You're Always In My Heart

Chapter 31

Please listen to Sam Smith's Stay With Me while reading thanks! :)

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Quen grunted as the sun peeking through his opened window glared at him. He threw a scowl at his door as he heard a knock. His head was spinning and his body was sore—hangover. He sat up on the side of his bed reluctantly, rubbing his eyes. Reaching a white shirt on the floor, he put it on before lazily walking towards the door. He wiped his face with his hand and opened it. Manang Fe greeted him with a not-so-amused look.

“You’ve been drinking.” She gauged him a look from head to toe.

He leaned against the doorframe guiltily.

“Mr. Bernardo is here. He’s at the veranda. Fix yourself, you reek of alcohol.” She instructed him and started walking away after giving him one last look.

He heaved a sigh and went to the comfort room to wash his face and change his clothes. He sauntered towards the veranda after making sure that he no longer reeked of alcohol.

“Good morning, Pa!” He greeted rather weakly.

Mr. Bernardo turned to him and gave him an appraising look. With concerned eyes, he greeted him back.

“I haven’t seen you for a while already.” He said in a matter-of- factly tone.

Quen smirked, “Dalia said the exact same thing.”

“We’re just concerned, Quen.”

He raked his hair with his fingers and nodded.

“How are you holding up?”

Quen smiled weakly before saying, “I really don’t know, Pa.”

He nodded sympathetically. “Hang in there, son.” He held Quen’s shoulders, giving it a squeeze.

Quen bit his lip. “What brought you here, anyway?”

“Well, for starters, I wanted to check on you and Grace. Second, Laura and I wanted you to come over for dinner—you and Grace. That is, if it’s okay with you.” He hesitated for a moment.

“They’re going to be there.” He acknowledged, his eyes on the ground. “I’m sorry, Pa but I’ll pass.” He gave him an apologetic smile.

Mr. Bernardo sighed and patted his shoulder. “Okay. But if you ever change your mind, you know that our door is always open for you and Grace, right?” Quen nodded.

“I’ll go now.” He gave him one last concerned look before going down the stairs.

Everyone seemed to be concerned about him. And he wondered if he ever crossed in Kath’s mind, even once.

 After having breakfast with Grace, Quen decided to talk a walk. He stood on the porch for two minutes, taking in the fresh air of Saturday morning. Taking the trail to the park, he walked slowly and eagerly. He has already walked a mile from his house when he caught sight of something familiar across the street. Only that it was not something but  someone. Two ‘someones’. He had not planned on slowing his tracks but his feet failed him miserably. Kath was busy looking over some fruits at a stall near the sidewalk while DJ had his arms across his chest as he stared into vast space as if in deep thought. Quen mentally commanded himself to look away, but his eyes were a pair of rebels. He was already about to look away when he found DJ staring back at him with an blunt expression. He turned away and brought his feet back to a jog. Warning himself not to look back anymore was a great failure. Once his eyes gazed back to the forbidden sight, DJ was still staring at him only this time, he placed his arms around Kath’s waist who was busy counting the change on her hand. He threw DJ a dark glare before sprinting away. God, he hated him. He obviously did that on purpose. It’s as if he kept on provoking him. What was he planning to do? Slap him with the fact that he was losing her—again? Haven't he had enough with all of these? Because he was seriously getting tired with all of it.

He decided he needed to keep his distance from everything that’s bothering him so he spent his day at the café he and Kath owned. The irony of trying to distance himself from everything that was bothering him—and everything meant Kath. Yet he decided to spend his day wallowing inside the four corners that would probably only remind him of her. That was just great!

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A/N:

Aloha! Uh-huh! Yes! I am back. No! You are not imagining things. I know I know it's been like what? 2 weeks? uhhh no? 2 mos? still no? okay fine, yes 5 months. I know I've been out for 5 months but only because I had more important things to focus on. I'm not saying that this and you my readers (if there's still any left) are not important to me. Good Lord, no! This is like my passion, my life, and you my readers give meaning to it. Where's all these drama coming from? * shrugs* Maybe because it's already a few more minutes before 3am and I guess I have low serotonin or rather high norepinephrine. Whatever. HAHA. Okay enough with this long A/N.

I just want to thank you all for waiting and bearing with me. Now I'm back and I promise to finish this probably before the year ends. 

And as a treat I'll be updating two chapters. You guys deserve it anyway.

Lovelots! :)