I blinked several times.
That name seemed to strike my head with lightning bolts. I knew his name from somewhere, his face... That attitude... Wasn't he?
"Hey you're the guy from the café, aren't you?" I pointed at him.
'Maggie' raised his one of his eyebrows and smirked slightly, "My, my, I'm surprised. It seems that someone stole my DNA and cloned me without permission. May I know where this café is, senorita?"
I could see his friends behind him rolled their eyes. I felt something a bit strange about this Maggie guy after checking him from head to toe.
As I was checking the guy, Glenn looked between Maggie and me before asking, "You know this weird guy?"
At his question, I wanted to say yes, but suddenly Maggie stepped forward. He took my hands in his and kissed them.
Then he stirred his gaze to me while saying, "I never forget a fair lady's name or face, yet, I admit I could hardly remember we ever met."
Glenn looked at him with a very judgy face, and at that point, I felt that it was a mistake to have taken notice of this guy. Maybe it was better if I didn't say anything. He was so weird. I didn't have to trust Glenn's expression to notice this.
I retracted my hands from him and said, "Sorry. Maybe it wasn't you," then I grabbed Glenn and walked past him.
As his two friends gave us path, Maggie called out, "Oh madam! I never know your name!"
I ignored him. Fortunately, Glenn didn't say anything about that either. I had a thought he wanted to, but decided not to say anything. It apparently wasn't worth mentioning, and I completely agreed. The rest of the day went by smoothly. Glenn took me home, and we agreed to meet Andrew in two days. He also said that he'll try contacting Esther again to see whether she wanted to come with us.
In those two days, I was thinking about the knight guy we met near the park. At that time I remembered him as the waiter in the café from the original timeline. He looked the same though, which was probably why I remembered him. And also, I think the same weird attitude and aura coming from him could also be the other factors.
Glenn called a cab for the two of us when we arrived at New Jersey's airport. Esther didn't come. He told me that she kept rejecting his calls, so he gave up and decided to call her again after we reached Andrew. I patted his back on the plane.
On the way to Andrew, we kept Andrew's mom on the line the entire road for fearing of being lost. I kinda felt we insulted the cab driver a bit by doing that, but the dear driver only smiled at us knowingly.
We arrived at Andrew's house around an hour later, around dusk, and his mom welcomed us.
"Thank you for doing this for Andrew," the kind lady said as she was preparing us tea.
We were currently in the kitchen/dining room. It was like in cousin Dante's house, the dining room and the kitchen was combined as one. So we sat by the dining table while she was preparing the tea.
"It's nothing, mam. Andrew's a friend. Besides, Lynn here missed him," Glenn said, his head lying on the dining table as he stretched his arms to the front, towards me.
I shot him a look which he replied with a spit his tongue at me.
The lady laughed jingly, "He's a very cute boy, isn't he?"
I glanced at the lady a bit uncomfortably, "Uhh.. Yes... He is."
A jingly laugh sounded again from kind lady after I said that. Then I looked back at Glenn, who was smiling satisfyingly. I glared at him with a passion.
The tea arrived around 5 minutes later, accompanied by slices of pandan-vanilla cakes and milk cookies. The aroma pricked my nostrils and I could hardly contain myself. Andrew's mom sat with us, enjoying the tea together.
"You know, kids, I actually told Andrew about you coming to visit."
Both of us turned on our full attention on her words. All of us here knew that Andrew rejected Glenn's calls in the past weeks, and Andrew's mom was the one answering the call instead.
"Did he say anything? What did he say?" Glenn asked.
The lady shook her head, "He was quiet. He asked me when you will arrive. When I answered, he just nodded."
I swallowed the cookies in my mouth, "Did he show anything on his face? Anger, or, sad, or..."
The lady shook her head again. When she was about to answer, the front door opened.
"Mom~ I'm home!"
That was Andrew's voice. His mom answered back and we heard some shuffling before a skinny and tall young man came into view.
He stopped in front of the kitchen and I could see how he had changed over these months. His once fair skin seemed to become a bit darker. His once chubby cheeks became thinner. His once very short hair now became longer, sleeked back and reaching the middle of his neck. His eyes stayed the same though, although the more I see them, they looked a bit sullen.
Andrew leaned on the door-frame when he took notice of us. He stared at us while we stared at him. A long silence came across and I could feel there's a knot somewhere in the vicinity.
"You came," Andrew said.
Glenn nodded and replied, "Yeah. Hey."
Andrew nodded. Then he looked to the side while tapping the floor with his foot, "I'm going to clean up. I'm sweaty," then he left. I could hear him going upstairs.
'Andrew changed a lot, did he?' I thought to myself. Then I heard a sigh from Andrew's mom.
"Thank goodness."
Glenn turned his head at her, "He didn't seem angry. Was that his angry face?"
I also looked at her and that's when the lady giggled without saying anything.
"That's good to hear," I said while continue sipping on my tea.
Glenn glanced at me, "What is? She just laughed."
"Yup," I said. Glenn had no idea.
Andrew came back a few minutes later, now wearing a black tank top and a red trunk. He took a seat in front of his mom, which is between me and Glenn. I couldn't believe I'm looking forward to what he would say to us. I was against meeting anyone in the past, yet just by meeting Andrew like this made me want to gather the crew once again.
"How was your flight?" Andrew asked after a long silence.
His mom instantly laughed.
I smiled and tried my best to not add the sugar in the cake. Glenn was the one answering him.
"It was bad. A dog kept on barking at the toilet door and I can't stop thinking there's a zombie in our midst."
That got Andrew to smile. He seemed to hold back a laugh and shook his head.
"I forgot you were so realistic that only zombies are scary to you."
Glenn scoffed, "At least they change scientifically."
"You positivist," Andrew retorted back.
I felt warmth gushing in my stomach as I observed the two of them. Memories of the past flooding my mind and I could see Andrew and Glenn joking over on a terrace. They were sitting on the floor and turning colorful papers into origami birds. It felt nostalgic.
Andrew looked at me and noticed me staring at him while smiling. He smiled back.
"How are you, Lynn?"
I blinked back the memories before answering truthfully, "Better."
His smile got wider, "Me too. And seeing both of you here just made it a percent better."
Glenn boo-ed at him.
We stayed the night and caught up on many things. The four of use made sure to not discuss 'that' matter yet, and we're all good.
Apparently, he became allergic to shrimps and beefs now, so he only ate chicken and avoid sea foods altogether. I gotta say it wasn't a feasible reason for his weight loss, but I guessed it was the stress.
His mom added a few anecdotes he forgot, and we quite enjoyed the night.
"Here's a glass of water in case you're thirsty," Andrew said as I settled down on the bed.
"Thank you..."
He nodded, "Don't mention it," then he walked to door but stopped, "Hey... Lynn?"
"Hmm?" I looked at him from the bed.
He turned around while holding the doorknob, "You're not leaving tomorrow, are you?"
I looked at him for a moment. It felt like he still wanted us here—
"I still want to spend time with you guys. It's been months."
Yep, that's it.
"It had been two months," I corrected him.
He rolled his eyes, "Please?"
I chuckled and decided to appease the young man, "We're here for two days, Ands."
That got him to sigh in relief.
"Have a good dream, Lynn," he wished me before turning off the light.
I replied him a thanks and wished him the same, then he closed the door. I felt relieved that Andrew was able to accept us openly like this. Although, I was surprised at how much he changed.
That time when I first saw him in the doorway, I could remember how he was before the project. A bit fat, chubby, bubbly, and very talkative especially about food. But when I saw him then, he was the opposite. It wasn't that I don't like it, but I was just surprised at how contrast it is.
I wished what I did was right by meeting with Andrew and Glenn. Then I thought of Esther, and I got the feeling that the girl would need someone to talk about that too. And I thought of giving her someone to talk to. Maybe I could discuss it with the boys tomorrow. I closed my eyes as I finally felt the sleepiness creeping in.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a nice dream as Andrew and I both wished for.