Cold Feet (COMPLETED)

Lotus

Photo : Manny and April Photography

We all have our dark secrets, the kind we keep even from our spouses, boyfriends and closest friends. These are secrets we keep because they either shame us, or give us pain, and exposing these secrets merely make us more vulnerable to whoever gets to know of  them. 

Dei has a secret she still withholds from Richard, and soon, it will be revealed to him, but not through her. The best intentions sometimes do not yield desired results, and even if we do things for the good of people we love, we may sometimes end up hurting them. 

Another plot twist, my dears. Hope this keeps you thinking about the rest of the chapters. Missing your comments, my loves. Looking forward to hearing from you :)

They were lying in bed still naked, catching their breath. She was resting her head on his chest, her palm stroking his tummy, her fingertips grazing the trail of hair leading down to his shaft. His hand is caressing her breast, playing with her nipple absently, the pad of his thumb brushing against her peak. She stretches languidly, her back arching, his hand cupping her breast. She means softly and nuzzles his neck.

"We need to shower, babe but I'm too lazy to get up," she said softly, hooking her leg over his. Her bare apex brushes tantalizingly against his hip, as his thighs welcome her creamy one in between.

"No rush, sweetie. You drained all the energy out of me." His chest rumbled with laughter. Her hand suddenly travels from his navel to wrap around his elongated length, still stiff despite his relaxed state.

"No energy left?" Her thigh moves from between his legs as she hitches herself up from his chest to straddle him, her apex now on top of his turgid shaft. The movement sways her breasts and his hand squeezes at it gently.

"Nice view," He says lazily, cupping her bottom.

"Babe?"

"Yes?"

"I'm glad we got married when we did."

"Same here, sweetie. Best anniversary gift ever." He pulled closer to kiss her lips sweetly, then cradled her on top of him.

"Do we really need a church wedding, Jay? We're legally bound to each other already. Plus the expense and hassle........."

"Dei........I know what you're thinking. You're worried it might not push through like before. If it doesn't so what? We're already married."

"Then why bother going through a church ceremony?"

"I want to be bound to you in faith as well, not just legally, Dei."

"I'm just worried it will turn into a circus, especially now that Calvin and Shayne are together. She'll attend, I'm sure."

"Calvin won't let that happen. Let's just trust him to do the right thing. By the way, did you talk to Coleen already?"

He felt her stiffen momentarily, burrowing into his neck.

"Not yet. Been trying to contact her but she's not picking up."

"Message her then. We can schedule a facetime chat with her so that we can invite her together."

She got up and away from him. Sitting on her side of the bed, she checks her phone then gets up, giving him a view of her delectable tush.

"It's getting late, baby. I'm taking a shower now."

There it was again. This was the nth time he'd tried to coax her into talking about her sister, but he always ends up facing a blank wall. There was something strange about her relationship with Coleen, how she is never mentioned, nor does she ever call her sister.

During their first wedding plans years ago, Dei said Coleen was still adjusting to her job and would not be able to come home for her wedding. Richard accepted this without question and left it at that. But it has been three years, surely Coleen is well-adjusted to her job and relocation by now.

He set aside thoughts about Coleen momentarily and followed his wife to shower with her. She was already standing with her back exposed to him, the sweet curve of her hips reminding him how she was grinding against him earlier, the push and pull sensation giving him so much pleasure that the mere memory was giving him a hard-on again. He opened the transparent door of the shower stall and hugged her from behind, cupping her apex.

It took another hour before they finished showering, giving in to their insatiable need for each other.

-----

Their meeting with the wedding coordinator was at 1:30 in the afternoon in Starbucks EDSA Shangri-La. Today they were going to take a look at invitations and mood boards for the wedding theme. Dei chose Blush and Champagne as color motifs and went through the entourage with Fae, their coordinator. Richard merely watched them discussing and noticed something about the entourage. He patiently withheld his comment until the coordinator left.

"Dei......I noticed that you picked Janelle as your Maid of Honor. Don't you want Colee to be part of the entourage?"

She blew some hair form her lips as if to release tension.

"Babe, Coleen and I are not really close. It's not a hard and fast rule to choose my sister as Maid of Honor, right? I mean, I can choose Janelle."

"Don't get me wrong, sweetie, I'm sorry. I have nothing against Janelle, it's just that I'm kind of looking forward to meeting your sister. She's your only relative I know of and........." He trailed off, noting Dei was getting agitated. "Ok, look. Forget what I said. Mentioning her obviously makes you uneasy, I don't know why."

"Jay, I do plan to invite her, ok? I just need proper timing to tell her."

"No worries, baby. I'm sorry if it upsets you."

"It doesn't upset me, ok?" She said, looking irritated. He just looked at her, waiting for her to say something to enlighten him about what exactly was bothering her about Coleen, but she didn't say anything until they went back home.

-----

That night while Dei was asleep, he looked up Coleen in Facebook, checking Dei's contacts first. Strange, Coleen was not in Dei's contact list. He searched for Coleen Mendoza and found an account that could belong to Dei's sister. It was an old account though, the posts were from five years ago, when she was still in Manila. He found another account in her friends list, but the name was Coleen Mendoza-Peterson, and it bore a profile image of the same woman in the first account he found.

He browsed through the account and saw photos of Coleen when she got married just three years ago, attended by some family members whose surnames were also Mendoza. He found it strange that Dei was not present in the wedding, nor did she ever mention knowledge of this event. There was a photo of Coleen and her dad, who so obviously looked like Dei. There were no photos of Dei in this account either, unlike the first account that showed photos of them both.

He changed his profile pic to an image of him and Dei together, then sent a friend request to Coleen. He also sent her the following private message:

"Hi Coleen, hope you don't mind my contacting you here on Facebook. I'm RJ, Dei's fiancee. We're getting married in seven weeks and we'd like so much for you to join us if you can. I don't know if Dei has contacted you already, but I'd like to surprise her with your arrival. Really hope you can come, Coleen. This is a special occasion and I want Dei to have someone from her family to share the joy of this event with us."

He closed his laptop, hoping to get an answer from Coleen. It would be nice to see the sisters reunite on their special day, so that Dei won't feel so alone.

He had no idea he was opening a can of worms.