“Damn! Why isn’t she picking up?” Chrissie irately said. She had been calling Reina for the past hour but she was not answering her phone. How she wanted to storm into Matthew’s house and drag her out!
She heard a click and in a rather agitated tone said, “Finally!”
“Yang, your mom’s looking for you. She came back from Phuket last Friday. You have to come home….” Chrissie announced even before Reina could say hello. “I know you’re busy and all…” she teasingly trailed off.
“Okay, okay,” came a sleepy reply. “I’ll be home tonight! So quit panicking!” Reina mumbled and ribbed back at her friend.
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“Sherwin, I really have to go…” Reina giggled as Sherwin continued to nuzzle her neck with his arms around her waist. They were outside by her car, unsuccessfully trying to bid their goodbyes. It was around seven in the evening, Sunday.
“Can’t you just stay over tonight?” he whispered nibbling Reina’s ear. She moaned.
“I want to but I can’t. It’s a house rule for my mom that I stay home whenever she’s in Bangkok or else I would get all of my credit cards cancelled and my allowance for a month would be suspended as well that of Chrissie’s” Reina reasoned.
“You can always stay with me and I’ll take care of all your wants and needs…” Sherwin said suggestively.
“What about Chrissie?” she cut in.
“Well, we could always have a threesome…” he joked.
“Sherwin!” she playfully slapped his arm. Reina turned in his arms, tiptoed, and gave him a kiss.
Sherwin pulled away and groaned, “We have to stop or you’ll never get home. I’m starting to need you again.”
Reina grinned and hugged him tightly. “I’d better get going,” she said as she went in her red BMW 645Ci coupe.
“I’ll call you when I get home” she promised as she drove off.
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“Damn my insides hurt!” Reina cursed as she pulled into their building’s car park. She trudged towards the lift that would take her up their penthouse. “Thank God for elevators!”
She eventually reached their flat and opened the door of their dimly lit condominium. Without bothering to look around, she headed to her room hurriedly, planning to freshen up and fix herself first before facing her mother.
“Are you just going to your room without saying good evening to your mother at the least?” Jeri Stahl’s heavily accented voice filled the darkened room. She was waiting for her daughter in the verandah, puffing a red Sobranie cigarette that matched the kimono she was wearing.
Her mother’s voice startled her and caused her to jump. “Good evening, mother,” Reina said slowly turning and warily went over to where her mother was to kiss her.
“So how was your first time?” Jeri candidly asked.
Reina was taken aback. “How…” she started to question.
“I’m your mother. I know things.” She puffed on her Sobriane.
Reina was mentally killing Chrissie when her mother spoke again.
“Chrissie did not tell on you, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Jeri broke off her daughter’s thoughts.
“My daughter leaves on a Friday night and comes home on a Sunday evening, the mixed smell of sex and perfume still lingering…” the mother intoned, her eyes settling intently on her daughter, daring Reina to deny her assumptions.
Reina’s eyes widened on her mother’s words! How could she forget about that? “Stupid Reina!” she thought.
“Walks over to me with a difficulty which I surmise due to the soreness you feel… Very similar to that of a girl who after years of not dancing went to do ballet…. I could just imagine the splits and extensions you were up to for the past two days…” the Scandinavian drawled, walking around her daughter assessing her the way a predator does to its prey.
Reina blushed.
“My… My… You actually have the grace to blush…” her mother said quite amused. “So tell me…” she kept on as she went inside to sit on the divan and patted the space beside her.
Reina trailed her mother and sat beside her. Shyly at first, she began to tell her about how she and Chrissie came up with the plan, how Chrissie felt about it, how anxious and nervous she was when Friday came, her surprise when it was Sherwin who opened the door, everything except the gory details, of course.
“So will you be seeing this Sherwin guy again?” mother asked daughter.
Reina hesitated. Mother saw her indecision and offered her a cigarette. Reina took one, lit and inhaled deeply, still trying to sort things out.
Jeri just shook her head and advised, “Reina, you’re a woman now. From what you’ve told me, that young man is smitten by you. I’m not surprised. You’re very attractive.” Jeri smoothed her daughter’s hair.
“However, Reina, he is not our kind. He is thinking of more than just sex while you just wanted to free yourself from your chastity belt.” At this, Reina turned to face her mother.
“Think really hard about this. If you don’t feel anything for him at all, don’t lead him on. It would spare both of you from more pain.” Her mother took her hand and squeezed it lightly.
“Reina, life is not all about having fun. You may have grown up thinking that pleasures are what life is all about because you saw your father carousing all the time,” her mother continued.
Jeri placed her hands on her daughter’s shoulders and said, “You started engaging in sex. You should be responsible. No matter how careful you are, if fate grants that you’ll get pregnant you will. I don’t want you bringing into this world another life if you’re not ready for it. Look what happened to my marriage.” The mother imparted with a faraway look in her eyes and a rueful smile on her lips.
“Raindrop,” Jeri started, calling Reina by her pet name. “You’re a woman now. I want you to explore all possibilities but also want you to proceed with CAUTION.”
Reina was dumbfounded. She never expected her mother to care. Although their conversation was not the usual mother-daughter heart-to-heart talk, it was enough for Reina to have seen another side of Jeri Stahl, her mother.
“Run along now, Chrissie has been waiting for you since yesterday. I’ll tell Ping to prepare you a lavender bath to relieve your soreness.” With that Jeri ended their bonding session and turned to ring the maid.
“Goodnight, mother!” Reina, still in a state of disbelief, bent and kiss her mother goodnight.
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“Reina, that was Sherwin’s third call. I’m running out of excuses here.” Chrissie admonished.
“Tell him I’m asleep!” Reina said sinking herself deeper in the tub.
“Already used that. I figured after the second call that you’ve avoided that you don’t want to talk to him. What’s going on, Yang?” Chrissie curiously asked. “It can’t be because he’s not good in bed. You’ve been with him for two days! Besides, I heard enough oohs and aahs on the phone yesterday to conclude Glasses Boy here has hidden talents!”
Reina splashed Chrissie with water from her tub.
“Well it’s true!” Chrissie argued as she approached her friend, throwing one leg in the tub, straddling its ledge. “I never thought you would scream: Omigod! Omigod! Harder, baby! Aaah!!” Chrissie mimicked as she mockingly grinded the tub’s frame.
“You actually listened?!” Reina laughed. “You and your sick mind!” she yelled, pulling Chrissie in the water with her.
“What was that for?!” Chrissie sputtered screaming. “Now I have to change clothes again and to think this will be my fourth bath today!”
“It’s all your fault anyway,” Reina retorted.
“Seriously, Yang, he is THAT good.” Chrissie seriously said. “Now the question is: why are you avoiding him?” she looked intently at her friend as if searching for an answer from her.
“Because I am not good enough for him.” Reina answered silently. With a smile that did not reach her eyes she replied out loud and quite haughtily, “Because I’m a bitch?”