Chapter 42

Mariella’s POV

 

She rejected me.

            But she still kissed me—on my forehead and cheeks before she turned her back at me. Sitting a few meters from where I was standing was the man who offered Minerva a ride on that very day.

            Lushan Angeles is drinking. Twelve bottles of beer were on his table, along with a plate of sizzling pork and grilled strips of beef.

            My mind keeps on whispering to me that I’ll join him. But I can’t see myself drinking with him, striking a conversation with him. Being with him.

            He lifted his head and there’s no reason for me to turn my back away. Especially when he gestured by tapping the seat of the chair, beckoning me for a seat beside him.

            And God knows I really did sit beside him. Our bodies are a few inches from touching each other with every move.

            “Have you eaten yet?” I shook my head.

            “Here,” Lushan handed me the plate of grilled beef and called the waiter for a small bowl of mashed potato and buttered vegetables.

            I almost blushed, especially the look of the waiter at me. I almost bellowed that I am not this man’s girlfriend and we know each other because of a common friend.

            “Do you drink?”

            Why does he keep asking me questions? I thought.

            “A little,” I replied.

            “A little,” he repeated my words and chuckled. “You’re a bit honest.”

            “A bit?” He nodded, “ Saying  ‘a little’ is almost synonymous to saying no.” Lushan spoke as he poured beer at a very small glass, a shot glass as to what men called it.

            “Anyway, it’s been respectful of you to still join me here. Despite your relationship with Minerva…”

            Why is he making me regret that I sat beside him tonight?

            The mashed potato and veggies arrived and that waiter looked at me again, as if to say ‘enjoy the night with your boyfriend, Miss’.”

            I brought the tiny glass of beer Lushan poured for me in my mouth and I almost couldn’t open my eyes. It’s strong, and it’s the first time I tasted liquor again since the days when I drank my heart out due to Minerva’s rejection.

            “Minerva—how is she?” Shit, I almost forgot that this man and I cared and loved the same woman.

            I think I’m going to let Alexa play “What a small world after all”…

            “I don’t know. The last time I heard she’s in Isla de Rubia.”

            I brought another glass of beer, this time the little taller glass. I can’t feel anything but awkward around Lushan. He’s talking about Minerva as if she’s the star of our lives.

            Well, she indeed is the sun of our midnight wet dreams. There’s no denying that.

            “Is it good for her to travel to distant places in her condition?”

            I just sighed at his question. Honestly, I don’t know the answer. I don’t know what to answer.

            “Maybe.” I turned my head to him and I found him looking straight—at me.

            “Lushan?”

            He shook his head. “I’m sorry for that.”

            “It’s okay.” I looked down and realized I am dressed like a woman—like a girly woman. A bloody red spaghetti blouse and a thigh-length short. My hair is untied and it freely swayed by the cold night’s breeze.

            Fuck, I do look like a woman by this attire. Am I getting laid today?

            No. I will not let that happen. I am not that kind of woman. I am a different woman with a different taste. A woman who prefers a person with the same sexuality naked atop my bed. No more, no less.

            But change is constantly revolving in this world. And I wonder if I am one of the people affected by change’s constant influence…

            For the rest of the night, we talked about our lives and Minerva. Our likes and dislikes, and Minerva. Our taste and future plans, and of course about Minerva.

            “It seems you know Minerva much more than me, Mariella,” I just smiled sheepishly at his statement.

            “You know what they say in the movies when two people have been rejected by the same person, they should help themselves and cooperate.”

            “What do you mean?” I asked as I took a bite from the now-cold and no-longer sizzling pork.

            “We should be the one to console ourselves, Mariella. Tonight, while the moon above is the only witness of our consolation.”

            I chortle at his poetic words of trying to convince me to have a one-night stand with him. Do all men think like him? Does he see me as a material that can easily open up in just a matter of his persuasive words?

            “No, I am fond of wo—”

            “I know that Minerva rejected you. I’ve observed you for too long. Why don’t you drill a man?”

            My laugh echoed in the beerhouse. Though we were outside and only one or two people or cars passed in front of us, the remaining customers just glanced then immediately returned their attention to their own business.

            I came here to the beerhouse to have a little drink. Now, a man beside me is offering to have a spicy night with him. You know what they say, expect the unexpected.

            “You are totally drunk now, Lushan.”

            “And you are not?” I just shrugged my shoulders. 

“I have a high level of alcohol intolerance,” I said.

            This time, he’s the one who laughed. “Only men have a higher level of alcohol intolerance, unless you’re a sociopath or psychopath.”

            “I am telling the truth. And no, I am neither of those.”

            Lushan Angeles leaned closer to me. Closer, that in a small push of his head, his lips will land on mine. “You are still a woman deep down. I know you still feel something when a man comes naked towards you. Don’t deny it.”

            “I’m not denying it,” I muttered. “Because there is nothing to deny in the first place. I am a gay, and I prefer to do it with woman.”

            “Very well,” then Lushan took off his shirt. I immediately stood and was on the verge of sprinting when—

            “You’re running away from a topless man? That just proves that you are a soft, still-a-woman on the inside.”

            He’s teasing me. Lushan Angeles is teasing me. What is it with him? Is Minerva’s words of rejection drove him to be like this?

            “I am going home now, Lushan.”

            “Let me drop you at your house, Ma—"

            “No!”

            Then I walked away and called a cab on my way home.

            The drive was almost half an hour.  I then handed my payment to the cab driver and went out, clutching my wallet and phone.

I hoisted my head,  only to realize that the topless, alcohol-reeking, and grinning Lushan Angeles arrived first at the apartment I am renting.

            Hell knows how he knew where I lived. How fast did he drive towards here? Perhaps a hundred kilometer per hour?

            All I know is that his sweat is drenching him, bathing him with it but he still smells of manly fragrance. Illuminated by a ray of moonlight on his glinting topless body, he stands before my apartment’s door like a fallen angel begging to be fucked hard.

            He stepped aside as I began to turn the key to my apartment. I tried to shove him away as soon as the door was ajar.

            But I ended up being shoved in my own bed.

            Then, as quick  as a lighting, he kissed me—deeply and fiercely, as if he’d never kissed a woman like me before.

***

Lushan’s POV

 

We are both rejected by the same woman.

            My initial plan is to exact revenge on Minerva by taking her bestfriend in her own bed.

            Yet, I felt this. I felt different towards her. And I don’t fathom if it’s because of the beer or because I am a man and she’s a woman despite her queerness.

            I felt so hot, and she looks so damn sexy in my eyes. And heaven knows I’m getting laid tonight.

            With the night’s witness and the coolness of the wind from her open window, we are getting laid tonight. Naked, topless, wild.

            I don’t regret meeting her coincidentally tonight at the beerhouse.

            In fact, I don’t regret this at all.