006 Broken Bone

That’s how I knew he was a womanizer.

The first time we met was in our drama class, taught by the coolest lady who married herself to acting, I was all but excited about coming to a big city from a small farm, a new school with cool classes, and a bright future waiting. He came up to me when I didn’t even know his name, and he said: Okay, you can be my girlfriend.

Pretty sure I smashed my book into his head.

If not because we became friends after that, I would have thrown my coffee in his face right now. He is just like this. He enjoys the fun of flirting, tickling people’s hearts with sweet words. “What’s wrong with a little harmless flirting?” He would say.

Nothing, except it’s not all that harmless or innocent. People might get hurt if they get the wrong idea.

This is where I differ from Mateo the most.

I don’t like leading people on if I’m not truly interested. I don’t go and flirt with everyone I see. I’m the kind of person who friends with people while keeping my heart secretly and safely in a little shell. I don’t open it easily, and when I do, I won’t take it back easily, either.

Maybe that’s how I ended up marrying Damien -- persistence. Maybe that’s why my marriage is failing. You should not marry because some girl stupidly, persistently pursues you. You marry because of love.

With love, you can get the man you want even if he is married. Like Amber.

Maybe I SHOULD leave him.

“You and your flirting...” I roll my eyes, pressing myself into the back of my seat, “I surely don’t miss THAT.”

Mateo is not laughing. “I have never flirted with you.”

He flirted with me, ALL THE TIME! If I had taken his nonstop teasing seriously, we would have dated and then broken up by now.

“If anything,” He adds, circling his coffee cup with his thumb, a genuine wronged look in his eyes, “YOU played with MY heart.”

I laugh out in anger: “Come again?!”

If I didn’t know better, I would have believed his starry dog eye trick. There is a reason why he was always the first in our drama class when we were there. His eyes can talk. No, they persuade.

“The first time we met, you gave me a piece of candy--”

Is that what he calls a hit on the head? Before I could think of a good line to rebut, a surprised yelp cuts in--

“Aurora?! Surprised to see you -- here.”

I look up, and the first thing I see is Damien’s dark look.

Amber’s “pleasant surprise” yelp tunes down on the last word when she sees Mateo’s face. Obviously, she recognizes him, too. Quickly, she puts away her gloating smirk and puts on a friendly smile. But it’s too late.

Mateo lets out a cold snort. I do, too.

She always has lunch at the hospital’s cafeteria, so that she can sit with Damien for a “friendly colleague’s time”. But I guess someone tipped her off about me and Mateo, so she took Damien here to “catch us in the act”.

Awkward acting, especially her fake surprised tone.

Her cheap tricks might work on Damien, who knows nothing about pretty women. But not for the drama king himself. Mateo captures the slightest expression on a face faster than anyone, and he reads people as if he could see their souls.

“Is it a surprise? I don’t know,” Mateo grins at her, even more innocently as he nods at Damien, “I’m not married, is he?”

Amber gasps at his question, stiffened at the embarrassment. Her smile freezes on her face, which reddens fast like a shrimp thrown in boiling water.

“We were never in a relationship, unlike you.” Damien pulls Amber behind him as if he needs to protect her from Mateo, “Are you also just her colleague?”

I wish no one in the world would experience what it feels like to watch their own husband defending another woman to their faces, like me.

It’s such a nasty sting.

I pinch my nails into my palm, or I might grab her hair and do some damage to that pretty face.

But not sharing my anger, Mateo finds his words funny. He turns to me with sparkling eyes and an annoying grin: “Is that how you told him about me? Your ex? I mean, I don’t mind taking that title, but I’d love to be noticed when I was assigned to it.”

His joke fails my effort to keep a cold face. I burst into laughter, and he grins with me.

“To answer your question,” Mateo takes his time for a good laugh before he stands up and sorts his suit leisurely, knowing that it makes him look cool, and then turns to Damien with a careless tone, “No, I’m not this lady’s colleague. I’m her patient, and I wanted to show my gratitude for her attending to my broken bone with a simple coffee. Do you always look at a cup of coffee as cheating, or only when that’s what you are doing?”

He waves his left arm in front of Damien’s face, and I only realize now that he has kept that arm in his pocket this whole time.

Damien darts over a suspicious look at me, and the stupidest ever line barges out of me--

“What broken bone?!”