I should be meeting up with the other council officers. But instead I chose to be with her. 2pm. That was our plan. With Shan, walking seems endless. My feet would get callouses and my mouth would be desert. But that doesn’t seem to matter, because all of me gets numb. Except my heart. Apparently, it is beating more than a drum, it’s like a band of fresh musicians finding their own tune, one would beat the percussions, the other strums the strings wildly, and the whole noise ends with a Ting! of a triangle. I swear, if only I could stop walking for 10 seconds and hear the whole thing playing, I could actually make decent lyrics out of it and it would be like, “Hey baby, loving you is so damn easy, but it’ll be easier with your arms around me.”
Then I shook the thoughts away 5 meters from where my officers are flocking. They were like vultures that have seen a walking dead meat. The president scowled at me, for being late, but I hurriedly glanced at Shan’s and my hands, checking if they’re still locked together. Thank God they’re not. When my sight rose up to meet Shan’s eyes, she was already gave me that teasing smile.
“30 minutes, I promise,” I whispered to her.
“Okay…” she whispered back. Then she held my hand again, just when we’re inches closer to my co-officers. “Be quick, baby!” She shouted as she released my hand and then disappeared inside the coffee shop.
Okay. So this is the part where I should squeal right? Cause it feels like a thousand army of pterodactyls, not butterflies, flapped their razor-edged wings inside my tummy. But I chose not to. Because the other officers are now studying me. And I’m like, what the fuck happened. Jo, my close friend, and close enough that she knows what’s happening between Shan and I was already smiling like some shit. Cause she was feeling that thousand army pterodactyls for me. *laughs*
Well most of the time I wasn’t listening to the meeting cause Jo is busy spoonfeeding me with cake, trying to make Shan jealous. But I don’t think it’s even close to getting her attention. Shan is a numb machine. She could always numb her feelings away. But I know when she’s deeply hurt, she is like that toddler trying to tie her shoelaces but comes running to you in tears cause she failed too many times. Yes, Shan is like that. Strong but fragile at the same time. That’s why she strengthens me, but at the same time breaks me bit by bit when she’s broken.
Miraculously, I pulled off an amazing alibi to get away from the meeting. The vice president is too overpowering, it’s like he decides most of the time. And I respect that. He seems more experienced and straight-to-the-point guy. So when I looked up in the sky and saw that it was taking a shade of gray, and after I texted Shan the tenth time that I’ll be there inside (cause she told me that she’s gonna help the barista in getting the drinks done when I come inside any longer), I was forced to approach Mr. Vice-President-but-Acting-President and tell him that I need to go home.
Well, that’s a white lie right. Shan is now my third home. Second is Moonleaf, my fave teashop.
“What do you want, baby?” She calls out from the cashier.
I paused for a while. Thinking if I should call her baby too.
“Uhmm..lemme see..” I stood next to her.
“I..Americano seems nice...” She holds her neck with one hand, stretching it while looking at the menu. Man, she is completely unaware that what she does is sexy. The little voice said.
“Well? What do you want?” Her question dismissed the thought. I want to tell her that I want what she’s having. It’s easier that way. It’s like letting the other person steal your problem away. Yeah, I’d like her to stress over coffee while I’m busy studying her face. I used to love her smell and laugh, but right now I am slowly loving the way she stares at a space. I wish she would look at me too. Then she’d see how she means to me.
While she was pouts at the cashier, I was pre-occupied with other things. Like how the coffeeshop feels so home-y. How the roasted aroma of all types of coffee fills the room. How a lady sits at a table-for-two when she’s just alone. How some people are busy taking selfies with their frappes as if they’ve been here once in their entire life.
“So? What do you want?” She asks once again. To my surprise, I scanned my eyes as fast as I could through the glassed cabinet filled with pastries. There I saw a mocha-flavored mini-cake, as the brown color suggests.
“Better than sex,” I whispered to myself. What a funny name for a cake.
“What?” she follows my point of view.
“Better than sex!” She laughs at the sight. We both laughed.
“I wonder what does better than sex taste like.” We both laughed again.
I think the people in the coffee shop are too serious that our laughter disturbed them. Once we hushed ourselves down, we decided to order cold chocolate and milk instead. We had to debate which side of the shop we’d sit down. Inside or outside. On the couch or on the chair. On the side or at the center. Yeah, typical OC persons do that.
But what I love about us is that we never had to argue much. We’d click like two musicians with the same genre. Or like two athletes with the same sport. Or just two hot babes with the same type. If you know what I mean. *laughs*
What happened the entire night? Well, we talked and talked and talked again. And my mouth feels like desert again. And we walked and walked and walked till my callouses turned into a separate layer of skin.
What can I say. With Shan, all of me is numb. Except my heart. I went to bed, still holding in the pterodactyls. Maybe tomorrow they’d evolve into a higher form of dinosaurs. Who could say?
Better than sex totally made my day. But as I close my eyes, I realized that there’s actually something better than sex. And it’s Shan.
