Nothing New

I can hear you staring.

He then opened his eyes and gave her his trademark bedimpled parenthesis grin.

She laughed.

“Why are you staring?” he asks.

“Nothing. I was just thinking.” She says.

“Well don’t think so loud, you’re disturbing my sleep.” He says while pulling up the covers that were down to his waist then closes his eyes once again.

She then gets up from bed and goes out of the room to her pint sized kitchen to grab some coffee. While in the kitchen, her mobile phone started to vibrate; indicating that she had an incoming call. She took a look at the screen and saw to her utter surprise and slight tinge of anger, it was Finn.

She ended the call as soon as she could and then went back to her room and took a cigarette from her bag. She glanced over to the bed and saw that he was still asleep. This brought a smile to her face. He always slept in during the weekends and tried to sleep in during the weekdays. He believed that mornings were meant to be greeted with eyes tight shut. That thought accompanied her as she went back to the kitchen.

She turned on the exhaust fan just above her kitchen sink and lit up her cigarette. She rarely smoked at home, but today was an exception. The call from Finn angered her. Taking a deep drag from her cigarette she began to replay the conversation in her head. It really irritated her that Finn had the gall to call her and act as if nothing happened; as if they never had that falling out. She was pondering deeply upon those preposterous thoughts that she didn’t hear him walk over and jumped a foot high when he grabbed the coffee filled mug from her hand.

He was pleasantly rumpled from bed and giving her a grumpy grin. “Why are you muttering here by the sink? It’s too early for that.” He says after taking a huge gulp of the slowly warming coffee.

“Nothing.” She says while again taking a deep drag from her cigarette and blowing the smoke out directly to his face.

He waved his hand in front of his face and stuck a tongue out at her. “That nothing seems to be making you grumpy. If you don’t feel like talking about it, no skin off my nose. Am heading back to bed.”

She still kept silent.

“By the way, lets pass by Auntie Mia’s later. I promised that I would pass by when I had the time.” He says over his shoulder while walking back to the room.

“I cant join you. I have a meeting later in Makati.” She says.

“Lets visit when you finish. Aunt Mia misses you too.”

She was about to respond when he shut the door to the room.

She finished her cigarette and put it out on the sink, then went to do the millions of mundane chores that she had to do during the weekends.

It was two in the afternoon when she was able to finish her chores. She had done her laundry, mopped the floors, cooked lunch, vacuumed the carpet, and changed the curtains and dinning table’s cover. Vacuuming the carpet lifted up her spirits just a little because she knew that the noise annoyed him.

When she went back to her room, she saw that he was still sleeping and snoring soundly. So she tiptoed on the carpeted floor and stood beside him; bent down and pinched his nose shut. His mouth opened and that’s where he started breathing. She covered his mouth with her other hand on the hopes of waking him up. She had to laugh out loud because when she covered his mouth it seemed like his ears started squeaking. He was still asleep after she laughed her heart out, so she shook him awake and told him to eat lunch so that they could get a move on.

After her meeting in Makati, (which really ticked her off just a bit. Imagine going to the office on a weekend AND her day off) they headed to Parañaque to visit Japeth’s Aunt Mia.

It was Aunt Mia who opened the door. Upon seeing her and Jap, she gave him a tigh warm hug and then turned to her. His Aunt placed her long fingered hands on her shoulders, drew her in and hugged her too. “Now everything is alright.” His aunt said softly.

His aunt led them into the dining room. Her soft soled shoes padded quietly on the marble tile covered floor, while Jap’s and her sneakers squeaked loudly on the floor.

As the usual with relatives, his aunt asked if why they weren’t married yet, with the usual spiel of ‘you both aren’t getting any younger, you’re both financially viable, you’re not bad looking.. blah blah blah…’ They both just shook their head and grinned. Aunt Mia never could understand that they were just bestfriends.

On their way home, he asked her again…

“Why aren’t you my girlfriend anyway?”

“I’m not your girlfriend because its pretty gross to think that we’ve been friends since we were kids and it seems very incestuous if we did end up in a relationship together.”

“But we have chemistry…”

“I don’t care if we have chemistry or algebra or biology - ” she wasn’t able to complete her statement because she was laughing pretty hard.

He stuck his tongue out at her and gave her a funny face.

She was still giggling when she said “You always ask me that question whenever we meet your relatives… mine too…”

“Because I keep on wondering maybe we are for each other,” he says a little quietly.

“Look,” she says, “lets just make a deal, if by 40 and we’re still single or otherwise unattached, then that’s the time we think things over.”

She saw his beautiful brown eyes crinkle at the corners and get that mischievous glint.

“But I want to have kids!” he says with a laugh lurking in his voice.

“We can always adopt.”

“You know what, nevermind this redundant conversation. Lets just go get a drink. You’ve been sober since June.” He says while chuckling. “You’re just too logical for my taste.”

She smiles widely and says, “Now that’s a good idea”