CHAPTER 3 - The Engagement Ceremony

I

The engagement ceremony of Atty. Garette's father and his fiancee were set by seven o'clock in the evening. It was held in one of the most prestigious hotels in Dallas, Texas.

Atty. Garette and his friends were just on time when they arrived at the hotel. When the four gentlemen walked along the corridor of the hotel, all eyes were set on them, especially on women. Some women even ogled them and giggled and followed them with such fantasizing looks.

When they entered the venue of the engagement party, Atty. Garette's father, Don Raffy Le Brione was already in the front sitting in his wheelchair. Beside him was a woman wearing a silver semi-gown and a headdress whose white transparent, lacy layer at the back flowed artistically,  covering half of the woman's golden long, wavy hair.

Atty. Garette's eyes narrowed. The woman's back was somewhat familiar to him but he tried to dismiss the idea that was trying to sneak into his mind.

His three lawyer friends were elbowing each other and he knew why. The voluptuous body of his father's bride was visible on her fitted semi-gown that emphasized her tiny waist and wide rounded hips. They could not yet see her face, as she was facing Don Raffy, who was talking to her.

The party started with the guests ticking their wine glasses with their forks. It means a request for the soon-to-be couple to have a kiss. 

It was the bride-to-be who lowered her head and kissed the groom's right cheek.

Atty. Garette's three lawyer friends once again elbowed each other. The bride-to-be was about to turn her back to face them.

They all waited for that moment when the bride would turn her back and face them, and when that moment came, Attorneys Greg, Paolo, and Hector were all gaping in awe.

Atty. Garette on one hand automatically furrowed, then slowly, his face dimmed and his eyes narrowed. "What the hell!" he cursed in his mind when he fully grasped the realization that his soon-to-be Step-Mom was the woman he kissed last night!

Atty. Garette, intensely looked at the woman with his squinting eyes, while his father was inquisitively eyeing him. 

Don Raffy Le Brione could fathom the whirlpool of emotions that his son's handsome face has been emitting.   He could understand the awe, the doubt, the questioning look then anger thereafter that flashed suddenly in his son's handsome face. He then looked at his fiancee and he was satisfied with what he saw; he could clearly see the same vortex of expressions of Garette, in her pretty face. 

II

Throughout the engagement ceremony, Atty. Garette has been silent. He will only speak a bit when being asked by anyone present at the event. His eyes would most of the time shoot his father's fiancee with those squinting eyes of his.

His soon-to-be step-mom would never even give him a glance of one or two. 

"Garette what is it? I noticed your mood since the time that we arrived here in the hotel a while ago." Atty. Hector asked his best buddy. He could feel that something seemed to be wrong, especially the way his friend looked at his soon-to-be stepmom.

Garette looked at Greg shaking his head. "Nothing. I just remembered something about that woman," he murmured thereafter.

"I see. Don't tell me you had a one-night stand with her in the past?" Atty. Greg murmured back grinning. He knew Garette so much when it comes to women. 

Atty. Garette will never take a woman to bed twice. Once he tasted a woman already, he would dump her and would never look back at her. That was why there were a lot of women who cursed Garette to death.

"Another woman who cursed you to death?" Atty. Greg whispered to Atty. Garette again with a little tone of teasing.

Atty. Garette made a short laugh when he heard what his friend just muttered.

"Nope," he simply retorted.

"Then why were you looking at her as if you wanted to kill her?" with raised eyebrows Atty. Greg questioned his friend, who just laughed again.

"Just keep quiet Greg. You are like a parrot; you talk and talk," he sneered at him, motioning to him to keep quiet.

Suddenly, they heard the guests cheering and stirring their forks and spoons on their glasses again, teasing the newly engaged couple to kiss each other after the woman accepted the diamond engagement ring offered by Don Raffy.

It was like a millisecond only when the bride-to-be touched the lips of her groom-to-be as she bent to reach him, yet the guests cheered more as they saw the newly engaged couple share their second kiss.

Atty. Garette's heart stopped beating as he saw her lips touch his father's lips. His lips quivered as he remembered the kiss they shared last night. His eyes squinted more thinking about what his father and his bride-to-be would do on the first night of their honeymoon after they got married. He does not want to think about it. He did not know but he wanted to stop time and never let that moment happen.

He made a deep breath trying to remove some silly scenes clouding his mind. He tried to focus on his food but it seemed like the food on his plate was all tasteless. As he looked up, he saw the bride-to-be stood-up and whispering something to his father. Atty. Garette waited for a second before he also stood up and followed the woman.

When the bride-to-be turned her heels down the stairs going to the women's comfort room of the hotel, he followed her there. Upon checking that no one was around, Atty. Garette opened the women's comfort room and locked it thereafter. He stood there waiting for the woman to get out of one of the cubicles.

"What are you doing here?!" the woman exclaimed when she surprisingly saw inside the comfort room, the man, who kissed her last night.