MAYBE NEVER

CHAPTER THREE

“Eva! Eva!”

I warily turn around to the familiar voice only to see Roslyn rushing up towards me like she was going to do something very violent. I was partially surprised she found me but then again sitting next to a hotdog stand isn’t the most convenient place to hide.

I winced a little when she came to an abrupt stop in front of me, perhaps finally realising that she was five months pregnant as she stood there with her hands on her hips, panting like she just walked the Boston marathon, though it was technically 10 metres from the antic shop to where we stood.

“Wh- what th- the he- hell!” she shrieked so loud a couple of heads turned our way. I didn’t know whether to feel mortified or petrified at that crazy look on her face.

“Sorry.” I shrugged woozily, “it’s just that….”

Roslyn made a dramatic sigh before I could even finish my sentence, “It happened again didn’t it?”

“Yesssssss!” I whined resignedly. I didn't even want to think about what the guy or the people around us thought about me, much less with Roslyn chasing after me.

"Am such a mess!" I mutter to myself as i dab my face with a handkerchief. I see the afternoon sun still hates me.

That seemed to calm her down a bit as she tsk-tsk in her classic Roslyn way, finally understanding the current situation.

“Sweetie you need to see a shrink.”

I rolled my eyes, “no need I don’t need one.” I murmured as I stand up, “are you ready to go?” I asked as I turned to lead our way out of the Williamsburg Flea Market. Not waiting to hear her response.

It only took a good two seconds of silent bliss when Roselyn had to talk again.

“Oh come on Eva, it’s not normal for you to get panic attacks every single time you bump into a good looking guy!”

“Hey, I thought we agreed you will never butt into my love life! Plus it only happened once!”

“Really? Cause Gary said it happened quite a number of times.”

“What! You actually listen to that guy!” I cried out as I turned around to face her.

“Yes! His the one person who knows more about you than your PA, who by the way is me!”

I closed my eyes in resignation.

“Roslyn you know what let’s forget about this, am sorry I ran off like that I just needed some air.”

Roslyn stared at me for a moment before she finally decided to give in. Thank you!!

“Okay fine,” she sighed before delicately taking my hand, “Am still worried about you though.”

“I’ll be fine, you know how I do.”

Roslyn gave me a small smile before finally letting go of my hand to check her watch.

“Oh boy, it’s almost three! I’ve got to go, Charlie will be here in the next two hours!”

Charlie as in Charlie Deltoro is Roslyn’s husband and qualified Soul Mate, if there’s any person on this world who can both love and handle Roslyn’s shenanigans it would be him… and the baby too. And judging from her uneasiness, she probably has a lot planned to welcome him back from his business trip. Young love….

“Go right ahead.” I smiled a little fondly, I knew how much she missed him and it’s usually for more reasons than the obvious. I fought the urge to frown at that. “I saw some great centre piece concepts and antiques just a few stores down, so I’ll be here for a while.”

“Okayyyy?” she murmured uncomfortably.

“I’ll be fine! I swear it!”

“Okay, okay… fine, the shop owner got our address so he’ll send the antics we got over by Monday so yeah… I’ll see you on Monday!” she called over her shoulder as she turned on her heels to leave.

I stood there for a couple of minutes as I watched her retreating back out of habit for the past five months already, Roslyn was a very good friend of mine if anything happened to her and the baby while am around, I would definitely hate myself. Once I was sure she was okay, I immediately turned on my heels and make a right turn.

I couldn’t help thinking about how embarrassing my day turned out to be as I make my way down the pavement. I didn’t know what was more annoying, bumping into that antique store guy again or realising that my insignificant ‘condition’ is still doing its thing.

Sigh, I have a very bad feeling that Gary’s going to tell me-

“I told you so!”

I instantly jumped on the spot in utter shock before turning around to see some old and tiny Chinese lady screaming into her ancient looking handset.

“Yes, yes, now listen to what am asking you ah, did you follow the instructions on the back? Whaaaat it’s in Chinese? Of course it’s in Chinese, you asked for authentic Chinese green Tea you ah! So the instructions would obviously be in Chinese, what because you got it from Brooklyn it ain’t original? No! No refund!”

And with that she cut the phone, threw a couple of unintelligible words that sounded more Mandarin than English before turning on her small heels to go back into her store when she suddenly froze. I gasped when she suddenly turned her head towards me.

Let’s just say I have a little fear of interacting with short angry individuals of my gender, they remind me of my old Childhood neighbour Mrs Batausky, she was always so….angry.

Feeling slightly uneasy of her attention, I instantly turned my attention to a nearby store with a pretentious interest towards its wide array of assorted accessories and decor. Ten minutes and unsuccessful attempt at trying to convince the store owner that I didn’t want to buy anything later, I finally found myself purchasing a beautiful authentic Japanese ceremonial tea set, cobalt blue dinner plates as well as a couple of writing feathers and ink set that I eventually agreed would be a good purchase.

“Don’t worry about Mrs Chen, she’s always like that.”

I looked up at the storeowner, a simple looking south East Asian woman dressed in a traditional red dress with a set of gold bangles jingling around her wrists as she moved to hand me my change. I reached out my hand to retrieve it when the middle aged woman suddenly grabbed my hand and looked at my palm with a bewildered look on her face before placing my change in it.

“Woah,” I start, as I snatch my hand back. “What the? That’s a bit inappropriate mam!” I assert.

“What?” she retorted with an ironic tone to her voice as she looked at me as if I had just said the world’s funniest joke.

“The only thing inappropriate in this room is YOU!!! How can an accomplished woman, whose almost thirty be with no man, and you like to pretend that it doesn’t bother you.”

I blinked at her for a moment with a mixture of astonishment and confusion all over my face, before looking around me to see if anyone else heard that. I didn’t know what frightened me more the fact that she was right or the fact that I was failing to see the correlation between me being inappropriate and my ‘wilful’ singleness.

“Am failing to see how that’s any of you-“

“You have a very strong Aura,” she interrupts as if I haven’t been talking to her at all, “You’re smart, much focused and very strong willed but…… very very lonely.”

Okay this is going too far.

“Excuse me mam, have you taken your meds cause your spewing bullshit right now,” I hissed, the words left my lips before I could even stop myself, “you don’t know me.”

The smirk that she had been wearing earlier instantly dropped as she pointed at my hand, “I don’t but your hand says it all.”

I automatically looked at my rescued hand before snorting at that, “What, you’re trying to tell me that you’re some fortune teller or something?!” I snapped my voice rising an octave higher, along with my temper.

“It’s palm reader, I could see you had a considerably sad childhood, you fear commitment and anyone who gets too close to you, but…… ”

“But what?” I frowned, half tempted to walk off but for some reason I found myself rooted in the spot.

“That will change,” she whispered, as she shut her eyes in frustration as if seeing something that I couldn’t, “Two…”

“Two what?” I probed suddenly getting a little impatient. Wait since when did I ever believe in any of this kind of crap.

“Two.”

“Two what!”

“That will be twenty dollars.” She smirked as she finally looked up at me.

“You’re kidding me right.”

“No, that will be twenty dollars.”

“Yeah right, like I even wanted to be here in the first place, you’re luring me in with baseless stores, this is extortion!”

The woman obviously felt insulted with that cause she instantly glared at me like I’d die on the spot.

“What? But I read your hand.” She cried in dismay.

“Now read it again,” I yelled back as I lifted with my hand at parallel with my face. “What’s that, oh….okay, it says HELL NO!”

“Fine! Fine!” I’ll finish, I’ll finish!”

Heheheheh….

I ‘reluctantly’ offered her my hand back.

She took a deep breath before finally doing her thing, “okay, hmmmmm….”

I raised a sceptical brow.

“Your luck may change this year though.”

“What?” I inquired as I narrowed my eyes not in suspicion but anticipation, if Roselyn saw me doing this I’ll never hear the end of it.

“What do you mean by may?”

“ummm, you will have a man, but….”

“But what?” I whined wearily, feeling all the fun wear out all of the sudden in this endeavour, maybe CBS has something better to watch tonight.

‘I see a lot of men around you, but two will stand out, one you love the other you will fall in love with you will love them both, but who will you choose?’

What? Now more alarmed than I ought to be, calm down Eva, she’s just entertaining you and you’re just humoring her.

But my curiosity has always been a beast so-

“Who- who are they, do I know them?” I stuttered, entertainment or not, if it gives me an insight to my life then I will take it damn it!!

“You have met them both actually, two completely different men, one woman’s heart, who will you choose?”

Argh!! I fight the urge to roll my eyes and speak sass. This was obviously going nowhere and I have things to do.

“That’s vague and very unhelpful” I reply dryly as I snipingly retract my hand.

The woman lifts her eyes at me with a serious expression on her face.

“Because loving a man and being in love are two different things….you of all people know that.”

I looked at her for a moment, before she suddenly just had to tell me the one thing to ruin my mood that day:

“But there’s a catch…”

Ah, so their plot twists now?

“You will go through a lot of trials to be with him,” she said as she looks at me with a slightly sorrowful look on her face which instantly vanishes just as fast as it came, just to be replaced with a smirk on her face.

“But with that attitude I don’t see you lasting a month with either of them,” she snarled as she let go of my hand. What! Is this woman bi-polar or something!

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” I cried defensively

“You heard me, now beat it, your pessimistic presence is clouding up the mood in here,” she said as she literally shoos me away like a curse in her store, but I wasn’t one to move so easily, especially when am offended!

“Wow wow! I am not pessimistic, and secondly I will have a man by the time I hit thirty!” I said with my chin up in the air.

“Is that a bet-?”

“A bet? It’s a deal!!” I snapped, “In fact I’ll invite you to the wedding!”

“Really,” she smiled a sly smile, her eye’s twinkling in interest like a snake approaching its prey.

Oh no Eva! My inner conscience screamed, Back out of this now, it’s a trap it’s a trap!

“And what if you don’t?”

There it is, Eva just turn around and pretend you never met this crazy woman! Let it go, LET IT GO!!!

“I’ll give you $10,000 dollars.” I spat before I could stop myself.

What! $1- $10,000, am I crazy!! Apparently the woman together with several other on-lookers within the store who had been eavesdropping agreed since their eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets!

“Wh- what?” she stuttered before quickly composing herself, “It’s a deal.” She said quickly.

I smiled tightly before twirling on my heel and strutting out of the Williamsburg Flea market like I owned the world while my head whirled with millions of self-targeted insults.

Eva you i***t! You and your stupid pride!! That could go to your company’s capital!!!