"Can I have some water for now please?" I told the waitress politely. She's beautiful for a waitress, girls like her should be working as a model or maybe even an actress and with that curvy body of hers, she would've been famous.
"Sure, Ma'am." She nodded before going to the counter to get me some water. I'm currently sitting in this Italian restaurant where Andres told me to meet him. He had told me yesterday before I went to work that we should have lunch first before going to Sergio's place, saying we might be there for a while.
The bell on the door of the restaurant rung, signalling a person just entered. I looked up and saw the guy standing there who looked like he was about to meet the queen with what he's wearing right now. He looked around the place and a smile formed on his face when his eyes landed on me.
"It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" He said as he removed his coat and took the seat in front of me. He was holding a plastic bag which looks like a take out of Japanese food.
"What's that?" I asked and pointed at the plastic bag. He looked at what I was indicating, and he tilted his head at me and smiled proudly.
"This here, is your favorite." He said as he took out the contents of the bag. "I knew your gonna get hungry later on my brother's long talk, and I happen to pass by a Japanese place, so I bought you some snacks." And when I saw what is inside the transparent container, my stomach have never been this happy. It's been awhile since the last time I ate sushi. And this food is something I can eat for days straight.
"Am I not the best person in the world right now?" He said proud with what he did. I laughed at him. Asian food is something that I can never get tired of eating and he knows me that well.
I smiled when I remembered our cooking adventures before, trying to cook Asian food by ourselves. I remember when we would save some money to be able to buy the ingredients. We had a cook book as our guide which Andres got with his talent. He stole it from the public library.
~~~
"Is this all we need?" Andres asked. We were in the grocery to buy the ingredients we need to make the maki sushi roll. I looked at the list of ingredients I made and checked if we missed anything.
"Yeah, everything is already here in the cart." I nodded at him. I was so excited on making this food. When I first ate Asian food, I wasn't that into it, but after sometime I grew to like it then loved it. The spices, the aroma and the rich flavors, there's nothing not to love.
After buying what we needed we headed back to my house. We entered the kitchen and placed all the stuff we bought on the counter. We started preparing and slicing the things needed for the filling. Andres took charge of the slicing while he assigned me to wash the ingredients and cook the rice. Of course, he thinks I can't handle a knife and said "Well, we don't want blood from your fingers as the sauce."
I looked at the cook book to see if there's anything I can do while waiting for the rice to cook. This is actually the first time both of us tried cooking so it's kind of new yet exciting to us. When I read the instructions that's when I found out we were missing something.
"Andres, it says here we needed a bamboo mat to roll it." I informed him. How are we gonna roll it if we don't have this bamboo thing? He stopped slicing and furrowed his brows as it seemed like he was thinking of something.
"We'll improvise." He said while looking around the kitchen trying to find something. When his eyes landed at the thing he's looking for, his face brightened.
"I guess bamboo mat and placemat is the same thing right?" He said while holding the placemat for me to see. I shook my head at him, and I guess that explains how our cooking didn't end up as good as we thought.
~~~
I smiled at the memory. I remember how easy life was before. We just go to school everyday and go home after to hang out with each other. I remember Andres was just stealing food on stores and now he was gonna be part of the biggest heist in history, I correct, we, are gonna be part of it.
"You're not just the best, you're my hero, you know that?" I told him and smiled at him widely, and he looked at me like the way Leonardo Di Caprio did when he first introduced himself on the movie The Great Gatsby.
He was about to reply when a glass of water was suddenly placed in front of me. I looked at the waitress and thanked her. She was about to head back when Andres suddenly talked.
"I think we're gonna order now, M'lady." He said while giving the waitress a certain look that I knew so well. This tone of voice, this sparkle in his eyes and this tilt of his head is something I've seen a hundred times before when he saw something or someone that pleases his eyes.
The waitress nodded and headed to the counter to get us the menu. When she turned his back to us to get the menu, of course, Andres was looking at his back figure, which I'll admit is a sight to see.
The waitress whose nametag says her name is, Patricia, gave us the menu and my not-so-subtle friend in front of me did the 'accidentally touched your hand' act when he received the menu. I can clearly see the blush on the waitress' cheek and looked at their hands. She removed her hands and smiled at Andres before going back to her work.
"You know you're more like a CCTV that watches my every move right?" He said as he opened the menu. I've been in this situation more times than I can count. Him hitting on a girl while I was standing on the side or sometimes in the front. Everybody can actually see that Andres is a good catch and with the way he dresses, any girl would think of him as the leading man on those mills and boons. Age might have changed him a bit, but it was a good change. His look became more mature but is actually kind of suitable for his age.
Through the years, Andres had been with a lot of women. He married five women to be exact and had the same numbers of divorces. While I was stuck with four boyfriends who obviously didn't last due to some shocking reasons. One of them was actually sleeping with her step sister which by the way is really disgusting. And the other one he broke up with me because he found another woman, turns out this woman is already married and had three children. He tried getting back with me but eh, I'm not stupid enough to agree. The third one was the saddest. The guy died because of cancer. I met him back on the hospital I was working. He lied to me back then saying he only had a check up because he doesn't want me to take pity on him if I knew about his condition. I took care of him on the same hospital until his last breath.
The last one was the craziest. We've been dating for about five months. He was kind, sweet, and good looking, almost perfect for a boyfriend. Then one day he came at my place crying, he told me the story. HE GOT HIS MOTHER PREGNANT! WHAT? IS HE THE REINCARNATION OF OEDIPUS?! He said they were both drunk that night from a family party, which is the same party I came to with him as his girlfriend. The craziest part was that he wanted me to act as the mother of the child because he's afraid of what his family and other people will say. And that's how we ended it and he went back to his mother who he impregnated. Andres found it very funny and would still have tears on his eyes laughing about that matter.
I never felt the right to intervene on Andres' relationship. And the fact that we're old enough to make our own decisions and I guess it became a rule in our friendship. We give advices and comments here and there, but we never got to the point where we tell the other person to stop seeing someone. Even if sometimes I felt that I have to, because it's either that the girl doesn't deserve Andres or they don't deserve Andres, in which I always think of the latter.
We ordered our food with Andres making Patricia cheeks blush like Billy the puppet. We ate the food which is actually very good. Andres paid for the food. He always does that. Ever since then, he never let me pay for the food we eat and that's also the reason why we never eat out before if he didn't have money. He would insist on cooking. After some failures and experiments on cooking, he eventually got the hang of it and actually became really good at it. This guy is really good at anything. Except at sticking with a wife.
We left the restaurant but before we left he went to Patricia and gave her hand a kiss, thanking her for the service and told her he would be meeting her again. I rolled my eyes at him as I waited by the door holding both of our coats and the plastic bag. He walked towards me with an exultant look on his face.
We put on our coats and walked outside the restaurant. I looked at him and narrowed my eyes at him. He turned to me and asked me why I was looking at him like that. "Is it a new trend of yours? Teenage girls?" I asked him, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Oh, Ly. After you've been married with five women, you're gonna be searching for things you've had in your early years." He told me while putting on his fedora and hailed for a cab. He opened the door for me, and I went in. On the way to Sergio's place, we continued to talk about his new preference of women.
"I mean, wouldn't you find it weird if Nicolas Cage started dating Macey Williams?" I asked and raised an eyebrow at him as we both stepped out the cab. He paid the driver and thanked him. He then turned to me with a serious face.
"First of all, I'm not that old yet. And stop with the age difference crap, we're here." he told me. I followed him as we headed to what I'm guessing is Sergio's place. It's quite simple. No one would totally suspect that this place is where a heist is being planned.
He knocked at the door three times and we waited for his younger brother. Steps can be heard then the door was opened. Sergio looked at Andres and when his eyes landed on he gave me a smile. He looked around at first before letting us in. When we were already inside he Andres and gave him a brotherly hug. Then his eyes turned to me.
"You don't know how happy I am that you agreed, Lyanna. Thank you for still being there for Andres." he said as he gave me a tender hug. Sergio and I, after long years with Andres, we developed a close or what I can say as a brother and sister type of relationship. I frequently visited him at the hospital back when he was sick. And my frequent visits there is also what inspired me to take a medicine course in college.
"I'm glad to see you again, Sergio. Well, let's just say that the 'Lyanna will agree to anything' potion he injected me before is still working on me." I joked, and the three of us laughed. He led us inside and offered some drinks. We removed our coats and Andres took my coat to put it in the coat rack. We sat in one of the sofas. Sergio returned with the drinks on his hand.
We talked for a while. Talked about each other's current lives. We laughed at some jokes and we walked down the memory lane. It was nice, we always had moments like this on Sergio's hospital room before. I missed this kind of gathering. But all the pleasantries vanished when Sergio's face became serious. "I guess this is the time where we talk about the plan." he said and looked at me straight in the eye.
"I heard this plan of yours took you five years. I bet it's impeccable. I'm all ears, Einstein." I told him as I adjusted myself on the couch and made myself comfortable. I know this will take a while. Sergio stood up and went to get something.
Andres also made himself comfortable on the couch and snaked an arm around my shoulders and brought my body closer to his. He looked at me and gave me a smirk. He patted my head before saying, "I know you're gonna love his brilliant plan. You'd feel like you're in one of those action movies."
Sergio returned with a bunch of folders and papers in his hands. He adjusted his glasses before he started talking. He talked about the highlights, scenarios, and probabilities of the plan. He won't tell me the whole plan yet saying that it'll be told with the whole group. He also told me about what my essence will be for the group. And obviously I'll be like their first aid kit. If anything not according to plan will happen, which is more likely to happen, and any one of us got shot or wounded, I'll be the one to aid them.
After an hour and a half, I excused myself and opened the plastic bag and grabbed the chopsticks inside. I took out the container and opened it. I offered Sergio some sushi, but he refused. Both of them chuckled at me. I continued eating the sushi, "Gimme some of that." Andres said while opening his mouth for me to feed him. I dipped the sushi on the sauce but dipped it to some wasabi first before putting it on his mouth. After a few chews his eyes widened and turned his face at me. I ignored him and continued eating. He immediately grabbed the drink in the table and drank it quickly. He also drank mine.
"What was that for?!" He asked, and his tongue was sticking out. Sergio and I laughed. I continued eating while thinking about the other members that'll be on the group. Who are they? Where did Sergio meet them? Well, I guess I just gotta trust him and deal with them later. And besides Andres is here with me. We've been through a lot. And this heist is just gonna be another thing to write down on our long list of adventures.
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AN:
Yow! Hi!
How are y'all doing?
I hope you like the story so far.
What do you think? Any comments? Suggestions?
What do you think about Lyanna?
And don't forget to exercise on these times where I think most of us sleep just to pass the time and because of boredom. XD
Thank you so much for reading!
I'd be so thankful for a vote and a comment.
Stay safe and take a bath everyday!
Bye! Love y'all!
P.s. Do you like sushi too?