BEYOND ILLUSIONS

It was 5:30 in the afternoon, JA had to rush from the office to give her boyfriend's a birthday surprise. She just arrived yesterday from a business trip with her brother, and she wanted to surprise his boyfriend and make his birthday the most memorable one. She had never done anything like this before and she was thinking it was time to make it up for him. She even baked a special birthday cake that was totally textured and on top of it were three colorful donuts because she knew those were his favorites. She also bought him a birthday present wrapped in a small box.

She smiled upon thinking how he would react to the gift she had prepared for him. She looked again at her watch. It was almost six so she had to go in a hurry because her boyfriend would normally be out from work at 6:30 in the evening.

She dropped by at Annabel's Restaurant to make sure everything was set ready for the dinner. It was really a great place for dining, and it had a classic fine ambiance. As soon as she entered, one waiter showed her the way and directed her towards the reserved table.

The setup was totally romantic with flowers, candles, and a decorative centerpiece placed on the table. She placed the cake there and headed her way out to pick him up. It was really her first time going to the hospital where her boyfriend was working. She was a little bit ashamed of thinking about picking him up, though she knew he has also a car. She had never been used to it, just only for this day.

After 10 minutes of driving, she reached at St. Luke Medical Center where her boyfriend was working. He was a surgeon and one of the best doctors in the hospital. She thought of calling him first before coming inside. His phone kept on ringing, but he did not pick it up.

She thought maybe he was still in the operating room, so she just stayed inside her car. She waited for almost 30 minutes, but no boyfriend has come out. She tried to dial again but still no answer. She headed towards the entrance because she felt there was something wrong, so she had to ask everyone inside only to find out that her boyfriend, Dr. Ace Delos Reyes, took a half-day leave.

"But why did he not tell me?"

She went back to her car and started the engine. She kept on thinking what was going on. She started to get uneasy, and her heart was beating so fast.

"Did something happen to him?"

She just thought that maybe he was just hanging around with his friends somewhere. But he told her this morning when she called him that he has five scheduled surgical operations today.

"How come he took a half-day leave?"

She looked around where she could park her car to somewhere not crowded until she found a quiet place. Maybe it was time to find the truth. She heaved a deep sigh as she stopped the car. As much as she could she did not want to undergo extrasensory perception because she knew what would happen next, but she wanted to know what was in his mind and what he was doing.

She looked at her watch and it was past seven already. She dialed again his number but this time, he was totally unattended. She contacted the restaurant where the dinner date was set and told the female in charge there to just leave everything as is, until tomorrow morning, even if she had to pay additional charges.

She gave her boyfriend's cellphone number and told her to tell Ace to come over to the place as soon as she could reach him. After a few minutes of conversation, she ended up the call and turned her phone off because she did not want any interruption while doing the mental telepathy.

She looked around inside her car to find anything that belonged to him. She spotted his leather jacket he left last time in the back seat, so she grabbed it and placed it on her lap. She took a deep sigh and began to close her eyes with one hand holding his jacket while the other hand was on the car's steering wheel. It took 10 minutes before she ended it up.

Tears filled her eyes, and in a moment, they were rolling down her cheeks. It was hard to believe that her boyfriend was cheating on her, after two years of relationship. She read everything in his mind. And what he was doing had somehow brought an inexplicable pain in her heart.

She clasped her hands in front of her face and started sobbing. Her boyfriend was there in a suite with a woman. And that woman was her best friend Trixie Marie. His body was next to hers, touching, savoring her nakedness.

She felt like she could hardly breathe for having been cheated on by the person whom she thought would be someone she could spend the rest of her life with. And she was hurt for being betrayed by her most trusted friend.

"Why did it happen to me?"

She asked herself while wiping her tears away. She may not be a good girlfriend, but she had been loyal to him all these years.

She looked at the small box in her bag, inside of it was supposed to be her birthday gift to him. It even made her more emotional upon thinking how she was able to come up with that idea of giving her an answer to his marriage proposal.

It was no use of keeping it then. She opened the gift wrap and took that small thing inside. It was a key chain with both their names engraved on it, with a small button that when it was pressed, the word "yes" would blink and change into different colors. She threw it somewhere and did not even care who else would find it.

Ace gave his proposal to her last year, but she told him, she was not yet ready to settle down. Of course, she was still 21 years old at that time. She really did not know what took her so long to realize about this matter where in fact, he had everything every woman should have ever wanted. Good looks, a successful career, a stable job, and socially inclined circles of family and friends.

She really did not expect he would do this to her. For a two-year relationship, she had known him to be a gentle guy, a loving and caring boyfriend. He never failed to surprise her every special occasion like monthsaries, anniversaries, and birthdays. He had respected all her decisions eventhough she was too idealistic and even some of their ideas and opinions clashed most of the time, but at the end of the day, it was always her idea that prevails over him.

Two weeks ago, when he asked her to sleep with him, and she said "no", that was when things became complicated.

"Why would he ask me like that?"

She thought that Ace was contented, that they sometimes went into shopping, dining, traveling, and other leisure activity. She admitted they had never been kissed coz she'd never let him do that. But he respected her and never insisted on it.

And when he asked her to do something more serious, she wasn't hesitant to turn him down. Since that time, he did not anymore make calls and sent messages. When she tried to call him, he would just say, he's busy doing operations and he has a lot of patients to attend to.

So, she was just thinking maybe his ego was really hurt that time when he asked her about sleeping with him, that's why she wanted to make it up to him by preparing a birthday surprise.

Sadly, she was the one who was surprised. She took a deep breath while tears were still rolling down her cheeks.

The same goes with Trixie, she did not anymore visit her at home during weekends and when she tried to call her one time, she just said, she was busy in the hospital.

But JA did not mind it because she was not suspecting anything.

Trixie was also working as a doctor in Saint Luke Medical Center. She and Ace were classmates in college, and she knew they were friends. But she was not expecting the possibility that they could be more than that because when she asked Trixie before if she liked Ace, she would just say, he was not her type. And when Ace started to court her, it was Trixie who encouraged her to try getting into a relationship even if she knew JA didn't have some feelings for him.

She shook her head because she still couldn't believe that it was happening.

"Am I just dreaming?"

She pinched her cheek and she felt hurt, that means one thing—it was real.

Still cannot imagine how Ace had changed after two years. She never had any idea that this would happen. Only if she had known, she would rather not have trusted him and ended up hurting.

"Hurt? Does it mean I love him and it's too late when I realized it?"

If only she had known, she would rather have used the ability before she got into a relationship with him.

But because of a promise to her brother, she did not do anything that would break her word.

"Why did it happen to me?"

"Did Ace really love me?"

Some parts of her brain told her, 'Maybe', but the kind of love that was fleeting and definitely not true love.

She held her chest and inhaled deeply. She felt she was not getting enough air because all her energy was consumed in doing the extrasensory perception.

She went out of the car to get some air, but she felt lightheaded and weak like she was about to faint.

A man appeared from nowhere, suddenly held her, and kept her in his arms.

Her heartbeat was getting faster as they were an inch away from each other. She tried to open up her eyes to look at him, but everything was blurry.

The man took her to the passenger's seat.

She could feel his warm and gentle touch as he pulled out some strands of her hair that were covering her face. She could feel the beating of his heart while his masculine body was closed to hers as he fixed her seatbelt and the car's headrest belt. After that, she did not know what happened next as she cascaded down into darkness.