“YOU’RE early today, huh? What’s up?” Tasha asked when she saw Lucille first in the Beauty Clinic.

From the portfolio, Lucille looked at her friend. “I have a sleepless night,” she said without a second thought. “I waited for him to message me, but he didn’t.”

“Who?” Tasha removed her coat and hanged it on a clothing rack beside their door. “The priest?”

Lucille heaved a sigh. “I really love him, and I don’t know if I can live my life now without him.”

“Girl, he’s not yours in the first place,” Tasha snorted. “So you didn’t sleep all night because of that?” She shook her head. “I didn’t expect that you’re that obsessed with him.”

Lucille covered her face with her hands. “Steven is all that I have. He knew that. Still, he left me.”

Steven is Lucille’s childhood friend. Since her parent died in a massive fire from their company, Lucille was left to the care of Steven’s parents, who was their neighbor back then and often looked for her whenever her parents are at work.

“We’ve been together since we’re kids… Steven was there to comfort me when my parents died. He taught me to see the light in the dark and enjoy the little things in life…” Lucille took her phone and looked at her wallpaper, which was Steven. “He’s the person that showed me that love can still be beautiful even after a storm.”

“How romantic,” Tasha commented sarcastically. She sat on her swivel chair and prepare her things on the table. “Did you tell him about you’re hidden desires to him?”

Lucille glanced at her. “I did.”

“What did that Steven say?”

“He said that he loves me too…”

Tasha gasped and looked at her with wide-open eyes. “Really? And, then?”

“He loves me too as her little sister,” she said and fake a cry. “Before he entered the seminary school back then, I confessed to him my real feelings. But, he told me that I’m just confused and still young to know what love is… I was eighteen at that time.”

Tasha looked disappointed. “You must be really hurt…” she said. “Your love journey about that Father Steven was like a romance novel—minus the happy ending.”

“Fuck,” she muttered. “I won’t let that happen. I won’t just let him go to his chosen career with celibacy factor without getting a chance to kiss his luscious lips… To feel his hands all over my body, touching me to the places that longed for him…” Lucille shut her eyes and imagined Steven’s lips kissing her. “Oh, Steven—Ouch!”

“You’re so gross!” Tasha shouted at her. “Did you forget that the CCTV is on and recording all your fantasies about your best friend?”

Lucille rubbed her temple that got hit by Tasha’s ball pen. “What’s wrong with daydreaming?” she complained. “And besides, we’re the only persons that checked the CCTV monitor. No one will see what I did.”

Tasha glared at her. “I can’t believe you. Now I know why that Steven of yours chose to cut his friendship with you,” she said, shaking her head. “He’s so pure and divine, unlike you, liberated and sinful.”

“Sinful? Is it a sin to yearn for the person that I love?” she asked, hugging herself. “I miss his arms wrapped around me as we share the heat from our body—”

“`My goodness, Lucille Verandas!” Tasha cut her. “I don’t want to hear anything that you say about Steven! It gives me goosebumps!” She picked up the LED TV controller and switched it on. “I’d rather watched the news than to listen to your scandalous thoughts.”

Lucille made a ‘tss’ sound. “We’re both virgins here, Tash. I know that there are times in your life you thought about being touched by a man that you love—”

“Shh!” she shouted, eyes on the large TV screen. “My idol Carlson called a press meeting. Why? To announce his comeback concert?”

With a knotted forehead, Lucille turned to their LED TV monitor used for playing powerpoints about promoting their products during peak hours. But there are times also that they used it to watch news and dramas, just like now.

“OMG! He was here yesterday?!” Tasha blurted out. “Why I didn’t see him?”

Lucille stared on the screen and listened to what the man in the middle of a bunch of reporters was saying. On the side of the screen, two photos flashed. The other was a solo, while the other was a stolen shot of three people: a woman in a nurse-like uniform, carrying a male kid, and dragging the man with a mask. The man’s attire was the same as the man on the solo shot.

Lucille looked at the screen closely. The photo of three is looked familiar to her. “Wait a second…” She gasped after confirming that the woman was her. “Oh, my gosh. So it was really him?”

“Who?” Tasha asked, her brows are furrowed.

“That guy on the photo.” She pointed at the screen. “He’s really Carlson, the singer?”

Tasha shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. He denied it.”

Lucille’s mouth fell open. “H-He denied?”

Tasha nodded. “Yes, watch it.”

Lucille returned her gaze to the TV. Although her face and the kid’s face were blurred in the photo, Lucille was so sure that it was her! That shot was taken while they’re running away from a bunch of teenagers. But, Lucille thought that maybe he’s just a look-alike.

“I’m not the man in photos…” Carlson Santillan told the press again. “Yesterday afternoon, I was at the GYM, doing my daily workout. If you want proof, you can call the TRANS GYM owner for confirmation.”

“What the fuck?” Lucille said. “I thought it was him. He really looked like him, the eyes, nose, lips, and even the way he talk and frown.”

“What are you saying? Did you also saw that guy somewhere? Is he one of your clients?” Tasha asked.

“Nope, but I saw him at the arcade yesterday,” she said. “The kid went to me when I was crying…” She trailed off. “Ah, I don’t want to talk about that.”

“You cried?” Tasha asked in disbelief. “Now that’s a first!”

Lucille stood, ignoring her friend. “I’ll prepare the beauty bar, in any minute now, my sassy client will arrive to have her blackhead plucked.”

Tasha made a disgusted expression. “Your client yesterday—Oh, we have a new customer!”

Lucille didn’t bother to look at the door. Tasha can handle new guests all by herself because she was trained to be a beauty consultant and be an accommodating front liner. She gathered all her things and walked towards the clinic.

“Lucille, can I talk to you?”

Lucille froze at her feet. She knew that voice, but she also knew that it’s impossible to be him. With hammering chest, Lucille turned around. The folders in her hands dropped when she saw Steven, as handsome as ever in his semi-casual suit.

“W-What are you doing here?” she stuttered.

Tasha went to pick up her folders and placed them again on her hands. “Sis, why you didn’t tell me that the priest you were talking about looked like a Greek god?”

Lucille swept Tasha away because she’s blocking her view of Steven. She cleared her throat before she spoke again. “Steven, what brought you here?” she asked, her tone suddenly changed from excited to disturbed. “I thought you don’t want to see me anymore?”

***