MIXED SIGNALS

Chapter 38 - The Agreement

Good morning guys, still under the weather. Can I ask for prayers? I don't know if I told you, but a month ago, I fell from the steps in my office and hit my head. The CT scan showed that I had no fracture or blood clots and we were really thankful for that. Recently though, I've been experiencing headaches and nausea, our office doctor said my CT scan needs to be done again. 

Can you please include me in your prayers, that whatever this is, can hopefully be easy to fix? So sorry for those who don't like disclosures like this, I just treat you all like friends already.  

Anyway, this is just a short update. If I feel better later, I will update again. Hope you guys have a great day :)

Alden was waiting for her in his house when she arrived. She was still weirded out by her meeting with Janine, she didn't know how Alden would take it. But the unpleasant task of talking it over with him needed to be done. He opened the door to her and pulled her in, kissed her cheek and pulled her by the hand, taking her to the den.

"You look beat. Tough day?"

"Kinda. You had dinner na?"

"Yeah I did, you? How was your dinner meeting?"

"I didn't get to eat at all."

"Ha? Wait, I have food pa, I'll heat it. Grabe ka, dinner meeting hindi ka kumain."

"Alden, heat the food later, we need to talk muna."

He looked at her and noticed that more than the fatigue, there was a pallor to her that was not just from exhaustion. Something was wrong. Oh no. He sensed that what he feared already happened.

"Baby who did you have dinner with, exactly?"

"It was Janine. She sent me this."

She showed the photo Janine gave and the message at the back.

"Fuck, that woman won't quit. What did you talk about? Are you ok?"

"I'm ok. Kind of drained emotionally, because I was alternating between getting so mad at her and sympathizing with her heartbreak. Then I remembered, she's married. Or is she still? Would you know?"

"I don't know or care. What did she tell you?"

He sat on the lazyboy and pulled her to his lap. She leaned against his sturdy chest and wound her arms around his neck.

"Baby pakiss muna. I missed you."

He gave in to her request and kissed her, blotting out all the unpleasantness she dealt with earlier. His lips moved over hers, parting her lips with his tongue, his arms tightening around her waist. She reluctantly broke the kiss and ran her thumb over his mouth. Her other hand caressed the stubble on his chin.

"I love you, Alden. I love you so much."

"I love you too. Spend the night here, it's getting late na rin."

"Yes, I will. But we need to talk about Janine. She asked me to relay something to you."

"What did she want?"

"She knows you don't want to talk to her, that's why she contacted me first. She wants me to convince you to talk to her. In fact, she asked that......I allow you to spend one night with her. If you—"

"Is she out of her fucking mind?"

"Baby, let me finish. She said that if after one night together, you still want to come back to me, then she won't bother us again."

"What did you say? You didn't agree to this foolish request. Or did you?"

"I said I'd talk it over with you first, and that it's really up to you, not me."

"Maine, you should have said no."

"I could. But will this stop? She might just keep on coming back. I don't want that. Maybe all she needs is closure."

"Does this mean you're ok with me spending a night with her?"

"There's a part of me that wants it, but only because I'd like to dispel Janine as a ghost in our relationship. Parang gusto ko na patulan yun, para na lang matapos na."

"You don't believe I'm over her?"

"What if you just think you are but you're not?"

"So you think this little experiment you girls agree on will do the trick?"

"Baby. I didn't agree to anything. It's still your call not mine."

"Honestly, Maine. I want to know what you think. Do you want me to spend the night with her? Just to prove something?"

"I don't want to force you to do anything you don't want to. And at the very least, I'd like you to talk to her, end it so that she can have closure. You've been dodging her all this time, that's not right. Talk to her."

"But she wants to spend the night with me."

"Baby, she didn't say she wanted to have sex with you. She said spend the night. It could mean just being together."

He remembered all those times he and Janine spent to together, and to be fair, it wasn't all making out . There were times when they just talked. Maine was also right when she said he had been dodging Janine all this time. The guilt of carrying on a relationship with her on the sly was embarrassing and something he didn't like to be reminded of.

"Okay. I'll talk to her. I will not spend the night with her, Maine. Talking things over would be enough."

"She gave me her card. Here's her number while here in Manila."

-----

The following day, Alden called up Janine. He wanted to get this over with immediately, to finish whatever he needed to finish with her.

"Hello Janine."

"Alden?"

"Yes. Maine and I talked, I'm willing to meet you on two conditions."

"Go on."

"One, I am definitiely not spending a whole night with you. Two, after this talk, you will leave us alone. I mean it, Janine. I'm not that gullible young boy blindly following you around anymore."