Okay Guys. A long chapter for all of you. My plan was to give you a very very very cliffhanger one but I decided not to. Let me make you happy and sad at the same time. lol. How cruel of me no? Hehehe. Let's all ride this rollercoaster relationship with them :) 6500+ words. If you're not ready for the pain, it will be better to close this update now!
YOU'VE BEEN WARNED GUYS :)
James found it very hard to believe what he heard from Simon. 5 years? It can't be.
But Naddie. Nadine Lustre.
He thought about the last few years while he was posted away. The notion of settling down properly with a girl never hit him. What for? It was tedious to maintain a long distance relationship and he had other priorities then.
Whenever he had physical needs as a man he would either well, settle it himself or take a cold shower. Sleeping with a random girl just never appealed as a possible solution. Another reason was that no matter how pretty they were, no matter how alluring they were and no matter how eager he was, he will always think of Nadine at the very last moment. Every single time.
He would make out with them at bars or any formal parties he knew them from but he had never ever brought them home. Not one.
For a while he was puzzled at this constant message his mind kept giving him subconsciously and tried to block it away until it he can't be bothered about it. It's like something nagging at his conscience if he dared to cross the line with other girls.
His apartment in London back then was provided by the company, by all means it wasn't the best but cozy and comfortable probably did summed it up. Through the three years, the only lady who ever stepped into his place was her. Nadine Alexis Lustre.
She visited him for twelve days at the end of his second year in London and before the start of his Master's program that would not give him much time to return to Manila for that year.
Going to London was solely her idea. It was one of the cities that Nadine had always wanted to visit and he being there provided a perfect reason to do so because she could save so much on accommodation.
She was supposed to travel with her friend, KC but the latter found out that she was pregnant shortly before they booked their tickets. Nadine didn't want to postpone it because it might never happen at the rate it goes, not that she blamed her friend who was so apologetic about being unable to make it. Nadine blamed timing and decided to embark on her London trip alone instead.
When she told him over Skype that she would be travelling alone, he got oddly excited and started to research on places he could bring her too. Before that he had never thought of bringing her around because there were two of them and he didn't want to feel like a sidekick.
James picked her up when she arrived at Heathrow that one chilly morning. She looked every bit adorable in her winter jacket, boots and the colorful wool scarf around her neck when she came out of Arrivals, her large boxy luggage in tow.
When they arrived at his apartment, he gave her the spare room that was adjacent to his. The room of course, was never used after the first night Nadine arrived.
Thereafter, he brought her around the city that he had called home for the past two years. Bringing her around made him felt like a tourist too; James had never bothered much with sightseeing. To him, London was just a city he lived in while he was posted away. The arrival of Nadine made everything different, knowing that she would be alone he started looking up on places he could bring her to, determined to make her time in London one of the best.
