Thursday 22nd January 2009

by Tina

Dates

“Going home, Carla?” Renny asked when he heard Carla shuffling her things on her table.

“Yeah, I’m beat,” Carla replied, putting the things scattered on her desk in her bag.

“No dates?” There was a teasing tone in Renny’s voice. Carla rolled her eyes and laughed.

“No, Renny, no dates. Not for today anyway.” Carla started closing the programs on her computer, but a messenger window popped up before she can log out.

Hey Carla. Do you want to have dinner or something?

“Hm.” Carla said to no one in particular and raised an eyebrow at her monitor. After doing Tom’s favor, she had taken a step back from the entire Tom thing and tried to look at it objectively. Tom still did not tell her why he had to ask that favor after she had finished it (which was no easy feat, too, because of all the questions that Anna and Chesca asked her when she was trying to get the documents from them), and all he could say to her after was “Thank you.” It was appreciated, yes, but she wished she wasn’t kept in the dark. If he trusted her so much, then why can’t he tell her this one?

It made her head ache from thinking so much, so Carla tried to stop thinking about Tom and keep her messenger window closed.

And then this. She sat back on her chair and looked at her computer screen. The message still stayed there:

Hey Carla. Do you want to have dinner or something?

Does she? She was about to go home. But maybe…maybe Tom will tell her what she wants to know now. Maybe today she can finally put her thoughts to rest. And she does miss him somehow.

So does she want to have dinner with him?

Yeah, sure. I’ll meet you downstairs.

* * *

“So how was your date last night?” Julie asked Carla the next morning as soon as she stepped inside the office.

“Date? I thought you were about to go home yesterday,” Renny piped up.

“Well good morning to you too,” Carla said with a laugh. “It wasn’t a date, okay. It was just dinner.”

“Looked like a date to me,” Julie grinned at Carla. After confirming the impromptu dinner plans with Tom last night, she sent a half-giddy, half-nervous text to Julie about it. She knew that Julie would bring it up the next day when she did not reply and everyone in her team would know about it, but she was in too much of a good mood to retaliate and take offense with their teasings.

“It wasn’t a date,” Carla repeated as she booted her computer. She could not help but smile though. It wasn’t a date, yes, and it was dutch, so there were no freebies, but the entire dinner thing was very nice. Tom was his usual self, the way Carla first got to know him. He still did not tell her what his problem was before, but he did tell her other things about himself; things that she did not know about him. They talked about their families, their past vacations, the things they like and don’t like. They even talked about past relationships and there was something so interesting in knowing about Tom’s exes.

Good morning Carla!

The window popped up as soon as she logged in. She smiled to herself and composed a quick reply.

Hey, good morning Tom!

The two continued to talk through the messenger for almost the entire day, with random quips and little jokes here and there. Carla was amazed at how easy it was to talk to Tom that day, and she wondered briefly if he would invite her to eat dinner again.

At the end of the day, she got this message:

So what are your plans tonight?

Carla smiled and replied:

Nothing, maybe I’ll just go home or something.

Her heart started to race. Carla clicked on other windows on her screen just to distract herself and not to anticipate Tom’s reply. When the messenger window blinked, Carla counted to twenty before clicking on it.

And when she did, the pounding in her chest slowed so suddenly that she almost felt dizzy.

Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow then. I have a date. 🙂

[716 words]

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2 Responses to “Migraine, Chapter 5”

  1. bungsy says:

    tom is a weirdo!!!

    typical guy i must say… unpredictable and complicated.huhu..

    (ehem, bitter feelings aside. LOL)

  2. juligel says:

    Oh, Crap.
    Bummer!
    Grrr. Kainis ka Tom! Arrgggh!

    wahahaha.

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Leave a Reply to juligel