Chapter 2

“LESLIE, your phone’s ringing,” Cristy’s irritated voice woke her up. “Who’s that?”

Leslie grabbed her phone from the dashboard. With half-open eyes, she read the set of numbers flashing on the screen. “Ricky,” she said with certainty.

“How did you know? Those were just numbers,” Cristy asked, amazement in her eyes was apparent.

“I just know…” she murmured. Maybe her heart can easily forget feelings, but her mind isn’t—especially with anything that is connected to the man she once loved.

Did she? Did she really love them? Leslie didn’t know what exactly it felt to love and be loved. It seems everything that happened to her past relationships was just… Fake. Temporary. Unreal.

“Why you didn’t answer his call?” Cristy asked when she rejected Ricky’s call for the nth time.

“What for?” she asked in a whisper. “If I will continue to answer his calls, it will make him think that I still have feelings for him.” She turned off her phone. “We’re done.”

“I know you mean it, Leslie,” Cristy said with a glance to her. Because it was her idea to go to Pampanga, she insisted on being the driver for today. But, Leslie knew that Cristy was just excited to try her new car. “Ricky and I were just starting to be friends.”

“You can continue your friendship with him, Cristy. You know that it’s nothing to me,” she said, and it’s true. “You can keep in touch with him. He can help you to find clients, and besides, Ricky is a good man. That’s why I don’t deserve him.”

“Is it really over?” she asked, she turned to look at her but returned her gaze quickly to the road. “Never mind, it’s a stupid question.”

They remained silent for a few minutes before Cristy speaks again. “How are you going to have an heir if your relationships won’t last?”

Leslie laughed. “Heir? Only rich people use that term. It doesn’t suit me.”

“You have a lot of money, Leslie. You can’t fool me,” Cristy said knowingly. “You’ve been the best real estate agent for several times. You have closed many big deals on lands and private properties. You have earned a lot. But we’re not getting any younger, you’re turning twenty-eight, and by that age, you should already have a child.”

She crossed her arms. “One-night stand is fine with me—”

“Are you crazy?” Cristy cut her off with a frown. “That’s yuck.”

“I can’t have a child with a man that…” She stopped in midsentence as if remembering something. “If I really have this fucking BPD, I am not advisable to have a family, Cristy.”

She did research about BPD the night before Ricky proposed to her because, by that time, she’s already having that familiar feeling of drifting away from him. Her heart was starting to be estranged again for the thirteenth time, and she doubted that it’s still healthy. She began to question herself why, until she found an online article about BPD. All the statements from different people whose experiencing symptoms characterized by BPD were precisely the same with her—unstable relationships due to volatile emotions.

“So what are you going to do? Adopt a child?” Cristy asked with an arched brow.

She shook her head. “No, I want my own child. My flesh and blood… I wanted to see the product of my own chromosomes.”

“Who will be the father?” Cristy asked the million-dollar question.

Leslie couldn’t think of the right answer. “I don’t know…” She looked down on her exposed legs and came up with a bright idea. “How about Artificial Insemination?”

Cristy frowned at her. “You can conceive, Leslie. You don’t need to undergo that kind of pricey operation.”

Leslie sighed. “Let’s not talk about that, it gives me a headache,” she said and looked around the streets. “Where are we?” When she opened the window, a set of fresh air filled their car.

Cristy pulled to a stop when the streetlights turned to red. “We’re almost there—the navigator said.” She glanced at her cell phone screen. “There’s a Korean Convenience store along the way, do you want to buy some stocks before we proceed to Mr. Ahn’ apartelle?”

“Do we have to? Our stay here is just two days,” she said with a knotted forehead.

“Just the food we’re going to bring at the field tomorrow,” Cristy replied. “And some snacks. We can order food online, too, if you don’t wanna cook today.”

Leslie leaned back in her chair to enjoy the fresh air kissing her face. “Today, I don’t feel like doing anything.”

“I just want to lie in my bed,” Cristy sings with her. She opened her own window and sang her heart out.

Leslie laughed at her friend. They kept singing until they reached the convenience store. She volunteered to be the one to buy their stocks, but Cristy insisted on going with her.

“One of the reasons why I chose Pampanga to be our cold weather get-away is the rumors that some celebrities visit here often,” Cristy told her while they were roaming around the store. “And, because I know that Mr. Ahn owned an apartelle here, therefore, we saved our rent.”

Leslie rolled her eyes and laughed. “Just what I thought.”

Leslie pushed their cart to the cereal section, just as she was about to turn by the corner of canned goods, she caught a glimpse of a man walking towards the counter. Her eyes narrowed as she was trying to see his face clearly. He’s wearing a baseball cap, a simple white shirt, cargo shorts, and brown loafers.

“Leslie, where are you going?” Cristy’s hand stopped the cart. She didn’t know that she was about to follow the familiar man.

“N-nothing…” she replied and looked at the direction of the man again, but he’s not there anymore. She looked around the store and found him pushing his cart to the vegetable section.

“What are you looking at?” Cristy asked, her eyes followed her gaze. “Do you know him?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Cristy pulled the cart away from the man’s direction. “Then let’s go. I’m excited to try these black noodles for lunch. How about you? What do you want to eat?”

Leslie takes her eyes off the man. “Can I have rice cakes?”

***