The door opened with a loud bang as she barged into her house with fast strides. Upon reaching the living room, she stood in the middle and glared at the sofa, drawing deep and calming breaths. After what seemed like a minute, she threw her purse on the sofa and screamed like a woman driven to madness by circumstances.
She dashed into the bar and fixed herself a drink. She needed something to calm her down. She needed to think. With the glass in her hand, she went back to the living room and plopped herself carelessly on the plush furniture, creating an unladylike thud.
Smile Liu was mad as hell. With her brows drawn into a fierce frown and her eyes full of disbelief, topping it off with pursed lips, her face was a mixture of confusion and anger. Sipping her drink, her thoughts drifted back to what had transpired earlier.
Smile went over to Sherwin’s house but was disappointed to see he was not home. It’s been a while since they spent time together and she thought she’d surprise him by dropping by. She was walking back to her car when she saw another car approach, smiling broadly when she realized it was Sherwin’s. Leaning back on her car door, she waved hello at him.
The car came to a full stop beside her and Sherwin got out. He smiled at her and she immediately wrapped her arms around him, and kissed him hungrily. He kissed her back.
Off they went into his place and into his room, arms still around each other.
Inside the room, she pushed him to sit down at the edge of the bed. She turned to switch on the lamp and smiled, walked over to the CD player and soon, a sexy instrumental music filled the room.
Smiling slyly at him, she whirled around and sashayed towards him, stopped a few feet in front of him. He smiled back. This made her beam with pride. Swaying gently to the music, she slowly and carefully and teasingly removed her clothing one by one until only her hands covered her most intimate parts.
She saw Sherwin take a deep breath looking at her body. She smiled inwardly. She knelt before him and rubbed her body along his legs up to his chest, her lips slightly parted, waiting for him to capture them in a kiss.
He bent down to kiss her and pulled her up and brought her up on the bed, with her covering him. He kissed her, his hands roaming all over her body, and soon, he felt himself respond to her. He rolled over, bringing her with him, his lips never leaving hers, him on top of her.
Smile felt his need arise and was eager to pleasure him. She tried to help him take off his shirt when he resisted her help and moved off her.
Sherwin sat on the corner of the bed and lit a cigarette. His face was unreadable. He shook his head, raked his fingers through his hair and breathed deeply.
This caused Smile to wonder but thought nothing of it. She moved to kneel behind Sherwin and hugged him, pressing her warm body against his. She shivered at how cold his body felt.
“What’s the matter, Sherwin?” she asked playfully. “You’re cold. I can warm you up, you know,” she whispered, and nibbled on his ear.
Sherwin was not listening. Instead, he removed Smile’s arms from his body and fixed himself, his mind, on other things.
Smile watched him in silence. He seemed distraught, lost, and confused. She was getting worried. She opened her mouth to speak but he beat her to it.
“Get dressed and please lock the door when you go out,” he ordered and quickly left the room, leaving an astounded Smile in the middle of his bed.
She regained her wits a few seconds later and hurried to the main door. Sherwin’s car was heard speeding off away from the house.
“Shit!” she exclaimed and snatched her clothes and carelessly put them on. She found her keys and slipped into the car. She turned on the ignition. It won’t start.
“Start, damn it!” she screamed.
When engine roared to life, she backed away from the house. She looked around, trying to find even a glimpse of Sherwin’s car, wishing she knew where he was headed, hoping she’d catch up with him. But it was too late. There was no Sherwin in sight, not even a shadow of his car.
She went home, tired and groggy and still outraged.
Sitting on the sofa and sipping her drink, she saw a faint golden light coming in from the window. It was morning already. And the sun has started to wake up, ready to burst forth with an immeasurable sunshine to energize the whole sleeping part of the world.
She looked at the clock. 6:13. She put her glass down and stood up and searched for the phone. After punching the numbers, she heard the ringing of the other line.
“Hello?” an irritated man’s voice answered the phone.
“It’s me, Smile,” she said sternly.
The man on the other line woke up immediately. “What do you want?”
“I need you to come over. Something needs to be taken care of,” with that, she slammed down the phone.
========================================================
The sun was high up when Sherwin decided to go back to the house he and Reina shared, to the house he strangely considered as his home.
It was a bright sunny day, clear, and not a cloud was there to mar the blanket of turquoise blue sky. The flowers and trees gracefully danced to the tune of the summer wind as it passed over them. The atmosphere spelled peace and tranquility, a sharp contrast to Sherwin’s struggle inside his mind.
Sherwin had a horribly intense headache from lack of sleep and too much liquor. He leaned forward to rest his head on the steering wheel for a couple of minutes before getting out of the car.
He surveyed the house.
A smile crept up on his lips.
He began to picture himself coming home from work and seeing Reina preparing dinner… their children playing in the living room…
“Ah, home!” Sherwin sighed, a silly smile played on his lips, and then he realized, “Reina?!”
He blocked the images and forced them out of his brain.
“Yeah, right. As if Reina could cook,” Sherwin smirked.
He took a step forward and when he was a foot away from the door, he stopped.
He stared at the doorknob. His forehead creased as a frown tugged the corners of lips, down. He made a motion of reaching for it but pulled his hand back and turned around and hastily went back to his car. He opened the door and without bothering to close it, he sat down and leaned on the seat.
He sighed. He tried to focus on his intentions. He is beginning to lose sight of what he is supposed to do.
They say revenge is sweet, sweeter than the sweetest honey, and yet, as his thoughts drifted back to last night’s events, it was not as he expected. It was never sweet; there was not even an ounce of sweetness in it. In fact, it tasted… Sour, leaving a bitter aftertaste, like a cough syrup.
Soon, he found himself transported back to last night, in the living room….
Reina faced him and kissed him hard on the lips.
He smiled and groaned in anticipation. He waited too long for this night.
“After all the planning, I’d finally get to bring you down,” the vengeful part of him said.
Her lips were full and she tasted so sweet. He felt like drinking the sweetest wine, drugging his senses.
“And after you bring her down, what happens next?” his conscience taunted.
Sherwin shook the voices in his head as he and Reina were caught in frenzy, their hands roaming all over each other’s body.
Reina moaned when Sherwin’s hand tugged on the waistband of her top and slipped inside her, caressing her stomach.
“Do you really hate her so much so as to really reduce her into nothing more but your whore?” his conscience pressed.
Sherwin hesitated but all his qualms disappeared into thin air as Reina sat down on the sofa and removed her top, leaving her in her lacy bra.
He smiled a quiet smile. She looked so lovely in her state last night. However, his frown came back as he remembered what he did to her and how she looked after it.
Reina pulled Sherwin’s head and searched his lips and kissed him passionately.
Sherwin broke free from the kiss and looked her in the eye, “God! She’s so beautiful!”
Reina squirmed and threw her head from side to side in sheer torment and pleasure.
He smiled and forced her to look at him.
“She’s perfect! So passionate,” he thought.
He saw her eyes glazed with passion.
She moaned and groaned as he continued to enter her again and again with his fingers.
“Oh my God!” Reina screamed when the coil inside her was about to unfold and scatter into a million pieces.
“I’d make love to you all night,” he silently promised.
“Make love?” a mocking voice screamed in his brain and all of a sudden, Sherwin stopped.
“Did I just say make love?” he questioned himself, an unreadable expression on his face.
He hastily stood up and fixed himself, saying incoherently, “I’m sorry, I forgot I need to meet someone. I have to go.”
He scampered to his car, leaving a bewildered Reina.
He banged his head on the steering wheel several times, all the while cursing himself. How could he have done that? He was so close to having fulfilled a part of his revenge and yet, he stopped.
“Why did I stop?” Sherwin asked himself, ignoring the small voice coming from deep inside of his heart.
He knew why yet he refused to recognize it for it would mean that all his hard work, all his careful planning, all the time spent waiting for this day to come would be rendered useless should he make the mistake of giving in to that still small voice.
He must have some thinking space. He needed to regain his composure and needed to clear his head from all the confusion.
He got out of the car and just stood there staring at the house, like a guard dog watching his master’s sheep faithfully.
Sherwin began pacing, walking back and forth, thinking of a good explanation to Reina. If only he had not found Smile waiting at his house, it wouldn’t be so difficult. He wouldn’t be so guilt-ridden this morning.
“Shit! Damn that woman!” he cursed under his breath, referring to Smile, and kicked the wheel of his car.
His Smile episode came flooding in, along with some remorse…
Smile whirled around and sashayed toward him, stopped a few feet in front of him.
“Naughty girl,” Sherwin thought as he smiled back.
Swaying gently to the music, Smile slowly removed her clothing one by one until only her hands covered her most intimate parts.
“She’ll make me forget about Reina,” Sherwin silently concluded.
He bent down to kiss her and pulled her up and brought her up on the bed, with her covering him.
“Reina!” his mind screamed.
Sherwin blocked the voice and kissed Smile deeper, his hands roaming all over his body, and soon, he felt himself respond to her.
Smile felt his need arise and was eager to pleasure him. She began to help him take off his shirt.
Sherwin began seeing a pair of innocently seductive eyes and pouting lips… He began seeing Reina. He knew then that could not get sleep with Smile, not even just to assuage his lust.
He quickly moved off her, leaving Smile stunned at his sudden change of mood.
Sherwin sat on the corner of the bed and lit a cigarette. He was falling for the infamous woman as easily as he did back then.
“Some things never change,” he thought bitterly.
He shook his head, raked his fingers through his hair and breathed deeply.
“What’s the matter, Sherwin?” Smile’s voice cut through his musings. “You’re cold. I can warm you up, you know,” she whispered, and nibbled on his ear.
“Can’t this woman take a hint?” he thought, irritated.
Sherwin removed Smile’s arms from his body and fixed himself.
“Get dressed and please lock the door when you go out,” he ordered and quickly left the room.
“To hell with that woman!” Sherwin muttered as he was zapped back into the present, closing his car door forcefully.
He walked up the pathway up to the porch, murmuring, “Damn! I hope Reina’s still asleep.”
A look of concern and confusion were in his eyes and his face. He turned the knob and opened the door.
========================================================
Reina was seated on the living room couch. The TV was turned on but she was not really watching the show. She could hardly understand what she was watching, considering it was neither English nor Chinese. It was some foreign channel.
She turned the boob-tube on just to create some noise to distract her from thinking too much about last night and Sherwin.
She was having her second pint of vanilla ice cream on her lap. She finished her first one barely 30 minutes ago. Vanilla ice cream… her comfort food.
Reina was still furious at Sherwin’s sudden departure last night. It wasn’t that easy to forget. After all, she was almost nearing her peak, ready to release everything and give in to pleasure, however wrong it may be…
Memories of Sherwin’s behavior played in her mind like a pirated vcd…
“Oh my God!” Reina screamed when the coil inside her was about to unfold and scatter into a million pieces.
All of a sudden, Sherwin stopped, an unreadable expression on his face.
He hastily stood up and fixed himself, saying incoherently, “I’m sorry, I forgot I need to meet someone. I have to go.”
“Damn him!” Reina screamed, bringing her back to the present.
Her frown intensified and she kept on stuffing spoonfuls of ice cream into her mouth, never minding the brain freezes they caused, welcoming them as they numb her thoughts and hopeful that they will numb her senses too.
Reina stopped when she heard a car halt. It was so soft, so faint, yet she heard it, recognized it immediately that it was Sherwin.
She walked over to the window to confirm her suspicion, and indeed it was Sherwin. She saw him leaning over the steering wheel and she wondered.
“Probably guilty over his ungraceful exit,” Reina muttered.
Sherwin opened his car door.
Reina quickly returned to the sofa, positioning herself in a way that it was not too obvious she heard the car and was expecting him to come inside very soon.
Five…ten…fifteen minutes passed and still, no sign of Sherwin coming through the door. This made her even angrier.
Then it hit her! She was not angry, she was mad!
“Could it be?” Reina thought. “Could it be that he did something wrong that’s why he’s hesitant to come in?”
She took quick shallow breaths. She did not want him to see her in this state. She had to calm down…FAST!
She turned her attention back to the television, which was emitting some alien language and began to devour her ice cream with much gusto.
To her delight, she felt better and found herself laughing over some silly show, all thoughts of Sherwin was temporarily forgotten.
That was when Sherwin entered the scene.
========================================================
Sherwin heard the TV.
“She’s awake!” he realized.
All of a sudden, he was anxious all over again. An unexplainable emotion tried to take over his whole body. He began debating on whether to use the main door or the back door.
“Why should I pass through the back door, anyway?” he mused. “That would be too defensive. And I did not even do anything wrong.”
Sherwin turned the knob ever so quietly, silently praying that Reina was too busy watching the show that she won’t notice his arrival.
He opened the door slightly and peeked inside.
“So far, so good,” he thought, seeing that Reina did not turn.
Sherwin opened it wider, to allow his frame to get inside as unobtrusively as he could. He was looking down and concentrating on closing the door slowly, gently, and softly.
Sherwin breathed a sigh of relief and looked up, his eyes came in contact with pair of female eyes, full of anger and hatred.
He broke in a cold sweat.
========================================================
Reina’s concentration was disrupted when she heard a slight noise coming from the main door and guessed it was Sherwin, coming in.
She continued to watch but her attention was on him. She tried to see him from the corner of her eye, to know what he was doing.
His back was turned at her, his eyes on the door.
She stared at him, waiting for him to shut the door and look up.
Surprise was evident in his eyes when he saw her glaring at him. Had the situation been different, she would have laughed. But her rage resurfaced and she was much too infuriated to laugh at the whole thing.
She stood up and grabbed whatever her hand laid on and threw it at him.
Reina then turned and stomped her way to her room and slammed the door and locked it.
========================================================
Sherwin tried to speak, to say something, but the remote control flew his way. Luckily, he was able to dodge it and shouted, “What the hell was that for?!”
His question was answered by a steely gaze and up she went. He followed her with his gaze, his lips opening and closing, looking like a fish out of the water gulping for air.
Then her bedroom door shut with a bang.
He was confounded! He could not fathom what was in her mind!
“Ah, fuck! What the hell was that this time?” he asked, his head shaking in confusion and headed to his room.