When Love Finds You

Chapter 12 - PART II

I'm sorry for making Leona's backstory miserable ✌🏻😭

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Katya and Regine had been watching their friend from the table for a while and they couldn't help how comfortable both women were with each other. The two watched for a few minutes as the new woman went behind the counter with Precious and tried out a few drinks.

They wanted to talk to the brunette, but they knew she'd get defensive and tell them to mind their own business if they both surrounded her.

"Ollie," Katya took it upon herself to talk to the brunette.

"Hey, Kat."

"Anong ginagawa mo?" She whispered as the brunette watched her Aunt give Leona the rundown of the place.

"Anong ibig mong sabihin?"

"Don't play coy with me, Olga. Please, God, tell me she isn't staying with you?" She said as Olga stayed silent. "Seryoso, Ollie? Naghahanap ka ng gulo. Ano bang pumasok sa kokote mo?"

"Hindi naman ako naghahanap ng gulo. Kaibigan ko si Leona and kailangan niya ng tulong, so I am letting her stay with me. What's the big deal?" She whispered back.

"Hindi mo siya naging kaibigan."

"Kaibigan ko na siya ngayon."

"By choice? You took a complete stranger home."

"I couldn't leave her on the sidewalk in the pouring rain," Olga bit back. "Besides, 'di ba napag-usapan natin na kakalimutan nating yung gabing 'yon? Remember?"

"Diyos ko, Olga, naghahanap ka talaga ng gulo. Paano kung mahanap siya ng asawa niya? If he's bad as she says what if he tracks her cellphone or something?"

"She didn't have one. I bought her a cellphone, he doesn't know the number."

"Ollie," Katya said, exasperated. "Naririnig mo ba ang sarili mo?" She said more quietly now as Leona and Precious was closer to the bar.

"No, right now I'm listening to an annoying friend."

Rolling her eyes. "Olga. Paano kung hinahanap siya ni Carlos? What if mahanap siya? Do you think he'll just pat you on the back say thanks for keeping my wife safe for a while?"

"She told him today she's filing for annulment."

"Susmaryosep, magtigil ka nga!" Katya ran her hands through her hair and took a deep breath. "Makinig ka, okay? Nag-aalala ako. Sa'yo at kay Leona. But you're stepping into the middle of a terrible marriage..."

"Katya, I'm not. Leona needed a friend and I stepped up. She left her marriage before she came in to the ER. I'm not stepping in the middle of anything. All I'm doing is being a friend that gives her a safe place to sleep at night. I'm trying to get her on her feet so she can live again. Kailangan niya tayo, Katya. Walang wala siya."

"Pero narinig mo ang sabi niya," she sat down on the stool beside the brunette. "Delikado ang asawa niya. At kung totoo man ang sabi niya, what's going to stop him from hurting you if he finds her?"

"He won't," Olga said taking a drink of the cocktail Leona had made her. She had to admit, it was pretty good for her first drink.

"Pero paano kung?"

"Hind ko alam," she breathed. "Anong gusto mong gawin ko, Katya? Palayasin siya, give her no other option but to go crawling back to her abusive husband? She has no body, but me, Kat." She said as she watched Leona make a few more drink orders and give service with a smile. "Hindi ko 'to plinano, pero naging matalik ko nang kaibigan si Leona. I look forward to going home after work just to hang out around the place with her."