Letters from Spring Street

Chapter 8

A/N: I noticed this story gained new readers, hi guys! I hope you're enjoying the story so far. I'm terribly sorry for the slow updates, but I'm trying hihihi. But in the meantime, you guys can check out my completed story, "Everglow", found in my profile.

And thank you also to my readers who have been reading from the beginning. The best kayo. 💛 🙂

I would just like to reiterate: Maine / Richard

Enjoy reading! 💛

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Chapter 8

Maine lazily twirls her pen in her right hand and stares absentmindedly right through the floor length windows of Le Chateau's lobby café. Her back leans comfortably against the plush velvet couch, her legs crossed and her sketchbook propped against her legs in front of her.

She was in a daze, so lost in her own thoughts that she failed to notice a tall young man in a dark blue suit, looking at her from the other side of the lobby café.

"I see you've found the best seat in the house."

Maine looks up to see Richard standing directly in front of her, the sun rays illuminating his face, but she could easily spot his smile, oh and that dimple.

"Hi Richard." She smiled back at him, gesturing him to take the seat in front of her. "But I've always known that this is the best seat in the house."

"Really? You've been here before?" He replies, as he sat down in front of her.

"Oh, plenty of times. Hindi ko na nga mabilang eh." She laughs and throws her head back. Richard was momentarily distracted by her bare shoulders suddenly exposed to him as her long locks moved out of the way.

"Pero ngayon lang kita nakita dito. I would have noticed right away someone as striking as you are."

Damn it, Richard. Why did I just say that? Where the hell did that come from?!?

Binobola ba ako nitong Richard na to?

"Actually, ikaw ang ngayon ko lang nakita dito." She smirks at him, as if challenging him.

"Oh." Richard cocks his head to the side and smiles at her, "I recently came back from living abroad, and I've been here for a year and a half at most."

Maine's eyes widen in recognition, "I know who you are!"

"You do?"

Richard's heartbeat suddenly quickened, and God knows why. She's been staring at this woman he just met with unusual familiarity. This was a whole new thing for him--Richard, no matter how polite, has always been a little too closed off, a little to guarded. And this woman, this stranger, is suddenly making him want to break and bend all of his rules.

And the last time I broke my rules like this, I met my childhood best friend.

He couldn't exactly put a finger on it, but just as intrigued as he was when he first saw his Menggay, he felt like he just had to get to know this Nicomaine.

"Yea! Ikaw yung anak ng may-ari ng hotel na to!" She suddenly leans forward and their faces closer and Richard had the sudden urge to kiss her lips. "I saw you once! It was the day you came here. Kuya Wally told me about you. You were all the way across the other side of the lobby, but I distinctly remember that dimple of yours!"

"You know Kuya Wally? Then you really must be a regular here."

"I've been a regular for the longest time." He watched as she stared dreamily outside the window. As he watched her eyes flutter open and close as she blinks, her long lashes fanning, Richard wanted nothing more but to know what's going on inside that pretty little head of this beautiful stranger in front of him.

"I usually don't like sharing this spot. But I think I'm willing to make an exception." He flashed her his be-dimpled smile and hoped against hope that she would find it more charming than arrogant of him to say.

Ano na naman ba tong sinabi ko sa kanya? Why do I always say the wrong things in front of her?  Nagmumukha akong mahangin eh. I seem to have forgotten how to use my words around her. Wala atang silbi pagiging writer ko eh. 

She raised her eyebrows at him, and at that moment, a sudden wave of nostalgia hits her. Tisoy would have said something like that.

But he couldn't be my Tisoy, now would he? I'm sure he would have at least tried to write me back once if he was here all along.

No, he couldn't be Tisoy.

Maine looked Richard directly in the eye, somehow sizing him up. His eyes felt as if it is  was boring into her. He was looking at her as if he knew her, as if he was searching for something in her eyes, her face, her smile, anything at all that felt close to familiar. She felt her cheeks burn up, she knew she was embarrassingly crimson.

Yet that wave of nostalgia remains--she found it odd, but far from unsettling. No, it wasn't even de ja vu. The memory was foreign, but the feeling, whatever this was, felt familiar.

Basking in that feeling of odd familiarity, Nicomaine made a decision, "I guess we'll be stuck with each other for a while then."

It felt as if the universe was offering her a new chapter, and Nicomaine was more than willing to jump right in.