Remember That Day

Chapter 8

Faris started to breath heavily. As much as Jayda wanted to hear that his boyfriend had nothing to hide from her, she couldn’t feel any relief as Faris’ voice and reactions with her question obviously surprised him.

As Jayda’s muscles became tense, she repeated her question to Faris who went mute on the other line.

“I know I may sound ridiculous, but my instincts are telling me that you’re not well. Please tell me that I’m wrong.”

“What... what are you talking about, Babe?”

Jayda stood up. As she bit her lip, she started to roam around inside her room.

She said, “I’m worried. These past few days, I noticed that you always sound very tired everytime that you’re giving me a call. Your breathing isn’t just as normal... and Babe. Okay. Tell me, is your boss giving you a hard time? Or are you fired from work that by any chance you couldn’t just tell to me straight? Are you doing some errands for other people—”

“Babe!”

Just as Faris laughed on the phone, Jayda was cut off from talking.

“Babe, you’re overthinking! There are nothing like that! I’m doing just fine with my work and my boss. Nothing’s wrong. Nothing!” said Faris. “I didn’t know that I’m stressing you so much thinking about me.”

“Oh. I almost cried!” Jayda uttered, trying not to go on tears.

“I’m... I’m sorry, Babe.”

That night seemed to be very romantic for Jayda regardless of Faris being just on the phone. They talked, laughed, and dreamed again together for themselves and as partners.

It felt like they were back to being teens in loved as how they exchanged words all night through call.

Jayda fell asleep without her noticing it. Just as Faris noticed it, he ended the call with a warm voice saying goodnight.

The next morning, Jayda decided to loosen up by going to a mall. She needed to free up her mind for her to be able to write again and think about her plans about her own investigation about the murder, of course.

A fifteen-minute ride to a taxi brought her to the nearest mall. Wearing just a casual outfit, a military green overcoat, and a sling bag, she walked inside the mall as she thought about where to go first.

“Okay. So where to spend my time first?” she asked herself.

The place was so alive and loud. Shop names in big and small letters on different shapes were lighted with different colors. Its messages and carefully styled images were perfect to seduce costumers wherever their eyes fall. There was everything that everyone wanted and little they needed.

Just as Jayda turned to her left, the shop named Watsons made her lips curved.

“Should I treat myself a new shade of lipstick?”

To move through the crowd was to get closer to people that she wouldn’t usually allow, but she wouldn’t mind as her mood was telling her it’s now or never.

With a smile on her face, Jayda entered every woman’s paradise; the river of face and body care twinkling with their elegant packages.

The stacks of lipstick in different shades filled Jayda with awe.

“Voyager, Ringleader, Beige Babe, Believer... what should I pick?”

“Hi, Ma’am...” approached by a staff, waiting for Jayda to say her name.

“Oh, hi. I’m Jayda.”

“Yes, Ma’am Jayda. How can I help you?”

The good thing about Jayda was she wasn’t like any other girls who spend too much time picking and choosing like girl stuff.

“This,” said Jayda and hand over the shade she wanted to buy, “is what I loved so far. Wrap this for me, please.”

“Sure, Ma’am!” the staff said then left immediately to punch Jayda’s lipstick.

As Jayda was still busy to look over the beautiful colors, a guy just a step away from her caught her attention. He was complaining to himself whether to buy the shade on his right hand or the other on his left.

“That punk!” he snorted. “The damn I know about lipsticks?”

Jayda tilted her head sideward as she tried to guess the familiar face.

“Damek?” Jayda whispered.

Just as the guy turned to her, she was now certain that he was the same guy she met last night at the convenient store.

“Oh, noodles? Is that you?”

“What?” Jayda’s eyes squinted over what Damek said.

“You remember my name, noodle girl,” he uttered, smiling from ear to ear. But Jayda just gave her a glare, obviously didn’t like what she heard.

Well, Damek was quite smart to know the reasons behind Jayda’s reactions.

“Ah, I’m sorry,” he chuckled. “I haven’t asked for your name yet, and all I remember was you’re the girl who craved for noodles last night at the store.”

“Yeah right?” said Jayda as she rolled her eyes on him, getting back to her business.

“And we ran to each other again.”

Raising an eyebrow, Jayda glanced at him again. She said, “So?”

“Why so grouchy?”

“I couldn’t smile with the sight of you, either.”

“That’s too harsh. Anyway,” Damek said, cheerfully trying to look at Jayda’s face, “may I know your name?”

Jayda faked a smile and answered, “No,” then switched her expression to being irritated.

But it was Damek’s lucky day today when a staff suddenly called her name.

“Ma’am Jayda, here’s your purchased lipstick with a shade named, Voyager.”

“Oh. Ah, thank you.”

A forced smile flashed on Jayda’s face as she watched how Damek tried to refrain himself from laughing.

Just as the staff left, Damek uttered, “Jayda, huh?”

“Whatever! I’ll get going—”

“Wait!”

If stares could kill, Damek was surely dead by now as how Jayda glared at him. Damek slowly removed his hands off from Jayda when he tried to stop her.

“Sorry.”

“What?” Jayda crossed her arms.

“Help me out first, please?”

“Why should I?”

“For the sake of humanity.”

“What an excuse.”

“Please. Just this once! Okay, here’s the thing,” Damek started even though Jayda didn’t agree yet.

“As you can see, I struggle a lot here because I couldn’t pick among these shades. I’m definitely not good at buying girls’ stuff. Can you... can you help me?”

A puppy eyes wouldn’t work, so Damek just stood straight in front of her, waiting for her response. Hopefully a good response.

But then, Jayda suddenly turned to the pile of lipsticks and started to look over them again.

“How does she looks like? Skin tone? Brown? White?”

Damek cheered in silence as to what he heard and even put back the shades he was holding earlier.

Clearing his throat, he answered, “Thank you! Okay. She... she has a fair skin and I think we have the same skin tone.”

From one color to another, Jayda finally picked the right shade according to her taste. Of course, based to the user’s skin color.

“Pink Pop,” said Jayda and faced the gladsome Damek. “What do you think?”

“Why don’t you try it?” he suggested, but Jayda instantly shook her head.

“You try it.”

“What? Are you kidding me?”

“No. You try this. It will overlap with the shade I’m using if I’ll do it.”

“What? Why... why me?” Damek was really surprised that his eyes grew bigger when Jayda started uncapping the ink lipstick.

“You told me you got the same skin color? Try it. I’ll tell you if it would really fit.”

“No—”

“Stay still.”

The moment Jayda started putting the ink on Damek’s lower lip made him froze as she almost drew really near him.

She was almost on her toes because he was impressively tall, so Damek lowered his body a little that he was almost tempted to kiss the busy woman messing with his lips.

“Done!” Jayda smiled as she put back the stick inside the small container and handed it over him. “This would fit. Your girlfriend would like this shade.”

“Girlfriend? I don’t have one,” said Damek, still frozen on his position.

“Oh.”

“Soon.”

“Ah, whatever. Bye.”

Jayda just shrugged her shoulders over it, seemingly didn’t care at all as she left the guy inside the shop already in loved with her.

“That woman! How dare she messed with my lips and win my heart that fast with a lipstick? The hell, Damek!” he whispered, punching himself inside his head. “You’re so weak!”

At noon, the crowd was dominated with young adults and individuals with the same age as Jayda.

Jayda, however enjoying her time. Lunch was spicy and cheesy Shawarma partnered with a soda. She’s definitely not on a diet as a pinch of ice cream in the corner of her mouth was waving. Well, that’s what her taste buds asked for.

After eating, she slowly marched into a place with sea of books, not anxious to arrive at the shelves of fiction stories and comics. Writers’ instinct, she supposed.

“Wow! How I wish I could see my own book displayed in here,” Jayda said in amazement as she roamed her eyes around the book store.

As her hand landed on a comic book with a well-illustrated cover, she picked it up out of curiosity. Based on its illustrations and blurb, it was about crimes and murder.

“D’Ivanov?” she whispered. “Is he a Russian?”

“Yes. Actually, half Russian.”

A man’s voice said which made Jayda turn her head behind her.

“Damek? You? Again?” Jayda gasped as he faced him. “Aren’t you done stalking me? How long will you follow me?”

The young man wheeled around then said teasingly, “No, I’m not. I just happened to think of buying myself a new good comic book and coincidentally, you’re here as well. That’s all.”

Jayda just rolled her eyes, twitching her lips out of Damek’s good and thought enough excuse.

“As if I would believe you,” she said, ignoring him and started to browse the pages of the comic she was holding.

“So stop assuming!” Damek said, almost a yell because he was two shelves away from her.

“Just stop bothering me!” she snarled, but Damek just smiled as he peer through the spaces in the shelves and saw how Jayda became irritated.

The next minute, Jayda found herself hooked at the comic. Because of the intense story line, she nearly shouted and made a scene inside the store.

Some teenagers inside who witnessed it almost laughed when they saw how Jayda reacted to what she was reading.

“How ruthless! How could he kill his brother like that?” she exclaimed to herself, voice almost wanted to volume up.

When Damek fell behind Jayda again after a couple of rounds, he drew near her to give a closer look with the book she was reading. He said, “You should’ve buy his other works. It’s all worth it to read—”

“Did he really have to kill his brother?” Jayda yelled, not aware that her voice already boomed.

“Oh, hey! Easy. It’s just a story.”

It was Damek, again, laughing over Jayda’s scrunched up face. He was a little surprised, so he glanced around and saw people smiling and laughing too. And as soon as Jayda realized that she was facing him, he hit him up with the book.

“Ouch! What was that for?” Damek asked, rubbing his arms. “One thing, don’t hurt the book...”

“I’ll do what I want with this because I’m going to pay and take this home! I will finish reading this and I’ll definitely kill D’Ivanov if he wouldn’t give any justice about the murder!”

The guy smiled after she heard her little tantrums over a comic book.

“You really loved the story, don’t you?” he asked.

“None of your business,” she answered, closed the comic book, and flew immediately to the cashier with heavy footsteps. Damek’s smile grew wider as she watched her got too worked up over the story.

“Whoa. I got a moody fan or perhaps a scary reader, I guess? And what? None of my business she say?”

It’s definitely my business, actually. Because if you wouldn’t get satisfied with its ending, I’m sure you’ll look for D’Ivanov and kill him. And I’m certain that I’ll be dead, Damek discussed to himself wearing a big smile.

Then the night came without Jayda realizing it. After she went to the book store, she spent the rest of her time inside the Arcade where she almost squandered all her remaining money to coin-operated games.

It’s now or never, she thought to herself five hours before she entered the Arcade gallery.

It was fun and exhausting day for Jayda regardless of how Damek bothered her several times. Holding a couple bear on her right hand she had won in a game earlier, and the comic book on her left she bought in the book store, Jayda stepped out from the taxi. She’s finally back to reality.

From not too far after Jayda arrived, there was an approaching black Jaguar in the same area.

“Is that Jayda?” Damek asked himself as he saw a familiar face entered the hotel where he was currently living in right after he parked his car in front of the building.