Love At Last

A BAD DAY

The venue for the date this time was a restaurant made for the ‘first level’ of people of the society. Cayden was dressed in a black tuxedo, wearing his ten thousand-dollar pair of shoes which portrayed his extravagant lifestyle. I wasn’t dressed too casually; neither did I dress to stand out like Cayden did. I’d worn a black sleeveless flowing gown, with a small white jacket worn on my shoulders. I’d brought my nana’s white purse along with me and complemented the entire look with an ‘eight hundred dollar- worth’ black heel.

We walked into the scene together but as different people. I scanned through the almost filled restaurant which also had a section for just alcohol. After few seconds, I spotted Miss Clara in a red luscious dress sitting all alone in a table for two. She’d crossed one leg over the other, and kept herself company with a glass of water she obviously ordered earlier. The silver sparkles all over her purse laid on the table beamed with nothing but elegance. After savoring the scene myself for a while, I heaved a sigh, shook my head a bit and called Cayden’s attention.

“Hey,” I called out in a low tone to Cayden and gestured towards Clara. “She’s the one seated over there.”

Cayden went over to sit with her while I stylishly sat a few inches away from them. I was just doing my job.

“Hey beautiful,” Cayden called out sweetly to the beautiful figure in front of him and smiled.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Mr. Cayden?”Clara replied and returned his kind gesture appropriately.

“That’d be me,” Cayden smiled and took the other seat. “You’ve only ordered water?” Cayden picked up the menu that laid on the table.

In no time, waitresses approached our table and received both our orders. Because I didn’t come for pleasure, my visit was strictly business, I ordered the least-worth bottle of red wine – I still had to maintain class. Although I knew Cayden would foot the bill, I still decided to keep my modesty and maintain my integrity before my client.

Before I knew what was up, I paid less attention to Cayden and was caught up in the moment. I looked around I found out that I was the only one without a pair or crew. I immediately brought out my phone from my purse and so in order not to look so odd, I pretended to be engrossed in my phone while waiting for my order, when in reality I just kept ‘scrolling’ and ‘swiping’ randomly.

*cough, cough*, I heard Clara cough and once again, my attention was called back to them. Their tone was a little bit low so I tried my very best to listen to them meticulously. It felt like I was eaves-dropping.

Few minutes later, I was interrupted by a couple of girls – Charlotte and Evelyn – who apparently, were bullies from high school. They barged in on me, intruding my privacy in the rudest manner anyone would ever imagine. Charlotte took the empty seat while Evelyn just stood there, close to Charlotte.

“Well, well, well, look who’s here,” Charlotte said sarcastically.

“Hey mummy,” Evelyn chipped in, making known that they were both very well aware of my predicament.

At that point, I felt the ground would open and swallow me but then again, that was reality and I was left with no choice but to handle the situation before it spiraled out of control.

“What do you girls want?” I asked mildly, to avoid unnecessary drama.

“Nothing much. Just to say hi to our baby mama,” Charlotte jeered and they both laughed.

These two had the habit of taunting me ever since our high school days. The fact I’d gotten pregnant out of wedlock at the time gave them more reasons to taunt me. Ever since I moved to my grandma’s, I’d been happy, so happy that I completely forgot about these two.

The sight I beheld at the time did nothing but flood past and forgotten memories back to mind. I tried very hard to suppress the urge to shed tears, of course I didn’t want to pose off as a weakling before these two.

Few minutes later, they were gone but the pain they inflicted still remained. For the entire time we were together, they did nothing but taunt me and open wounds I’d been trying over the years to heal.

As I watched them – Evelyn and Charlotte – walk through the door, a familiar figure – Clara – walked through, behind them. I immediately turned to Cayden’s table – which I’d forgotten for a while now – and saw that he was alone. I felt very sad but still, I was very curious as to why Clara left. So I decided to shrug off the sadness I felt at the time, temporarily.

I walked over to Cayden’s table and took Clara’s seat. “What happened?” I asked mildly as I was in no mood to nag. My hunch told me that Cayden messed up big time.

“That girl? She’s really weird, you know?

“What exactly happened?” I asked again.

“I asked her to spend the night at my place and she just…” I cut him off.

“You did what?!” I exclaimed wide-eyed. On realizing I’d raised my pitch a bit, I used one hand to cover my mouth and scanned the room to see if anyone was staring at me. “You did what?” I whispered. “What is wrong with you?” I gestured with both hands to conform to the message I was trying to convey.

“How wrong was that?” Cayden asked nonchalantly. “Take a look at me, Miss. She should be happy I offered just on our first date,” he bragged to my utter dismay. I didn’t have the energy to engage him any further so I just asked him to foot the bill and left the scene. I went outside and stood beside his car to wait for him.

Few minutes later, I saw Cayden walk out of the restaurant and immediately wiped the tears off my face to avoid questions from him. In no time, we hit the road and headed to our various destinations, together. Cayden turned on the music and that was the only sound that could be heard throughout the entire ride. As usual, Cayden first took me to my house to drop me off.

“Umm… We’re here,” He announced but I was too engrossed in my thoughts to notice what was going on.

“Umm… hello?” he waved his hand over my face and jerked me back to reality. “Oh!” I exclaimed. “We’re here,” I opened the door and was about to alight when Cayden held me back gently.

“Are you okay?” he finally asked with concern.

“Of course! See?” I feigned a smile but he didn’t buy it.

“Now that I think of it, you’ve not just been quiet, you’ve been sobbing also. You sure you’re okay?”

“I am, trust me,” I insisted. He let go of me and I alighted his vehicle.

Instead of walking into the house, I changed my direction and headed to the play park in the opposite direction. It was empty at the time, and seemed to be the perfect place to cry my heart out. Cayden just sat in his car and watched me as I walked to the play park and sat at an empty seat placed in the middle. From where he sat, all he could see was the swinging of my legs in opposite direction, and me using my hand to wipe my eyes occasionally.

He sighed. “This won’t do,” he immediately came out of his car and walked towards where I sat. He sat beside me but I didn’t show any reaction as I was more focused on drying the tears that wouldn’t stop emerging from my eyes.

“Just let them flow, Lily,” he called me so tenderly that it spurred me to tears.