Drum Beats

Twenty-fourth Beat

"Hi there," Richard greeted and kissed Maine's temple as soon as he saw her outside Janine's villa. "You wanna eat lunch na?"

Maine nodded.

Hand in hand, they walked to a nearby seafood restaurant, which didn't have a lot of costumers.

After the waiter took their orders, Maine started talking.

"'Chard...I have to tell you something," Maine started.

"What is it?"

"I'll understand if you'll be mad at me."

"Maine, you're making me nervous," Richard confessed. "What is it?"

Maine took a deep breath and held Richard's hand.

Here we go.

"Janine is my ex-girlfriend."

What?

It took a few seconds for Richard to respond. "I'm sorry--what?"

"Janine is my ex-girlfriend," Maine repeated.

Richard stayed silent, so Maine continued.

"She...she was the original bassist of the band, then she left when we broke up," Maine confessed.

She waited for him to respond. She was getting scared when he didn't talk for a while. But thankfully, he finally talked.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked, not looking at her in the eyes.

"It was the past, and...not that important."

"Well it is to me," he finally looked at her. "My cousin, Maine? Really?"

"I didn't know you were her cousin," Maine snapped. "She rarely talked about her family. How the hell would I know that you're her cousin?"

Richard fell silent, again. "I'm sorry, Richard. I snapped. I--"

"Do you still love her, Maine?" He suddenly asked.

This time, it was Maine. She didn't respond so he asked her again. "Do you still love her?"

"I..."

Do I?

Richard started nodding. "Okay," he grabbed her phone from the table and stood up. "Go talk to her. You know where her villa is." He said and walked away.

"Richard, I--" Maine tried to keep him from walking out but she was too late.

***

Maine went back to their villa, hoping to find Richard there. But he wasn't.

She sat on the couch and waited for him to come.

When she heard a knock, she quickly opened the door. "Richard, I'm--"

It was Janine.

"Sorry for not being Richard," Janine joked.

Maine looked at her coldly. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk to you sana, Maine," Janine said, getting quite serious.

"I don't have time to talk to you, Jan--"

"Pumpkin," Janine cut her off.

"Don't call me that," Maine turned her back to Janine and walked back to the couch. "Don't you ever call me that again, understand? You lost that privilege when you left."

"But I'm here now," Janine reasoned.

"Whatever," Maine said.

"You know there's a reason to everything that I do, right?" Janine let herself in and sat on the same couch where Maine was sitting, both just a few feet away from each other. "There was also a reason why I left. That's why I'm here."

You've been waiting for this, right? This is what you've wanted all along. Just say you'd listen, self, and you'll know all the asnwers to your questions.