Cempaka Bride

Passengers in the car

The atmosphere of the office that morning was still quiet. There were only a few co-workers who were already present. They waved as Zein flashed towards his desk, which was located at the very end on the right of this second floor.

Arriving in the room, Zein immediately put the briefcase on the table, grabbed the air-conditioning remote and immediately turned it on.

While waiting for the room to cool enough, Zein stood in front of a window facing the front of the building.

The tall man was pondering over Rima's words, during their meeting last night.

His brain turned to look for clues from the woman's warning. Trying to string together pieces of a puzzle.

"Bang" call a woman.

Zein turned his head and was surprised when he saw that Yulia was calling him.

The shoulder-haired woman walked in and stopped in front of the desk. A smile adorned her nicely polished face with expensive beauty products. Zein knew that because she had accompanied Yulia shopping. Long ago, when they were close.

"Bang, um .. I want to take Abang to a meal. After work hours. Can't you?" yulia asked while looking at Zein who was still motionless.

"What is this in order?" Zein asked back.

"Anu .. celebrate my birthday," replied Yulia with blushing cheeks.

"You're the birthday? Well, congratulations, yes," said Zein as he approached and extended his right hand.

"Thank you, Bang," said Yulia. He accepted the handsome man's helping hand and shook it tightly.

Yulia was stunned when she felt her heart pounding so fast. He took off Zein's hand and rubbed his hair wrongly.

"God willing, I follow. I haven't been together with friends for a long time either" Zein said. A smile spread across her face, doubling her charm for Yulia.

"okay, Bang. Thanks though. It will be razor again. Pamit first, yes," said Yulia as she turned and left the room.

Zein pulled out the chair and opened the briefcase. Take out the laptop and turn it on.

While searching for the pen from inside the bag, his hand touched something strange.

Zein pulled the thing slowly and was stunned when she saw the piece of cloth in her hand.

He thought hard and felt like he had seen it before.

"Huh? How come it's here?" he murmured while putting the cloth on the table.

Zein rubbed his hair with his left hand while sighing. A slanted smile was imprinted on his face.

"Rome ... Rhymes. What a whim for you," he said, chuckling softly.

The piece of cloth was part of a ribbon on Rima's arm. Zein knew because it was the thing that fell with the bouquet that Rima was holding when they met yesterday.

Shaking her head slowly Zein began to do office work, and momentarily forgot the piece of cloth.

***

Zein is not unaware that Yulia, who is sitting right across the table at the moment, often steals the opportunity to look at her. However, he tried to stay relaxed and chat with the other friends.

Zein occasionally returned the gaze of the white woman by raising her eyebrows while smiling. It was always answered by Yulia.

But from the tinge of red on his face, made Zein feel confident, that this woman still had a taste for him.

Trings.

The sound of incoming messages on the phone caught Zein's attention. His forehead wrinkled as he saw the incoming message turned out to be from Yulia.

Zein looked up and was silent for a moment, before finally nodding at Yulia, who returned her nod with a wide smile.

"Thank you, Bang. I want to nganterin," said Yulia while looking at Zein.

"Either. Thanks for being treated as well. Food's great. The place is also comfortable" said Zein while focusing on driving.

"Yes. That's why I took you there. Coincidentally, the one who owns the restaurant is my brother's friend. That was our nyamperin."

"Whose suit was on? I thought the manager was."

"The Revelation is so. Always confessing to the manager. He owns the restaurant."

Arriving at the boarding house Yulia, it turns out there is Rama's car parked there.

"You coming by, Bang?" take Yulia while removing the seat belt.

Zein looked back for a moment, then nodded in agreement to Yulia.

They walked together through the hallway of this boarding building. Yulia's room was right across from Vinda's room.

"What do you want to drink?" yulia asked as Zein sat on the front porch chair of her room.

"No need. I didn't take long. Just want to go home again, too" replied Zein.

He grabbed the phone from his pants pocket and pressed the button on. His finger shifted the screen and pressed a name on his phone contact.

"Where?" ask Zein to the person he is in contact with.

"In the house of Vinda" answered Rama from across the street.

"Hm. Good, yeah. The door was tightly closed, "tease Zein.

"Huh?"

Shortly thereafter the curtains in the room Winda terbak. Rama peeked from there, and Zein waved to greet him.

"Can't we be here?" asked Rama who walked out of the room of Vinda.

Rama greets Yulia, then sits down next to Zein.

"Julia went home. Look at your car here, I'm stopping by to interrupt" Zein replied.

They glanced at each other, and then they laughed.

Then Winda came outside and chatted. Without feeling the time is getting night.

At exactly 10 o'clock, the two men came home. Rama's in Zein's car and will be picked up by Winda tomorrow.

"No feeling?" asked Zein when they were far enough away from the boarding house.

"What feeling?" Rama asked back.

"Some of us are behind."

"Don't nakutin!" sergeant Rama.

"Neither nakutin. That, the creature moved to the middle seat" said Zein.

Rama turned towards Zein with a face that started to pale. Zein turned back while shaking his shoulders.

In the middle seat, Rima looked at the two while smiling.

***

Tonight the moon seemed reluctant to come out. Makes the night darker.

Zein let out a heavy sigh and exhaled slowly. His hands are folded behind his head. His eyes looked at the ceiling of the room with his mind wandering everywhere.

Zein closed his eyes and tried to sleep. As he began to fall asleep, he felt his success as if being pulled by someone into a rapidly spinning passage of time.

Suddenly they were already in a place he had been to some time ago.

This time Rima took him to the back of the mansion. There were some tall and thick trees. There was a small fish pond in the middle of the courtyard.

Rima pointed to a window that was wide open. From where they stood Zein could see a man looking at the pool from the window.

The two men's hands extended out in a clenched position.

"That's it" whispered Rima.

"Who is he?" asked Zein in a whisper.

"Shop," replied Rima.