For Your Eyes Only;

Cerise

Why did I wear skinny jeans god why

RJ felt his jeans go tighter with every floor that passed inside the ascending elevator. He tried really really hard not to conjure images of Maine wearing lingerie but his efforts were futile: his lust for her is too strong. When he finally reached the twenty-first floor, he almost gasped in shock when the elevator door opened to Maine standing directly in front of him.

"Hi. Nice meeting you. Go home," she smiled.

Maine was wearing pyjamas with duck patterns, a pair of yellow furry bunny-shaped slippers, and a t-shirt with a Pikachu printed on its dead center.

THIS WOMAN. SHE PLAYS ME REAL GOOD, SUSMARYOSEP.

"Stop staring, Dr. Faulkerson. You can't catch this Pikachu," she smirked, raising her eyebrows.

He stepped out of the elevator and walked towards her until their faces became a mere few inches away from each other. 

"I'm a very, very persistent hunter, Ms. Mendoza,"

She remained standing on her spot, enduring the excruciating nearness of their bodies. Her hair was slightly dripping wet and she smelled of apple-scented shampoo and perfume.

She showered. Kingina she just finished taking a shower. Kingina.

When RJ couldn't resist anymore, he pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I just want to make sure you're really feeling better now, Maine," he whispered.

"Do you want me to be honest?"

He broke the hug so he can look her in the eye.

"Of course."

"I totally felt like Syria tonight," she confessed, her eyes moist and her smile, bittersweet.

The second saddest country in the world. RJ, what have you done?, he secretly cursed at himself.

"Wala lang, feeling ko kasi I've let you down because I assumed the worst agad agad," she muttered, her eyes downcast.

"Maine, hindi ka naman mag-aassume if only I've been open and honest upfront about myself, di ba? So let's put this all behind us. We've learned, haven't we?"

She nodded in silent agreement, still a little awkward about the craziness of the last couple of hours.

"And...since nandito naman na ako, maybe we could repent for our sins by...punishing each other," he grinned mischieviously at her.

"OH MY GOD RJ GET OUT OF THIS FLOOR GET OUT THIS BUILDING!" She playfully pushed him back towards the elevator.

He grabbed her by the wrist and kissed the back of her hand. 

"As long as you won't ask me to get out of your life," 

Maine interlaced her fingers with his.

"When I told you that I want to be here for you,  that means I want you to stay," 

"Thank you, Maine."

"Thank you for telling me about you today, Dr. Faulkerson,"

"And I will stay. In fact if you want me to stay here for good, I can move in as soon as possible. Mag live in na tayo--" 

"UMUWI KA NA BYE!"

"Maine! Joke lang! Well, okay I was 97% serious--"

Three minutes later, Maine finally led him inside her unit. RJ noticed that the place seemed a little empty and unstyled. In fact, there were still some half-unpacked boxes containing her things on the far end of the living room.

"I've only moved in a month ago," Maine told him, even if he wasn't asking anything out loud.

As they walked through the narrow hallway leading to the living room, RJ couldn't help but steal a brief peek at Maine's bedroom as they passed by its open door. There was a family portrait of her and her parents hanging on her wall that caught his eye, along with some pictures of her friends.

"Tapos na po ba yung inspection, Dr. Faulkerson?" Maine tugged at him, startling RJ out of his thoughts.

"Your blanket is reddish pink. Or pinkish red."

"The shade's called Cerise. My favorite blanket is in the laundry, unfortunately. So I had to use that one."

"And your favorite blanket is colored what?"

"If this is a trap for me to accidentally tell you what my favorite color is, then sorry, no chance, RJ."

"Why won't you tell me?"

"The day you correctly guess it is the day I'll change my facebook status to in a relationship with Richard Faulkerson Jr."

"Deal."

"You only have one chance to guess, though. And if you guess wrong, then we'll never ever end up together,"

"You're cruel, you know that?"

"Quits lang, RJ. Like you, I'm also looking for a sign." She smiled sweetly as she led him to the couch and handed him a tub of half-empty ice cream. 

"Maine, what's the color of your underwear right now?"

"RJ CAN YOU PLEASE STOP ASKING IRRELEVANT QUESTIONS?"

"That question is a very valid point of research for my quest in discovering your favorite color, Maine. "

"It doesn't take just mere intelligence, Dr. Faulkerson. It takes instinct and imagination,"

"Oh, I imagine you all the time,"

Maine shut him up with a spoonful of ice cream and reached for the remote control then pressed on play.

The Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Movie.

"Still researching for that Hogwarts Wedding?" he asked her.

"They want Butter Beers to be served at the reception. I'm officially screwed beyond salvation."

He held her hand.

"You're good at what you do, Maine. Kaya mo yan."

"It's not as noble as what you do though, but thank you."

"Maine, I stitch broken hearts by surgery, but you work on binding two hearts for a lifetime,"

She allowed herself to lean on RJ's shoulders.

"Pero alam mo...kaya talaga ako nagpunta dito, kasi...gusto ko talaga magsoul-searching sa dilim for thirty seconds," he winked at her, expecting her to laugh or to playfully hit him again.

Instead, Maine looked at him in the eye deeply, stood up from the couch and turned off the TV and every single light in her condo unit. And then she found her way to him and pulled him into a fierce embrace. Like an echo of what RJ told her on the first time they met, she told him:

"You can stay here for as long as you need, Richard."

For the first time in the past six months, RJ allowed himself to give in to the sadness he had denied for so long. In the darkness, he cried on her shoulders and she wept with him, both of them grateful for this unexpected friendship. This intimacy.

Later, they would be lying next to each other on the couch in absolute stillness, wrapped up in the cerise-colored blanket and each other's arms, fully clothed but their souls completely naked. They would continue re-watching the Harry Potter movie, falling asleep just before the break of dawn, at the precise moment after Dumbledore asked Snape, "After all this time?"

And as naturally as the sun rising every morning, Maine and RJ would say softly, in one breath:

"Always."

In a few hours, Maine would wake up alone.