(Aiden’s POV) Two years later… “Go!” Deborah chuckled and gestured her hand, telling me it was okay to leave. “We’ll bring Kyle to the hospital later,” she promised. I nodded, picking up the bag Jessamine and I prepared last night. I walked toward the couch, kissed my son, sleeping soundly on the seat, and patted Charlie’s head. He wagged his tail but didn’t bother to follow me. Kyle and Xyla had become his new best friends. Wherever they were, he would be there. Xavier brought Deborah and their daughter, Xyla, last night when Jessamine told them she was in labor. I didn’t know if it was because Jessamine was carrying our second child that everyone seemed relaxed. Only I was panicking, unsure what to bring or how to take my wife to the hospital. “We have a driver, Aiden. Why are you panicking?” Jessamine asked calmly last night as she climbed the bed. Benedict and Xavier raised the same question. Perhaps it was not the reason why my heartbeat was pounding fast. I would love to h
(Jessamine’s POV)“Is this the best thing you can do?”My supervisor asked, waving the folder in her hand.I lifted an eyebrow, which was a no-no in front of Trina.Her lips curled into a sneer, gritting her teeth as she pinned her eyes on me. She hated me. The best way to say it was that she despised me more than any villains in the movie. She never liked even the tip of a single strand of my hair. Not even my shadow!Well, those were my coworkers’ words, not mine. I had this presumption that in our previous lives, we were mortal enemies, and maybe when our soul reincarnated, the hatred also regenerated, loathing me already the day we first met here in the office.“You know what this is? A trash!”One minute it was in her hand; the next, it was flying and falling flat, scattered on the floor. Inside the folder was the marketing plan I did for ten days, out of my working time in the office, including my precious weekend, during which I was supposed to go with Deborah to the beach.My
(Jessamine’s POV)“Sorry, love. We’ll be a bit late,” Deborah said when I called her before I entered the club.They would be late because her boyfriend, Xavier, had an emergency meeting, something I didn’t understand in most companies. It was when you were ready to clock out, excited to go home, when suddenly they would blurt out the need for an emergency meeting or finish an urgent task.Their temporary absence didn’t stop me from enjoying my night. I drank alone, smiling and moving my head side to side to the music as I watched the crowd, dancing and having a good time.When the DJ switched the music, the fast-paced and loud volume of the music playing vibrated through my body, inspiring me to go through the crowd and dance despite being alone. I swayed my body, dancing to Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off music like she was telling the story of my life as she sang that song.After five rounds of tequila shots, I care less about the world and felt I could be anyone tonight. While dancing
(Aiden’s POV)I lowered my head, hoping to escape from Deborah’s eyes. She had fixed her eyes on me as soon as Jessamine dashed to her bedroom to get her sacred box. Despite the technology, we refused to communicate through e-mail and social media. Instead, we continued to use snail mail, sending printed pictures and postcards, and calling through the telephone booth. We only exchanged cell phone numbers three years ago when the only telephone booth left in Carterville was torn down and changed into a charging area. There were only two seats in their living room, a love seat, and a single sofa. As if they owned seats, Jessamine asked me to sit on the single sofa while Deborah was on the loveseat. When she returned, she sat cross-legged on the floor and put the decorated box on the center table.“I can’t believe you two,” she muttered as she leaned forward to see the letters inside the box. “And where’s yours?” she asked, narrowing her eyes as she accused me of not doing the same thi
(Aiden’s POV)“Your friend, Deborah... She doesn’t seem to like me,” I said, following Jessamine into her bedroom and closing the door.“Don’t!” Her eyes were wide as she chuckled, stopping me from closing it. “You’ll only make her fret more about us. She’s not done with me yet.”“What do you mean she’s not done with you yet?” I lifted an eyebrow as I asked.I watched her smiling while looking around her bedroom, perhaps wondering where to put my luggage. Sighing, I took the handle from her and rolled it near the coffee table. Her bedroom was the main room in the apartment, making it bigger than Deborah’s. She didn’t have much furniture, so her bedroom looked more spacious with just the queen-size pulled-out bed, a full-length mirror wall between the bed and the way toward her bathroom, and a coffee table with two chairs on the far end of the room.The six-drawer dresser on the opposite end of her bed took my attention. I walked toward it and found a few business books and novels on t
(Jessamine’s POV)Swaying my head and humming Jason Chen’s Best Friend song, I walked toward the dining table. I was all smiling, dancing to the imaginary beat of the song as I stepped toward the refrigerator to get water.“I’ve never seen you this happy, Jessamine,” Deborah’s eyes were on the food box. “Do you even know the lyrics of the song?”I grinned, shaking my head. “It’s the song in the taxi this morning, and the melody just keeps popping into my mind.” I shrugged my shoulders.Deborah knew I loved listening to music, but I was never into shredding the words of the song, knowing its meaning. For me, as long as the melody was sweet and agreeable to my ears, I would keep listening to it.“And I don’t know how it ends, girl... But I fell in love with my Best Friend,” Deborah grinned as she sang the lyrics to me, emphasizing the last words to me. “Are you?” She chuckled.I blinked, slowly pulling out the chair. “Dangerous song, then.” I curled my lips, propping my elbows on the t
(Jessamine’s POV)“Stop it, Xavier!” I hissed at Deborah’s boyfriend.He looked funny, eyeing Aiden as if studying a witness on the stand, but my best friend didn’t flinch. He raised his head and caught him staring at him, then half-smiled. Shrugging, he continued to eat his lunch.“He looked familiar, that’s all,” he lied, squinting his eyes and shifting his focus from Aiden to me.“Everyone looked familiar to you,” I muttered and smiled as I took a picture of my Chow Mein. “If Aiden’s tummy gets upset later, it’ll all be your fault,” I joked. My eyes brightened as I posted the picture on my social media page with many hashtag words I could think of.“Honey,” Deborah hissed, nudging her elbow on Xavier’s arm. “I already explained to you why he’s here.”“And why he’ll stay here for a while.” Xavier pursed his lips and looked down to focus on his food. “Smooth move,” he murmured in his usual irksome tone.This time, Aiden raised his head and furrowed his forehead, not liking what Xavie
(Jessamine’s POV)“Did something happen between you and Aiden?” Deborah asked.I understood her worries because I had been quiet since we left for the supermarket. Silence accompanied us even on our way back, and for a chatter like me, I looked like someone had abducted my mouth. I was already parking her sedan in the apartments’ parking space when she asked.“Why?” I pretended to focus on the key and gave it to her.Without answering my question, my housemate got off the car and took the paper bags from the trunk. I looked heavenward, glancing at the cloudy sky and sighing as I thought of Aiden. The clouds looked heavy and promised torrential rain later in the evening. It was a good sign because I could cry tonight, along with the weather, without Aiden noticing me… that is, if my best friend decided to stay for tonight.After our conversation in the bedroom, we rarely looked at each other. The joke about me proposing to anyone made it worse. The last conversation we had was about hi