“Hey, hey, hey! It’s alright!” I interrupted him, giggling. “I’m not saying these things to make you feel guilty about what happened to us in the past.”
“But—”
“I’m happy to know that you now know how to spend your leave and enjoy the weekends.” I winked at him.
“Where I should have learned to do and enjoy back then.” He sighed deeply. “How I wish the time would turn back so I could appreciate it more… so I could have spent more effort, date and time with you.”
I blinked in surprise. I didn’t expect to hear it from him. I even noticed the disappointment swirling in his blue eyes as they stared at me.
“Man, it’s alright, it’s in the past!” I patted his hand which was on the counter board l. “At least now we have learned to appreciate the time compared to before. We have realized how important the time is and it’s true when they say time is gold, because it really is.” I smiled. Deep inside, I was also hit by my own words.
“But still…”
“And I think there’s a reason why all of this has to happen. There is a lesson you can learn from every single thing or person that has come and then suddenly gone out of your life… just like us. I mean exactly the reason we met but then ended up going our separate ways.”
“What do you mean?” A frown creased on his forehead.
“What I’m saying is that if these things didn’t happen, we wouldn’t be able to learn the things we know how to do today. We wouldn’t be who we are right now if any of what happened in the past didn’t happen, and you would have met Tanya, so maybe that’s it.”
“What I mean is that if these things didn’t happen, we wouldn’t be able to learn the things we know how to do today. We wouldn’t be who and what we are right now if any of what happened in the past didn’t happen and… you wouldn’t have met Tanya so maybe that’s how it is.”
I gave him a long speech but all he gave back to me was a sigh. A long, deep sigh in which I don’t know why there seems to be regret. And after a few minutes…
“Sam, Tanya is—”
“I know!” I said quickly interrupting his sentence because I didn’t want to hear him say how lucky he was to have met her because that was another level of hurt and stupidity on my part. So, in order not to be too painful to listen to, I decided to continue with what I knew he would say about his girlfriend. “I know how lucky you are to meet someone like her… the woman of your dreams and someone you want to be with for the rest of your life. Congratulations!”
“Samantha…”
I knew he had something to say but I don’t get why he hesitated and stopped.
“Anyway, let’s stop talking about our past if we don’t want to end up digging up every single detail.”
“Well, I agree, maybe you’re right, let’s not talk about our past anymore,”
-‘Ouch!’- My heart screamed so loud I almost got deaf. I didn’t know what he meant by that but whatever that was, I just pretended to agree.
“Hey wait— I noticed you’ve been standing here for almost 30 minutes and I kept asking what you wanted for breakfast but you haven’t told me anything yet!”
“Whoa! Am I?” he chuckled. His expression instantly changed as he again scratched the back of his neck.
“Are you just going to stand here or would you like to order now?”
“Yeah, yeah, I will,” he was still laughing when he looked at the LED screen behind me.
“So what do you want to eat, Mr. David Garcia who is no longer a robot but finally a human?”
The laughter he let out this time almost echoed throughout the corners of our small coffee shop.
After stating what he wanted to eat, I told him to go and find a seat as we would just bring them to his table, but he insisted on waiting for his orders so, he remained standing in front of the counter and watching me prepare them.
“Whew!” I sighed loudly when he left the counter and walked towards his chosen Finally, I was also able to do sit down, stretch my arms and calm my so much excited heart deep inside.
“Eherm!”
I turned around slowly when I heard Jack’s voice behind me as she walked into the counter. She was grinning widely like there was something silly going on in her head.
“You’re here,” I raised an eyebrow.
“Yup,” she said popping the p at the end. The grin on her lips hasn’t disappeared. “And I’ve been here for about 10 minutes ago,”
“And so?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows this time.
“And so— I witnessed how you flirt with your ex-boyfriend,”
“Excuse me?” I was shocked by what she said so I couldn’t help but yell, but when I noticed everybody’s eyes were on me, it turned into a whisper. “I wasn’t flirting with him! It was you who was flirting with my brother, duh!” I whisper-yelled, rolling my eyes at her.
“Of course, because he is my boyfriend!” she just
gave me an annoying laugh.
“Who I remember you used to hate so much before!”
“Yeah, but that was before.” She shrugged, taking the empty seat next to me. “But you… you were different!”
“And what do you mean I’m different?”
“You’re different because you’re good at guilt tripping! Imagine, you made him realize his shortcomings in your past relationship!”
“Hey, of course, not! I was just teasing him and congratulating at the same time because he now knows how to file a leave and spend the weekends!”
“Hmm…”
“And by the way, why are you listening to someone else’s conversation?”
“I wasn’t and I didn’t intend to,”
“You didn’t intend to but still you did!” Instead of responding to what I said, she just laughed at me.
“To tell you honestly, maybe if David didn’t have a girlfriend as of this moment, I would believe that he still has feelings for you until now.”
“And how do you say that?” I asked her confused but excited at the same time.
“I can see through his eyes,”
“That’s impossible, Jack and you know that!” I. chuckled. “The exact words came from you— he already has a girlfriend, so why would you think such a thing?”
“Sam, he wouldn’t drive here just to have coffee and breakfast, duh!” She rolled her eyes. “And one more thing, there are a lot of coffee and pastry shops out there, so why would he take a long drive just to eat here when he can order the same from those shops?”
I sighed. Maybe if David hadn’t answered my question on that matter earlier, I probably would have believed her.
“Maybe because he wanted to eat something that he doesn’t often see in other shops or maybe he just wanted a different atmosphere. And yes, there are a lot of coffee and pastry shops on the way and they also have the same food that we have here, but the question is that… are the tastes the same?”
“Whoa! What an alibi! Oh, come on, Samantha—”
“Oh, come on, Jack! Can you not think anything about him coming here? He just wanted to eat and that’s it.”
She stared at me in silence. No words have to be said for me to understand what she meant by that stare.
“Okay, as you say so,” She said with a shrug and it was me who was now staring at her.
“And mind you— he said he was on leave!”
“Ohh…” she said clapping her hands. Her eyes lit up as her smile widened when she opened her mouth. “So he was on vacation which means his schedule is free!”
“And so?”
“Did you ask him how long he’ll be on leave?”
“Why would I do that?”
“So we can go on a double date! While I am with your brother, you are with David!”
“Jesus Christ, Jackeline! Do you hear what you’re saying?” I asked her frowning. As long as I wanted that idea, I would never steal someone else’s man again. “What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were with your boyfriend who came all the way from San Francisco just to flirt with you?” I emphasized the word boyfriend pretending to be annoyed as I tried to change the subject which she just laughed about.
“Yeah, I just went out to prepare him snacks but I didn’t know I would see such a beautiful scene.” she smirked.
“Beautiful scene— your ass!” It was the only thing I replied as I didn’t want to prolong the conversation. I knew she wouldn’t stop if I continued to talk to her, especially now that David was there, so I decided to keep my mouth shut. I surely did not want him to hear our conversation.