Five

IT was mid-afternoon and Carla was lying on the comfortable couch in one of the balconies of the house, the one on the ground floor’s sitting room, watching the beach and the swimmers  below. 

She had wanted to take a dip but felt guilty of doing so while her guests rested. She took a short nap but had to come down as she felt very restless.

This was her favorite part in the house, where she always found herself when she needed to relax. 

She used to sit here with her father and had the most profound conversations with him as they watched the calming effects of the Mediterranean. 

Her father was an architect and had chosen a perfect place to build this house, so it was indeed his baby, and this was a dream project of his. 

It was his idea that the ground floor rooms should not be separated by walls and doors, but rather be built on different levels connected with steps.

A lot of steps, from the main hall to the living room dominated by comfortable couches. There was a fire place on the left wall, the huge plasma TV right beside it. 

The right wall was made of glass that showed the back side of the house and the vast view of sea. There was a door there that slid to the side and led out to the balcony much like this one where she was at. 

On the same level with the living room but at the left side of the building was the library that accommodated floor-to-ceiling shelves full of books. 

Books literally covered the walls, the big wooden desk with Carla’s computer, and the twin elegant black leather sofas with the small coffee table between them. They were a family of prolific readers. 

At the immediate upper level from the living room was the kitchen, with wooden cupboards and fitted appliances on patina. 

Left from the kitchen, separated with a huge fish tank, was the dining room, with a long dining table in the center that could easily sit a dozen people even when there were only three of them in the family. They always had guests when her parents were still alive. 

The dining room carried many happy memories of Carla and Thera’s childhood. Painful sometimes, to remember that her parents had been great hosts to many friends. 

The couple who adopted her were very opposite her shy personality and had managed to impart in her some of their vivaciousness and their love of friendship. This was what she missed so much of them. 

After they died and some relatives tried to take the house from her in a legal fight, Carla fought tooth and nail for her home. 

Never mind she lost her share of her father’s architecture firm to his brothers and some of her mother’s beloved cars to her cousins. 

Her father had this dream house built with her and her mother in his mind living here as his family. And she would honor this until the day she died. 

She took a sip of coffee and returned her eyes to the soothing sight. 

Thera now rested with Jake in their rooms—separate rooms. And that was interesting. 

She could remember the look of disappointment on Thera’s face that she managed to hide very quickly when Jake talked as if he expected he would have a separate room, therefore Carla hastily amended and gave him one of the guest rooms that was meant for a male guest, anyway.

Thera used the same guest room she used to sleep in when they had a party organized here or a study night before a big exam with their other friends when she still lived here. She wouldn’t go home even if she lived just next door.

Their house wasn’t there anymore. 

The next owner had it all taken down and replaced with a different house. Thera didn’t even glance at it as they passed by, then was surprised when she saw they arrived at her gates. 

There was a lot that changed in the road leading to here so she could understand her confusion.    

She was alone now, the caretakers retired to their apartment below, and Carla needed the silence. She needed the chance to think. 

Which she wouldn’t have because a couple of minutes later, Thera bounded down the stairs and went to the kitchen, and then settled with her on the couch, holding a cup of coffee.

“It is so good to be here again!” she smiled, looking a bit unsettled. 

“I’m glad you’re here, girlfriend,” she said, smiling. Then she couldn’t help it. 

It seemed like her friend couldn’t take the nap she said she would have and instead came down here to be with her. But why not with him?

She remembered her look of disappointment about the separate rooms. It was just… if they were going to keep it a secret still, they could always appear as if they’re not together but could have a tryst with no one the wiser.

That look on her friend’s face told Clara something else. It was that Thera wasn’t expecting a tryst.

“Where’s Jake?”

“Probably napping. I didn’t knock. I want us to have a chance to chat, just the two of us. But…” Thera took a deep breath. “You know we haven’t been intimate yet so it would be a little uncomfortable to suddenly share the same bed… but I had hoped…”

She was surprised at this bit of news. 

Tom Sawyer, in a relationship for a month, not intimate with his girlfriend? 

What the hell is going on? 

“You’ve been travelling together for two weeks… I’m sorry, I know it’s none of my business.” She knew they went to Seoul first then to Taiwan for a business conference before they flew to the Mediterranean. That’s a whole lot of time away from the office and co-workers and to get intimate.  

“Well… we’ve… a few times we’ve… nothing very intense.” Thera’s face was very flushed, so flushed she wanted to get a fan for her friend.

Except Carla was flabbergasted.

Was it possible that her friend had let them believe the relationship was quite serious when it was still in the budding stage?

Thera blushed a lot when she’s lying.

Oh, she did well with other people—her father, teachers at school, others that were not her close friends, especially Carla. 

Was this why she was saying it was in secret? Carla had felt there was something off about it. Now that she knew it was Tom Sawyer, she couldn’t quite believe it. 

Because Tom—Jake, dammit—was never shy about expressing himself in public. He would kiss her, flirt with her and had his hands always around her… caressing her back or an arm, playing with her hair, cupping the back of her neck… when they were on the beach or in a restaurant, or taking a walk.

They once had sex in the water, during a night swim…

The Jake Winters she knew couldn’t stop himself from touching her wherever they go. 

 “I don’t really want to rush things and he respects me a lot,” Thera was saying. “He’s had the racy life and now, I think he is taking things slow.”

“Jake said that? That he’s had a racy life?”

“Uh. I’ve known him a long time and there was a time when he’s always out with women and all that. Then he just suddenly stopped and focused on business.”

“Since when…?”

“Maybe four, five years ago? I’ve worked with him more than three years now and some of his partners talk sometimes about him and his past. It was quite abrupt, they said. But anyway, he’s always been polite to me, and this is what I’ve gathered from what he says to me. That he doesn’t want to rush things and that he would rather get to know me more and all that.”

“The one who sleeps upstairs? The tall guy with the intense blue eyes? You let him get away with this?” she asked, teasing Thera but still really in a daze. 

The Jake he remembered had enough passion in his cock for an army. She couldn’t believe someone like him could be a part of a relationship that was sexually impassive. 

And what was wrong with Thera? How could she have a man like Jake and not be all over him?

Her reaction amused Thera. 

“Yes, silly. That one. Why do you find it so weird? Jake’s never been a player. When he still dates, he never dated more than one at the same time. And after that, he’s just a perfect gentleman. In fact, for all the time I worked for him, he’s been married to his work. He built that company from the ground to where it is right now. He is so smart, and quite intense. And that’s the part of him that really turns me on… watching him with that focus on.” Thera’s face was alight with passion. “If he’s still got his mind on his work, I can wait. I can wait until he shares that intensity in a relationship with me. I knew it will all be worth it.”

She stared at her.

Oh no… her friend was a goner.

And Carla gulped.

This was the same passion she had displayed when she was in love with a senior classmate of Carla’s in high school.

Thera was in tenth grade.

And it was Leander.

And it had been a disaster.