Blank Canvas

Chapter Ten

Summary: Celia duped Talia into coming to an impromptu meeting with crush, Sam. Talia discovered something about Sam that might upset Celia, but decided to still tell the truth.

"Why did you drag me here?" I asked Celia as she told me to hurry. We were walking in a mall down south one Saturday afternoon. "If you wanted to go to mall and shop, we could have gone to The Block," I said airily. "That's closer to home. Plus, it's raining." For someone who grew up in the northern part of the capital region, going south for a day was as taxing as traveling to Neptune. Almost. The traffic alone was enough to dishearten a persevering person and I was nowhere near that patient to begin with.

"He's here," she answered dreamily. She wore a short pretty dress and some wedge shoes that looked like it would break your ankle if you took one misstep.

"Who?"

"Samson."

Oh.

I let out a boisterous laugh. "Sam's full name is Samson? Who are you then, his Delilah?"

Celia gave me an aggravated look. She pulled my hand a little too roughly for my liking and said, "Talia, we're going to find Sam, okay? Whether you like it or not."

That morning, Celia told our mom that she was going to teach me how to drive. I have been learning (or trying to) since I was sixteen but I was bad at it. As soon as I secured my seatbelt, my sister told me that we were going somewhere else. No driving lesson but a stakeout session instead. Just my luck.

She let go of my hand, took a deep breath and said, "I'm sorry. It's just that you're making fun of this and this is important to me. I need for you to be supportive even if you think that I'm being a total idiot because you're my sister."

I rubbed my hand and nodded in understanding. Then I said, "You're not being an idiot. You're just being a big-time, absurd and lovesick puppy but you're not an idiot."

Celia smiled widely and clapped her hands in glee. It was so easy to placate and please her. "Okay, here's the plan. I heard from a friend of Sam's that he's going to buy some books here. We'll find him and act that we had no inkling that he is here. I'm going to invite him to lunch after. Then, we're going to tell him that we're going to order one-of-a-kind shoes for Mom for her wedding day. And for us, too. Like dainty and strappy shoes. We could get yours in a kitten heel, if you prefer that."

Apparently, Sam's family lived nearby but they have a shoe business somewhere in a different city.

"What? That's a terrible plan. Besides, Mom said we could buy those adorable flats that I've shown her. And we could do it online, too. Why can't we do that?" My mom and I loved online shopping because it was so much more convenient than actual shopping. Celia, naturally, did not share the same sentiment.

But my sister was not listening to a word that I was saying.

We entered a bookshop and straightaway, we found Sam standing at the sci-fi section. Celia always dated a certain type of a guy — clean-cut, a little preppy and always with a traditional handsome look. Sam was not any of those things. He was awkward, gangly and I guess you could call him cute, in a nerdy way. His curly hair was kind of long and messy and he wore a black beanie, a smart watch, thick glasses and worn Vans sneakers.

Celia casually wandered to where Sam was and exclaimed, "Hey, Sam. I thought that was you." She tapped him on the arm and I saw that her fingers lingered in there for a while.

I rolled my eyes in disbelief at my sister's antics. Before I knew it, Celia was introducing Sam to me.

"This is my sister, Talia," she said with a beaming smile. "She's studying architecture at Adamson."