Muse & Escort

If you walk out on me, I'm walking after you

Marla paused, held on to a lamp post at the jogging path facing the intersection and took, long, deep breaths. She looked at the 24-hour drugstore in front of her, and the skyscrapers around. The streets are well-lit and the business complex looks so much alive even at half past midnight.

She just spent the past ten minutes walking from the hotel where one of the girls got in trouble, this time with a client's mistress. Crazy, she thought. Their client is this half-Chinese resort tycoon whose wife couldn't care less if he had a hundred other women as long as he stays married to her. And now this mistress, who's surely in it for the money, thought she had every right to complain and make a scene? She shook her head. Sometimes, she wonders if she has become so detached and accepting because of the nature of her "business". Some of her logic has gone twisted, her principles a little messed up.

She looked down at her left leg. It had a cut because the crazy mistress threw a chair at her and Nikki, her escort girl. It didn't hit her but when they we're trying to avoid it, they had to run towards a corner, she lost her balance and her leg hit another chair. It was bleeding earlier, and the hotel staff wanted to take her to the hospital but she refused. She instead called somebody at the house to send some help over, i.e. the usual guys from the police department who regularly helps them out. soon as she saw a police car coming, she left. Nikki already knows what to do. She just wants to get away from the scene. The past twenty-four hours has been hectic.

"Ang bilis mong maglakad. Saan bang punta mo?"

Her heart nearly jumped when somebody spoke. She looked up and saw Rafa, with worry lines but still looking great. His hair was slightly unkempt, and wore a simple white shirt and tan shorts. He was holding a jacket in one hand.

"Ano'ng ginagawa mo dito?" she straightened up, avoiding his gaze.

"Tumawag sa akin yung assistant mo. May gulo daw dito. Busy daw yung ibang contacts nyo. Nagpapanic eh. So ako na nagdala ng tao dun sa hotel..." he smiled. "Okay na."

She shook her head. Bakit kailangang si Rafa ng tawagan ng mga bwiset na staff nya? "Well, thanks. Pasensya na sa abala." She turned to walk and crossed the street, with him tailing behind, one hand on her back.

She flinched. "Huwag kang masyadong dumikit at pawisan ako." She said without looking at him as she pushed open the door to the drugstore. She headed straight to the shelves of first aid supplies.

Should this man really keep on following her? She sighed as she looked at the bottles of antiseptics and antibiotic creams.

"Ano'nmg bibilhin natin?"

She raised a brow at him. "Natin? Ako lang." she reached for a tube of antibiotic cream. "Medyo nasangga yung binti ko sa kung saan kanina —"

"You're hurt? Where?" he bent down and checked her leg.

She tapped his shoulder. "Oist, huwag kang OA. It's just a small cut." She reached for a pack of Band-aid strips.

"Nasaktan ka?"

"I'm fine. Tumayo ka na dyan."

He stood up. "You got wounded and you're fine?"

"Okay, siguro masakit nga kasi mahapdi pag nakikiskis ng pants ko. Nagbleed kanian pero—"

He looked at her, brows furrowed. "And you have been suffering since" he took the tube and band aids from her, moved to the next shelf and picked up cotton balls, wet tissue and antiseptics. Then headed for the counter and paid for everything. He then held her hand and lead her to an empty bench and told her to sit. He asked a staff fro one of the brochures in the nearby counter, spread it out on the floor and sat on it.