But, Could You?

Mactan

Citra remembered every single word that came into her mail inbox that noon. She remembered had cried and laughed so hard at the same time upon reading that one piece of electronic mail, because she'd given up finding him. She'd spent her first two days at Okinawa only to find him (like her mom suggested) on the Internet, which brought her to his Facebook account but she couldn't find his mail or phone number. She'd asked his old buddy but that friend hadn't replied her message even until now. She even had emailed his company's human resource to ask his contact but didn't get them nonetheless. Then when the sun of her third day risen, she gave up, and following her mother suggest to move on and the cliché word of if you're meant to be you'll meet him again at the end of the road. Hence when she got that email she couldn't contain her glee.

She reminisced the moment she sent the copy of his mail to her mother through WhatsApp and got replied by tons of kissing emoticons. And she also remembered every single word she typed back as the reply.

Well, hello to you to. Thanks for your complementary email, I'm really touched. And yeah, Manila was good—no pun intended. I'm currently at Cebu, and will going home at 18th. So if you'd like to see me you might be coming here because I'm a faithful person—I've promised my mother to come home the day after Independence Day and I think I wouldn't break that promise... (mostly because I don't want to miss the perfect view of the ocean, partly because I don't want my money wasted in vain—I just got here, please and I've booked the room for 7 days forward). Just kidding. Where should we meet? Jakarta? Mal at Senayan? Coffee shop at Kemang? Or the airport?

She couldn't save her surprised when he replied twenty minutes later with:

Alright. We'll meet there. I've got a 12.55AM flight ticket and would arrive at Cebu at 10.15AM tomorrow. Do you think you could pick me up at the airport?

She snorted upon reading his reply, the perks of being an airline crew.

So here she was; reading flight schedule at the arrival terminal while tapping her fingers on top of her phone's screen. The status of the latest flight from Manila had just changed into arrived and she decided to come to the arrival gate.

"Cit," Keenan called.

The messy bun-haired girl turned her head then automatically flashed a tiny smile, "Hi."

She was wearing a pair of round black glasses, covering her almond eyes. Her right palm held her smartphone, while her left clutched at the string of her sling bag. She dressed in a broken white T-shirt, an ankle-length light blue jeans and a pair of black sneaker. She didn't look near 28.

He gave her a small smile, "Thanks for picking me up."

"Yeah," she nodded. "Shall we take the cab?" she suggested, pointing at the airport taxis waiting for their passengers.

Keenan invited himself to the cab after Citra had seated. She told her hostel address to the cab driver afterwards, and the vehicle started to move. Keenan was reading the driver's name on his license on the dashboard when Citra aksed, "How long are you gonna stay?"

He looked at her. She'd taken off her glasses and placed it on the collar of her T-shirt. Her eyes looked a little red. "I don't know, two? Three days?"

"I've booked a room for you tonight at my hostel, but I don't know how long you're gonna stay so I just book it for a day. And now I have to tell the owner about your rental days so you don't have to sleep at the seashore for tomorrow, the next day, and the day after it," she explained, looking at Keenan and the rear-view mirror back and forth then halting in between. "Or... do you maybe want to book other hotel's room?"

He stared at her, "No, no. Just book there."

"Okay..." she typed quickly on her phone screen and then locked it after a minute or so.

"How are you?" Keenan mentally slapped himself at that lame question.

"Fine. Good, great. You good?"

He nodded slowly. "Where had you been at Cebu?"

"Some little islands. I just got back from Bantayan yesterday noon," she rested her back on the seat.

"How was it?" he copied her action, feeling unperturbed for the first time since the last 18 hours.

"Amazing, of course," she recalled, closing her eyes. "White sand, blue sky, rhythmic wave, quiet place..."

"Cit?"

"Hm?"

Keenan shifted to look at her, "Look, I have something to tell—"

"Aren't you hungry?" she cut him, opening her eyes. "We're in a freaking cab, and I don't think this is the right place to have a serious talk. And you just landed. So chill out. How about we eat first and then we'll have a serious talk later at the appropriate place?"

"Alright," he agreed.

♫