Be Mine

16

Lianna finally finished everything for the day. She realized it took longer than expected. She still wanted to accomplish a lot of things that day, so she still went to the grocery and tick that errand off her checklist. Thankfully, she was able to get cab right away. She got to the grocery and started getting the things she needs. She parked her cart on the side while checking out pasta sauces on the shelf. She was busy reading the labels when somebody called her.

"Lia?"

She looked at the direction of the voice and tried to show a smile, "Hi.", she just said.

"Dito ka pala nag-gogrocery."

Lianna nodded, "Medyo malapit kasi yung café dito."

"Ah, I see. I really enjoyed your food yesterday."

"I'm glad you did. Thank you. Anyway, I need to go ahead.", she said as she wanted to avoid more conversations.

"Okay. Sige. See you around. Ingat."

Lianna nodded, "Bye, Clara. Ingat din."

"Bye, Lia!"

Lianna tried to push her cart away immediately. She couldn't believe that of all places to see Clara, it would be in the same grocery where she buys her stuff. She took deep breaths to calm her beating heart down. She does not know how she was able to smile at her. She did the rest of the shopping as fast as she could, so she won't encounter her again. She paid for her items. She forgot that she didn't drive that day and regretted buying a lot, leaving her with five heavy paper bags. She went to the taxi stand, only to see that the line is extremely long. She tried booking a car hoping a driver accepts soon. She was just waiting until the rain started to pour. "Of all the days..", she mumbles to herself.

Carlos is already done with the grocery and is in line to pay for his parking ticket. He checked the time and it was already 5:40pm – rush hour. It took him a while to finish shopping the things he needed because of a client call. He was next in paying for his ticket when it started to rain really hard. He sighs. He is not a fan of the rain, mainly because it's going to be traffic, which is starting to build up already when he left the parking lot. He decided to make a turn, avoiding the main highway, and just go through the other side of the grocery. He was driving when the guard stopped him to make the pedestrians cross the street. While waiting for the go signal, he spotted someone from the entrance of the grocery and smiled, "Maybe the rain brings you luck after all, Caloy.", he tells himself.

Lianna is getting desperate already. It's almost six in the evening and the traffic that she is seeing is not encouraging her. She just wants to go home. She sighed for the nth time when her booking is cancelled for the fifth time already. She is already thinking about standing in line to get a cab when someone called her name.

"Lia!"

She took a peek to make sure she knows the person who put the car window down.

"Lia! Sakay ka na!", he asks her.

"Carlos?"

She saw Carlos pull up to the side and got down from the car to approach her.

"Sabay ka na sa akin. Mahirap umuwi ngayon.", he tells her.

"Hindi na. Nakakahiya. Baka out of the way pa ako.", she explains.

"Hindi. Okay lang. Pauwi lang naman ako.", he tells her. She wanted to refuse again when he said, "I insist. Ang haba ng pila o!", as Carlos points to the taxi stand, "Tara na!", and he got her paper bags and walked to the car.

"Carlos, wait!", she calls him.

Carlos didn't wait but just put everything in his trunk. He opened the passenger door for her. Lianna sighs and just hopped in as she was feeling desperate already. She doesn't want to embarrass him for waiting. Carlos closed the door for her and went to the driver's seat.