SECOND CHANCES(A Lesbian Story)

Chapter 17

"What was it?' There was a realization in her eyes and Mika wanted to be on it. "Vic?"

"Shiela. When I told her it was over between us, she took it well considering..."

"Considering what?"

"Considering she had planned on asking me to marry her." Vic got up, obviously disturbed by the memory. "I had no idea she was in that deeply. In fact I am not sure she was, actually. She just said it was a pity because she planned of proposing to me that evening. She said we'd make a good team... she and I. She was philosophical, to the point of nonchalance, as though she had been thinking in terms of a merger rather than a marriage."

"But that does not explain the twins saying you had told them you would be married by the summer."

"Mika, the children asked me whether I was going to marry again. I... hell, I just thought it was a question out of the blue. You know how my children are like. Then I thought, perhaps they had realized what was happening between you and me. They.... Ronnie especially.... are very perceptive. So I said yes, hopefully by the summer. I could not be more specific than that."

"And when was this? At Christmas?"

"No... about two or three weeks later. Yes, it was the day before we left for Kenya. They had obviously been worrying over the question Shiela had asked them, and they added my answer to it... and came to the wrong conclusion. Grief! I had no idea she had asked them how they like the idea of having a new mother. To think they have been worrying all these weeks... I am well aware that my children never liked her, you know?"

Mika understand it now. Shiela Pineda's question to the twins had been premature... had been asked before she and Vic had talked. She must have been confident of her accepting her proposal.

"Why... How come she was with you at Christmas?"

"My family was expecting her to have dinner with us on Christmas Eve. I had invited her several weeks earlier and I saw no reason to put her off. It was not as if... Anyhow, it was as good a time and place as any to talk to her about you."

"Did you... I mean, did you tell her you were going to marry me? Did you tell her who this other person was?"

"No to both questions." Vic sat beside her, taking hold of her hands and pressing the palms to her lips. "How could I? It was all a theory... my theory. I knew what I wanted but I did not know what you wanted. I had no idea how you felt about me."

But Shiela Pineda had guessed who that someone else was. Mika told Vic of her visit to the office the day she had been in their Batangas factory. "She was giving me the once-over, weighing up the opposition. There was no question. She guessed who I was. I wonder why, Miss Galang?"

"Well, I had mentioned your name to her several times... in conversation about work, and maybe she just..."

"And how did she know you were not in that day? And did she call you that week-end? She told me she would." Mika asked with one of her brows rising.

"No. Now don't look at me dubiously, darling. She did not call me. She knew I was going out of town because she called me at the penthouse that very morning asking me to meet her for lunch. She said she wanted my opinion on a business matter."

"And you did not meet her... because you were out of town?"

Vic chuckled at that. "Mika, I have just told you, I broke off my relationship with her at Christmas. I did not meet her because I knew damned well she did not want to talk business. She is a beautiful woman and she is well aware of it. What she really wanted was to find out whether my new affair was still thriving..."