Playing For Keeps (Book 2 & 3)

2. Chapter 2.

"You have to forget what's gone, appreciate what still remains and look forward to what's coming next."

 

 

 

 

 

"O, anong nangyari sa'yo?" It was the first question Rachel threw at Drei the moment she reached the table on the far end of their office where the rest of her coworkers were huddled and feasting on their lunch takeout. 

Stunned, her brows furrowed as the rest of the group turned to look at her. "Huh?"

"Ano nga nangyari sa'yo?" Rachel repeated.

Standing in between Rachel and Tessa, she glanced at the four set of eyes that were waiting for her to answer. "Wala nga, promise!" she shook her head and gave them a ghost of a smile. "Ano ba kayo?!"

Crinkling her nose, she crossed her arms over her chest. " Teka nga, saan naman galing ang tanong na yan, Rachel ha?"

"Kaya nga nagtatanong di ba?" Rachel eyed her skeptically and then returned to slicing the pork belly that she was having. "Wala lang parang iba ang timpla ng mukha mo eh.. I mean, just saying..."

After that hullaballoo with Alex ended, Rachel and Tessa did a great deal helping Drei to get through it which eventually led the three of them to become closer than ever. And she was always thankful for that. And now here it is again, Rachel sensing that something was odd with her as she stood before them. Perhaps they could feel it. Perhaps they could sense that something weird had happened to her a while ago.

"Oo nga!" Tessa agreed, now studying Drei's pale and stricken face. "It's like you saw someone back from the dead! Tell me, nakita mo ba si Anton?"

Drei chuckled and just shook her head as the rest of them laughed. Tessa was right though. Certainly she saw someone back from the dead and now she was starting to hate the tricks that fate was playing on her. Because it wasn't just an apparition, it was real. So real that he even touched her. Remembering the warmth of his hand lingering on her wrist and rubbing her knuckles suddenly made her stomach flutter. That same old familiar flutter in her belly that's starting again right now as she recalled what happened a few minutes ago.

***

Just as she was a few steps away from Jeannie's room, Alex caught up with her. Grabbing a hold of her wrist, firm and gentle, he swiveled her to face him. Their faces were only a few inches apart from each other that she could smell him. His smell that suddenly made her dizzy but she took a whiff of it anyway. His very familiar smell that she missed the most.

Drei felt her heart twinge as he locked her gaze unto his.

'What does he want now? What is it this time?' she thought to herself. And it felt as if the whole world came to a pause and everything around them faded into oblivion as they stood there.

"I'm just making sure that we're still cool, Drei... Ok naman tayo, di ba?"

Of course, he just wanted to know if they were still 'cool', that they weren't awkward around each other just like the old times, after what happened to them.

She allowed that hope inside her surface back in that 10-minute encounter with Alex. Hope. She was hoping again. Hoping that maybe, just maybe, Alex wanted to tell her something more. But he didn't and he never would. Her thoughts found their way back to what that night. That night it felt different and it felt something more.