-chapter six-
-present day-
“She had Estelle to say goodbye to you?” Brian says while pouring creamer on his coffee.
“Yep,” Darren takes his coffee from the counter.
“Tough.”
He scoffs, “Maybe I was that dumb. I mean, she never really put herself in the relationship anyway. I was expecting too much. I should’ve seen the signs.”
-some ten months ago-
He came to her apartment after spending the weekend in Chicago. He opened the door to her place to find a man was cooking in her kitchen.
“Omigod, you’re the real Darren Mitchell, all this time I thought Adya was just loosing her mind,” the man came over to him. He was slightly shorter than Darren, he was part Chinese, and with that he couldn’t really tell whether the guy was younger or older than him. He couldn’t be Adya’s sibling, she doesn’t have a brother. The guy extended his hand to shake his.
“Um, who are you?” Darren said as he shook the guy’s hand.
“Silly me!” the guy was like Kurt Hummel’s Asian twin if he ever have one. “I’m Steve, Steven Gunawan, I heard so much about you.”
His name should ring a bell to him, but it didn’t come up at all.
“I’m Adya’s friend down in Tucson. I guess Adya didn’t tell you I’m coming to visit?”
Finally the bell rung, a bit, this was the Steven whose clothes he borrowed the first time he spent the night here. “Ow, okay. I’m not sure, where’s Addy?”
“She hasn’t come back, she has meeting with her advisor I think,” he said and got back to his cooking.
“You get in how?”
“Ow I got a spare key,” the man said. “Have you had your dinner? I understood you just got back from Chicago.”
He was taken aback. He hadn’t heard a lot of Steven, except when the time Adya explained why she had men clothing in her closet. Now he found out not only that his clothes were in Adya’s closet, this man had spare keys to her place too…their place…well actually he was not so sure. Sure he spent most of his nights there, but he was not really living there. He still had his apartment, but it was far away from campus. It was easier for Adya to live near campus that was why they spent more time in her place rather than his.
“Um I’m sorry, I’m not sure I’m really comfortable with this. What is your relationship with Adya anyway?” He realized he doesn’t know much about the guy.
Steve looked at him and caught on his concern, “If you’re asking whether we used to go out, no. Adya’s not my type, as you can see, if it’s not too obvious. Not even when I was still confused. She’s like a big sister to me.”
“Okay,” he took a seat on the stool.
“She’s my friend for like, 14 years now. One of the first person that I came out to.”
“Ow, so you’re her college friend?”
“Oh no, we met on the radio, back in the days, I’m sure you heard about that.”
“Um, I’m not sure I have. Adya was a DJ?” he was surprised the things he hadn’t learned about her. His friends always referred her as a ‘desk’. A term they like to call people who work behind a desk. But he never knew she was an artist like him too. He realized he didn’t know a lot about her life in Indonesia, she didn’t tell him much about her college years in Indonesia, or how her family was, except for her sister.
“I believe the term we used back then was ‘air talent’. She’s one of the most creative person I know, lots of imagination. Did she tell you she did this one show, when she compared the listener song requests with her song requests? Stirred up the pot that show did.”
He sat down on the stool and listened to Steve’s words.
“She designed most of the shows in our radio. She even had the knacks of catchy tunes and even named the announcer. I mean she and I were blessed with catchy yet serious radio names, most people needed to change their last names. She was really passionate about it.”
“How come she never told me this?”
Steve stopped from his cooking and looked at Darren, “Seriously?”
“Yeah, all I know is that she’s a bookish person who studies Geography and just like to listen to music.”
Steve smiled, “Guess she changed a bit huh? Don’t tell me she’s no longer chatty and her sarcasm had gone.”
“The sarcasm still stays, but I can’t say she’s chatty right now.”
“No shit, what happened to her?”
He said nothing in return.
“Do you still want dinner now?”
Darren chuckled, “That’d be nice thank you.”
Steve poured a bowl of curry and gave him pratha bread, “You like Indian food right?”
“I eat pretty much anything.”
“Ah, right, I think I read that somewhere.”
He sighed, “That’s kinda unfair. I mean, I just realized that Adya knew so much about me, but all I knew about her is her life here, why is that?”
“Have you tried asking?” Steve said while taking a seat on the stool in front of him.
“Yeah, but she doesn’t talk much of it.”
“Hmph, that doesn’t sound like Adya at all.”
“Tell me the Adya you know then,” he said.
“Um, how much do you want to know? I mean, I hate to be a snitch for her.”
“To snitch means she has something to hide.”
“Well everybody had history and baggage.”
“Is it so bad?”
“Meh… After all these time you’re still with her, I figured nothing will surprise you much.”
“I don’t know, it might,” he said.
Then Steven filled him up on facts about Adya. Like what both of her parents do for a living, how she was raised, he even filled him up on Adya’s past love lives.
“She dated two guys for like nine months, and none knew about it. She’s a bitch that way. I don’t know how she got this bookish reputation from you. Back in the days, she’d cut classes for radio show. Her graduation was postponed for a year because of her gigs, her GPA barely made it for her scholarship.”
He raised his eyebrow, “She cheated on a guy, and none of them know about it?”
Steven laughed, “Yeah, but that was the first and last though. She learned her lesson from that.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive, she told me everything, so for the record, you’re fine.”
Just as Steve said that they heard the key turning, and Adya walked in.
“Omigod, you’re here!” she exclaimed. He was taken aback, he thought she was welcoming him, that was a rare thing for her, but she went straight to hug Steve. They traded small talks about when he came and stuff.
“I see you two had met,” she came over to Darren and gave him a kiss. He just gave her a small smile, not sure he was comfortable with the situation.
“And all these time I thought you were delusional when you mentioned him,” Steve said.
Adya laughed, “Hey you’re making curry, can I have some?”
“Sure!” Steve said, “Let me heat the bread for you.”
“Sweet,” Adya said and took a seat next to Darren. They ate their dinner as Adya and Steven traded conversations. He had never seen this side of her. She was glowing, and he knew it wasn’t him that did that, it was Steven.
She went inside the bedroom after she set up the couch for Steven. “How was Chicago?” she asked him as she climbed into bed.
“Great, the production really starting to take off,” he watched her putting on lotion, it part of her nightly routine.
“Can’t wait to see the next musical, maybe I’ll invite Steve, I’m sure he’d like to tag along.”
He let out a small smile. He was deciding whether to bring it up or not, but he decided to do it anyway. “You’re different with him.” He said while he climbed in to bed.
She stopped and looked at him, “Different how?”
“I don’t know, you seemed to glow when you’re talking to him. And you became, chatty, I mean chattier.”
“He’s my Stevie, he knows me best.”
He became quiet, “Then what am I?”
She smiled nervously, “What is this?”
“I mean, you seemed so different when you’re with him. I’ve never seen you like this before.”
She let out a small smile, “I’m just comfortable with him I guess.”
“He told me a lot about you. Why didn’t you tell me you were a radio DJ?”
“The correct word is….”
“Air talent, I know,” he cut her. “He told me you’re a photographer, you did weddings and stuff.”
“Looks like someone has been chatty.”
“Listening to him made me realize, I don’t know shit about you. I mean, you know all these stuff about me, it’s available online by the way. But I can’t find out how you take your coffee online. Or what you did in your middle school, or why did you give up your dream of being a producer.”
“Because interest leads to questions leads to expectations. I’d rather be dull and boring than to answer questions then people find out I’m not as cool as they thought.”
“Is the wall that high, even I can’t seem to climb it?”
She didn’t answer the question.
“I love you Addy, you know that. But it hurts me that when I found out that I know nothing about you.”
“Let’s take it this way, you’re the one who know me the most in this life,” she said and smile. “I’ve had a long say, my advisor is riding me hard on my dissertation. She’s like anal about it.” He knew she didn’t want to discuss it longer.
He just gave her a small smile.
“Good night,” she kissed him and went to sleep.
That night he stayed awake for quite some time, staring at the ceiling then he watched her asleep. It was weird how suddenly she became a stranger to him. But he convinced himself it was just him being paranoid and maybe slightly jealous to Steven because he knew her better than he did.
-present day-
“I got an idea,” Brian’s voice breaks his thoughts.
He looks up to Brian, “What?”
“Maybe it’s time we do a ‘Bro Vacay’.”
“Dude, I haven’t heard that word since, I don’t know when.”
“That’s why it’s time for it to make a come back! Whaddaya say? I’ll set it up, and all you have to do is say yes.”
Darren looks at his best friend and winces, “I don’t know.”
“Come on, it’ll be fun!”
He sighs, no way getting out of it, “Fine.” He says finally.
“Sweet, I’ll arrange it and I’ll let you know.”
Darren sips his coffee, he knows he doesn’t need a vacation, he needs her. He looks at his phone again, still nothing.
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