The Buendia unit was cold. Mika switched on the lights as she entered. She was home! What now? It was almost dark outside and the evening stretched ahead of her, long, unwelcoming, and unwelcomed. So what now? She did not even have a newspaper to see what was on the television. Still, she had to go to the shops in any case. She needed a jar of coffee, some milk and some food for later. She might as well get back in the car and go to the supermarket. She did not take her coat off, she went out straight away. At least the house would be warm by the time she got back...
It was. She shivered against the sudden warmth as she fought her way through her front door, laden with three shopping bags. As usual she bought more than she intended. Her first priority was a cup of coffee. She normally gets 3-4 cups of coffee per day. Today, she had not had any yet. She made a pot and took the tray to the veranda settee. She was just about to go in for some milk when she saw a familiar white Rolls came to an abrupt halt outside her building.
Panic-stricken, she got inside her unit with her coffee set and made sure the doors were locked. "Vic!" What did she want? A confrontation? She did not want to see her former boss. She would not let her in... but she was already ringing the doorbell.
Heavens! What was wrong with this person? It sounded as if she was leaning on the doorbell.
"Gods!" Muttering aloud, she went to the door. There was no point in ignoring her. She'll stand there all night if necessary... or break the door down, by the sound of it. She was furious.
Furious was an understatement. Vic walked straight past Mika. "I've been halfway across Luzon looking for you!" she bellowed. "What the hell is this supposed to be?" She was waiving Mika's resignation letter to her.
Mika could not move. She had no idea what to say for the moment. She had not expected this reaction. Not from Vic. Not from the Vic Galang. So she'd been to Pulilan. Why on earth had not her family warned her that she was coming? Had they called to warn her that she was looking for her, she might have had taken some evasive actions. She'd have gone out if she had thought for one minute that she was... Of course! She had been out doing her groceries and left her cellphone at the condo for charging. Julie had probably tried to ring her...
"Don't stand there gaping at me. Answer me!"
"Calm down!" Mika snapped into action at once. "How dare you come here like this... unannounced, bellowing at me?"
Vic was furious. The glint in her eyes was a very dangerous one and when she took a step towards her, Mika took three steps backwards.
"All right... all right, Vic." Mika was shouting now... as angry as she was frightened. "I should have thought it obvious. That is my resignation."
"I am well aware of that! But why?"
"I told you in the letter. I have had my six months, more or less. And I decided I don't like the work. I- I can't take the pace... which is just what you thought in the beginning. Y-you were right, you see?"
Vic was pacing around the room and she told her in one word what she thought of that explanation.
"Do not use that kind of language in front of me, Vic. It is not... rubbish. I am not happy at the office, that's all."
"Why?" She was still shouting. "Why on earth can't you be honest?" She demanded. "For the life of me, Mika, can you tell me what is really amiss."
Mika faced her squarely... fuming... half-conscious of what her neighbors must be thinking. If they can hear her voice, they certainly could hear Vic's. "I will! I am leaving because I cannot stand working with you. I cannot stand you. You are an insensitive bully and I hate the sight of you!"
Vic stopped pacing. Her hands stopped rubbing the back of her neck. She shove both hands into her pockets, visibly relaxing as she stood, smiling at her now. She was just smiling... as though that was the most amusing thing she had ever heard. May pagka schitzo din tong gwapong 'to eh.
"Is there any more coffee in that pot?"
"Get out of here!" Mika thought her mad... absolutely mental.
But Vic was still smiling. "Pour me a cup, please." And with that, she flopped into a chair, grinning broadly as she relaxed her legs on the sofa.
Mika moved swiftly. She snatched up the coffee cup and saucer she had set for herself and flung them at Vic, one after the other. "I said get out of here, Vic Galang!"
The cup flew straight for Vic's face and bounced off the arms she put up in self-defense. She was roaring with laughter now... and it was more than Mika could stand. And then she was on her feet, moving ever so slowly towards her, still laughing at her behavior. "Does the china belong to you?"
Everything had gone wrong. It was too much for Mika. Even the saucer was broken. It had hit the bookcase and shattered into a dozen of pieces... and no, it was not her crockery. She burst into tears. All the tension... weeks and weeks of pent up emotions suddenly surfaced in her and she started sobbing as Vic's arms came around her.
Vic let the taller woman cry, holding her as though she too were made of china. "It is alright, Mika. It is all over now. I told you once before, enough is enough." Her voice was gentle now... very quiet, calming. "You do not need to tell me how you really feel... but I would very much like to hear you say it." She put a hand under her chin making the other woman look at her.
Mika felt utterly defeated, exhausted even. Her vision was blurred and her tears kept coming, trickling down her cheeks and into Vic's fingers. "I love you," she said simply.
Vic smiled at her before cradling her head against her shoulder. "It is just as well you are resigning from your job. If you had not, I would have had fired you anyways."
"Y-you would?"
"Most definitely." She held her tighter, nuzzling her face against her hair. "You see, I have another job lined up for you, my darling..." She smiled. "As my wife." She finished.
"Your what?" Mika pulled away... staring at her... placing her abnormally cold hands against her abnormally hot face. She felt dizzy... unable to believe what she'd just heard. "Your wife? Me?"
Vic frowned, uncertainty creeping into her eyes. "Mika, you have to marry me. You must! I mean.... What I meant is, will you? Will you marry me, Mika Aereen Reyes?"
It was Mika's turn to laugh now, but she gave Vic her answer quickly because she could not bear to see the worry in her eyes. "Yes! Oh, yes, Victonara Galang. But..." she shrugged helplessly, laughing and crying at the same time again. "The twins told me you were going to marry Shiela Pineda."
"What?"
They stared at one another, each expecting an explanation. It was Mika who pulled herself together first. "Oh, Vic, pour me a drink. There are some glasses and a bottle of brandy in the cupboard over there. I need something stronger than coffee."
Vic did as she asked, bombarding her with questions at the same time. Mika told her quietly and calmly what the children had said. She told her word for word, but it did not seem to make sense to Vic.
"But I did not propose to Shiela at Christmas! Then or any other time. On Christmas Eve, I finished with her. That was when I finally stopped fighting against what had happened to me... when I accepted that I was in love with you and there was nothing in the world I could do to help myself. I knew then that nothing less would do, that you had to be my wife. So I told Shiela there was someone else, that..." She broke off.
"What was it?' There was a realization in her eyes and Mika wanted to be on it. "Vic?"
"Shiela. When I told her it was over between us, she took it well considering..."
"Considering what?"
"Considering she had planned on asking me to marry her." Vic got up, obviously disturbed by the memory. "I had no idea she was in that deeply. In fact I am not sure she was, actually. She just said it was a pity because she planned of proposing to me that evening. She said we'd make a good team... she and I. She was philosophical, to the point of nonchalance, as though she had been thinking in terms of a merger rather than a marriage."
"But that does not explain the twins saying you had told them you would be married by the summer."
"Mika, the children asked me whether I was going to marry again. I... hell, I just thought it was a question out of the blue. You know how my children are like. Then I thought, perhaps they had realized what was happening between you and me. They.... Ronnie especially.... are very perceptive. So I said yes, hopefully by the summer. I could not be more specific than that."
"And when was this? At Christmas?"
"No... about two or three weeks later. Yes, it was the day before we left for Kenya. They had obviously been worrying over the question Shiela had asked them, and they added my answer to it... and came to the wrong conclusion. Grief! I had no idea she had asked them how they like the idea of having a new mother. To think they have been worrying all these weeks... I am well aware that my children never liked her, you know?"
Mika understand it now. Shiela Pineda's question to the twins had been premature... had been asked before she and Vic had talked. She must have been confident of her accepting her proposal.
"Why... How come she was with you at Christmas?"
"My family was expecting her to have dinner with us on Christmas Eve. I had invited her several weeks earlier and I saw no reason to put her off. It was not as if... Anyhow, it was as good a time and place as any to talk to her about you."
"Did you... I mean, did you tell her you were going to marry me? Did you tell her who this other person was?"
"No to both questions." Vic sat beside her, taking hold of her hands and pressing the palms to her lips. "How could I? It was all a theory... my theory. I knew what I wanted but I did not know what you wanted. I had no idea how you felt about me."
But Shiela Pineda had guessed who that someone else was. Mika told Vic of her visit to the office the day she had been in their Batangas factory. "She was giving me the once-over, weighing up the opposition. There was no question. She guessed who I was. I wonder why, Miss Galang?"
"Well, I had mentioned your name to her several times... in conversation about work, and maybe she just..."
"And how did she know you were not in that day? And did she call you that week-end? She told me she would." Mika asked with one of her brows rising.
"No. Now don't look at me dubiously, darling. She did not call me. She knew I was going out of town because she called me at the penthouse that very morning asking me to meet her for lunch. She said she wanted my opinion on a business matter."
"And you did not meet her... because you were out of town?"
Vic chuckled at that. "Mika, I have just told you, I broke off my relationship with her at Christmas. I did not meet her because I knew damned well she did not want to talk business. She is a beautiful woman and she is well aware of it. What she really wanted was to find out whether my new affair was still thriving..."
"Whether there was still a chance for her? Oh, Vic!" Mika groaned. Her dislike for Shiela Pineda was as strong as ever. Shiela had deliberately upset her... deliberately implied she was still seeing Vic... and Mika had only been too willing to believe it. "That woman doesn't give up easily, does she? I supposed that was why she turned up at your father's house last week. The children did say they were not expecting her. Their birthday was a good excuse for her to see you again. She brought the twins presents and..."
"Darling, she was at the house precisely fifteen minutes. You know what state I was in. I did not even have the presence of mind to offer her a drink. If I'd known you have seen her car... if I have known what the kids had said to you, I would..."
"You would what?" Mika was smiling now... almost laughing.
But Vic was not. She was very serious. "I would not have wasted another week of my life. I would have come after you and sorted you out."
"Sorted me out? A fine way of putting it. Don't you realize I have been under the impression all these weeks that you were still with Shiela?"
She seemed shock at that. "For heaven's sake! You don't think I would... Hmmm... So that was why my African seduction scene did not come off."
Suddenly they were arguing again. Mika glared at Vic indignantly, accusingly. "So you had planned that week-end! Right down to the last detail huh."
"Of course I have. You have been driving me crazy for long enough... teasing me beyond endurance..."
"I did no such thing!"
Vic laughed at that, drawing her towards her. "Darling Mika, your very existence is a tease." She kissed her... she kissed her endlessly, passionately, but it was she who broke it off. "Darling, I had no idea how you felt about me. I was trying to..." She sighed, shrugging. "I suppose I was trying to rush things... to force your hand. You know you are such a mysterious creature. When you are angry, your eyes spit flames at me. When you are happy or curious, that shows too. But I did not know... Well, the first time I kissed you, that time in the elevator, you were furious that you would not even speak to me for an hour afterwards. What was I supposed to make of you? I was so unsure of everything. All I knew was that I was in love with you... and it had hit me like a tidal wave. I knew from the start that I loved you... that day you barged into my office. And I fought against it. I actually wished you'd leave in the beginning. I did not want to love again... I did not want the emotional involve..."
"Hush, darling." Mika placed her fingers against her lips, cuddling close to her. She understood what she was saying. She understood it only too well.
"But you can't escape the inevitable. My grandmother told me that."
"Your grandmother? W-what did she tell you exactly?" Mika was alarmed again. "Did she tell you... I mean, did she say anything about me?"
"When I got back from Africa, it was she who told me how I felt about you-- which was something I already knew. She asked me whether I have told you. And when I said no... that I could not because I had no idea how you felt, she urged me to tell you. And when I did, finally, you ran away. Boy, did I give her some stick about that!"
"You, horrible being! How can you treat an old lady like that? She did not know about Shiela Pineda... about all the complications. Er... what else did she say? The night I ran away, I mean."
"She told me I did not understand women."
Mika laughed her head off at that.
"Of course," Vic continued. "What she really meant was I don't understand Gemini women."
"She hit the nail right on the head!"
Vic was laughing now. "She had done your birth chart, you know. I'd guess that was what she had been up to. She wanted to talk to you about that, last Saturday." Her smile was wry. "She talked to me instead. She had compared your chart with mine and she went on at me about them, saying we are made for each other. As if I needed to be told. It is all a lot of mumbo jumbo, and right now I have better things to do..."
Vic lifted Mika's face for a kiss, covering her mouth with her own... kissing her deeply... hungrily... until Mika was pressing herself tightly against her... molding herself with her body.
"Mika..." She murmured against her ear, her breathing deepening as Mika caressed her, planting tiny kisses on her neck, her throat. "Let me hear you say it again. Tell me you love me and you'll marry me just as quickly as we can arrange it."
Mika did just that... but not in words. She kissed her lovingly. She pulled away at length because in spite of what they were doing, she was desperately curious...
"Darling, what else did Grannie say... about our birth charts?"
"Oh, Mika! Really? Come here!" She was going to drive her mad daily... every day for the rest of her life.
"What else did she say, Vic?"
Vic was grinning, despairing over her, loving her, laughing with her... "Oh, something about your Venus and mine."
"And what does that mean?"
"I don't know! But she had a very naughty glint in her eyes as she told me how compatible they were..."
There was a naughty glint in Vic's eyes too, as she drew Mika into her arms again... her hands moving slowly towards the soft swell of her breast...
"How about we find out for ourselves, my darling..."
F.I.N.I.S.
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[A/N]
Thanks for reading, you lot.... I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed writing it...
Will forever be a KaRa fan...
Ciao!