Chapter 19
Everyone would want their relationship to be as romantic as what they see in the movies, as mushy and die-heartedly in the novels they read.
However Love is practical, although we wish it isn’t.
When two people get together, it’s the celebration of the union of two lost souls that found each other in the mist of hope.
As the mist begins to clear, the relationship will start to get practical.
The two of you will have arguments even with the slightest thing. What to have for dinner? Which blouse to buy? Whether should he stay in his current job or otherwise.
Money & time becomes the two most important factors in a relationship.
Monetary on, how he would disagree on you spending half your monthly pay on a bag then expect him to foot the bill for every outing.
How she would nag him on his spending on video games and technology gadgets.
Time on, how she would disagree on the coffee sessions that you’ve spent with your band of brothers.
How he would feel that you are not spending enough time with him.
As the relationship gets longer and deeper, the more problems will arise with money and time.
Then you looked back and ask yourself.
“Is this love? Or is this purely how two people allocate their time and money? Why can’t love be pure? ”
Perhaps one day you will find yourself in this situation when you talk about time or money. Love is no longer as innocent as we wished.
To maintain a relationship, you have to manage your time and money. For which any of those you can’t supply enough, you will probably lose the relationship.
This is Love, practically.
The loudness of the ring tone could be heard across the room. The phone rang for a long time with echoes of melody and vibration trembling sound swept through.
Neither of them was waken by the phone as it continue making it’s presence felt.
Mark was lying awkwardly below the bed while Christine was peacefully tucked in.
The phone or actually the caller didn’t give up, after awhile the phone rang again.
Mark was awaken by the ringing sound as he crawled himself out of the couch towards the phone.
“Yeah….Wassup?”
Mark spoke with his eyes still closed.
“Hello, who are you?”
A man spoke across the speaker.
“I’m Mark Lee lah, you call this number you don’t know who am I?”
“I’m sorry”
The caller hung up.
“Crazy….”
Mark then lie back on the floor with the phone in his hand.
Then the phone ring again.
“Yeah… what do you want?”
“Who the hell are you??!!”
It was the same man again.
“I’m Mark Lee lah! What the hell you want?”
Mark was agitated by the ignorance.
“Then where the hell is Christine?”
“She’s still sleeping, what the hell you call my number to find her?”
“Hello, Mr. Mark Lee. Please open your bloody eyes and looked at the phone carefully? Whose fucking phone is this?”
The man was clearly in rage.
It was then Mark realized he had answer Christine’s hand phone.
“Oh... shit… I’m sorry”
Then he hung up the phone.
All the commotions had woken Christine up.
She rubbed her eyes and stared at Mark who was below her bed.
Their eyes met as Mark stared back.
Then the next moment was one of the most embarrassing moments in his life as Christine screamed her voice out as if she was been slaughtered.
“Why are you here?!!! What did you do to me?”
Christine threw everything on the bed on him.
“Hey… we never did anything ok. Come on… think back, you were the one who asked me to stay.”
Mark defending himself.
“I where got so cheap! You idiot… you must have ‘spike’ the drink I had and rape me…”
Mark was equally amused and amazed by Christine’s split personality within such a short period.
“Hey Chris, Use your brain to think lah… If I would to rape you, why the hell would I be sleeping UNDER your bed?”
Mark let a sigh.
“Besides, you really think it’s like the movies arh. Rape until no feeling?? Come on… I was tucking you in bed then you asked me to accompany you. I obliged because you were crying.”
“I was crying? Ha Ha Ha very funny.. Since when?”
Christine folded her arms.
Christine’s phone rang again.
Mark stopped her before she answered.
“Hey, just want to tell you I accidentally picked up your phone just now. Please explain to your boyfriend.”
“Shut up Mark, don’t mock me for being single can?”
Christine answered the call.
“Hello… yeah Dad.. I just woke up.”
“What?!? What did he say to you????”
Christine pointed at Mark to signal her wrath.
“No daddy, it’s not what you think we did.”
Christine trying her best to prove her innocence as Mark looked on.
“Just go to the gynae, then will prove my innocence.”
Mark urged her on.
“It’s ok dad. Please trust me. I will take care of myself, sorry for didn’t call back when I touched down.”
Christine seems to cool down.
Mark decided to go back to his room after sensing everything was back to normal. His move towards the door was stopped by a sudden burst of loud scream of rage.
Before Mark knew it, he was kicked several times by a woman that was on a rampage.
“Never offend a women as most probably you will be killed, it’s only a matter of when.”
This thought lingered in his mind as he limped his way back to his room.
On the other hand, there was a feeling of happiness and fun felt throughout the bashing. It was as if back to old times when you made fun of the girl in school and she chased you a few blocks over it.
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It was lunch time when the two of them finally meet.
Christine was still pissed from her body language.
“Hey Chris… I’m sorry ok? I was drunk too you know.”
“Jerk, don’t talk as if we had done it. We never ok?”
“Ok… My entire fault. I’ve been bash by you already. Let’s call it even? We still need to work together till this weekend.”
Mark scratched his head as he apologized. It was something he rarely did. Christine looked at Mark, who clapped his hands in a prayer manner.
“Please?”
“Has anyone ever told you, you look like a complete idiot when you tried to act cute? Ok, you are forgiven and you owe me a favor. Don’t forget.”
Christine turned her back towards a deeply-disgusted Mark and started walking.
“Let’s go for lunch before we link up with our colleagues.”
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The week of exhibition was tough yet fruitful. Mark learned a lot of information and technology skills from his counterparts.
Every night, both Christine and Mark had to work through midnight before calling it a day. The schedule was tight and challenging but somehow the hardship was smoothened by their sheer perseverance.
Other than the limited hours of sleep they had, the two of them shared almost every moment together. It was as if the two were living together separated by a bedroom.
When the two of them had ran out of creative juice, they would opt out to walk the streets of Shanghai to regenerate their thoughts.
Mark would accompany Christine as she swift the bouqtiues of designers’ label, trying out various clothes, bags and shoes.
Christine would accompany Mark as he seek his pleasures in finding sporting gear as well as technological devices.
As soon as something came up in their minds, they would stop everything and head for a café to work on it. Somehow it was like half vacation, half work. Their boss didn’t care for less, all he wanted was a good performance on the actual to show for.
Their big day came as both of them prepared for the showcase.
With the response from the crowd, they certainly did their company proud with their sleek presentations.
Their seeds of labor bore fruits as the company received countless of queries over their latest product. It was something Mark had thought he was not able to achieve in his life. Maybe he only achieve because of Christine’s support.
Their boss was delighted as he voiced his support over the teleconference after the show.
“Great job guys, make sure you enjoy yourself tonight before your flight tomorrow.”
On the last night before they returned. Their counterparts in Shanghai had arranged a celebration for exhibition success. They had booked a ballroom in their hotel and ordered a few tables of dishes.
Midway through the feast Christine excused herself for being tired and uncomfortable stomach. Mark then volunteered to send her back to her room before joining them.
As they walked out of the ballroom, Christine walked towards the exit instead of the lift back to her room.
“Where are you going?”
Mark was quite surprised in seeing this.
“I’m going out for a walk, want to join me?”
Christine looked back at him.
Both of them walked along the streets of Shanghai, it was close to midnight and the crowd was getting lesser and lesser.
They came to a small bridge.
Christine walked towards the bridge and looked at the waters below.
“Mark, do you know the feeling of loneliness?”
Christine asked.
“Loneliness is not because you are alone, it’s because you are missing someone.”
Mark too walked up and looked at the waters.
“You ever felt lonely?... after that incident of Jade?”
“I guess guilt was the first and biggest feeling I had since that day. Somehow I just keep telling myself that I’ve killed her. Now that you asked, I also don’t know whether I was lonely or not but I know I was missing something in my life.”
“It must have been terrible.”
“Yeah… It took me a long while before I got my act together again. In fact I was glad that someone helped me. Although I don’t know who is she.”
“Huh? I don’t get what you mean.”
“Just take it as I have a Love advisor with me now. She refused to reveal her identity to me until she said it’s ready. But all these while, I feel that she knows me very well and is able to know how I feel.. Right deep inside my heart.”
“It must have been great to have someone to advise you.”
Christine’s tone softened.
“Christine, what do you think about love?”
Mark suddenly asked.
“Love is something that hurt you the most. I thought I ever told you that already?”
Christine smiled as she replied.
“Love hurt you the most, yet it can also give you the most blessed feeling you ever had right? I guess it’s this extreme that make love so mysterious. One sided love is even more painful you know.”
“Why is it so? I mean only I know that I love him will do. Why should I say out? and then what? A relationship is born? Until the day he no longer loves me? Then the relationship died?”
“Chris, you have someone in your mind now right?”
“How do you know?”
“That night when you were drunk, you said why you can’t be with the person you liked.”
“Oh…”
“Have you ever told the person?”
“Nope..”
“Then how do you know if the person doesn’t like you?”
Christine didn’t reply. The cold air blew towards them as they stood.
“Mark?”
“Yeah….?”
“I… like you………”
“Huh? Pardon”
“I like you-r way of showing concerns for me. I appreciate that. As a friend and colleague, really.”
“Well… anything for you! You’ve helped me a lot too.”
Mark repaid the compliment.
“Let’s go back to the hotel?”
Christine suggested.
“Yeah, we have a morning flight to catch tomorrow. Let’s go back and have a good rest.”Both of them then made their way back to the hotel.
As Mark slept soundly in his bed, Christine was in the other room alone crying as she keyed into her laptop.
“These few days are probably the happiest in my life, we spend a lot of time together. There was a period of time when I actually felt that we were already a couple.
But when he asked me do I like anyone, I just couldn’t bring myself to say out.
What’s so difficult?
Why I don’t even have guts to tell him that I like him?
What was it that I was afraid of?
Afraid that I will not be able to replace her in his life?.”
It was a blog entry that she had entered. The blog was a daily journal that Christine had kept for a while now. Nobody knew about her blog, even her best friends didn’t knew of it’s existence. It was something personal and only those who don’t know her personally will have access to her blog. Maybe Christine didn't want people to know about her life.
As Christine paused to wipe her tears, there was a reply in her tagboard.
“Seek and you shall find, ask and you shall be given. Love begins with nothing but ends with everything”
Her sender…
Eros.
[To be Cont]
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