Spontaneous Encounters Read online

  “He looks so peaceful now.”

  “Yes, the doctors gave him some medicine. They said he needs a lot of rest.”

  Sue put her head on her father’s chest and listened to his heartbeat. She is more frustrated than ever with herself. She knows that she cannot upset her parents, especially her father who’s now in a delicate condition. All the courage she was able to muster up all went down the drain. She just couldn’t do it.

  “Baby… Sue …” her father’s voice gently woke her up.

  “Dad… Sorry, I fell asleep on your chest. I shouldn’t have. Your heart is already under pressure.”

  “I would rather die of high blood pressure than make you move away from my chest, baby.”

  “Awww… Dad, I love you.”

  “I love you, too, baby. The last time you slept on my chest you were nine years old.”

  “Yes, I do remember that. Your chest is as strong as it was when I was young.”

  “It will always be for you, baby. How’s everything in the firm with you?”

  “Nothing I can’t handle. I’m a Bergamon.”

  “That’s my girl.”

  The next day, Sue was back in her office inserting all the finished documents in the envelope to be picked up and delivered by the office’s messenger. Then she took her purse with her to go and have some lunch. When she got out of her building, she was frozen speechless.

  CHAPTER6:

  “So this is where you work, Atty. Bergamon. It’s a really nice building.”

  “Bryan! What are you doing here?”

  “I came to see an old friend.”

  “How did you know where to find me?”

  “I stalked you,” he said with a chuckle. “You told me where you worked the first day we met, remember? I did. So I came to find you.”

  “You are a tumbleweed!”

  “What? I don’t get a hug?”

  Sue ’s astonished face was suddenly replaced with sheer joy at the sight of his sparkling emerald eyes. She instantly ran to him in a passionate kiss. “I’m so happy to see you!”

  “Whew! I’m glad you said that. For a second there, I actually thought that you’d be upset to see me here.”

  “Of course not! You’re all I… You’re always welcome here.”

  Bryan smiled at her unfinished sentence. “You’re all I ever think about too, Sue . I just had to see you or I’d die.” Then, he kissed her tenderly and she felt her knees turn to jelly.

  Bryan stayed with Sue in Baton Rouge for the weekend. This time, it was her who showed him around and took her to all the places she would go to so she can get away from her stressful and mundane life at the firm. “I’m sorry I’m not as good a tour guide as you.”

  Bryan smiled at her and kissed her. “You’ve given me the best tour ever. The tour of your heart.”

  Sue was not head over heels in love with Bryan. She knows she wouldn’t be able to stand another minute without him. But she couldn’t disappoint her parents as well. “Well, what they don’t know can’t hurt them,” she decided. “I know I can please both of them. I just have to make a few sacrifices and adjustments.”

  So Sue lived a double-life, doing her best to work in the firm on weekdays and spending her weekends with Bryan in New Orleans and accompanying him and his band when they perform.

  One weekday, Sue got a call from her dad. He said he was standing outside her building with her mom waiting to have a lunch date with her. She hurried to meet them. She put one arm around each of her mother’s and her father’s arms. As they started to leave, she caught sight of Bryan approaching them smiling.

  She avoided his eyes and tried to ignore him. Bryan was confused. He called out to her and her parents turned around. “Hey there! I thought you already saw me.”

  “Do you know him?” asked Sue ’s father.

  She stared at his emerald eyes for what seemed to her like an eternity and said, “No.”

  CHAPTER7:

  Sue tried to call Bryan several times but he wouldn’t answer his phone. Days passed, and then weeks, still no sign from Bryan. He wouldn’t answer his phone. Even when she drove all the way to New Orleans, he wasn’t there. She asked all his band mates where he could be but nobody could tell her. He just suddenly disappeared.

  She went back home dejected and depressed. She felt so stupid at living a double life. She knew how much pain she must have caused him to deny knowing him straight to his face. And now she’s never going to see him again. The little piece of happiness she had in her miserable life was now gone forever. She deeply regretted everything. She regretted entering the singing contest. She regretted meeting Bryan.

  On her 26th birthday, her parents took her out to dinner. She deeply enjoyed evenings with her parents. She loved seeing them happy and knowing they are proud of her. This evening was all the more special because she was with the two people who love her the most during the most special moment of her year. Yet, deep inside, there was a cut in her heart that refuses to heal. A cut that stops her from enjoying the moment she has with her family.

  After a hearty and delicious dinner, her parents asked the waiter to bring out her birthday cake. When it came to their table, it was absolutely stunning. It was her favorite moist chocolate cake inside with a strawberry buttercream icing with strawberry halves bordering the edges of her cake. In the middle, the words “We love you, Sue” was written in red strawberry syrup with a single candle on top of the “i” of her name.

  They sang her birthday song for her and she blew out the candle. Suddenly, the band started playing jazz signaling the start of the party. Sue cut into her cake and was taking a bite out of it when a most familiar voice pierced her ears. She froze in disbelief of what she was hearing. She turned around to face the voice and she saw on stage, playing his guitar, Bryan.

  She gripped the tablecloth as she stared at him shocked. Their eyes met. She was startled and suddenly averted his eyes.

  “What’s wrong, baby? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  Sue couldn’t utter a word. She asked to be excused and went to the ladies’ room. She inhaled and exhaled deeply trying to compose herself. Then, she opened her purse to retouch her makeup when she saw something shiny and blue inside her purse. She took it out. The royalty of the blue became richer as the light shone on it. She flipped it over and the initials “BS” presented themselves to her again. Her hands trembled.

  She stumbled out of the ladies’ room and onto her seat, still with a blank face. Her father asked her, “Is everything alright, baby?”

  “Dad, Mom, I need to tell you something.”

  “What is it, baby?”

  It felt like something was in her throat blocking the words from coming out of her mouth.

  “Baby, what’s wrong?” her father asked again.

  She finally mustered up the courage to push the words out of her mouth, “I don’t want to be a lawyer anymore.”

  Her parents gaped at what she just said. “What are you talking about?”

  “I don’t want to be a lawyer anymore.” Pointing to Bryan on stage, “And that guy on stage with the guitar, he was the one who called out to me a couple of months ago when you came to my office to go have some lunch but I said I didn’t know him. But I do know him. And I don’t just know him. I love him.”

  “Are you out of your mind? You’re going to throw all of this away just for some guy?”

  “No, dad. This isn’t about him. This is about me. It has nothing to do with him. I never wanted to become a lawyer in the first place. I just took up law because you’re both lawyers and you’ve always expected me to be like you and I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

  Both her parents were speechless and upset. They sat in silence. Bryan, who was on stage watching them, spoke on the microphone, “Ladies and gentlemen, someone here in the crowd is having her birthday party. Why don’t we all welcome the birthday girl to the stage, Atty. Sue Bergamon!” The crowd applauded. Bryan reached out his hand to
Sue with a warm and forgiving smile.

  Sue started to walk towards the stage when her father suddenly grabbed her by the wrist. She gently touched her father’s hand and soothingly said, “Let me show you how great a Bergamon can be.”

  Her father let her go and she went up to the stage to Bryan. “I’m sorry.”

  “No time for that now. I’ll punish you later. But right now, sing. Your audience is waiting.”

  Bryan started to play his guitar and Sue grabbed the microphone tightly. Then, she started to sing and let the music fill her soul as she sang. Her parents were wide-eyed and gaping again as they listened to their daughter sing for the first time. They never even knew she could sing. After her astounding finale, Sue got a standing ovation from her audience, including her parents.

  After her song, she joined them back in their table. “What do you think, Dad?”

  Her father sat still, not breathing a word. “Dad?”

  “You’re perfect, baby. Just perfect!”

  Tears of joy instantly streamed down her and her mother’s face as she hugged him tightly. “I love you, Dad, Mom. You know I would never do anything to make you ashamed of me and I know you also want me to be happy. Music makes me happy. Singing on stage, singing for other people makes me happy. I really want to make you proud of me.”

  Her father stared into her hazel brown eyes and ran his fingers through her wavy light brown hair and smiled, “Always have been, baby… Always will be.”

  The Bergamon couple spent the rest of the evening in the restaurant being serenaded by their only daughter on stage on her birthday as she sings to the strumming of Bryan’s guitar.

  Finally, she is at peace with herself. Finally, her dreams that were once separate—that of making her parents happy with and proud of her and that of singing her heart out on the stage in front of a great crowd of people—has now become one and has now come true for her. Finally, she can stay true to herself, no longer needing to hide inside herself, and stay true to the man who makes music that much sweeter and life that much more beautiful.

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER3:

  CHAPTER4:Sue

  CHAPTER5:

  CHAPTER6:

  CHAPTER7: