SETH
Dinner at Secrets silver sands Riviera had turned out quite nicely then he expected. Mars hugged him before disappearing back to the resort and Jessica had chattered the night away, her laughs like a calming ointment on burning wounds.
He wanted to cuss out even as she blabbered about Mars' mystery girl. About how bad she was for her brother and how surprised she was after finding out Mars was in love.
Though the real surprise wasn't that Mars was in love, it was who he was in love with that would array Jessica's nerves.
And Jesus Christ, Mars hadn't told his sister about it even after Seth had implored him to do so. As he watched her take a forkful bite of the tofu in front of her, her smile radiant, her skin glowing against the moonlight, his heart beat at the thought of Mars'secret ruining what he had at the moment, and Good God, he was not going to allow it.
If Mars refused to tell her the truth then that was on Mars not him. The best thing to do was keep quiet about it and wait for fate to work its magic without Jessica ever finding out that he knew who Mars' supposed mystery woman was.
On cue, the band that he had hired at the last minute crawled down the sands to where the gazebo was located.
"Music?"
"Not just music, we are going to dance"
He stood up from his seat going around to take her hand in his.
There was a bit of hesitation from her but she locked her hand with his.
"I'm a terrible dancer", she chuckled, her hands around his neck playing with the hairs at the back of his head, an action he enjoyed so very much.
"I know, you told me", he said honestly, his hands on her empire waist watching for any sort of reaction.
"You remember?"
He never forgot and how could he forget the very first time he laid eyes on her? How they danced at some guy's party, having fun like he never had before.
"I never forgot, I might have forgotten about the day we made love because I was high but I'd never forget everything else between us. How could I forget the girl with the most beautiful ginger hair sobbing against my sleek car"
"My hair was far from beautiful. It was wacky and voluminous", she corrected as the band started playing a song he'd only heard years ago.
"Wacky, voluminous. Same thing. The point is you were the only thing that made sense at that party"
And he was telling the truth, a truth he hadn't admitted to himself back then. He loved her since he set his eyes on her and he was too damn afraid to act on those unknown feelings. Tessa was the perfect drama-free girl he wanted to love but he forgot that love was never perfect or drama-free.
With Jessica, he could see from a mile away that there was bound to be drama and hence he had done what every scared guy in love did, he pushed her away.
"You made me feel special that night. I can remember going home that night, my diary close to my chest, all my nerves tingling at the thought that a boy asked me to dance", she said looking past his shoulder as if it were a distant memory she had locked away from her head.
"I didn't just ask you to dance. I asked you to save me because I needed a friend back then. I needed someone to pull me out before I drowned and you were my savior"
Her eyes pooled with tears as she swallowed saliva staring at him with a questioning gaze. Instinctively, his hand went to her cheek rubbing it softly.
He knew what she wanted to ask. He knew the question burnt every inch of her skin and he was damn well prepared to answer it.
"Then why? Why did you treat me like garbage years ago?"
He had expected her to ask him that question but not with the word 'garbage' in it. He had been a dick but he didn't consider her garbage.
"Because I was a fool. A fool who wouldn't admit it to himself that I loved you. I didn't deserve you, Jessica", he said. So he did deserve Tessa at that time? "I would have broken your heart with all the messed up things going on in my life at that time"
"So you chose Tessa? Because Tessa deserved you?"
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. That was not what he was saying but it might as well have been with the way he was dragging the conversation.
"Tessa was easy. With Tessa, I didn't have all the feelings threatening to burst out of me like when I did with you. With Tessa, it was smooth, something so casual that I mistook it for love. With you, Jessica, I got tongue-tied around you, at how you cared for me even when you knew nothing about me.
I could be myself with you. I could tell you anything and not once would you judge me. I guess I was afraid, having you around me wasn't safe for my heart so I pushed you away. So much away that I--I hurt you. So much away that when I saw you with Jabari at that game, I lost it. I lost it because I knew I had lost you to him"
"You were a fool for pushing me away because I loved you too, Seth. You were my first love, the first guy I'd laid eyes on and imagined a future with. I was naive of course but I had already dreamt of us being together in the future with six kids, a hamster, or a dog"
A hamster or a dog because cats hated her, he laughed softly.
"Six kids? Why six?" He asked and she opened her mouth closing it then opening it again.
"Three girls, three boys. A perfect combination"
Two girls and two boys were also a perfect combination but he didn't tell her that. If she wanted six kids, he would willingly put in the work, no questions asked.
"Perfect because I wouldn't mind having mini-mes running around our house butt naked", he joked and she blushed to point an accusing finger at his chest.
"What makes you think they'll all look like you?"
"Have you seen me? The Cervantes' genes run in the family"
But he knew deep in his heart, he wanted their kids to look like her. To have her stormy ginger hair, to have her green eyes, and that perfect smile that knocked the air out of his lungs.
xXxXxXxXxXxX
Whoever invented shopping deserved to be decapitated against a sharp metallic...
"How about this one? You like?"
She twirled, the dress along with whatever skirts she had underneath swaying along with her.
He hated the dress. Especially because he'd have a hard time taking it off her if she did decide to wear it when he craved for her. And he craved her a lot.
A week in Cancun, making love all night and sometimes all day and he wanted nothing but to be inside her over and over again. He wanted nothing but to sleep next to her with her in his arms.
"It's... beautiful?"
He said, more like asked her because he knew one way or another, she was still going to get the dress.
"You are right. It is beautiful, isn't it?" she gushed and he smiled at how cute she looked.
"I'll try the next dress then we can leave. I know you are hungry, babe"
And he was hungry. Not for food but for something else.
She had repeated the same sentence for half an hour and he huffed knowing he would be there for the whole day, playing it safe and lying so that she wouldn't get mad.
And his woman. Two things he had learned not to say to her were a) she was skinny or fat. Frankly, she'd told him never to talk to a woman about her weight because that was like adding fuel to a raging fire. B) And most importantly was that 'women were always right'. If she said the dress was fine, then it was fine. It was none of his business telling her the dress swallowed her or it was too big for her.
"I feel like a mariacheras", she came out of the dressing room, her hands gliding over the colorful white dress.
The 'mariacheras' dress resembled a huipil. The one thing he liked about the dress, was the off-shoulder detail that showed her sweet skin and a hickey on her left shoulder. As for the chest area, it accentuated her cleavage without making it seem as if her breasts were struggling to breathe.
"It's perfect", he said, partly because he was being honest and he was tired.
"I'll get them all then!" She quipped and he stood up getting a couple of bucks from his wallet and paying the vendor.
"Keep the change"
All the dresses they had bought were cheap because Jessica had insisted on going to the market for shopping. It surprised him that for a rich billionaire heiress, she preferred cheap things, not Louis Vuitton, or Dolce and Gabbana clothes but cheap local goods.
Minutes later, they were warding through a market full of people, hands locked together.
"Get your cards to read! Get. Your. Cards. Read"
"Should we?" Jessica asked and he huffed looking at the ridiculous man with a red eagle feather in his cap and the crystal ball in front of him.
"Babe, there's no such thing as seeing the future", he scolded but she held his hand tight pulling the puppy dog's eyes on him.
"Please, it will be just for a minute. I sort of believe them because I had my palm read once. What she said sort of came true"
"No shit"
"Hey, I'm being serious Seth. She said y-you-"
"I would what?"
"Be my future husband", she shied.
"When was this?"
"The Philippines before I got drugged"
"One minute and if he says something I don't like, we are outta there"
"Hermano, welcome. Welcome", the lad said pointing to a couple of mats on the floor.
Once they were seated, the man who looked like a guy named Fred working in a video game store, pulled out a bunch of fake tarot cards and Seth mentally groaned.
"We start with you señora", he said and Jessica's eyes twinkled with anxiety.
"I don't intend on getting my cards read", Seth clarified and Jessica eyed him with a scowl.
The man nonetheless continued, shuffling a bunch of cards before telling Jessica to pick one four times.
"Are you ready?" The shaman asked and Jessica nodded nervously.
He flipped the first card and it had a heart in the middle of it with three knives stabbing the edges of the heart.
"Ah, lovers. You two are in love. A strong love that has undergone and will undergo hardships"
Seth chuckled.
"We are holding hands in a market full of people, even a blind man can tell we are in love"
"Be nice", Jessica slapped his hand and he kept quiet tolerating the bullshit going on in front of him.
The next card was flipped and it showed two stars amid a dark night.
"Double luck for you and your man after a tragic storm"
"What's that supposed to mean?" He whispered inaudibly watching the shaman's thin finger flip the next card.
The next card spooked Jessica because she bumped into Seth's shoulder on the side.
The third card had the grim reaper standing with his proverbial scythe in one hand and a skeleton head in the other.
"W-what does that mean?" Jessica stuttered and the shaman's eyes widened in denial of what he was seeing.
"Answer the question, damn it"
This time it was him asking the question because he was now starting to be a believer in the tarot card nonsense.
"Death. A death caused by someone close to both of you"
"That's it! We are done with this nonsense"