Bougainvillea

Bougainvilleas

He was seated on a wood-and-aluminum chair outside the coffee shop. The dark clouds started to gather above the city and then everything went gray. The wind had been whipping the treetops and the ornamental plants before it shrouded the city streets with clouds of dust.

Then it began to drizzle.

He sipped his iced tea, massaged his brow, and took a deep breath.

"Everything will be fine in no time. You'll see." The words kept on spinning in his mind though he heard it nine days ago. He sipped his tea again and sighed. It was just like yesterday when they both sat together at the same shop, same chair. He could still smell the perfume wafting in the air--the smell of water--clean and almost interminable. He thought it was like the scent of water. It was not.

The wind bashfully showcased again its might. A mist of rain kissed his face yet he did not move but only batted his eyelashes. A shower of purple bougainvillea blossoms dotted his table but luckily, none floated on his tea.

"Everything will be fine. You'll see. I am not perfect, I am not everything. Someone out there, someone who is a lot better, someone whom you can be proud of. You see, I'm not the one for you. I will always be proud that sometime in my damned life, I have got to be with you, I have known you, I have been loved by you." He did not look up. A drop of liquid fell on the table from his eyes.

"I...I don't need that someone. I already have found that someone but I am on the verge of losing that someone. Don't let me lose that someone. I know that somewhere, sometime, I messed up but entirely regretted doing that. I did not mean it, I was drunk or maybe drugged. You see, I just found myself between those sheets but I abhorrently regretted it. Please..." He wanted to go deeply into his soul through his eyes but it was of no use. He would play with the rim of his cold glass with his fingers and look somewhere else because he didn't want to let him see that he also was hurting and he was almost teary-eyed. One of them must decide.

"You will be fine. I knew it because you've been always strong and optimistic." He had the last gulp of the tea and stood. "Thank you for everything, simply...for...everything." He took something from his pocket and dropped on the table--a couple of scarlet bills and something that tinkled on the marble table. The last ray of the sun shone on it and obliterated his view of it then the rain fell. He wanted to look up but he has just closed the door of his car that separated him from the teary person slouching on the coffee shop stool and from the dismal world outside his sedan.

Nine days. The rain has stopped and so was his melancholy. Then, the sun shone creating a rainbow above the bougainvillea bushes across the street. He stood up, paid for his tea, and ran across the street to his car.

He is waiting for him in a place where the rainbow meets the earth.