FRIEND BUT MARRIED
part 25's
Yeah, it's the same, me or you he told me about, we finally met here."
***
Finally Tera nodded her head as her eyes stared around the place she was going to use for her wedding reception, from the three places Zara had proposed to. Zara was busy seducing her heart to stay calm.
"I'm lucky to know you, Za. You're the best." Tera looked at Zara and threw a smile that always made Zara's heart swell instantly.
And how unlucky I am to know you in this way. Zara was crying in her heart. His feelings were shattered into pieces. Why did God have so much heart for him, sowing the seeds of this feeling when in the end it only reaped pain.
***
Nita widened her eyes as soon as Zara thrust all the work she had arranged and worked on for the past 3 weeks..
"I've done everything. If there is a small change, I leave it to you. I'm gonna go out of town stuff one week."
"What's? Going in crucial moments like this? Not wrong?"
"I'm sorry Nit. I have to go."
"But you're coming back this Saturday, right?"
Zara shook her head weakly, Nita narrowed her eyes.
"Za, what's wrong?"
Zara shook her head again, the warm grains were now starting to come out one by one from both eyes.
"Yes, geez." Nita shifted her sitting position and hugged her best friend.
"I don't know when the taste came up Nit, but I do know that this is all wrong. That's why I have to go."
"I told you, there's nothing wrong with love, Za." Nita rubbed her best friend's back. A line of smiles adorned her thin lips.
***
Zara glanced at the screen of her phone, seen rows of letters forming the name Lantern. I don't know how many times that name has appeared there. Not long ago the name Dela, then Nita, followed by Gery who appeared on the screen of his phone. But none that he raised. Currently he just wants to be alone, enjoy the wave of coconut leaves, the pounding of the waves, the wind and the soothing aroma of the sea.
He knew that this effort would be in vain, but at least for now it could calm his troubled heart.
***
Zara was stunned to see a man sitting in the gazebo of her tant house. How did he know he was here?
"Your mother told me." Gery smile. Zara grunts.
"Za, I'm sorry if I disturbed your composure. But it's important."
Zara is silent.
"We tried to contact you, but your phone is off."
"I'm here to tell you that there's two more days on Nita's schedule for a caesarean section."
Two more days? One day before Tera and Dela's wedding?.
"That's why we need you there to get things done."
Zara cast her gaze towards the vast sea.
"Za, there are times when we have to accept what happens with a big heart. Believe me if in every event there is always wisdom that accompanies it.” Gery pats Zara on the shoulder and says goodbye.
***
The clock on his wrist pointed at the number 7 at night. Today is one day before the wedding of Tera and Dela in the helat. He has to make sure everything is in place even though part of his heart doesn't want to be here. Zara stepped heavily between the neatly lined pots of chrysanthemums on her left right. The backyard of the cafe that Tera chose as the location of her wedding reception looks beautiful among the dimness of the garden lights. Shades of white adorn every corner of the green grassy yard. Fragrant roses and jasmine vying tickle her nose.
It felt like he was moving away from the place but his responsibility for the job forced him to stay. The beautiful face of princess Nita and Gery who had just greeted the world flashed in her eyes.
Zara stepped into the gazebo that had been prepared for the wedding ceremony tomorrow. A table with a lacy tablecloth and some neatly arranged chairs greeted him. Zara smiled, the concept of marriage like this is what she wants for her wedding later. Not when.
“Mbak Za, thanks for everything. We'll never know what exactly we want if we don't meet with Za."
Zara frowned. "Oh my God, don't go overboard. It's all my duty, because you've hired my services."
Dela shaking. Sliding the big box containing the clothes that he would actually wear tomorrow towards Zara.
"I don't want to wear this yet, there are still things I want to achieve out there. A bond will only limit my steps. I am happy that God has finally heard and granted my prayers. I'm glad this wedding doesn't have to happen."
Zara looked at the two people sitting before her in a confused romance.
Dela got up from her seat, approached Zara and hugged her warmly and passed away leaving Zara and Tera both.
“Therefore this marriage we have canceled since three weeks ago.” Not yet relieved Zara's surprise because of Dela's sentences, Tera now even adds to the list of shock that makes her head as if hit by a hammer many times.
“I'm sorry, Za, but that feeling suddenly appeared without being able to resist, dominating the deepest aisles of my heart. Torturing my mind for longing. Every day that is in my head is just you.”
Hearing the sentence that slid rapidly from Tera's lips made Zara's vision suddenly twitched which was finally greeted by darkness.
Today Zara is busy with wedding plans that she is working on. Gery, the husband of Nita who is also the boss at the place where she works now has given her own free working hours for the next month.
"Za, it looks like this time it's just you and Tera." Gery pulls up a chair for Zara.
“Dela notified me this morning. The results of all the discussion today will be immediately sent via email to Dela, how is Mas Tera?"
"Call Tera only, the horror is not good at being called mas. I feel so old." Tera laughed, showing her shaggy teeth suddenly recorded sweet in Zara's brain.
***
After going through a long conversation with Tera about all the wishes that were in her head. Zara began to record all the important points for her and the bride and groom will work next. Zara occasionally gives input and advice.
"Why can our minds be the same?" Tera laughs.
"It happens the same, usually this initial process is most complicated. It's a record for me, one day can be done." Zara closed her laptop slowly.
***
Today, Dela called Zara again, telling her that she was out of town and could not decide on the design of the invitations and souvenirs they were going to use. Zara suggests to back off the day but Dela refuses. His powerful voice had made Zara say yes many times. And now he and Tera have been stranded in a room whose walls are filled with invitation cards in various colors and designs.
"Well, the planner and his client apparently have their own chemistry." Wendi, a colleague of Zara, the invitation card designer smiled when he saw two index fingers pointing at the same design in the invitation template in front of them.
"It has to be dong, so not much time wasted." Zara smiled between Tera's glances.
***
The wall clock in his room had pointed to the number 2 in the morning. But Zara's eyes won't be closed either. It came back to his mind this afternoon. The white brocade kebaya was tightly attached to his body without the slightest resistance. Henry, the designer forced him to model his design home catalog that he would publish soon. Because Dela was not involved, Henry asked Zara to be willing to do a pair of photoshoots with Tera in order to catch the deadline. If Henry wasn't his old friend maybe Zara would have rejected him outright. As for Tera, the man casually agreed to Henry's request even looks excited.
"God why this has to happen." Zara looked at her face in the mirror. Hand grips, smiles, eye twitching, until the nod of Tera's head was still clearly visible in his eyes.
Zara shakes. "No, this can't happen."
But the more Zara denied all her feelings the stronger the sense of them emerged.
"I can't be like this. I have to throw this taste away. This is so wrong."
***
Zara was busy calming her heart between her irregular heartbeat when she saw Tera sitting relaxed, waiting for her at the coffee shop next to her office. Zara closed her eyes for a moment to make sure that she would be fine facing Tera today. As soon as he saw Zara, Tera moved up, pulling the chair in front of him to sit on the mature brown-skinned woman.
"As usual Dela is absent. And it will make today better ... Err, I mean faster to make a decision.” Tera opened the conversation.
"O yeah? usually he always tells us when he can't keep up with our schedule." Zara's forehead is wrinkled.
Tera smiled, the smile that brought Zara soared into the air.
"Yes, just the same, me or you he told me, we finally met here."