PinoyWrimos

Autumn. Not Tom. And, as previously established throughout the previous chapters, she was a girl.

Still, that fact did not prevent the event that she was addressed as “Tom” in the note she was currently holding. Curled up by the kitchen – as curled up as anyone could be on a bar stool, anyway – her eyes stared at the very familiar scrawl staring back up at her.

“Tom,” it said. “Don’t make plans for tomorrow night. I’m taking you out to dinner. Dress nice.”

It didn’t say who wrote it, but, really, there was no need. Only one person called her “Tom”, anyway.

“Still looking that note over?”

Autumn didn’t even flinch when her roommate broke the comfortable silence in their apartment. She was used to Luna’s sudden, unexpected comments that all too often ended up being incredibly timely.

“Yeah,” answered Autumn. She sighed slightly as her gaze fell back to the note as if her roommates distraction could cause the writings to disappear. But the words remained the same. It still said, “Tom. Don’t make other plans for tomorrow night. I’m taking you out to dinner. Dress nice.”

A snicker accompanied the statement, “Giddy much?”

Autumn quickly folded the note and laughed. “Suspicious is more like it.”

Luna hummed thoughtfully, leaning her elbows on her thick book – which so happened to be An Introduction to the Study of Morphology, her favorite subject of all time – to twirl a lock of her jet black hair around her pencil. The lock of hair slid off the pencil immediately. Her hair always was incredibly smooth, a root of jealousy from a lot of her acquaintances, and yet was an occasional source of frustration for Luna. She never could braid her hair by herself because of it.

“So Vin asked you out to dinner,” she said, crossing her slender legs. “What’s wrong with that?”

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” Autumn mused. “It’s just… suspicious.”

“Okay… So what’s so suspicious about it?”

“He never asks me out to dinner; he just takes me in case we come across a restaurant while we’re together outside and it just so happened that we’re hungry. And it’s never somewhere that requires dressing nice. And why write it in a note? I mean, he could’ve told me in perso–.”

There came a sound of a door slamming shut (not the angry kind of slam, Autumn determined) signaling the arrival of the man living in the apartment beside theirs.

And then there was silence.

“Well, here’s your chance,” Luna said. “Maybe you should ask him.”

“Why should I ask him?”

“Because you’re the one wondering?”

“…Quite right.”

“Of course.”

“Maybe I should ask him.”

“Yeah, maybe you should.”

“Yeah…”

“Yeah.”

Ignoring the knowing smirk on Luna’s lips, Autumn hopped off the kitchen stool and made her way to the door.

The note truly was suspicious. Everything about it was so unlike Vin, and Autumn would not be surprised if it turned out to be a fake note of some kind. Maybe someone was attempting to kidnap her, and was using Vin’s name (not that his name was on the note) to lure her.

As far from being possible as that theory was, it was still a theory. A theory that needed to be cleared before Autumn thought of other less-than-likely possibilities.

When door 202 opened, the one who stood behind it was a very tired-looking Vin.

“Hey, Tom. What’s up?”

Typically, when Vin called her Tom (which was all the time), Autumn’s first response would be that Vin shouldn’t call her that.

“You always make it sound like I’m a guy,” she would say.

And then Vin would smile and ask her something along the lines of, “So? You’re one of the guys. It’s practically the same thing.”

And then she would retort, “Why must you always call me Tom?”

To which he would answer, “Because Autumn is just too long.”

She would roll her eyes and sigh, “You’re way too lazy.”

And then he say, “Don’t you know it.”

That would possibly conclude their exchange, unless Vin came up with something new to continue their friendly banter before moving on to whatever they were supposed to be talking about in the first place.

This time, though, words failed to aid Autumn. Vin has had, for many times, rendered Autumn speechless. Whether it be because he had the winning point in their argument, he had the best advice, or he simply said something that was worthy of mulling over, Vin had the uncanny ability to momentarily make Autumn’s talkative nature pause. But for all the times that had happened, it had never ever been because Autumn stood gawking at Vin.

Vin was obviously tired from whatever physical activity he was engaged in, because in those few minutes from Autumn contemplated on coming over until the second he opened the door, he had already taken a quick shower. Thus explaining his wet hair, damp skin, and, more importantly (and very alarmingly) the absence of his shirt.

Oh, good Lord.

“Tom?”

“Don’t call me Tom.”

Vin blinked then, before laughing a bit and saying, “Well, that was a bit delayed, wasn’t it?”

Autumn only frowned, which stopped Vin’s laughter instantly, and held the note up between two fingers. “What is this?”

Vin looked from Autumn to the piece of paper and back, almost as if asking if she was serious. But when she didn’t say anything, he tentatively answered, “That’s… uh… the note I left for you yesterday?”

“I knew that much, thank you,” Autumn said, rolling her eyes. “What I meant was what’s up with leaving notes? You never leave notes.”

“Well, there’s always the first time for everything.”

“Vin.”

Noting the warning tone in her voice, Vin held his hands up in surrender. “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t make plans,” he explained.

“You know, that’s what the cellphone is for.”

“It just didn’t seem fitting.”

“Fitting,” Autumn echoed.

“Yes,” Vin confirmed. “Fitting.”

Fitting for what? Autumn wondered. While still trying to ignore Vin’s state of undress, Autumn quickly ran the dates through her head. No, it wasn’t her birthday. It wasn’t Vin’s, either. It didn’t coincide with the date that he got a job, and exams were far off so it couldn’t be to celebrate good grades.

Autumn gave up.

“What’s so important about tomorrow night, anyway?”

Vin gave her a look. “It’s tonight, not tomorrow,” he said. “And I don’t want to tell you because that would ruin the surprise.”

“But–“

“Wait till tonight.”

“Oh, come on. Just give me a clue.”

Vin smiled at that, the corners of his lips arching up ever so slowly.

“Time.”

A pause.

“Oh my God, are you dying?!”

“No!” Vin laughed, making droplets of water from his hair tumble gleefully onto his shoulders. “No, it’s not like that.”

“I was planning to have my violin fixed tonight,” Autumn told him, stubbornly keeping her eyes on his face and not anywhere else.

“Oh, really?” he asked, one skeptical eyebrow raised.

“Yeah, really.”

Vin sighed, placing his hands on her shoulders.

“I’ll have it fixed,” he said.

It was Autumn’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “You’ll have it fixed,” she echoed.

“Yep,” he nodded, his deep brown gaze making Autumn feeling incredibly self-conscious. “Come tonight?”

That last part he said in a way that made Autumn involuntarily answer, “Okay.”

And then Vin was smiling again, and then he was turning her around, and then she was walking back to her apartment in a daze.