FF1: Remember Me

"Would you remember me when I'm gone?" - FF1

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Yrrah cupped her hurting head. She tried to open her heavy eyelids. Her sight was still a bit blurry when she scanned the unfamiliar place.

"Hija, why did you do that?"

Yrrah was still bewildered when she heard that concerned and very sad voice.

"Yaya?" She couldn't believe that her caregiver, who's like her second mother, was at her bedside. "Why are you here? Oh! Did you cry? Why?" she asked consecutively as she noticed that fluffiness of Yaya's eye bags. The last time that she saw her yaya was two months ago when the older woman visited her here in Manila. Her caregiver was staying in her father's ancestral house in the province.

Yrrah blinked her eyes several times. She was blinded by the whiteness of the place and she noticed the needles on her right arm connected to the dextrose. "Am I in the hospital?"

"Don't you remember what had happened, child? You tried to drown yourself in the bathtub. Luckily, your husband forgot something and went back to your unit. He found you almost lifeless and brought you here in the hospital." Her caregiver's tears streamed down to her cheeks.

"That's insane! I would never kill myself," she protested in a firm but low voice.

She tried to remember what had happened. Zach left their condo. She had a few shots of wine. How few? She couldn't remember well.

'What'd came to my mind to even step on the bathtub? Oh! Of course, I was drunk. I wasn't thinking straight and rational. If he didn't come back, I'm dead meat by now. You seemed so desperate, Yrrah! How pathetic that he'd seen you that way. He's probably laughing his ass out when he saw you. He might think that you cannot live without him. Urgh! So, pitiful!' She thought to herself.

"Where is he, Yaya?" Apart of her wanted to see or possibly to give him thanks. She didn't want to admit it but she terribly misses him already. Yes, she's indeed miserable; a wreckage doll.

"After your husband called me and when the doctor assured me that you're fine. He immediately left to catch his flight," the older woman said whilst looking at her sympathetically, "Hija, love comes in every other way, you're maybe hurt but it is only for now. Please, take care of yourself. There's no greater gift in this world than life," she added.

She chuckled softly. "No, Yaya. It was but an honest mistake. I will never kill myself. Yes, I got drunk probably... But committing suicide? No. That's ridiculous. And no, I don't l-love him!" she stuttered a bit.

She kept on reminding herself not to fall for him. It's just that, it really hurts her pride. She felt like she was punched on her gut. That man, who came in her life two years ago without a bell, claiming to be her fiancé then what? Two years later he left? He didn't care about her, did he? He didn't consider their relationship even it's just on paper and left just like that!

'But loving him? That gold-digger beaver! That's big bullshit! How dare he! But wait. . . Why he didn't just let me drown on that bathtub? He could get all my wealth as we're still waiting for the divorce paper. Technically, we're still a couple. Hmm? He probably thought that he might be accused of murder. A wise decision for him indeed.' Again, these thoughts were on her mind.

"Your mind and mouth can lie but never your eyes," her yaya said.

Her eyebrows furrowed, really tight that she could feel the throbbing pain on the space in between. She couldn't help but formed a disapproving arc on her pale lips.

"It's impossible you didn't fall for your husband becau—" her yaya's words had been cut when the doctor and nurse entered her room.

"How do you feel, Mrs. Ravelo?" the doctor asked.

"Never been better," she replied with a flash of sarcasm.

The doctor just checked her eyes, ears, and pulse. She then signed her releasing the paper. "You're good to go. You can call your husband so that you'll be discharged right away. Seeing how worried he is yesterday, you're lucky to have him. You must take care of your body especially you're still young. The activity is good but doesn't force yourself, okay?" The doctor smiled knowingly.

Yrrah almost choked.

'Him, worried? Did he learn how to act now? That's bizarre!'

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SHE WENT back to his father's mansion in Quezon province. There's no need to go back to that condo. She just asked her yaya to get all her personal things there and probably let someone rent the place. Somehow, she couldn't fathom to sell the condominium. They still had memories embedded in that place, some may be bitter and perhaps fake still she learned a lot from them.

Fake. She bowed down and didn't know why but her heart seemed aching. No. It really felt broken.

Time will heal all wounds. It's only been two weeks, too early to gather up her scattered heart and to mold up her smashed ego. Staying in her room would do her no good at all, but just to reminisce their time together, though, she could count it in her fingers. Yes. They've been married for two years and lived in the same roof yet, they were worse than roommates with polar interest. It seemed that they couldn't stand each other's presence so, to be hidden with each other's was the best they could do.

She got up her bed and took a shower. It's nine in the morning. For the first time in two weeks, she ate her breakfast, though it's cold already. Their housemaid always put her breakfast on the side table around seven in the morning, and they always replaced the untouched food with morning snack at around 9:30 AM. She barely checked it though. Then, they will serve her lunch at 12. Again, very seldom that she tried it. The foods were tasteless to her. Her taste bud missed something.

She learned how to cook in those two years and right now, she felt like doing it. She went down to the kitchen and saw their cook, Manang Eva, just starting to prepare the ingredients for their lunch.

"Señorita, are yo-you hungry? Should I pre-prepare your snack now?" The older lady asked nervously. Manang Eva set aside the onions that she's cutting. She didn't want to be scolded by the spoiled-brat young lady.

"No, Manang. I just want to help with cooking. Can you teach me more? You're the second-best cook I ever know."

The cook was startled to what her young mistress just said. Ever since Yrrah was a kid, she neither complimented their cook nor she set her foot in the kitchen. She always so picky with her foods as well. The old lady remembered that the nine-year-old kid, thrown the hot soup to her when she disliked the taste. It burned her left arms. Mr. Olevar was the one who apologized to her and compensated her well. The little girl was grounded but she never changed. She had temper and no one could tame her even her own father.

'Dios Mio! What happens to her? Was being away for two years made her more matured?' Manang Eva thought to herself.

"What are you going to cook?" Yrrah asked.

"B-beef steak. It's your favorite, right? Do you like any other dish, Señorita?"

"No. That's fine. I'm going to cut these onions." After she washed her hands, she positioned herself in front of the kitchen island and cut the onions.

Though the older lady still couldn't believe the miracle that happened to their conceited princess, she's still thankful for it and silently wished that it's for good. She'd just checked the meat that on the pot to be tendered.

While cutting the onions, Yrrah remembered the first time she tried to cook, a month after they got married as it's her turned to do it at that time. Her strict husband wouldn't allow her to just order a take- out food. He commanded her to cook their lunch at that time.

She watched the chef on the Youtube channel, frying a fish and it looks so easy. She put olive oil on the pan, let it heat for a few minutes then she put the fish on it.

She was dumbfounded when the frying pan fired-up. To her surprise, she immediately got the pan and thrown it to the sink closer to the kitchen window with accent curtains. But the lips of the fire kissed the thin curtains, it's started to burn and the dirty white fog built up. The smoke alarm in their unit whistled noisily.

Zach was currently taking a shower at that time. He rushed out of the washroom. His lower torso was covered by the towel, water still drifting from his wet hair to his flawless face down to his upper well-toned body.

"What the hell have you done!" he yelled in bewilderment. He opened the kitchen faucet and splashed water on the curtains at once.

She was shocked when he yelled and timidly moved backward to the corner like a scared tiny puppy. That's the first time someone shouted at her. She was the one shouting or scolding other people not the other way around. She felt degraded.

When Zach finally extricated the fire on the curtains, he fanned the vociferous smoke detector. Because he lifted his arms, the towel loosens and fell down.

Yrrah's half-moon shaped eyes, widened in awe as her husband's jaw-dropping body in natal suit expectedly revealed to her very eyes for the first time. It was also the first time that she saw a naked man in her 19 years of existence on earth.

She felt her cheeks increased its temperature. Truly, it turned as red as a strawberry. Though they've been married for a month, they never slept together. She slept in the bedroom whilst he's on the sofa in the living room.

Zach was as stupified as Yrrah. His eyes unconsciously glanced to his wife, who's covering her face with her hands, eyes widely open and peeking in between her fingers. He couldn't suppress the impish smile as his reddish lips lifted its edge to the right.

'Enjoy the nice view while it lasts, wife,' he's naughty inner voice mocked.

When he finally silenced the alarm, he picked up his towel and went back to the bathroom as if nothing happens.

"Don't you dare cook without proper training from now on. Be mindful of the people who are gonna suffer if you put this building on fire," he intentionally said it in a tone as cold as winter season, still using his signature emotionless face.

The tears that Yrrah was suppressing, finally streamed down on the smoothness of her cheeks.

Why did daddy want me to be married to this cold-hearted man? He's so heartless not to even ask if I ever hurt myself.

She checked her arms that's been smeared by boiling cooking oil. Her skin was quite reddish and it stung.

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UNEDITED

A/N: Yaya means a caregiver in the Philippines. It is also used as an endearment to them as the Filipinos never call the older person on a first-name basis.

Manang is an honorific term for the older person than yourself.