LEAP | Javi Gomez de Liaño

February 29, 2020

Melissa's POV

An extra day for the year means I get to have another day of work. After a day of manning our Habitat for Humanity booth at Uptown Mall in BGC, I decide to head to Bank Bar for have a drink before going home.

I've been here a number of times before and I still get giddy every time I enter the place. Thing is Bank Bar is inside the RCBC building in the BGC. You have to enter the building first and take a right towards 7-eleven. Yup, you read that right. You go inside 7-eleven first and tell the guard "Bank Bar".

They will then open this door that seems like a storage room of some sort but as you walk deeper you will be transferred to a different dimension. On the right is a wall projected with different pictures, maybe whatever the mood of the person in charge is for the day and ahead is a full bar with all the alcoholic drinks you could possibly imagine; all stacked on a mirrored shelf.

It's just 7pm but there are already some people inside, some booths are occupied already and some seats on the bar are taken. I spot a free seat by the bar since I'm alone at the moment.

The bartender hands me the menu and makes some recommendations for me to try. I go with the drink called "Pink Slip" which mostly tequila, raspberry, and grapefruit and some other things that I will surely not taste anyway.

As he prepares my drink, the get distracted by the change of the picture on the projector as I watch it on the mirror in front of me. I can't really see the whole wall since there are bottles of all varieties of colors and sizes blocking my view.

When my drink arrives, I take a small slip and let the overpowering taste of raspberry fill my mouth. I think back to the day I just had and of all the people and pledges I was able to receive today.

One particular girl, Selena seems to be very much interested to be part of the work that we do. She mentioned she was a fresh graduate and wants to work for something different but a place where she can  use her talents in editing and photography. Good thing we are opening a new position of media manager in the following months and I tipped her off about it, telling her to submit her CV to my e-mail as soon as she can.

It is quite refreshing to know that there are still people who want to make a living out of helping. Not the easiest nor finest walk in the park but definitely one of the best feelings.

As I look down on my drink, it seems like my daydreaming made me drink more and I only have one-fourth of my drink left. I look at the mirror in front of me again and notice the photo on the wall change again. I try my best to decipher what it is but the bottles in front of it makes the task hard.

Having had enough, I choose to turn on my seat to see the photo on the wall clearly and properly. As I take a sip and put the glass down, a little bit more left, I twirl the bar stool the other way.

Instead of my eyes meeting the projected imagine on the wall, my eyes meet something else. Rather, someone else.

There in the second booth, among a group of six to seven people is a set of eyes becoming all too familiar as of late. I then remember an item in my cabinet that meeds returning but thing is, I have no means of giving it back.

We keep our stare at each other as he drinks from the glass in his hand. It really is a weird sight to see. Two people, possibly four to five meters away from each other, staring at each other with lots of people in between them.

Our exchange gets cut off when the person beside him elbows him and decides to shift his attention to the people he is with. I decide to use this to look back at the bar and finish whatever remains from my drink. I also ask for the bill and pay for what I have consumed for the night. I promised myself, only one drink since I have to drive home.