Read Between the Lines

Chapter 21: Hope for a sequel

"Yeah," Michelle finally spoke, tentatively, like she was afraid the sound of her voice was gonna scare the girl away; or make her disappear like a mirage. Her nervous smile turned into teasing, playful, the first sign of the Michelle that Anntonia met in that coffee shop, just outside the university campus. "I know the title of my own book."

"Save some smarty jokes for the sequel." Anntonia shoot back as she bit her lower lip, trying to stop herself because she know fully well she was smiling like an idiot.

"How do you know there's gonna be a sequel? This is just a one time publication because the storyline reached its end. Total end." Michelle said meaningfully as she drew a quick signature on the first page of the book before handing it back to Anntonia.

The latter reached for the book and, for a second, they both held on to it as if no one's willing to let it go. Suddenly, that simple book worked as a bridge from one heart to another, between two souls that supposed to belonged to each other but got lost in translation and separated by time and then, finally found each other again.

"Oh, I don't," Anntonia shrugged, finally tucking the book in her bag when Michelle let it go. "It just makes sense. Besides, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 have got to be a couple of the best unplanned sequels of all time. The writer of the original script has no indication of a sequel in mind, but see? Both sequels were in fact huge hits, beloved by audiences and critics alike.
So you know, if you have ideas for one, I'll be in the coffee shop across the street more than happy to hear them out."

Not waiting for a reply – partly because Anntonia wanted to have the last word, and another part was because she was afraid of what that reply might have been. So she turned around and walked out of the book shop. She could still felt Michelle's eyes on her until she disappeared out of her sight, but she didn't stop to look over her shoulder or to catch her breath or to pull herself together until she was safely sitting in that coffee shop; the place where it all started.

Then she pulled out the book and thought of reading it. While waiting. Though she had no idea what was it for.

She will wait.

***

"Pumpkin spiced latte." I said but then, it echoed with another person's voice.

I looked at my side and there she was, making my heart beat faster and slower at the same time, for the first time. I remember her hair fixed in a curl. Her brown eyes were typical but I remembered when our eyes met, those brown eyes took me in a place I never knew existed. Like another dimension. Typical, but it sucked my soul out of my body and everything was not the same anymore. I could still remember how beautiful she was that day. Not in the way I thought girls were pretty hot back then, but truly beautiful in the way that made something in my core hum in response. And I remember I must have loved her long before I even realized it.

They say you fall in love three times during your life time. The first love is the innocent love, the one bred by silly ideals and expectations of what you feel love is supposed to look like or feel like. The second one is the one that got away. The one you wish was right. The one you don't have the maturity for just then, the one that makes you think you'll never be able to love like that again. And then there's the one you never see coming. The one that makes you realize why it never worked before. The one that completes you.

But if you're going to ask me, of all three, the most heart-wrecking is the second one. Because it's the one that has every reason to work, and yet it doesn't.