Love at the Nth Time

Change to Square One

Chapter 20

Celine's POV

It had been a month since I broke up with my foreign ex-boyfriend. I also left working in the BPO industry and solely focused on the business with my older sister. Although, there were times I found myself losing interest till I searched for something to make me feel good temporarily.

I sighed again.

"You're always sighing. That's making my day miserable, you know." I looked at the blonde woman walking next to me as we strolled around the mall.

Meet Setherlyn Vinscon, a fashion designer at the same time as an on-call model. She's very different amongst the lesbians I'd met so far from the way she talked and the way she projected herself as if there's always a camera pointing at her. We became closer after breaking up with my ex-boyfriend, though no strings attached. I liked her company as I could behave the way I wanted and it was comfortable to be around her.

"We'll be going outbound next week. It will be in Cebu."

"Oh, can I come?"

"Ha? You said you have a runway next week?"

"Yeah, but I don't feel like it. Let me do runaway literally." We laughed. I scanned around the clothing stores. She invited me over to accompany her in buying new outfits. I'd gotten used to being with her, I was having fun, and her beauty refreshed me over the norms I was surrounded with.

Her arm reached my back as she slowed her pace to enter a western restaurant and let me in first. She reserved a VIP room for us to dine in. The female staff staffing the front desk, a waiter she called to assist us in the room. Our usual eat-out place was a restaurant in a private room. She preferred it this way. Although she could eat out with other customers, we liked it when we could behave and do whatever we wanted.

"Do you want me to take you away there?"

"That would be hilarious. Here, I'm already full." She placed the half-eaten seafood salad near me and leaned on the couch she was seated on. Likewise, whenever I was stuffed, then I gave it to her. Often, we ate each other's half, not typically left-overs.

She's a semi-vegan. At a minimum, she ate certain kinds of meat and other animal-derived additives. Her personality pressured me sometimes. She did not know about it as I was good at not showing it.

"I had your books and stuff last night. You forgot it in my car."

"Ah yeah, I was planning to sleep tonight at your condo," I replied whilst eating my pasta.

"Why?"

"Ugh. I don't wanna sleep in our condo. The people staying there with me are not good at keeping the place clean and such. Just an internal issue."

"You keep telling me the same thing last time. Did you tell this to your sister?" I nodded. Usually, I answer her questions with ending ones. Better not to get pestered by her since she'd ask random things she'd hate about my current status.

After we ate dinner, we went home to her condo unit, and as I entered the room, my feet hurriedly went to bed and laid flat. I inhaled and smelled her musky with a hint of sweet flower. It smelled so lovely it's soothing me.

"Hey, your shoes!" yelled Seth.

"Yeah, yeah," I responded and hopped off the bed, feet staggered as I took my shoes off whilst heading to the entryway. I put it down on the wooden rack. I watched Seth pony her hair messily. She removed her polo, which only showed a black sleeveless undershirt, then went to the kitchen.

"Hey, do you want the usual drink?" she asked about the fruit juice stored in the fridge. It's the beverage we both liked other than smoothies or tea. My eyes checked the DVDs neatly organized near the television.

"Nah, still stuffed. What are these movies?"

"Horror ones." My hand paused from taking one of the DVDs.

"Whew, do you have anything else?" All this time, I spoke in basic Tagalog. She understood them, but she couldn't talk.

"Hmm, action and suspense, I bet you won't like them. You're more into fantasy and children's ones." She sat down on the floormat at the bottom of the bed and turned on the TV. She drank the blueberry juice stored in a glass bottle. Her skin was light pinkish and white with some freckles on her shoulder lines to the back. I laid my chest flat on the bed facing her.

"Is it time for that?" I inquired about the movie series she binged on. She looked forward to watching a fashion genre whenever she was in her condo unit. It's only recently that she had an interest in watching movies.

"No, a friend told me there's a good program this time from international models."

"You can even compete with the models."

"I don't want it." I thought she'd add more to her response. My eyes met hers as she was staring at me.

"Why?" She faced me, which moved me back a little as we were too close.

"Dad told me you're planning to work abroad, is that right?"

"Ah, yeah," I replied and looked down. I planned on telling Seth when I already had the opportunity.

"Why? Is your business not sufficient?" I watched the commercial shown on TV.

"Hmm, sometimes, but I don't know. Ugh, you knew it already, right?" Her arm leaned on the bed and used her hand to rest her chin. I looked at her as I saw in my peripheral vision that she was staring at me. Eyebrows rose on hers, and eyes lowered.

"Yeah, it won't be easy. Though you already know about foreigners, you're still too ignorant most of the time."

"Whew. I didn't wanna hear that from you. Ay, I saw a restaurant where they had good women's uniforms for staff. It's kinda like Lolita, but it's a dress, fitted ones." She knew my struggles in the business. Not all of it as she's against it.

"Where?" she inquired and faced the television as the program started.

It was one of her best interests, watching women who were good at wearing clothes, especially if they were beautiful and her type. I remember the last time I went with her to a Fashion show in Megamall.

"Ah!" Seth pulled my cropped top shirt's back to stop me from walking. She carried a digital camera, and many people crammed the trade hall, but her eyes were similar to an eagle when she spotted girls who met her standards. "Look at her, isn't she a beauty?" I gazed at the girl standing in a merchandise store and looked at the photo of her that Seth took. The girl looked younger, white skin with long brownish curly hair, and she wore a navy school uniform with boots reaching up to her thighs and her belly buttons showing. I nodded, and seconded her statement,

"Yeah, she is."

"Get her number." Eyes lifted to meet Seth's.

"What? Why?"

"Get her number. I wanna know her."

"Serious?"

"She's looking at me." She grinned and gazed at me. "Am I gonna do it, or will you?"

I had no other choice. I asked the girl's phone number and why? Simple, I had encountered being with Seth as she asked for the contact number of a girl who was strolling in a mall with her group of friends. We had a hard time leaving as she got feasted by the girls with chitchats and flirty touches. In only the first meet-up, she obtained a lot of information about the girl who she merely asked for the contact number.

We treated each other as close friends. It wasn't bad, though. She did not support me completely regarding the business, which was why I couldn't ask her to come to the office. Her presence kept me company, and it helped me rest for a while from the pile of concerns I carried.

We laughed as we watched half of the movie's episode today.

"The guy rocks it," Seth stated and typed a reply on someone's text message.

"He's good. I thought he was gay."

"Yeah. Look at the leading lady. I can't believe she's acting hard to get." Her attention was on her phone whilst I glanced at her once in a while.

"No crazy, she's just too shy to admit she likes the guy too. If you're aware of him as being gay, aren't you gonna be conscious about it too?" We laughed again.

The lights went off as she moved onto the bed beside me, and the lamp from the bedside table could merely see neither her nor me. I faced sideways and stared at the window with the grey curtains almost blocking the night sky. I shut my eyes and could barely see the stars since my eyesight was not good. Damn it.

The bed shook as Seth moved, and her warmth got close as she leaned a little. She softly brushed her shoulder on my back, nothing to discern as we watched a movie, ate snacks and went to sleep—our routine when we're together.

I did not think that as time passed, I could only see her like an older sister or an older friend.