And I Hate You So - Chapter 6

Matt stood cautiously out of the small shop just opposite of the taxi stand. Carefully edging out, he peered at the yellow cars stopping to pick up customers, before leaving, and the next one pushing to its place. He checked his watch. It was definitely two, but where was she? He had a heavy feeling that she was not going to come. Which is the reason why he was here in the first place, to make sure that she was actually here before he crossed the road, making some excuse about the traffic, instead of looking like someone who had been stood up.

He was about to go back when his eyes slipped to the small lane just in front of the shop. A young girl was sliding out, peering intensely at the taxi stand opposite the busy road. Her brown hair swayed with the wind as she eyed at her watch. Matt smiled. He knew that she too, was wondering if he had stood her up. How fortunate for him that he was behind her, and to see her first. Stepping out from the shop, he walked over to her, placing a gloved hand onto her shoulder.

Where was he? Mimi slowly and cautiously slithered out of the small lane that was just opposite the taxi stand. She arrived, but she didn't want to look like a fool, waiting for someone that probably won't even come, hiding from somewhere and watching her wait in the cold and laugh their head off, before broadcasting the incident again. No, she was not going to be that person, so she was going to wait for him and make sure that he was actually there and make up an excuse for her lateness.

She lifted up her sleeve and looked at her silver wristwatch. It read two pm, but where was he? She dropped her arm, leaving it limply at her side; her eyes still lingering at the taxi stand.

Mimi uttered a sigh when all of a sudden a hand grasped her shoulder. She screamed as a deep voice said "I said we'd meet there." He pointed to the taxi stand with his other hand, watching her slowly calm down, her right hand clutching her heart. He sure did give her a scare.

After waiting a few minutes for her to calm down, she replied, "So why do I see you here?"

All she received was a mysterious smile. Without answering her, he instead, questioned her. "Been here long? Thought that I stood you up? I had sincerely asked you out to talk."

"About what?"

Once again, he didn't answer, but instead lifted his head looking at the sky. "Oh, the sun came out. Wrong time for duelling. Let's eat first, and let me explain out misunderstanding. Will you listen?"

"Oh, spare me," Mimi whined, holding up her own purple gloved hand.

"You smile now, but you may cry later. See, you hated me coz I wouldn't return your 'love gift'. Actually, I have a personal distressing reason. Let's walk and talk." He paused before grabbing her hand, which stiffened as fingers encircled around hers. "In high school, I fell in love with a girl. This was over five years ago. Well, I wanted to get her something for her birthday, and she really wanted a CD walkman. They cost heaps then, well, at least to me, but I took extra jobs just to get her one.

"She was walking and listening to my discman. One day, when she crossed the road, a truck crashed into her. She lasted four days in the hospital, but in the end..." Matt shook his head, trying to look really upset. It was just a story that he made up to make Mimi sympathize with him, and by peering at her face as she was listening to his story, he was sure that she believed it. He continued, "It was here, at Fran's Fruits." He indicated a nearby store, "She was crossing the road to come here, listening to the walkman that I gave her. So...you should understand."

Mimi nodded. 'She bought it!' Matt thought gleefully. "I understand," her sweet voice came, staring at the fruit store before turning back to him. "I understand that Fran's Fruits wasn't opened yet at that time. I grew up here!"

'Damn!' Matt cursed himself. He shouldn't have made that example. He'd just have to slip out of the situation. "I tell you my story of woe while you defeat it with logic. How heartless of you?"

"May I go now?"

"I wanted to take you to lunch."

"How can you eat when you're so sad?" she mocked.

"Sad people eat too."

"If only you apologize and say that the tale was full of empty lies."

"Okay. I was joking."

"False and empty lies - Say it!"

"...Did you really grow up here?" Matt questioned, carefully switching the subject.

"Of course not. It's much too loud for authors." Both of them smiled. In the end, it turned out that both of them were lying.

"You should work in Social Services Deny Pensions. It'll save the city billions of dollars each year.

Come on, let's go eat."

Swallowing the food with great hast, Mimi hurriedly grabbed the glass of water, pressing it onto her lips, letting the ice cold liquid pour into her mouth, hoping to drown out the fire in her throat. How was she to know that what she ordered, which was 'Whatever-He-Ordered' happened to be this chilli? With half closed eyes, she flicked her eyes to the smirking blond opposite of her. He didn't seem to be affected at all. Instead, he watched her steadily and opened his mouth to talk. "You know, drinking water only makes it worse."

The brunette set down the glass, gasping out, "Why didn't you tell me before?"

He ignored the question. He used that tactic often, and it had never failed him. The topic changed swiftly. "I hope you understand - my job is to upset people."

Finally calming down, Mimi slumped into the soft cushion on the chair and replied, "Well, upset others. There are seven million of them."

He ignored the statement. "I finished your book."

"Really?" Matt was smiling inside. It was so easy to drive her around the way he wanted to. It
provoked him to find how many times she would fall for it.

"It'll give me much to talk about this week."

"The listeners must be bored of this. Even in the X-Files, the characters must die."

This time, the smile reached his face, his lips, his cerulean eyes, making them sparkle like sapphires.

Unable to help herself, the young girl felt herself slowly drowning in the mischievous glint of his eyes.

"You were listening."

"Well, I didn't want -"

Her voice drifted off. Something had caught her attention that made her draw her eyes away from his and to the scene behind him. A couple was walking up the stairs, obviously to dine. The male kissed his female companion softly on the lips, and turned around, towards the direction to where Mimi was sitting. She recognised him straight away, and it was obvious that he recognised her. He was Greg.

He hesitated, unable to turn away as he knew already that Mimi had seen him. Slowly, Greg dragged himself to their table, leaving the girl to sit on her own.

"Hi."

Silence.

"You know, it's only for...a business..."

Silence.

"I guess...I'll go now...I'll see you soon..."

He walked away, pulled his companion from her seat and led her downstairs, to leave the restaurant.

Mimi was still sitting there, she hadn't moved a muscle. She felt betrayed. After all this time...

"Don't feel bad..." Matt tried to cheer her up. By the looks of what was going on, he knew instantly what was going on. "Maybe he -" He was cut off mid-sentence.

She was furious, and her head felt as if she just drank about the whole hundred of wine that were lined up on display on the wall. She tried to express her anger the only way possible, blaming it on someone else.

"You...you asked me here for this?" she accused.

He was taken back by the sudden burst of anger. "You think I have psychic power?"

Listening wasn't an issue anymore. "You've gone too far this time!" She pushed her seat back and stormed out. A few people around were staring at the remaining young man. He made up a quick excuse. "The curry's too spicy." Then to the waiter, "Bill please."

The flowers and champagne were getting heavy. Greg had been outside the door of Mimi's apartment for the past thirty-four minutes, waiting for her to open, and possibly forgive him.

"Come on, open up! I said I was sorry... Well YOU were having lunch with that DJ, and that was okay?! Is that fair, man? No! Come on, open up!" The one-sided conversation was going absolutely nowhere, and he finally gave up. Settling the flower and champagne down on the doormat, his voice penetrated from the wooden door one last time. "Well, I'm leaving your flowers and champagne here okay? I'll see you." With that, he walked off.

Mimi made sure that his footsteps were no longer heard before she walked to the door, opened it, carried the flowers and bottle inside, and kicked the door closed. The flowers immediately made its home in the rubbish bin, but the champagne, she opened it, and drunk it straight from the bottle. She knew that drinking wasn't going to solve her problem, but it was a matter of forgetting. A temporary release was better than none.

There was a loud ringing noise. It probably came from her head. But soon she realised that it was actually the phone. She didn't bother to pick it up, and the answering machine took the job eagerly.

"Hey, Meems, pick up the phone." Kari's voice was loud and clear. "We're all waiting for your columns. The boss is really mad, so hurry and write something. I'll see you later. Bye."

The bottle was tipped downwards again.

The next morning

The pillow was getting awfully hard. Maybe it was made of wood...maybe...She opened her eyes groggily. It was wood. She fell asleep on the desk. As if she was an alarm clock to the fax, it suddenly responded, a small segment of fax paper rolling out. She grabbed at it. The words were a blur. She stared at it for several minutes before getting the message into her head. "The boss is really mad. He says 'don't bother'. I'm so sorry! -Kari."

Her head began to sear with immeasurable pain. She scrunched up the paper and threw it across the room.

She had lost her job, and lost her boyfriend, and practically lost her vision. The whole room was swimming and swaying.

Luckily, her ears still didn't lost their ability, allowing her to hear the doorbell ring. Was everything trying to get at her today? She fought across her messy room, tripping over books, pencils, and thin air.

When the door was opened, a bunch of flowers were stuffed in her face, followed by a smiling face. It too was distorted and swirling around. Mimi squinted her eyes and tried to focus. He was...her ex, James.

"You?!" Her voice was louder than she expected, and it brought another stab to her painful head. She had also used too much energy expressing it. A wave of nausea swept through her and she clutched her forehead with her hand. James held onto her, and invited himself in, supporting her onto the bed.

"You what? Headache? Or are you sick? Or did I scare you? I've been calling you for an hour and I was afraid that something might have happened." Mimi stared at him blankly. He'd been calling her, and she had fallen asleep right next to the phone. She must have been more drunk than she thought. But when she thought of him again, anger took over the blankness. "You're horrible! You waited till I'm dying to come. I'll...I'll kill you!" she threatened pointlessly.

"This is what I get after a few years. But that's just like before. I miss you. After all these years, I've finally found that I still love you the most. Mimi? Mimi?" she didn't hear him. She was slumped on her bed, having fainted.
"Thank goodness I got there in time. You could have died there. You'll have to come with me to Canada so I can stop you drinking a whole bottle of champagne." He had his arm around her shoulders, leading her out, and enjoyed her arm around his waist, obviously for support.

"Who's coming with you? You threw out my 'Gift of Love'." She pointed out while climbing into the taxi. "That wasn't my fault. We were moving to a new home. Mom gave away all my records, saying that no one uses them anymore. It's true!" he insisted, after glancing at the disbelieving look on the girl's face. "But it doesn't matter now. See, the record made us find each other again, so it's a good thing."

She turned away. "I don't care."

"You broke up with that guy. And I with Irene. That's too much of a coincidence. We're an old couple. We know each other well. My house is very comfortable. I can turn the basement into your office. There are squirrels outside, and will knock on the window when you write..."

The taxi stopped outside the tall building. James climbed out of the car, went to the other side and opened the door for Mimi. "Well, you remember to take this four times a day, as the doctor said," he reminded, handing her a small packet of medicine. "I'll go get plane tickets, then I'll help you pack."

A small smile made it to her lips. "I said that I'll think about it. But thanks anyway. Go ahead." She insisted, and he climbed back into the taxi.

"I'll see you." He gave her a warm smile and turned to the taxi driver. "Central please."

Taking out the silver keys, Mimi unlocked the first security door and walked inside. The small elevator button lit up as she pressed it. The front door of her apartment opened with a creak. She tossed the medicine packet onto the table and sat down.

He had asked her to marry him, and go live with him in Canada. She had lost everything here, and could start a new life there. Maybe she should go and take this step. But why was there such a huge sense of regret lingering deep within her heart?

To be continued...