They had just a couple of hours to rest at their respective hotel rooms before they needed to be at the venue for technical rehearsals. Nadine was at her room, unpacking her bags, when she heard a knock on her door. She looked through the peephole and saw James standing outside.
She opened the door. "Hey."
"Hi Nadz. Got some take out for you." He held out a paper bag to her and she glanced at the package.
Japanese, she thought, my favorite. Ano kaya pumasok sa kokote neto at binili ako ng pagkain?
Not that she was complaining. She was hungry and she loved Japanese. She had second thoughts about inviting him in, and then thought better of it. Ano ba, Nadine, si James lang yan, she scolded herself. He's still your friend, no matter what. Your partner in crime.
"Come in, kain tayo." She took the paper bag from him and put it on the small table inside her hotel room. His grin was infectious and she found herself grinning back.
She got the sushi first and James watched as she devoured a sushi in one bite. Adorable, he thought. She caught him staring at her and he laughed.
"What?" she asked, her mouth full.
"Nothing! I was just wondering why it took me so long to see how special you are."
Nadine's heart fluttered and she chewed her food slowly before she spoke. "James, please...."
"Nadine, I want to talk about --"
Nadine cut him off. "James, ano pa pag-uusapan? Di pa ko ready, it's as simple as that..."
"--the concert later," James finished with a laugh. "Feeling mo ha!"
"Yabang neto!"
James went on to talk about the concert; he had with him the program for the night listing the songs they'll be singing. Nadine found herself stealing glances at him while he spoke, a bit disappointed but more relieved that he wasn't really pushing their... whatever it is that they had. She had other things to think about. Like tonight's concert.
"I was thinking, we should do Body On Me again, like we did in Cebu. Add it near the end, right before we do On The Wings of Love."
Nadine hesitated. It was such a sexy song, and she wanted to avoid contact with James as much as possible. She didn't know if her current state of emotions could take it. Plus, they had no audio of the song, which meant they really had to sing it live with no back-up.
But James was looking at her with his puppy dog eyes, and before she knew it, she found herself agreeing.
"Great! I'll put it between Love Me Like You Do and On The Wings!" James said, writing on the program.
"Ha? May Love Me Like You Do din?" she squeaked.
"Yeah. We need to have more numbers because we have no other guests." He raised an eyebrow at her. "Is there a problem?" Inwardly, he was smiling at Nadine's obvious discomfort.
"No, no problem," Nadine said quickly. It's just James, Nadz. You've done this a million times.
"Or, we could do Body On Me as an encore! Then we could act extra sweet, towards the end. Fans would love that!" James put an arrow next to Body On Me and pointed it somewhere below On The Wings of Love and wrote ENCORE.
Oh no.
***
What are you waiting for.........
James opened up his arms and ran to Nadine, the same time she ran to him. They met halfway and Nadine jumped into his arms, hugging him as he carried her by the waist, twirling her around and around and around, inhaling her scent with his eyes closed.
