You Captured By Me

Chapter 15

Lisa turned off the car ignition and
silently prayed, Lord please give me the strength to just get through this day.

Last night, she slept with a smile because Jennie had agreed to
spending more time with her
tomorrow but when morning came,
she immediately felt that the day
wasn't off to a good start. One, she
woke up with a terrible case of
headache. Two, her coffee maker
mysteriously stopped working so
she had to leave the house without
her caffeine fix. Three, the building
elevator was under maintenance
repair so she had to go take seemingly-endless flight of stairs from the seventh floor to the ground lobby and of course, she tripped halfway somewhere between the third and second floors. Four, a massive eight-wheeler truck broke down in
the middle of Highway, causing one of the worst traffic jams in recent memory.

And now, as Lisa stepped out of her car and walked across the wide expanse of the parking lot, a sudden downpour of rain came out of nowhere. Lisa found herself just standing still, letting her shirt get drenched, resigned to the
unbelievable misfortune of it all.

Can this day get any--

Before she could even finish the
thought, an aqua-colored umbrella
caught her vision. It was zooming
towards her direction. It was Jennie.

"Good Morning, Lisa." She kissed her gently on the cheek as she sheltered her underneath her umbrella.

She smiled back at her, thinking: It's only a bad day But it's not a bad life.

Two hours later, they were sitting
next to each other on a lavish couch near the fitting room inside one of the most luxurious wedding boutiques in the country, bored out of their wits.

"What's your favorite number?" Lisa whispered very carefully on Jennie's ear.

"Number twenty three," she answered with an exhausted smile.

It's time to end this madness, Lisa
thought, as she ruffled through
the wedding portfolio collection
featuring the five bridal gowns that
the ex-beauty queen was selecting
from. The bride-to-be had so far
worn four of the five gowns and they were waiting for her to come out and see how the fifth looks like. Lisa had decided to spend that day with Jennie because she will be back to work in three days and she wanted to make the most out of her free time with her as possible.

When the ex-beauty queen finally
came out, Lisa reached for the sketch profile of gown number three.

"You look most beautiful and
glamorous in this dress," she said as she pointed at the third gown, flashing her her notorious smile.

"Really?" her eyes lit up at the
compliment.

"Yeah. I'm sure your groom wouldn't be able to keep his eyes off you."

The ex-beauty queen turned silent for a moment, blushing at Lisa's gaze, then gave herself one last appraising look in the mirror before she told Jennie that she has decided on getting gown number three.

Jennie thanked Lisa by treating her at a nearby tea place where they sat down for quick snacks.

"No one is ever immune to your
charm, right?"

For the record, I'm not kidding. She really looked beautiful and glamorous in every gown. We just
picked one in random to help her
Out"

"How sure were you that the groom
wouldn't be able to keep his eyes off her with that gown?"

"Jennie, I'm pretty sure that if a
groom is truly in love with his bride, whatever she wear on that day, as long as she shows up on the aisle, that's all that matters,"

"But extra effort won't hurt, right?
Brides only want this day to be super memorable that's why they want to look their best,"

"You always look the best and most
beautiful to me, Jennie."

"C'mon! You say that because we've only known each other for two weeks. But these engaged couples have years and years ahead of them to stick with their choices. Years, Lisa."

"I know that, and I know this too
--that I would still choose you. Not
because I'm picking randomly or
letting fate decide for me. I would
choose you because I want you.
Because you're so beautiful you stand out in a crowd of tragedies like a ray of sunshine. You're so beautiful you can make the worst day of my life feel good and perfect. Jennie, if anyone would ask me what hope looks like, i'll tell them it looks exactly like you."

God, have I just exposed my
heart completely just now? Jesus, Manoban.

Jennie gave her a beautiful yet
bittersweet smile then looked away,
Somewhat afraid to meet her eyes.

"You terrify me," she told her.

You terrify me too, Jennie.

"...because you speak in poetry to me like that and then you call me Pikachu and then you can make me feel the entire spectrum of human emotions from Switzerland to Syria real quick and you can be my hiding place when I feel like the world is too much. You
are.."

LORD. LO0000000RD, Lisa felt like
her heart would explode at any given moment.

Jennie left the unfinished sentence
hanging and stood up, holding on to
Lisa's arm as they walked out of the
tea shop. The rain was now pouring
heavily and they almost collapsed
in hysterics when Jennie tried to
open her umbrella to find that it's
half-wrecked. So they sprinted
towards the parking lot, running in
the rain like kids. When they finally
got in Lisa's car, they were soaked,
breathless and happy.

After a while, Lisa finally realized that Jennie's cheeks were drenched with rain and something else---tears.

"You terrify me because you make me feel brave enough to believe again, Lisa, and I'm so grateful," she smiled, even though she was crying.

She was looking out of the foggy
windshield and Lisa followed her line of sight, understanding in an instant what's been hurting Jennie all this time.

A couple was walking out under an
umbrella and she recognized them as the same couple in hotel room 2320 on the night they first met. The people Jennie was running away from. A familiar face she saw when she peeked at her bedroom a few nights ago.

It was her father with another
Woman.