Divorce? Galang never expected that word to come out of Amera's mouth. He was angry—furious, even—because no matter how shitty his behavior had been, divorce had never once crossed his mind. "Keep that request to yourself. I'll never grant it!"
Click. The call ended, and Galang almost threw his phone.
Clemira had always haunted Galang's life. Even his daughter's name was one Clemira had once wanted and discussed with him back when they were dating.
With Amera, he'd only used her as an outlet for his desires back then, when he was still living alone in a rented room. Not because his house was far from campus, but because he wanted to be a free man.
Lately, he and Amera had been fighting more often. It all came to a head when his wife decided to work overseas. Galang not only had to look after their two children, but also had to put up with Amera's parents throwing him out, calling him a deadbeat for letting Amera go abroad. As if her parents' own treatment of their daughter hadn't been worse.
Clemira poked her head out, and after making sure the area in front of the house was empty, she started locking the door and grabbing her sandals.
"Where are you going? You look like you're about to rob the place."
Clemira glared and rubbed her chest. "Jamilah, I thought you were someone else!"
Jamilah's stare was anything but friendly. She didn't just inspect Clemira's face—she also looked at Clemira's stomach.
"How many months?"
"How many months of what?" Clemira asked, confused.
Jamilah folded her arms. "How many months pregnant are you? Oh my God. Cle, are you actually a liar or just slow?"
"Aren't you the slow one?" Clemira shot back. What had she just said? How many months pregnant? What a foul mouth Jamilah had. She was practically begging to get busted with chili sauce.
"None of your business!"
Jamilah smiled sarcastically. "So besides being a liar, bitchy, and stuck-up, you're cheap too? Why did it have to be Arion you corrupted?"
"I know where you two went last night!" Jamilah baited her, even though she actually had no idea. She only knew that Arion had picked Clemira up after curfew, and even that was because she'd accidentally overheard it from Galang.
Clemira widened her eyes and stepped toward Jamilah. "What are you implying?"
Jamilah gave her another sarcastic smile. "Just so everyone knows that your supposedly innocent face is nothing but a lie!"
"Who said I'm innocent? Are you blind? In your opinion, I'm just pretending to be innocent, while you don't even look in a mirror!"
Jamilah snorted and stalked off after losing the argument to Clemira.
One point each.
But Clemira's mood had been ruined by her neighbor. So she stomped off toward the end of the neighborhood.
"Ma'am, one es teler!" Clemira waved her hand, feeling overheated.
"No Arion today, Cle?"
"He's working," Clemira replied.
"Having it here or taking it home?"
"Here. I really don't feel like being alone at home. Running into Jamilah makes me want to start pulling each other's hair out."
The es teler vendor laughed. "Weren't you two close when you were little?"
"Yeah, before her mom started stirring things up. My reputation got dragged through the mud, ma'am. Just because her daughter doesn't know any guys, I ended up becoming the subject of all their gossip."
"Jamilah likes Arion."
"How do you know that?" Clemira narrowed her eyes, curious how much chaos Jamilah and her mother had caused just because Jamilah's love was unrequited.
"Everyone knows Jamilah likes Arion. But Arion likes you!"
"..." Clemira fell silent. When her order arrived, she pretended to be busy drinking her es teler.
"Why don't you just accept him, Cle? What are you waiting for?"
Clemira nodded. "We have to date first, ma'am. We can't just get married out of nowhere, or people will think I was already pregnant if we had a sudden wedding."
"Ma'am, one es teler!" The voice sounded strangely familiar. When Clemira turned around, Galang gave her a sweet smile.
"Hi."