Rejuvenate Myself in Martha Tilaar Salon Day Spa

Hi I'm back and feel extremely guilty for only writing when I got the mood. But I think I'm not the one with such problem, so yeah. At least I am back! \m/

Few weeks ago, I got the chance to try and experienced such splendid moment in Martha Tilaar Salon Day Spa. And here goes my review.

Yourganic, your healthy choice of Almond Milk

Hi it's me again with a healthy lifestyle related post. Apologize, no beauty nor make up reviews et cetera this time :)

If you happen to know me before, you must be familiar with a kind of lifestyle I am currently favoring. I am a fitspo enthusiast, I do sports, I do intermittent-fasting, and I try to consume healthy food as often as I can. Yet, I still have my own one cheat day within a week. Well, the pizzas and sate ayam are the treats I won't ever deny :p

Anyway, when we're on diet or restricting our food intakes (not that I do it, and nor that I support you to do that anyways), sometimes we find it hard to choose what to drink and we ended up drinking water and just water all the time. So if you're not a coffee drinker, or getting bored with the everyday-teas, and moreover, cow's milk, let me introduce you to an awesome stuff: almond milk.

There are so many brands that claimed they're selling Raw Almond Milk without any fatty sugar these days. But, let me tell you something: do not easily believe it. If you can feel a very tiny bit sweet taste in it, then it contains sugar. No doubt.

Now, if you are looking for a healthier choice of almond milk, you can try this one: Yourganic Raw Almond Mylk. Hit the jump for more of the tasty~ 

Awkwardly went to Miss World 2013

Back in blog! Hola Estrella!

Last Sunday (September 8), I got an invitation to attend one of the current most prestigious event in Indonesia, beauty pageant wise. So yeah, as you may guess, this post will be about the whole stories of my journey to watch Miss World 2013 Opening Ceremony, in Bali - Indonesia.

How did I get the invitation? Long storeeeh. But to make it short, let's just say that I won a contest to see a contest :p

Before The Coffee is Over

She sat by the big window on the first floor of an unpopular quite fine coffee shop and bakery between a famous Dutch restaurant and a Japanese supplies center. This is their favorite place; this is where they met for the first time, last year. The girl is always punctual, thirty minutes before the agreed upon time. And he is always late, two hours, at least. She expected him to be late, but he got there early; just right after she seated. No one spoke until the waiter came.

He smiled and said, "What do you like to drink?" 

"Same as yours." she replied, motionlessly.

"You sure? Hot?" he asked her back, raised his eyebrow. She nodded.

"It's okay. I learned to drink it hot already."

"We’ll just have one hot black coffee and the iced one for her. Thank you." he ordered her favorite nevertheless.

The waiter left and until he came back with their orders, nobody still speaks. The guy sighed and started drinking, the girl just peek through the window.

"Don’t you like it? It’s our favorite. Remember the first night we met here? You have drank like two glasses of this coffee!" he tried so hard to give out a little laugh. The girl sat still. He pretend to be really consuming the coffee while observing through the corner of his eyes.

"You know what I love about this place? The coffee tastes consistent and the ambiance feels really great and relaxing. You know what I think I should inquire for a franchise of this coffee shop. Clara knows well in business and she-"

She interrupted, in her lowest tone. "I’m sorry. I’m sorry we have to end up this way, pretending as if it’s nothing. You don’t have to tell me how good she is in business or whatsoever. I knew it. I should know, that is why you’re always late for the past eight months. This coffee break is just for formality. Thank you for the treat. Have a good night."

The girl left without looking back. 

Why don't you

Lack of ideas on what should you do instead of doing nothing? Here's some inspiration on my 'Why-Don't-You' blogpost to waste your time with something unusual...

Maybelline Red Revival Review

HELL YEAH! I got another product to be reviewed from, and this time the assigned product for me is this Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in Red Revival.

At the first glance, I was impressed by the packaging immediately. It's all-plastic. Kinda old school casing- very retro Guerlain for some reason, to me. Red semi sheer casing and shiny chrome inset. Classy!  Oh I forgot to mention that the smell is slightly old fashioned retro scented too – smells like those lady in The Great Gatsby movie (well, not that I ever smelled them though). 

Hit the jump and read through for my honest review~!

[UPDATE WITH WINNER] Birthday Edition International Giveaway with DSKON.COM

Hi it’s me again! AND IT’S MY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW! YAAAAY :D 

And yes of course, since I think it was kinda special (d’uh once a year, B!) there will be a birthday-surprise-kinda-treat right here on my blog. Long story short, I decided to hold another sponsored giveaway to share my happiness with all of you. I hope I’m being generous enough with my new age coming up oh my gosh I'm old I’ll cry tears of joy (and hoy) in the corner of the room :D Anyways, I am officially 24 years old tomorrow (June 29), yeah I’m getting oooooooldaaaah~ 

So anyway, with this giveaway, those who didn’t win yesterday would have another chance and probably the luck is yours now ;)

Let's just hit the jump and see what it takes for you to get the prize~

Bon Voyage - Travel Theme from Lolabox

Hi guys, I'm back again with another review and this time is June Edition of The Lolabox. I am so happy that I am getting the Box on June 19, which is definitely earlier than before, and to the fact that this month edition of The Lolabox is definitely much better from the previous edition. Nice move, Lola.

I guess it's because the Beauty Box trends in Indonesia is getting much more attention and the competition between all these beauty companies is getting right on the fence of head to head competition. Well, in this case every company needs to do some new innovation and keep on improving, right?

So what's the fuss about all these Beauty Boxes Trends? The goody bag at a wedding, the pale blue box on your birthday—there's something about a surprise that's freaking awesome. It almost doesn't matter whether there's a diamond necklace inside or just candied almonds; the thrill of scoring something unexpected is one of life's little pleasures. And that's exactly why beauty sampling programs are springing up everywhere. The variety packs of makeup, hair, nail, fragrance, and skin-care products are delivered to your door, and while they're not free—they typically cost IDR 80.000 to IDR 150.000 a month—the samples inside can be worth several times that much, and they are sometimes even full size.

Some girls like flowers or sweet treats delivered to their doors. I, in this case, prefer subscription boxes. There's something about a package arriving in the mail stocked with teeny-tiny products that makes us feel like it's our birthday, once every month.

Subscription boxes are monthly deliveries of new, trial-sized beauty products that you can later purchase in full-size for yourself. The idea here is totally try-before-you-buy, and while you're at it, you can stock your travel toiletry bag with TSA-approved items far better than anything you could find even in the fanciest of boutique hotels.

The beauty and wellness world knows no shortage of subscription boxes these days, so I get how it might be a little difficult to decipher which one is right for everyone of us. That's why, when we subscribe into a beauty box, we need to fulfill the whole form about our profile; skin type, hair type, hair color, skin color, preferable brand, etc. It is essential for them to determine which product suits us the most. And that is also the reason why sometime we get different products from one company, it is designed to fit in our daily necessities. If you're jealous of why the beauty box of your friends has this and that and you're not getting it, think again, you must be getting something that they don't.  

Let's hit the jump and see what I'm getting from this Lolabox

Binge Eating and How To Bounce Back From That

Ever dieting too much and ended up starve yourself, then one day you decided to give a treat to yourself with a donut but suddenly can’t stop eating it although you feel so full but you just can’t stop yourself and losing control?

Well, I did. And yes, that’s called binge eating when it happens regularly. You just can’t stop, you have this urge to eat, you eat until you you’re more than full, then you feel guilty right after, but on the next day it happens again. 

It happened to me before until I realize I need to stop binging. But you know what, getting back from binging is something that wasn’t easy if you just blaming yourself. 

Binge, or over eating, is considered as one of the Eating Disorder that we need to be careful because it literally can happen to anyone unexceptionally, even if you’re one of the health-conscious-eating person.

Binging is an uncontrolled ingestion of large quantities of food within a short time period, often accompanied by feeling out of control over the eating taking place. 

 

We have all overeaten at one time or another, most notably around the holidays or on a special occasion. I think we have all gone back for seconds (or thirds) on Eid/Christmas/Thanksgiving, or had an extra slice or two of cake at a birthday party. So when does the occasional overindulgence cross the line into the realm of real binge eating?

 

That isn't always easy to define. But if your days and weeks are becoming more filled with sessions of overeating and guilt; if thoughts of "bad" food and "good" food are constantly on your mind; and the lines between enjoying a small piece of cake on occasion and eating the whole pie are becoming more obscure, it might be time to step back take notice.

For those of us who struggle with occasional binges that are more annoying and guilt-providing than obsessions or compulsions, there are a few tricks you can implement to keep yourself on track and avoid bingeing.

So hit the jump, read more, and take a look at this How To Bounce Back After a Binge tips as written in sparkpeople.com:

[UPDATE: WINNER] My First International Giveaway

Here I am again and welcome to my INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY. First of all, I want to share a bit of what I am going to give as the prize. This giveaway is not sponsored by any kind of institutions or stores or shops out there. This is actually a sneak peak of what I am going to grow in any time sooner, yes I am planning to establish an online shopping business and I am personally excited about it, yaay :D

So yeah, I have 1 Korean Exquisite Fashion Watch in Turquoise color (which is my favorite color), and this watch is made from leather and decorated with studded and CZ diamond on the side. It is cutely designed, and if you guys love to watch Korean Drama you'll probably like this one because it is imported from Korea and it will make you look much cuter, believe me it will. 

Hit the jump and see how this cute watch can add some spices in your daily outfit~

Unboxing Lolabox - May Edition

Woke up this morning to the knocking sound on my door, and it turns out to be a surprise beauty box from The Lolabox. Yay! :D And then I found myself rushing to unbox it because I couldn't hold my excitement. I mean, look at this cute box with tons of surprise gift inside!

So before I continue about writing what's inside the box, let me introduce about this and tell you why I'm so excited in getting this.

The Lolabox, well, as you may see, it's a beauty box. What makes it different than the other beauty boxes is that this beauty box trends is finally come to my country, and Lolabox is one of the pioneer in its segment and industry in Indonesia. Moreover, I just found out recently that this start-up company invented by my own relative, Christian Sutardi.

So after felt so proud of him, congratulate him and stuffs, I decided to be a nice cousin to him by ordering this box on my own, and this way I also able to testify the greatness of his start-up company. What a really nice cousin I am, huh Christian? :D

Anyways, just like any other beautyboxes, The Lolabox is a subscription-based beauty company that delivers beauty samples into the hands of awaiting costumers is proud to provide women of color the opportunity to explore the latest skin, hair and nail products at a minimal cost.  To learn more about subscribing to The Lolabox or becoming a brand partner please visit thelolabox.com

Okay so let's just hit the jump and see what's inside the box, shall we? :)

Clean-Eating Grocery List

I love shopping. Who doesn't?

Well, basically I just really love spending money. Which is probably why I cry in my checkbook by the end of every month, but that's another story. 

So since I live a healthier way, I kinda change my shopping habit a little bit. I used to stay at the chocolate and snack aisle in the supermarket for quite long but these days I really forbid myself to go there.

When it comes to shopping for fresh food, it can get overwhelming in a hurry. Look, the key to a fresh pantry and fridge is "less is more". And you see that buying so many veggies all at once in a month is not so good because it lasts only for a while and you'll ended up throwing up them on the 2nd week of the month. 

So here's my tip: divide your grocery shopping schedule into two times a month. 

As a busy working woman (phew! :p), I understand the difficulty in always having fresh on hand. You can't always run to the grocer, and sometimes you want to just reach into the cupboard/freezer/fridge and have something almost make itself. I get it. Having a few tried and trues on hand helps with those harried days and nights, will make mealtimes run smoother, and still keep your diet clean.

What exactly is a clean diet? It may vary from person to person but for me it is one that contains unprocessed, whole foods. Here are some tips for going 'clean', as well as a list of some things I always try to have on hand for quick meal prep. Again, I am not a dietitian nor a nutritionist, this is just something that I do for my life and it helps me a lot with losing fats. Or weight, you may call it.

Oh anyway, if something sounds unfamiliar to you, do a little research. I am constantly learning about new, interesting, good-for-you foods. You, too, will be amazed at the options out there.

Hit the jump and I have five main tips to start your clean diet and grocery shopping list, here we go:

Short Update: Will be back (and better) soon!

Hi guys!
So this is just a short update of what I'm currently doing.

Apologize for the lack of posts, lately I was quite sick and needed more rest and I am also having a minor surgery on Monday (which is tomorrow).

Am good, not really a big deal, just something really needs to be taking out of my body for a better health :D

The weight loss journey still continues, and it's not done yet. I'll be back in a better condition and I promise you I'll blog more once I am fully recovered.
So yeah, thank you for patiently reading and waiting, your feedbacks are always appreciated. I love you even mooaaar :*

xoxo,

B.

Sexy in Sweat

Nike Junkie by clicheaulait featuring nike

NIKE , 827.290 IDR / NIKE sports bra, 291.600 IDR / NIKE legging, 247.860 IDR / NIKE , 243.000 IDR / NIKE activewear top, 311.040 IDR / NIKE sneaker, 1.516.200 IDR / NIKE , 385.065 IDR / NIKE hat, 165.460 IDR / The Clip "I can't hear U" in Black 50% Off, 330.915 IDR / Nike Sport Water Bottle, 75.060 IDR

If you think that you can't look good and nicely dressed when you're doing workout, I will prove you wrong with my writings here. You are going to sweat and burn, and sometimes look tired and fucked up, yes. But it doesn't mean that you can't embrace your beauty and look fabulous while sweating. 

Here's the thing about doing workout, whether you want to go to the gym, training with your teammates, or go to your yoga class or simply just running outside, you can boost up your confidence by wearing a set of comfortable sportswear that actually helps you to do every kind of workout moves smoothly.

Let me tell you, wearing a sassy and cute gym clothes can inspire you to get moving, trust me. Somehow you're gonna feel you look awesome in your sportswear and there's no reason not to. If you decided to give your all in the gym or while running outside, why not doing it in style?

I know you aren't there for a beauty contest. Well, it's not that I'm telling you to go all out with full hair and makeup, but there are two important reasons to invest in some cute workout clothes. 

Let's just hit the jump for more workout outfit ideas~

Hands the name, Insanity is Insane

Hello again, and I am here to write about my workout program which I have been doing all these months. 

So my routine is called Insanity by Beachbody.

Let me talk about how do I started it. When I first saw the commercial, never thought that I am able to do it. I felt dying and throwing up already just by watching the commercial. See it with your own eyes and you'll feel that it is really an intense program. 

But then I went to Youtube and I watched some of those Insanity Transformation result videos, and then I thought that "Wow, the transformations are amazing. I think it is do-able. If those people can do this, there's no reason that I can't."

And with those thoughts, I finally took one of the very huge decisions in my life that makes me thankful and grateful right now. 

If you asked me how do I motivate my self I'd say thank God for Youtube. And all those fitblrs on tumblr too. Seriously their weight loss journeys inspire me, their stories motivate me. And I want to be able to overcome all my doubts and make a change for myself. I want to be the fitspirations everyone's talking about. And especially, I want to do it for me.

Hit the jump, and read more about my workout routine~

My Way of Losing Weight

So, I got plenty of questions from my friends, asking about what did I do to lose all those fats in my body.

Well, I used to be fat, yes. Especially after I came back from Germany where I gained more than 11 kilograms. Dammit, I blame to all those Nutella and French Cheese I ate every mornings. 

But anyway, after a lot of struggling points, I made a U-turn. 

Long long time ago, I was an athlete. A regional captain of basketball team back when I was in highschool. Oh those good memories, the sweat, the spirit, the popularity, and all those highschool crush. Snap!

Anyways, I stopped doing basketball because I personally choose to stop. I was bored, I think. And I already felt that I played too much basketball. So during my college, I rarely play it again. Sometimes I did play a bit but definitely not as much as when I was in highschool.

And then I went to Germany, and eating all those heavenly fatty foods and I gained weight and I couldn't stop gaining weight and I became fat.

This year, 2013 if you're reading it from the future, I met someone who finally slap me and made me realize that I am not what I used to be and I CAN be what I used to be. Healthy and toned. That particular someone was tickling my competitive side that apparently had never left my mind. The spirit is actually deep within me and now it gradually comes out and challenging me once again.

So I practically changed my lifestyle, and so ready to work out to gain a toned body that I used to have. Hit the jump, read more and I warned you: you are about to see the not-so-dramatically change in me in a before and during self portrait.

F5 yourself with Detox Water

Feeling toxinated? Polluted?  I am. 

How to get your healthy-unpolluted-detoxinated body back? Detox water! I found this brilliant, brilliant idea via my favorite website ever.... drumroll please... Pinterest! How did I ever survive without it? A place to ooooh and awww over hundreds of mind-boggling ideas. A place to bookmark and easily organize anything I stumble across online. A tiny bit of heaven!

Let's just say I spend way too much time on there. And Tumblr too. (Just in case you haven't followed me there). 

Anyways... Detox Water. Rumored to help you maintain a flat belly, lemon and water fuse overnight to create a natural detox, helping to flush impurities out of your system. The cucumber lends a cool, refreshing flavor while the mint gives it a bit of a snap.  The original recipe had fresh ginger, but I didn't have any and I still really liked the result. 

It's like, I finally found my long lost BFF, well not really BFF because it happens to be my comfy unmade bed and it forever will be, but yeah, it's the second close. Detox water is practically my F5 button right now (do you guys still use F5 button anyways?). If you happen to use windows on your PC, you should know that F5 button is the fastest and most convenience way for you to refresh your PC. And so it goes also with this detox water to my body. Refresh. Instantly. Poof~

So let's click more for the recipe~

Being Cute in the Kitchen

Since I changed my lifestyle into a healthier lifestyle along with healthy food and stuffs. I kinda spent more of my times in the kitchen. Cooking, baking, preparing weekly meals, yadda yadda yadda. I even left my hairdryer in the kitchen yesterday and I don't even know why.

And so I found that my kitchen is very unorganized and I had to find a way to organize it and still make it look cute as well. Cute things make your mood better, right? So it goes in the kitchen. Good mood equals good food.

To cut it out, I looked up in the internet and stumbled upon these extremely cute labels that will make my kitchen prettier. And I want to make my friend goes 'aahw' everytime they step into my kitchen.

Thanks to Wordlabel for coming up with the idea and creating such a wonderful free printables label to organize my kitchen.

Look at this cuteness that I can easily apply to everything in my kitchen:

So cute, right?

And it goes really well with the glass jar, my favorite kind of jar.

They have two different colors that we can choose to match with our kitchen, black and greenish. Here we go~ Click the jump for more and then click the download link below the pics for the hi-res printable labels of each pictures. 

Clean-Eating Principles

It's printable, guys :)

Click the picture for a hi-res size.

March the 13th, 2013

This will be the day I'll remember for the rest of my life.
The day I saw you sleeping peacefully with the sheer white veil on top of your face. You looked so pretty, my dear, so beautiful. You had been always become my definition of beauty.

Everything's blurry. Like it was a dream. Like it was a vivid scene of a fantasy movie that everyone knows it can't be true. Or maybe this just something I refuse to believe in.


Oh the memories inside my head....


Do you remember the way we always sat at the corner right table of the classroom, just because it's the farthest distance from the teacher's seat?
Do you remember your old Nokia 7650 that we used to take all those embarrassing selfies?
Do you remember how we were always teamed up together to make your english essays homework?
Do you remember the way we were passing those cheating paper during exam and how we tried to recite all those cities on the map before facing our cruel Geography teacher?
Do you remember how we secretly competed each other for the best result in the class? And how we ended up switching ranks and comforting each other by the end of the day.
Do you remember our secret plan to sneak out of the class every time we were bored? And on how we collected those Amal Jumat money from the entire class just to walk out of the classroom and feel the breezing wind outside?

I still remember the way you talked about your boyfriends.
I still remember your secret affairs and the way you regretted it right after.
I still remember the history of your love life, timeline, kaleidoscope, and what you thought about each and every one of them.
I still remember clearly your handwriting and how you twirled your hand using those colored pen.
I still remember the way you laughed out loud and the way your chin sharpened every time you smile.
I still remember your quirkiness and I still hate the fact that you were so lazy to comb your hair.
I still remember the scent of your old purple room, those pretty wallpapers, that giant Elmo doll, and the banana telephone which has the loudest tone ever.
And oh my, I can't even believe that I still able to recite your phone numbers, Dar. All your phone numbers from three different providers. :')

Oh those things are still lingering on my mind, even until now. This very second. God, I miss you, I miss you now, then, and forever. I miss you already.

It breaks my heart that I have to face my life knowing that you're gone. You're gone too soon, sweetheart. Too soon.

Yet. I know you're going to a better place, a place that will embrace your beauty and kindness. A place that suits you the most for you're as beautiful as an angel. No, you are an angel to me. You always are. And you are the most beautiful angel up there, I believe.

You always stood out of all people by your cute character and your big heart, those of us who got to know you were very lucky for having crossed paths with you, you now have God by your side.

I know you're no longer here, but please be okay with the fact that you'll always be in my heart and I won't let those memories of you disappear. I love you, my dear.

Rest in peace, Amandara Zahra. 17/08/89 - 13/03/13

Heaven must be an even better place now with the sound of your quirky laughter :')

(Not My) Wedding Post

This post is about the most lovable celebrity couple that caught my eyes recently. No, am not talking about Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder, they will always be my most favorite couple (or ex couple) in the whole entire universe. It's the second close, particularly. But since Johnny and Winona broke up long time ago, so yeah, this couple is probably climbing up into the first place.

I'm talking about Tom Fletcher and Giovanna Falcone. You don't know who they are? Well, you better read this post until the very end, you won't regret it.

Tom is the main vocalist of the band McFly from England. Remember the "it's all about you~, it's all about you baby" song? Good song, right? 

Why the hell am I talking about this England pop band in my blogpost anyway? Okay so here's the story. They just had their wedding last year. A beautiful wedding, if I may say. Handsome groom, awesome bestmen, beautiful bride, pretty flower decoration yadda yadda yadda.

Well every wedding suppose to be beautiful, yes. But this one is special. 

Few weeks ago, I read it  from my Twitter timeline, my co-worker, Anindhita, tweeted: 

Translation: Sobbing hard while watching this --> My Wedding Speech

So my curiosity apparently led me to something even more beautiful. The video showed me how amazing Tom as a human being. I mean, the creative-clever idea popped inside his brain before he poured it into those lyrical words, all the efforts to make it special and unique, and especially the way he looks at his new wife, Gi (abr from Giovanna).

It was so perfect. Simple, yet perfect. Imperfect, but perfect. Perfect from all those imperfections. 

It's a video that makes me smiling, giggling, chuckling, laughing, and crying. Even it creates those effects to me until now. 

It's not something amazing like a magic super show or those things you saw on national TV, no it's far from that. It is a really down-to-earth, common, cover song like those videos you saw in Youtube, but Tom successfully made it so emotionally special because it was on his Wedding day.

Okay, won't say much. Just watch it on your own:

To bring it more amazing into so many levels, apparently this video reached more than 9 million views and still keep counting. Even he, himself, really shock upon this awesome feedbacks.

Tom Fletcher’s wedding speech has racked up a whopping 2.4 million views on YouTube in just three days.

The 27-year-old McFly star was shocked to see the video had gone viral, having previously admitted that he’d ‘only really put it up to share it with family’.

He tweeted this morning: ‘Over 2 million views in a couple of days! That’s crazy nuts! :)’ The singer has been criticised for uploading the touching footage the same week as his bandmate Harry Judd’s wedding photos were published in Hello magazine, especially taking into consideration he and Giovanna Falcone tied the knot in May last year.

Defending his awkward timing, he tweeted: ‘I read that article about me posting it to try and “steal Harry’s thunder”. I had no idea his wedding article was coming out this week!’ (Source: Metro.co.uk)

Yeah Tom, I personally don't care if you're trying to steal Harry's thunderlighting or not. But you made it, dude. I bet thousand grooms out there are purposely postponing their wedding after the brides see your videos.

I love every single thing on the video, but especially I really, like- really, able to feel how much Tom loves Gi in every way. It's beautiful. I don't know if it was because of the sentimental melancholy side of mine or not, but I watched this video for like, hundred times already. I even remember all those lyrics inside my head, and now I'm able to tell you each name of their bridesmaid with perfect spelling and tone.

Love, is beautiful indeed. Especially when you're not afraid to show it to the world.

Congratulation for your wedding, dear Tom & Gi, go make pretty babies and leave it to Dougie to become a Nanny for them, he'll love it. :p

Last but not very least, a picture of McFly as a bonus~

tschau~

B.

une tasse de café et un verre de bière

The girl at the cafe didn’t notice me at first. She didn’t realize that I lived right around the corner and that I stopped by almost every day after work to stock up on enough caffeine or sometimes beers to get me through my homework, if not the evening as a whole. Sometimes I brought a friend or two along and we’d put our heads together and power through whatever new horror our bosses had assigned us that day. But I always seemed to get sidetracked and I’d prop my chin up in one hand and send more than subtle glances in her direction as the girl at the café steamed milk and stirred lattes, every now and then smiling her gentle, off-hand smile. It seemed like everyone knew, that everyone had heard how one day she would look over and see me and I’d walk right up to her and tell her how beautiful she was and how she haunted all my waking dreams with her quiet, mysterious air and deep green, thoughtful eyes. Although it didn’t exactly happen that way, it was pure chance the day we met, for even then she didn’t believe in fate.

-

“You come here a lot, don’t you?” I can’t help but say that I nearly choked on my Guiness Black Lager. She was speaking to me, noticing me, acknowledging my existence! And as I have yet to assume otherwise that people do anything but splutter like an idiot when first interacting with the love of their life, I feel like I set a good first example.

“Yeah, I live around here.” I gestured vaguely around us with one hand, wincing slightly as I lost my grip on my pencil and it clattered the floor beside me.

I wish I could say that she’d laughed, but I suppose I was the only one who found my stupidity amusing at the time. She mere offered me a small grin and a raised eyebrow as she leaned forward against the counter, propping her chin up in one hand, studying me. “Around here, huh?”

I nodded, deciding that for the time being it would be best to leave my forgotten writing utensil lying where it had landed and rolled under the table for, all my stupidity aside, we were having an actual conversation! I opened my mouth again before I really knew what I was going to say, but she saved me from further humiliation as she continued, reaching up to push a lock of short brown hair out of her face. “I just moved. We’ve been here since the end of the summer and really all I’ve seen so far is the inside of a café.”

But the strange thing was that she didn’t sound disappointed by that, or sarcastic. It was as if in her mind, if all she saw for the rest of her life was a café, that was okay and she would eventually learn to make the most of it.


“Well maybe I could show you around some time.” The words were out before I could think, before the influence of her quiet, lovely beauty could make me hesitate. “You know, so you could see something other than the inside of a cafe.”


“You? Show me around?” Again, I couldn’t tell what she thought of my offer, so I got defensive.


“I mean, do you happen to drink coffee  everyday?” I asked her beyond my curiosity.

“Not really, I drink whatever I had in mind.” She shrugs her shoulder lightly, and I notice her sense of vague.

“Really, so here’s my question; coffee, tea, chocolate or beer?” and there goes my lines, watching her every inch of moves before I found out her answer.

“Let’s see. All those were my favorite drinks, exclude the chocolate-“

“Why?” I cut her off again and it took all I had not to breathe a sigh of relief after she put her genuine smile on her face.

“My life’s just too bitter to taste sweetness again.” Whisper her quietly, knowing that she made me more curious in that state of mind. “So I guess, my answer depends on who am I drinking with.”

“What if it’s me. What would you choose when it’s me your drinking with?” and I keep on asking her, like her lines were just never enough to stop this conversation.

“Coffee then.” She said, sipping on her latte, “Because it suits you the most. Hot, smells good, and I kinda want to keep my nervousness insides.”

There goes me speechless hearing her answer. It took a millisecond for me to realized that it was a warm compliment for me. A genuine one, I’d proudly say.

“Okay, can I get a beer, then?” I asked, pretending to keep my wide smile unnoticed.

“Your call. But may I know why?” I could guarantee that she expects a good answer from her question so I was thinking hard to reply her with a smart answer but I just couldn’t dig it inside my brain.

“Well,” said I, “to loosen up the nervousness”. Hell yeah. A pretty smart line, I assumed. For I saw her smile follows after.

“Nice try, but I have to tell you in advance. Whatever you might choose, the nervousness will stay as long as it’s me you’re drinking with.”

She teased me. She, was, teasing, me. Could it be more obvious than this?

I laughed along with her reply, as I was really glad this conversation went smoother than what I had in mind since long ago.

“Indeed,” I added to the laugh, “and it’s already started.”


“Really?” She cut me off again with her raised eyebrows.


I stood up, making my way back to the counter where I came to a halt in front of her, rolling my eyes ever so slightly at her curious face.


“Ye…” I would have continued, but before I realized what was happening, the girl at the café had reached over and grabbed my hand, pulling it up onto the counter in front of her. She grabbed a pen from beside the register and bent down to scribble something across my palm (left handed!). The smooth tips of her fingers felt cool and tingly against my skin as the ballpoint formed a small, loopy number nine near the pad of my thumb.


“My number.” She said, “And I did nothing yet, though.”


She was smirking while continue to walk to her table as I stood there like a statue. Then she looked back at me, waved her left palm and said “I’m Scarlett, by the way.”

***