I couldn't sleep peacefully later that night.
I was tossing and turning around my bed trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in but failed. When I tried closing my eyes, his words echo in my head like some broken record that keeps on replaying a tune over and over.
I just don't think those words were... true. Well, there's this saying that a drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts. But how could he? It's been so long since our relationship ended. How can he still say that he loves me, drunkenly, after all these years? For sure he's bluffing over that.
It's impossible to fathom that he still has those feelings for me. For God's sake, we were in high school! Feelings from those years don't last for that long. I mean, sure, there's people who end up with their high school sweethearts, but that's a very rare thing to experience.
And then there's the things his friends said about him not dating at all. Now, that right there is hard to believe that he didn't date or had a girlfriend during college and the years that followed. Surely you can't pin over someone for that long?
Frustrated, I ripped off my blanket and grabbed my iPad and decided to finish a book I'm currently reading to distract myself until I fall asleep. Ended up finishing the whole book I was reading but that didn't work, so I ended up watching YouTube videos until almost two in the morning.
I woke up around nine. I wasn't feeling hungover since I only had one drink last night. I did my usual morning routine and freshened up before I went out of my room to go check on Grayson.
To my findings, he was still asleep which wasn't a surprise to me knowing that he was never a morning person. I kept the curtains in the living room closed so the sun won't be on his face. I decided to cook some brunch for myself and made some pancakes and bacon. I cooked a plate for Grayson, too, and put aside for him to eat later along with some medicine to cure his hangover.
That man really had to get drunk last night.
Since there wasn't much left to do, I plopped myself on the living room floor and did some work related things. I sometimes find myself working faster when I sit on the floor. Right after I sent the last few of my emails, I heard some shuffling and noises behind me.
"What the fuck happened?" Grayson groaned loudly.
I turned my head around. "Well, good morn- no, noon to you, too."
"Maureen?" His eyes finally opened.
"The one and only." I answered before getting up and went to the kitchen to get him a glass of water and some pain reliever.
When I got back, he was already sitting up on my couch looking confused as hell. I gave him the glass and medicine and he gratefully took it.
"You were such an ass to take care of drunk," I began, my hands were now on my hips. "What on earth possessed you to get drunk last night?"
He ran a hand over his face a couple of times. "I really don't know. Maybe because you were talking to me like you didn't want to run me over or I just wanted to drown myself in alcohol for no reason."
"You're lucky your friend was able to drop us off last night to my house."
"We're in your house?" He started looking around the place. "Huh, I think I remember saying something about that last night."
I rolled my eyes and let out a humorless laugh.
"Oh my God, did I do something stupid last night?!" He suddenly asked hysterically. "No, don't answer that question because I know I probably did."
We love a self-aware person!
"We'll talk about that later, but first, you gotta eat." I said, shaking my head. "Do you want coffee?"
I had to watch out that he didn't hit anything because he basically couldn't walk straight enough. I winced when he hit the side of the kitchen counter. Just know that I'm not taking any blame if he gets injured.
"So, how are you gonna get home?" I asked him while I made his coffee as he ate his breakfast.
He chewed quickly on his before swallowing. "Uhm, I'll have to call my driver to come pick me up. Thank you for charging my phone. And everything else you've done."
I nodded my head and passed him the mug.
"I know the night did not pass without me doing anything embarrassing, so lay them all on me."
"You really wanna know?" I chuckled. "Hmm, let's see... there was the dance floor incident, and then before that, you were very clingy to me and Lewis tried to pry you off me which led you to pushing him too hard, he fell on the floor." Grayson's horrified face makes me wanna take a picture of it and laugh for hours straight. "On our way to my house, you were still very clingy to me and during the middle of our ride, you burst out singing 'Ain't No Sunshine' and sang your lungs out. And that was it, you passed out as soon as you were laid on the couch." I left out the drunken confession.
He covered his burning face with his hands. "You have no idea how much I want the ground to swallow me alive right at this moment."
"I can clearly see that, but I'm not going to rub it on your face."
Grayson eventually left my house an hour or so later, but not before profusely apologizing for the events happened last night. I waved him off and said it was alright, but still kept apologizing and offered to do the dishes. I let him do it because I was kinda lazy, and he offered it.
***
The rest of the week passed by a blur.
I had two new cute little clients working with me this week. They were twins, a boy and a girl. They were so adorable, it makes me want to keep them in my pocket and carry them around. They wanted an Encanto themed birthday party.
And that led me and my team to have a movie night in our office, except it's not really during the night time. I've been meaning to watch the movie, it's that I don't have enough time to.
Natalie had a dreadful look on her face the whole time. She said her nephews and nieces drove her crazy with this movie by playing it over and over, and if not the movie, the music. She swore she could still hear it in her head while she slept.
I was finally off work and was on my day off! I plan on spending it at my parents' house. Ethan and his fianceé will also be at the house. They planned a special dinner later tonight. They said that they have an announcement.
Give or take that they finally decided to get married soon.
I'll offer my event planning as a wedding gift to them so I don't have to worry about buying them one. I'm so smart for coming up with that! They'll be stupid to turn it down.
I was finishing up some cleaning around the house when the doorbell rang. I quickly went over to the front door to see who it was because I know it's not the delivery man because I laid off online shopping for a while. I don't want to support capitalism even more. When I opened the door, I was shocked to see who they were.
"Listening to All Too Well on max? Who hurt you?" Ellie tilted her head to the side. "Dang, and that's the ten minute version."
Why am I seeing all the Martins siblings on my front porch? And yes, that was exactly what I was doing. I wanted to feel something, okay? Taylor's songs just do the trick.
I mean, fuck the patriarchy!
And not everyone can relate to Lover no matter how many times they wished they could.
"Ellie, don't say that." Grayson scolded, standing behind the twins and was holding... a box of doughnuts? "It's not like you do the same early in the morning."
"Hi, Maureen." Gabe said, offering me a small wave and smile.
Regaining my composure, I asked, "What are you guys doing here?" My gaze was mainly focused on Grayson.
"I don't know." Ellie shrugged. "He dragged us out of the house and drove us here. He said that we're going somewhere to give out doughnuts, which is unfair by the way since he doesn't even buy us a box. We didn't know that we were coming here, but hello."
I gave Grayson a questioning look.
"Uhm, wanted to give you a peace offering." His cheeks slightly flushed.
Peace offering? I wasn't informed that we were in some sort of battle. I invited them over to come inside. Right after I closed the door, I looked over to Grayson who was still waiting beside me.
"Answer me truthfully, did I say something in between the lines of I love you or not?" He blurted out. "I have gone crazy thinking if it was true or not. Or if my mind is just imagining stuff."
My eyes widened in a fraction, I began to mumble incoherent words and not give him a straight answer. So I just went with a simple maybe.
I did not expect him to come all the way here and ask me that question! I was already trying so hard to get it off my mind, and now he just came in and reminded me of that again.
"I am never going to drink a single drop of alcohol ever again!" He smacked his hand to his forehead and ran his hand over the side of his face.
"I-It's okay." I stammered. "You were drunk, you probably don't mean it." After I said that, I walked away to the living room.
The twins were comfortably seated on my couch and on their phones.
"Hey, guys. I can only have visitors for a short while since I will be going over somewhere." I announced as I sat down.
"Where?" Gabe asked.
"Family things. Do you want anything to drink?"
They shook their heads as I watched Grayson sit beside me.
"I'm sure you came here for something, so what is it?" I directly shot the question.
"I brought doughnuts as a gift for... what happened last weekend." Grayson said.
"What happened?" The twins asked in unison before glaring at each other because they said the same question at the same time.
"He got drunk."
"You got drunk?! Ooh, I'm so telling mom and dad. Is that why the driver said you wanted to be picked up? Gabe, we have blackmail."
Grayson rolled his eyes at his siblings. "Please, like they care? I'm a grown adult."
"Not grown enough." They snickered.
"It was a mistake bringing the two of you here." He shook his head.
"That's why you need to make better life choices or you're gonna regret a lot of things in this lifetime." Gabe remarked, patting his brother on the shoulder.
"One more word and I'm canceling your birthday party." Grayson said with a stern look.
The twins' jaws dropped. "You can't do that! Mom and Dad agreed we can throw a party with our friends only."
"You forget that I'm the one chaperoning your party." He threatened.
"Maureen, help us!" They called out my name.
"Me?" I asked in disbelief, putting a hand over my heart. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Command him to stop being such a dickhead."
"Gabe, language!"
I rolled my eyes. "Grayson, stop, like you didn't do the same thing back when you were their age? You were much worse."
The other two laughed. "Oh, Maureen, you should come to our party! It will be at the house."
"That's a great idea, now Grayson won't be all alone now."
"I won't be alone because I'll be surrounded with a bunch of hormonal teenagers."
"Yep, Maureen! You're going! Please, with extra cherries on top? We're begging you! Don't even buy us presents! We'll go shopping and charge it all on Grayson's tab. Just keep him distracted the whole time, that's all we ask so he can get off our ass and don't embarrass us."
"You two are in so much trouble. Don't expect any presents coming from me."
"Eh, to be honest, we really don't expect anything from you."
I burst out laughing. "Sorry, twins, I don't think I can go since I'm super busy with my job and I don't even know when your birthday is. I might have something important that day."
"It's a few weeks from now. There, you know when it is now! So you'll go, right? You don't want us to become sad? And on our birthday nonetheless."
I didn't see this day coming where I get guilt tripped by two teenagers to attend their birthday so I can just get their older brother off their backs.
***
I think I'm going to faint because of too much happiness.
Guess who is going to be an aunt?!
Bitch, it's me!
Forget all that wedding planning stuff I thought I'll be doing, I'm throwing a baby shower and a gender reveal party!
This is where my life mission begins, to become that rich, single auntie that is everyone's favorite. It's time to pull out the big guns! Watch me me sew, crochet and diy baby things from scratch for the next few years at least.
Like yes, baby, Auntie Maureen made that stuffed animal from her own clothes that you like so much, you cute little munchkin!
I can't wait to steal him or her from Ethan and Eloise someday and just take them out to do fun things like bring them to a candy store and let my brother suffer the effects of sugar rush later when I drop their baby off.
I'm so fucking happy that I could just smack someone across the face with excitement!
I'll just save that energy to smack my insufferable relatives if they ever ask when I'm gonna have a child. Just because I have a uterus doesn't mean I'm gonna pop a baby out of it, Marites!
I know that Eloise has two sisters, so I know it's going to be a hard thing to accomplish, but I will do whatever it takes to be the favorite auntie of all my future nieces and nephews! Thank God, her sisters are all over the states, which makes me the closest!
The rest of the evening, I was doing my best warning Eloise to never let Ethan pick a name for their baby. Like are kidding me, he picks the worst kinds of names!
When I got my dog, Leo, who was now in doggy heaven, Ethan suggested tons of ridiculous names to name him. He told me to name my dog Sasha for God's sake! Like what kind of name is that?!
***
On a usual night, you can find me on my bed or couch reading a book. But the state you would find me in would differ from me just quietly reading or being overly emotional about something in the book.
Well, tonight was being overly emotional about something in the book night.
I closed the e-book as I was now a sobbing mess over a fictional romance story.
Maybe it's me being sadistic, but I find joy in reading romance books that emotionally destroy me. It's also my coping mechanism, too.
I read them to fill this void I have in my chest and because I don't get any romance in real life, which is sometimes sad.
I couldn't even breathe properly because my nose was really stuffy because I was crying so hard. I had to go find my Vicks Inhaler so I could breathe. Tissues were all over my bed. I barely made it out alive while I was reading the part where they both read each other's letters.
My God, it was heart wrenching.
I was drinking water when my phone suddenly rang. I saw Grayson's name on the screen. Why was he calling at this hour? I cleared my throat to hide that I was crying before answering his call.
"Hello," I said.
"You were crying." He stated the obvious. "Which book is it this time?"
I was shocked that he knew, but I told him the title of the book before asking, "How'd you know why I was crying?"
"Your voice is all raspy and hoarse, that was all I needed to know. You were like this before, and I know that it's not some personal issue you're crying about because I just got this feeling that it isn't."
"Jeez, thank you for that information, Mr. Know-it-all... or more like a creep." I tucked myself in bed.
"Don't forget to drink water or you might get dehydrated. "
"Yes, I already did. So why did you call at an unusual time?"
"Yeah, sorry about that. I was going to call you a while ago but I didn't have much free time in my schedule today. So you see, Dad was planning to have a company party for a celebration, and he asked Mom if she could set the whole thing and then she mentioned your name and she asked me to call you to tell you if you're willing to plan the company party."
"I can never turn down a client. But you know this would be much better if you just called in during work hours and not late at night." I couldn't help but let out a yawn at the end.
"Again, sorry. I should let you get to sleep."
"That's the greatest idea you've had all year!" I sarcastically replied.
"Okay, sweet dreams." He laughed. "Good night, Maureen."
"Good night, Gray."
The next day during work, Lynn called in if we could meet during lunch at a restaurant to discuss the details. She got my number from Grayson and she texted me the address of the place where we're meeting up.
"Hello, sweetie!" Lynn exclaimed right after she saw me walk in and pulled me for a hug. "Come seat and we'll order before we go into business."
We had a random conversation while we were waiting for our food. Lynn was telling me things about the company party and how she envisioned how it would be. I wrote down everything she mentioned.
"The twins told me that they invited you over for their birthday celebration," She began.
I chuckled. "More like pressured me into going. They wouldn't stop bugging me until I agreed."
"Oh, those kids! I'm sorry–"
"It's totally fine. Don't worry about it."
When our orders got served, I was confused when the waiter placed an order on the table that we didn't get. Lynn was about to tell the waiter, but was stopped by a voice.
"I believe that's for me, mother." Grayson placed a kiss on her cheek before taking the seat next to her. "Hello, ladies. I just stopped by the restroom real quick."
"Lukey Bear, I thought you were still in the office when I called a while ago?" Lynn asked.
Grayson made a sour expression when he heard what his mom called him. "Well, I got hungry and postponed all my meetings to come here. Look at this delicious meal." He quickly changed the subject and began eating.
I looked peculiarly at him for a second before digging into my food.
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Word Count: 3,100+ Words