“Congratulations!”
I blinked… twice… three times when David handed me a beautiful bouquet of red and white roses right after the ribbon cutting at the grand opening of our new Cafe branch.
“Oh, thank you,” were the only words I uttered as I stared at him in surprise. “How did you find out—” I hadn’t even finished my question when he interrupted me and finished it for me.
“How did I find out about the opening of your new branch?” He smiled upon seeing the puzzlement in my eyes. And when I nodded, he simply looked in Jack’s direction who also has the same boutique as me but in different colors.
“Ahh…” I said nodding.
“We met Sunday evening at my friend’s newly opened bar. I didn’t know that she was there too and that she knew my friend’s girlfriend and that was it… she talked about this event and invited me.”
“I see,” I gulped in secret. Staring at him so closely made me feel dizzy and excited to the point that I found it hard to think and act normally. “Where is Tanya, by the way? Why aren’t you with her?”
He was surprised at my question but he answered it anyway.
“Well, she has another gathering to attend to,”
I wanted to ask why they were not together since they were in a relationship, but I changed my mind.
“So is it your off today?” Instead, I chose to ask.
“Hmm… sort of,” he shrugged. “Because you know in my line of work, we don’t really have a day off. We always have to be ready in case we are called for an emergency.”
A few seconds of silence stretched between us until Jack came and finally broke that quietness.
“Eherm!” We both turned to look at her who had a huge grin plastered on her lips. “Thank you so much, David for these beautiful flowers. I love them,”
“Of course… for the friendship,” he nodded with a smile. And then she turned to me…
“Sam, why don’t you invite him in to get something to eat and have a chitchat? I know you missed each other!”
I hitched my breath, shooting Jack a warning look in secret.
-‘Jackeline!’-
But that didn’t stop the bitch from blabbing in front of us.
“— Oh, I mean, you missed this kind of conversation because how many years has it been— two years? For sure, you have a lot of things to catch up on,” She gave us an annoying grin. “And as for me, I have some guests to take care of first, so I’ll leave you two for now. Enjoy!”
“Jack?”
“Enjoy the food and the conversation,” She winked, emphasizing the last word. “Bye,”
“I’m sorry, you know… Jack being Jack,”
“Nope, it’s fine, I missed her. I missed her bitchiness and actually, I missed you too.”
I stared at him as if what he said was the most shocking thing I had ever heard in my life. I also wanted to tell him that I missed him too, I just don’t want the word “missed” to have a different meaning even if it’s the truth… because by then he was already in a relationship and someone already owned his heart.
So all I could do was just smile at him and then motion for him to follow me inside the cafe to get something to eat and yeah… to have a ‘conversation’ like what Jack was saying a while ago.
“Uhm… Sam?”
“Hmm?” I turned to him when I heard the question mark at the end of my name. We were getting food by then and I was in front of him.
“You know, I have been curious these past few days…”
I frowned as he stopped in the middle of his sentence.
“Curious? About what?”
“About you,” I blinked at what he replied.
“But why, what makes you curious about me? I mean, nothing has changed, I’m still me. Even if I have just gotten older, I’m still me.”
“I know—”
“Actually, I should be the one to be curious about you and not the other way around.”
He chuckled. “But nothing has changed in me either,”
“Nope, you’re now in a relationship, which means you have already found the one who is meant for you, while I…” I paused, turning my gaze to the sweet macarons in front of me. “I’m still alone, well not literally alone because I have Cali, my family, and Jack, what I mean is that… I’m still waiting for the right person.” I bit my lower lip. I knew I sounded desperate, but who cares?
“What do you mean you’re still waiting for the right person? Why, what happened between you and Luke?” I felt his hand on my arm as he carefully made me turn to look at him.
“You didn’t know? I thought Jack had already told you about it.”
“No, she hasn’t told me anything,”
“Ahh…” I simply said, nodding. And there I was thinking that my best friend had already spilled the beans.
“Do you mind if I ask about what happened?” When he hadn’t heard my answer yet… “But it’s fine if you can’t tell me. I’m sorry, I’m just curious —”
“Nope, it’s alright!” I shook my head slightly, smiling to show him that it didn’t bother me at all or should I say it didn’t bother me anymore.
“Actually, Luke and I have been divorced for a long time. It’s been two years and we both have already moved on.”
“You… You’re divorced!” The surprise was evident in his voice.
“Yup, a lot of things had happened between us and I realized that there are things meant for you and things that are not. Just like mine and Luke’s journey.”
At that time, we found seats to settle comfortably.
“So many years have passed that I had nothing else on my mind but my daughter. She was the only thing I held onto in our marriage because back then I thought: I didn’t want my daughter to grow up without a father. I’m afraid that one day she will ask me “Mom, why isn’t dad here?” “Mom, why aren’t we with him, or why is he living with someone else?” “Why do my classmates have both parents, but I don’t?” and there are so many other things that I’m afraid she’ll ask me and that I can’t answer or explain to her one by one.”
“But did she ask?”
I couldn’t help but smile at his question.
“Thank God, she didn’t and she never did.”
“What was her reaction when she learned about your separation?”
“Nothing,” I shrugged with a deep sigh. “Or maybe at that time, she was thinking about me more of herself. And you know what, honestly, the divorce process between me and Luke wasn’t exactly easy… he didn’t want to go along with it at first.”
“So how did you convince him?”
“It wasn’t me who convinced him, it was Cali.”
He stared at me in confusion as if he had something on his mind to ask me but was just hesitating to blurt it out. Maybe he was puzzled as to why and how Cali had done that thing.
“She was the one who convinced her father to let go, to let me go.” I paused as I remembered how she talked to me one morning about her thoughts. “She came up to me one morning and told me she was fine with my decision. She said she loved me, she loved us enough to understand what was happening.”
“She easily understood at that young age?’