Hanggang sa Huli

2

Michelle doesn't know how long she and Mike have been talking when Anntonia appears in the den's doorway. Michelle notices that she's freshly showered, already in a pair of black jogger pants and a plain white tee. They were set to go out today to get some groceries and do some shopping. 

"Hi, Mike, just wanted to say hi!" Anntonia greets Mike with a smile and a wave.

"Hey, Anntonia, sorry for stealing Michelle on a Sunday," Mark smiles and waves back.

"Oh, it's okay, you two take your time," Anntonia politely smiles. "Did you have breakfast yet? Kain?"

"I already did, thank you, we'll just finish up here and I'll return Michelle to you," Mike responds.

"I'll just be in the kitchen," Anntonia gives Michelle a smile before disappearing. Michelle stares at the den's doorway for a few seconds, all the emotions from her conversation with Mike that's been running through her momentarily disappears with Anntonia's brief appearance. 

"Can you find a lawyer to look this over?" Michelle asks Mike as she gets her senses back.

"Sure, if that's what you want," Mike nods. There was a hint of hesitation in his tone of voice and Michelle knew that he was just appeasing her in making her think there was a way out of this when there really wasn't.

"Yes, it's what I want, Mike," she tells him. 

"Just consider what I told you."

"Lawyer first, Mike," she shakes her head.

"Okay, I'll get in touch with someone," Mike nods as he stands up signaling the end of the conversation. "Sorry for bringing this down on you like this, I was blindsided, too."

"We'll deal  with it," she tells him. Because there really was no other choice at this point.

She brings Mike to the front door and closes the door behind him. She inhales and exhales deeply and tries to control herself before going back to the kitchen to face Anntonia.

"Here, baby," she hands Anntonia's phone to her. "We left it in the den last night."

"Thanks," Anntonia takes the phone and places it on the counter without even checking it, something Michelle's admired about her girlfriend for so long now- having the ability to not even check on her phone even after almost a day of not seeing it. Michelle can't even stand not checking her phone every few minutes. 

"Everything okay?" Anntonia asks. 

Wanting to avoid Anntonia's gaze, she goes into the fridge to open and it and look for something to drink as she replies, ""Just work stuff."

"Okay," Anntonia says with a gentle voice. Michelle knows Anntonia knows something was up and she's thankful that Anntonia's not pushing. When she's finally ready to face her, she closes the fridge and steps closer to her.

"You got ready already?" she pulls on the bottom of Anntonia's white tee. 

"It's almost noon," Anntonia tells her.

"Oh," she briefly looks at the clock on the wall and it was indeed less than half an hour before 12. She didn't even realize that she and Mike spoke for an hour at the least. "Did you want to go eat out for brunch nalang? I can go take a quick shower."

"You go shower and I'll cook us something for brunch before we head out," Anntonia reaches over to pull on her shirt like she did with hers. "Bacon's the perfect hang-over food."

"You're the only one who was drunk last night," she reminds her with a teasing smile.

"No bacon for you then," Anntonia sticks out her tongue.