing! I would love to!" She emerged from the bathroom, fluffing her hair. "I've always wanted to see the ball drop up close."

He smiled. Damn, she looked beautiful. Wearing dark jeans and a white turtleneck sweater, she was several feet away, but he could smell her fresh-from-the-shower scent from where he stood. "Alright then. I'll tell him we're going."

Angela's eyes sparkled in excitement, then they shifted towards the thing in his hand, and she drew her brows down, confusion written all over her face.

Gael looked down at his hand, pressing and squeezing a silicone item that he hadn't seen before. It was placed on top of a silicone holder before he picked it up. "What is this thing? Is it like the stress ball or something?"

A smile slowly grew on her as she walked towards him. "No."

"What? Why are you smiling?"

"Nothing. But you should put that down."

He stopped squeezing and he cocked a brow as he looked at the object in his hand and then back at her. "Why?"

"I just sterilized it, so I have to do it again because you touched it. It's my period cup."

His brows deepened. Gael was truly baffled. "Your what cup?"

Leaning one hip against the dresser, Angela kept her face straight while she answered, "My menstrual cup. You know… Menstruation. Monthly period. Blood?"

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, Su. I know what menstruation means. But what is this for? Is this like a special cup for shots or what? I don't get it."

This time, she couldn't stop herself from laughing at how clueless this man full of testosterone was when it came to this stuff. Gael was adorable. But she obviously couldn't expect him to know these things since he didn't bleed monthly like she did. So she told him, "You're too cute, De Luca. It's to catch my blood."

He arched a brow but didn't say anything, so she had to tell him in a much simpler way. "Whenever a girl bleeds, we use different stuff. Like…a napkin sticks on the underwear while a tampon goes into the vaginal canal. This cup…" She pointed to the silicone cup in his hand. "It also goes into the canal to catch the blood."

His gaze traveled southward her body and focused on the area between her legs. "You mean…you shove this into your…"

She chuckled at the term he used. "Shoving. Yeah, you could say that. I insert it there."

The wheels in his head turned. "And it stays there…"

"Yes."

"For how long?"

"Eight? Max twelve hours. Depends."

"What the fûck? You had this thing inside of you for that long?"

Angela laughed. "I mean, I remove it, dump, clean, and then put it back in. So what?"

"So what? You had this inside of you for that long!"

She shook his head. "How do you think a tampon works? It's almost the same thing—only this one is reusable and it's more comfortable to use."

"I know I'm not a woman, but I've seen a tampon. It's like the size of my damn little finger. This…" Gael waved the cup. "This is huge. It's like the size of a dildo—only much shorter."

Angela laughed some more. "I can't believe we're discussing my period right now." She took the cup from his hand and set it down on the dresser, taking a mental note that she'd have to sterilize it again before putting it away later. "The cup is made of silicone. It's flexible and adjusts to my size. Don't be so weird."

Rubbing his forehead, he realized how ridiculous this was. "You're right. Sorry… It's just.." He glanced at the cup, and he just had to ask. "When was the last time you…inserted this in you?"

"I removed it this morning when I woke up. My period ended yesterday."

Gael swallowed, looking at the cup, shifting his gaze to her nether region, and then to her eyes. "Can I ask you a question?"

Angela's lip twitched, amusement lacing her stare. "I feel like I should say no, but you've already built your momentum, so I'm just gonna say yes."

A smirk grew on his lips. "When you put this in… Do you ever get…turned on?"

Her eyes widened. "What? No! You're such a perv." She shook her head. "That's the great thing about the cup, I don't feel anything when it's inside me."

"Good."

"Good?" It was her turn to arch a brow at him.

Pointing his finger at the cup, he said, "This thing's been inside you for a while when I haven't for what feels like a century. I just want to make sure it's not doing anything to you behind my back."

She rolled her eyes and walked past him towards the bed. "You're crazy and so possessive, you know that?"

He shrugged, turning around and watching her backside, a grin plastered on his face. "You're one to talk. Last night you explicitly told me you really, really—"

"Oh my god. Shut up." Angela threw a pillow at him but he caught it, laughing and then tossing the pillow back at her.

She got distracted catching the pillow and Gael took the chance to trap her by the waist with his arms. He pulled her flush against him, her back to his front, and then kissed her neck. "Call me 'babe' and I'll shut up."

"No!"

"No? No? That's all you keep saying last night and now you don't wanna say it?"

"It was my alter ego speaking, not me!"

"Wiseass." He playfully bit her shoulder and she wriggled in his arms.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he checked to see that it was his uncle. With an arm still around her waist, he told her, "It's Gio. I need to take this and tell him. Get dressed. We'll have lunch at Grandma's and then we'll go to Fifth Avenue after. The streets around Times Square will be closed in the afternoon. We'll try to get as close to The Knick as possible so we can head over there for dinner, but we might have to do a lot of walking, so wear comfortable shoes."

Angela didn't always go to New York in the past, but Fifth Avenue was one of the districts she'd visited whenever she was around. And she knew it was one of the most luxurious stretches of retail in the country. "You're going shopping?" She turned her head sideways to look at him.

Gael shook his head. "You are. Saw your suitcase last night. You don't have enough warm clothes. January's chilly; you need more clothes." He kissed her temple and headed out of the door. "I'll see you downstairs when you're ready."

He was already answering his phone when Angela decided to tease him a little and called him, "Babe…"

Pausing outside the door, he snapped his head towards her with the phone pressed on his ear, cocking his brow while looking a little surprised.

She smiled. "I'll see you downstairs."