HER CONFESSIONS

Chapter 3: that Rainy night

"I really believe—" Alice said as she mixed her drinks.

"Losing control was the best part," she continued before she drank the cocktail she made with soju and beer.

She smirked while she was looking at her husband, Ted, who was now standing at the kitchen counter, making himself a cup of coffee to keep him awake after he stopped drinking an hour earlier to get sober.

The night continued.

"True!" Everyone nodded and looked at Mia when she agreed and gave her husband, Peter, a peck on the cheek.

Her husband smiled warmly and tenderly at her gesture before kissing her on the forehead, their fingers intertwined.

Their eye contact was very close, and I could tell how they were feeling.

It made me wonder if I could find someone who'd gaze at me the way Peter did at Mia.

"Yeah, we can see that," Tori exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at Mia's tummy.

Again, with laughter.

The intention that Tori's eyes indicated when she widened them made us all laugh.

Mia nodded, looking pleased, and gave Peter another peck.

"Get a room, guys," Tori said as she rolled her eyes and stared in the other direction.

"Hush now," Lea said as she shook her head and raised her hand to gather their attention.

"Guys, please. Some of us are still v-". she continued with a grin and she wrapped one arm around me and laid her head on my shoulder.

I shrugged her off and made a face.

Already, I was feeling a little tipsy.

"Maybe I am," I admitted.

I wanted to knock myself out for saying that, so I took one last drink from my glass to have that kick from the soju.

"Or maybe I'm not," I continued while I narrowed my eyes, giving them a seductive look.

Lea gave me a good smack on the back after she spit-took her drink.

"What the?" she cries out while wiping her lips with a table napkin.

Her drink was sprinkled all over the table.

"Yuck" we all exclaimed.

I heard someone gasp, so I looked in the direction and saw Tori laughing.

"Come on, Jess. We all know you," she said when she saw me looking at her.

"You barely have some time to rest," Mia added while drinking her glass of cucumber juice.

"And you're always in the business context," Lea breathed , her eyes widening further. They all laughed.

"Don't worry!" Tori said.

"We're still rooting for you, though," she winked at me.

"Yep, you and Mr. Neighbor over there might know," Alice joked.

"No way!" I shrugged and shook my head, embarrassed by their words of encouragement.

I have to get out of here and have some fresh air-I thought.

The firepit beside us was already out, and it was already thirty minutes past 2 am.

We were still on the lanai, finishing the last bottle of soju while the twins slept in their room.

Tori accidentally dropped her glass on the wooden table, and it took us some time to react because of the alcohol.

We just stared at the liquid gushing and we started giggling.

"Mom?" We were all taken aback when we saw Luke standing by the sliding door, rubbing his eyes.

"Hello sweetie." Alice immediately went to where her son was standing and embraced him.

"What is it?" she asked and kissed him on the cheeks.

"I need to pee," he cried.

"Let me handle it." Lea stood up and took the boy to the powder room.

"I guess that's it?" Alice chuckled as she said and strided towards our table.

We took it as a cue to pack up and call it a day.

Everyone started to pick up the plates from the table and dump them in the kitchen sink.

Tori and Lea washed the dishes while the rest of us were busy cleaning the lanai.

"Mia, can you please sit?" Ted was worried about our pregnant friend, who was also helping us tidy things up.

"I've got this." She smiled and winked at him.

When everything was over, they all gathered their belongings.

I followed Alice to the guest room where Kyle was sleeping and carried him up.

"Hey, Al. Do you mind if Ted drives them home? " I whispered to Alice on our way to the door.

"No prob," she told me.

Alice slowly took Kyle from my embrace while Lea was carrying Luke.

Leaning forward, I opened my entrance door and escorted them to their cars.

"Thanks for this evening," I told them.

We all say our goodbyes, and we fold each other into our embrace.

These people are certainly my friends—I told myself.

They all left at around four in the morning, before the morning twilight.

The streets were lit by lamps, and I had one final look at the old house across the street before I finally closed the door.

It was Sunday morning, and I'd got the whole house to myself.

When I woke up, it took me awhile to realize that I had slept in the living room and it was already ten minutes past one in the afternoon.

I must have dozed off last night after they all left.

I blinked the sleep away, stood up and immediately went to my bedroom since I desperately needed a hot shower.

"Engineer Carl inspected the area and reviewed the plans. He'll be meeting us tomorrow morning together with the client," Louise said via phone.

Carl was our firm's consultant structural engineer.

He would always help us whenever we had concerns about our projects.

I had just finished drying my hair when my phone rang, and immediately answered it when I saw that it was a call from Louise.

"Okay, I guess I'll have to review the plans later," I told her while I searched for my last supply of day cream.

"Yep. Email me a copy, so I can help." she suggested.

"Good idea!" I told her while applying an ample amount of cream to my face to hydrate it. I always make sure to have that dewy no-makeup look, even if I'm at home.

" Anyway, where were you last night, Lou?" I asked.

"I had some personal matters to attend to," she answered calmly.

"You sure?"

"It's nothing to worry about, Jess," she assured me.

"Okay, if you say so, "I told her.

"It's just that everyone was worried last night", I heard her chuckle on the other line.

"Stop overreacting, girl" she said and laughed.

"Anyway, I'll call you if there is an update. Okay? Bye,"

I hung up and went to turn my laptop on so I could email the plans to Louise.

I spent two hours reviewing the plans and preparing for tomorrow's meeting in my study room.

When I looked at my watch, it was already late.

I didn't feel like cooking, so I took some leftovers from last night's grill and reheated them.

As the day got lighter and warmer, I went to my study and took the book I was reading the day before. This novel will truly break your heart. One of Sparks' best, in fact, because it evokes a wide range of emotions. I loved reading.

When I was younger, I would prefer to have my nose buried in a book while other people would go out and enjoy themselves.

I have finished two novels—both were by Nicholas Sparks. He really knows what works for the readers.

Since I don't have any other plans for today, I've decided to watch the Twilight movie on Netflix to kill time.

Although I find the book more appealing, the movie swept me away the first time I saw it when we were in high school. There were a lot of breathtaking scenes.

I paused at the part where Bela saw Edward for the first time. There was really something different about the way they looked at each other that made me remember someone. I was distracted and felt a little deflated.

Moments later, the landline suddenly rang, and it shocked me out of my trance, so I immediately went to answer it.

As I was walking towards the kitchen, I ran my fingers through my hair, wondering who was calling. My phone was hanging on the wall by the window, giving me a good view of the trees lining the streets.

"Hello, I've been trying to call you." Tori sounded worried on the other line.

"Tori? What's wrong?" I asked, confused by her tone.

"Why aren't you answering your phone, Jess?" she was muttering.

"I can't find it," I defended. I haven't opened it since this morning.

She sighed in disbelief.

"I'm sorry. What is it? " I wondered, and was suddenly distracted by the scenery outside. The view from my house was stunning, and that was one of the reasons why I decided to construct it here.

I was drawn into something moments later.

I couldn't take my eyes off the house across the street. Not because it appeared to be old and abandoned, but because I kept wondering how things went with Mike there.

Is he done unpacking?

He must have struggled yesterday because the whole place was a total mess.

He still has a lot of repairs to do.

Why am I suddenly concerned about him?

Apart from Alice and Tori, I haven't thought about Mike or any of our classmates in the last few years.

There were occasions when we would run into each other, say hi, and then move on.

Maybe the whole idea that someone I knew would be my neighbor must have delighted me.

I was so preoccupied that I didn't pay attention to the person at the other end of the call.

"Hello?" she asked.

"I'm sorry" I answered.

"OMG, you're not even listening."

"I was thinking of something," I apologized.

"What?" she exclaimed.

"Anyway, as I was saying, Frances Centena posted something on her i********:," she blurted out.

"And guess what"

"What?"

"She was with Mike last night!"

As I listened to her talk, I soon realized why nobody was home last night. My heart sank. Of course, he'd choose to be with her. I felt a pang in my chest and I'm not sure why.

I know they've been inseparable since medical school, and as far as I know, Frances has had a crush on Mike since high school, but I'm not sure what their current situation is.

I've known Frances since we were four. We went to primary school together and planned to graduate from the same high school. Our families were neighbors, so we eventually became good friends when we grew up.

People mistook us as sisters since we often dressed in pairs and our family names sounded the same. That caused a lot of confusion back then. It was in our third year in high school when we drifted apart, and nobody knew why.

One day, she became distant and stopped opening up to me. We eventually started not talking to each other, and no one dared to ask why. It all happened very quickly.

She began hanging out with our other classmates in fourth year, and the class quickly developed factions which I despised a lot. They had their own common grounds, and I felt out of place for months until I met Tori and Alice. We ultimately formed our own circle without even realizing it. I was relieved that we did.

After a few months of being in our different circles, Frances and I continued to drift apart, especially when her family decided to move houses months before our graduation, so there was no way to keep in touch with her.

Fastforward to today. I haven't seen her since high school graduation. We never had the time or chance to hang out or rekindle our friendship.

"They work at the same hospital, Tor," I reminded her.

"It wasn't from the hospital, Jess," she sounded frustrated.

"They were in her place, and they were drinking something," she went on to say.

"It's their business," I replied.

"Just see for yourself. Gotta go. Bye"

I took one last glance at the house before searching for my phone.

I found it on the sofa where I slept last night and turned it on.

Curious, I opened my i********: account and searched for the name Tori gave me. That was when I realized that we weren't even friends, but her profile was set to public, so I was able to scroll through her feeds.

She looked different. I thought it wouldn't be hard for Mike to be attracted to her.

As I continued to scroll, one post caught my attention-It was a picture of a guy standing in the shadows looking at the skyline on a rooftop at night with the caption, "I had an amazing view last night."

The silhouette looked familiar. It resembled the guy I saw the other day walking towards the old house across the street.

She has their photos together. I did not want to care, but something pushed me to scroll some more.

The rest of my day whizzed by. I hardly noticed it was evening already.

I grabbed my keys and headed to the nearest grocery store to buy my needed supplies before it closed..

Monday.

The next day, there were still no signs of Mike.

I cast my eye over the abandoned house across the street before I left the area and headed to the office.

Maybe he had some second thoughts about living there and decided not to do it.

Maybe he and Frances decided to live together?

Maybe I should wait till tonight, I thought, so I tried to shake off the thoughts of him and started thinking of something else.

The city streamed outside my car window.

I took a deep breath and started to refocus my attention on today's meeting.

I should not be distracted.

I arrived at the office thirty minutes before eight o' clock.

Everyone was busy, so I went straight to the conference room after giving some instructions to our interns who were at their workstations.

"You ready?" Louise asked.

My eyes widened the moment she entered the room, and my jaw almost dropped at the sight of her in her mustard-fitted turtleneck blouse, high waist trousers, and with her ash-brown bouncy curls that looked so perfectly effortless,

She was wearing make-up, the one thing we'd been trying to make her do. I narrowed my eyes.

"who are you?" I immediately told her, impressed, when she sat next to me in the conference room.

"Shut up" she chuckled.

Part of me can't believe she got dolled up.

Engineer Carl, who arrived after, also noticed Louise when he entered. His eyes locked on her.

"Can you two please stop it", she started, feeling irritated when she saw us still staring at her.

"Okay" we both said in unison while giggling.

Minutes later, Mrs. Tuazon entered the room together with her assistant, Janice.

She was a widowed woman in her forties with two children, and decided to have her house designed and constructed by our firm.

We already had our first draft printed and submitted, but she has some concerns with the design.

She started enumerating the revisions she wanted and asked us our opinions about them.

"Do we have any problems if we do that , Architect?" she asked, shifting her gaze between me and Louise, waiting for us to answer.

"We reviewed the plans, ma'am," Louise started as she was scribbling in her notebook.

She looked at the client and gave a warm smile, "It's possible."

"Yep. I also checked it." Engineer Carl reassured her.

"We won't be having any problems in the structural aspect," he continued.

Mrs. Tuazon nodded and sighed in relief.

"That felt good," she said as she closed her eyes.

"I was afraid that those were not possible."

I smiled at her concern.

"Your comments are all noted, Ma'am," I added.

"We'll send you the revised plans by the end of the week," Louise told her.

"We can meet by then."

The meeting ended after Mrs. Tuazon signed the agreement.

We all went back to our office and continued our work.

Hours turned to days and days turned to weeks.

The girls have been asking me about Mike's whereabouts, and I always told them that I didn't know.

Every day for the past week, I would stare at the mansion for a few minutes before heading to the office, and my curiosity would simmer.

He hadn't posted anything on his social media and was also absent from Frances' page.

What the hell happened to him?

Was he upset about something?

The day went by as usual, and I spent most of my time in the office reading and signing documents that were handed to me.

I was already in the parking lot, and getting out took a while because the documents I carried were all over the backseat.

As I got out of the car and gazed out into the village's darkness, the wind blew through the trees that made me shiver.

Will it rain? I wondered.

It was already eight when I arrived at the house, and as I was about to enter, I saw someone sitting on the bench by my door waiting for something or someone.

He was leaning forward staring down at his hands while his elbows were on his knees.

My entrance porch was only illuminated by the wall lamp beside the door.

Is he sleeping? I wondered.

"Good evening?" I said while walking towards him.

I was holding a box of documents on one hand and a brown paper bag inthe other.

He stood up and strided towards me, gesturing to assist.

The light accentuated his chiseled facial features.

I noticed he was wearing a deep blue polo with his sleeves rolled up to his elbow, two buttons down.

"Hi," Mike whispered while running his fingers through his hair. There was something different about him. I gazed at him impassively.

"Why do you always carry a box?" he asked sternly while he took it from my hands.

"I still have some pending work to do," I said. I kept trying not to look at him.

"Do you need anything?" I was tempted to ask while searching for my keys.

The rain started to fall.

"Come on in!" I told him and hurriedly opened the door, since he was not carrying an umbrella with him.

"You can stay here until the rain stops" I offered.

"I actually want to talk to you, but no one's home," he said, behind me.

It was pitch black, and only the solar lamps on the lanai were on.

I switched on the nearest power and the whole place lit up.

"Where is everyone?" he asked, scanning the room.

"They're not here," I explained as I set down my keys at the console table and motioned for him to enter.

He blinked, like he typically does when he's absorbing information.

He then furrowed his eyebrows and locked his gaze on me.

I was puzzled by his look.

"What?" I asked him.

"Nothing," he replied.

"You can put the box on the counter." I pointed to him the direction of the nook.

He was cautiously walking behind me.

"Did you do anything to your hair?" he asked.

I turned to face him and wondered.

"No" I replied.

He was quiet.

Everything became awkward and I wanted to break the ice.

"Have you eaten?" I asked as I took the food I bought out of the paper bag I had brought in.

"Why don't you join me?" I offered.

His expression softened while he nodded and smiled.

It was a serving of carbonara from my favorite restaurant, and the serving was for three people.

I stared at him closely as he started to get the plates.

He took the food from the paper bag and sat down across from me while I poured Coke on our glasses.

We both ate our dinner quietly. My eyes were fixed on my plate, and so were his.

"You're very quiet." His voice was tentative.

I stared up at him and saw that his gaze was wary.

I paused for a second, wondering what to reply.

"What brings you here, Mike?" I suddenly asked.

It took him a while to answer.

"I need to ask something," he said, distracted.

I watched him as he was finishing his food.

"Is everything okay?" His aura was new to me, so I reached out and held his hand as a friendly gesture, but he stiffened and stared at me.

I was confused by his reaction, so I flinched and hid my hands in my lap.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and started again.

"Everyone was asking me about you," I began.

I felt the urge to ask him his whereabouts, but he gave nothing away.

"They wanted to invite you last week, but I guess you were not home." I carefully examined his reaction.

"How are you?" I asked.

He did not answer me and was gazing at his hands that were on top of the counter.

What's wrong with him?

"Mike?" I stared at him, still looking at his hands. Frustrated, I drained my glass and poured more coke.

"I'm okay. I just had someplace I needed to be. " I looked at him. His voice wavered as he started talking.

That hit me, so I ran my fingers through my hair.

"I see". I was irritated and was not sure why, so I shifted my gaze to the lanai to ease it.

"Tess?" he called.

His voice became hoarse. It was unsettling.

I froze. My eyes were still at the lanai.

"Yes?" I was already having a hard time staring back at him.

When I turned to face his direction, he was really becoming quite attractive .

But he was still looking down at his hands-his lips parted and his breathing was deep.

I angled my head to see his face and when he looked up, I tensed a little.

There was something about him that made me freeze.

It must be because of the warm white accented lighting I had in the breakfast nook.

I took a deep breath and calmed myself, but my breathing started to become heavy the moment he stood up and came closer to me, his eyes were longing.