Engaged to the Heartless Heartbreaker ✔

Chapter 35 - The Suitor

@uiel22, for the consistent support since the very beginning of this...
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~~~ CHAPTER 35 - THE SUITOR ~~~

After tucking mom to bed that night, I went outside and found my way to the swimming pool. Sitting at the poolside and removing my slippers, I dipped my bare feet on the water and was surprised to discover the water being really cold though it was summertime. I was closing my eyes and feeling the country breeze brushing my skin when I felt someone who furtively sat beside me.

Waking me up from my reverie, Elena gently held my arm. "I'm really glad you're back, Thea."

I turned my face to her and smiled, "Thanks, Elena. I'm glad I'm back as well. The Fields has a very important place in my heart."

"I'm happy to hear that. I thought you'd never come back. This place is never the same without you."

Elena was always a great friend to me and I knew she was one of those who were affected of my disappearance.

"How are you now? I mean, your heart..." she asked with a concerned tone.

I raised my brow, "What do you mean?"

"Don't deny it... The señorito is the reason why you left..." she said, very seriously.

I didn't speak a word. I just stared at the glistening water in front of me.

"If you aren't ready to share yet, it's fine. I just hope you're okay now..."

"Yes, he's the reason why I left," I said.

Her eyes opened widely. "I knew it! What did he do to you?"

I shook my head, "There's just a million reasons that I have decided to forget, Elena. You're one of those who knew how much I suffered because of him. I just realized that I couldn't be like that forever. That was why I left. What's important now for me is I have finally learned to move on and live a life without him. That's what's important to me. Now I have more time for myself and for all the things that I want to do... unlike before when my world only revolved around him. Oh, I couldn't be that kind of woman forever, Elena."

"Most of us here hope and pray for a happy ending for you and the señorito... That's what we always pray," she said, in a whisper.

"Please, Elena... Please, accept the fact that I've already moved on, meaning, I am ready now to give my heart to someone who is more deserving than him."

She eyed me suspiciously.

"Please, don't look at me like you can't believe me..." I pinched her arm. Why was she making it hard for me to convince her?

"Because the señorito is the air that you breath," she said in a low tone, answering the rhetorical question in my mind.

"Was, Elena," I corrected her. "Because today, he's just part of my crazy illusion in the past. He is never real. He doesn't really exist."

Elena thought for a while. Then, she asked, "So are you in love with somebody else right now, Thea? Who's the lucky guy?"

"I will give my heart to the most patient man in the world, Elena," I said as I thought of Javier. "You will know him soon."

She was now the one who wasn't able to speak for a while.

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It was nearly dawn when I realized that Elena and I talked mostly about me, about my life in the South, and not so much about her.