Assassin at Greenbelt 4

After-work Dinners (part II)

Fast forward to May 27. After attending a series of meetings, I packed up and called it a day at 5:55 PM. I saw that person who I met before in Greenbelt 4. There she was, waiting for me and clad in her purple blouse and pants, with matching blue flat shoes. Oh, she was also wearing purple lipstick too!

She approached me, asking "Shall we have dinner again?"

My reply was, "Tsk, I need to freshen up first!" Little did she know that I am doing a voice recording of what will happen for I started the voice recorder app on my cellphone.

I said yes, the second time around. I asked, "So who will foot the bill?"

"This time, we go Dutch. You must be earning already?" was her reply.

"You're right," I conceded.

I suggested that we eat out at Din Tai Fung again and she agreed. However, to get to Greenbelt, we had to take a long walk using the footbridge at Dela Rosa street. By then, the weather became much more humid. I could see some bugs camping near fluorescent lamps. I could hear thunder rolling from afar, a sign that rain could fall somewhere soon. The temperature was a bit cooler, at 30 degrees Centigrade. Humidity, however, was torturous! I feel that it was 36 degrees outside! From a dry, air-conditioned office which felt cooler than it should be, I was there, feeling the tepid air. If I was already sweating without doing anything, Nina would be sweating more so as we walked across the footbridge. Perhaps her makeup would be ruined by the torturous humidity brought about by winds not knowing where to go. At times, I could feel winds from the east. Next thing I knew, winds would be from the south or even the most feared southwest!

Despite being drenched by the pre-Southwest Monsoon humidity, we were able to reach Greenbelt 4. By the time we both got there, well, why not have a table for two? I don't know what I came there for, but I am in for a surprise, both good and bad.

We ordered two bowls of House Steamed Chicken Soup, mine with extra noodles. Also, we ordered hot ginseng tea for each of us. After ordering our food, she offered me what is apparently mint chewing gum. Prior to taking in the gum, I saw that the wrapper of the gum was already open. Never mind, I chewed the gum anyway. However, I felt a salty taste in my gum. Never mind that it was salt though.

After that, she initiated the conversation. She took her phone and browsed YouTube for Tom and Jerry videos to start out conversation.

"Ever watched this?" she asked, showing a scene of Tom and Jerry on her Note 10+.

I laughed, "Ah, Tom and Jerry? I watched that for most of my childhood!"

"Yep."

"As I was a child back then, I don't know who to side with: Tom or Jerry?"

"I'd side with Tom."

"I can't take sides for that for I did not take sides on Tom or Jerry. All I knew is that Tom would fail in his high jinks once Jerry escapes him. Ah, good times."

"So do I. I'd side with Tom."

Then came me being interested in Tom and Jerry. "I've watched Tom and Jerry Tales, with its setting in around 2006-2010, but with the same old formula: furious cat, witty mouse."

"Well, tell you what. I have a sister named Anna, and I'd identify her with Jerry."

I smirked, laughing. However, it became tongue-in-cheek.

"Do you have a job or something?" I asked Nina.

"I do. Part of it is into recruiting graduate students to study in Britain or Ireland," Nina replied. It should be suspicious. However, that did not seem to matter.

"Wait. Great Britain did a Brexit," I blurted out, referring to the exit of Great Britain from the European Union.

"No worries. It won't affect your chances..."

"Great! I was thinking reviewing a few journal articles from the Internet so I can come to the professor prepared," I remarked as I drew a stack of well-thumbed, heavily annotated journal articles from my bag. These articles are bound to a 1 and 5/8-inch (1.625") binder clip, so they must he quite heavy.

Suffice it for me to say that from there the conversation revolved around graduate school in Ireland and being unconditionally sponsored, until...

Then came our respective orders of hot ginseng tea and the chicken soup. This time I cut back on the chili sauce. Nina, however enjoyed in spicing her food up. There I was, seeing her enjoy spicier food. "I must have suggested to her that she spice her food up, indirectly..."

However, after the dinner, I started to feel a bit off. Slightly disoriented, as if a bit drunk did I feel. Then...

"I think I can book a Grab ride, with two stops. You first?" I asked Nina, offering a two-stop Grab ride.

"No, it's OK. I can let you rest in..." followed by a charming whisper, "...my room, if you like."

"I could give the motorbike ride a try..."

"Sure. I have a spare helmet."

There I was, trying to ride on a big-ass bike for the first time. This is a far cry from me riding a motorbike when I was with my grandfather. I went on to check out her big bike, and oh! The bright blue Angkas helmet!

"Angkas ka?" she asked me, in Tagalog with no hint of an Irish accent!

"Sige po," in my usual deferential tone. It's as if I was talking to an aleng (auntie) Angkas driver.

"You don't need to defer to me like you do to your mother. I may be 47..."

"You hardly look like you're forty-seven!" I quipped to her, backing off from her a bit. Sensing my skepticism, she posed with her left foot on the seat of the motorbike, and she stared at me. I blushed. I did not figure out what she may have said to me, but all I know is that her seductive move proved onerous to resist. "Be my guest," I assured her.

I wore my helmet and joined Nina in her thrill ride in her big bike. Time for a 110 km/h dash in the Skyway? Heaven forbid that we get caught for speeding.

"Where are we going?" I asked her.

"You don't need to know, but this will be a thrill ride," she went as she revved her motorbike from 2,500 rpm to 8,000 rpm.

I checked her speedometer in her bike. We were going at 100 km/h in EDSA, a highway with a speed limit of 80 km/h. God forbid that the traffic police are doing their jobs.

I could not find words to how thrilling the ride was, but it was all a blur. I was not fully awake when we arrived at the hotel. She took care of the entire check-in. As I was, I became groggy and I took a shower to freshen up. It would be Saturday the next day, so I slept soundly.

However soundly I slept, little did I know what is to happen next. However, I felt what I'd term as a bliss beyond reason, beyond words even—as I started sleeping. It was 9:30 PM.

She also thought of sleeping at around 9:50 PM, lying next to me. She stroked my loose strands of hair, knowing that she found the right accomplice. Already lying down, she stared into the sky and whispered to me, asleep, "I don't trust men and I may have looked cold to you, but here you are. How easy is it for you to trust me..."

There I was, asleep with a woman for the first time. Half-asleep, I was lying next to her.

"So, will you trust me?" the vixen asked, feeling my pulse.

I was asleep when she asked me that question. So, she tried reading my mind by gauging whether my heart would slow down, even syncing to hers (presumably around 60-63 bpm). In a course of a minute, she felt my heart rate slowed more than usual, like from 80 bpm to 58-65 bpm in 2 minutes instead of around 10 minutes.

"Ah, I could feel that you do..."

In return, I was silent, but tears flowed from my eyes to her skin, with all my feelings coming to me at once.

Asleep, I could imagine the conversation as me wanting to have a romantic relationship with someone, never mind an assassin seductress!

If one could know what was going on in our minds at that time, then the silence could be imagined as though it was a conversation that could go this way. Talk about being lovestruck while asleep!