And it wasn’t like she could really talk about her chocolate, how hard it was when it didn’t temper, when the Laneways lost electricity (as it still did sometimes), her frustration when the chocolate bloomed, and she didn’t know why. She didn’t really talk to anyone about that, not that there was anyone she could talk about it to.
But she supposed that was just a consequence of living in the provinces, away from Manila. If Kira had stayed, she had no doubt that she would be just like her friends, aware of the newest thing, excited about new places to try, parts of the city still left unexplored. She would have found some kind of corporate job (because nothing says “stability” like working for a multi-national!) fallen in love, married, had kids.
It wouldn’t be a bad life at all, really. But not one she would give up Lipa for.
Girl, why are we thinking of a jowa when you’ve got a business to run?she thought, chuckling to herself as she watered her plants. She wasn’t even thinking about love, much less babies and marriage.
Kira preferred love when she could give it to other people in the form of chocolate or matchmaking advice.Thatshe was comfortable with. Love was meant for other people, much braver people than herself. Her job was to make sure that they got their shot at it.
When she was about fourteen, fifteen, just starting to understand the concept of love, and relationships, her mother told her to be patient.Wait for love. It will come to you. Pray for it.Manifest to the universe that you want it, and it’ll come. You’ll fall in love faster than you realize.
So, she waited. She manifested crushes, waited for guys to make the first move, because they had to. And love came, easily enough. Kira was likeable and fun, and said yes to dates when guys asked. But they never really turned into anything more than that, a night or two together. The guys in Manila said she was “fun,” but she was a bit “too much to handle.” Like she was some kind of frying pan or something.
So, she thought, “okay, then maybe I can pour my love into my work instead.” She’d always dreamed of being part of Serendipity Studios, a stationery shop that made everything from notepads and stickers to rugs, water jugs and wallpapers. She’d cried of happiness when she passed the interviews, showed up to work even when she didn’t know what a junior accounts manager was supposed to do half the time. Continued to show up even when the cracks of their perfectly made foundations started to show, and was left to fend for herself, mostly.
Six months later, they said, thanks, but no thanks, maybe this isn’t for you, so bye.
Which brought her right back to Lipa. Where all a guy had to do was breathe wrong in her direction and everyone would know about it. It made her a little more judicious, a little more hesitant. She loved running the Laneways, loved running Gemini, and everything that came with it. But by the time she came back to Lipa, she’d gotten used to waiting. Whatever was meant for her would come if it was time. If it didn’t...then maybe it just wasn’t for her.
She would much rather focus on her chocolate, something she had control over, something she could create with her hands and make other people happy. Who would have thought thatKirawould figure it out? And when the days were good, when the chocolate tempered and snapped as it should, it was good.
But the other days? The bad days? Oh god. Those were the worst.
“Is this a long-winded explanation of why I’m not getting my tableya today?” Sari Tomas asked, her brow rising at Kira from across the countertop at Café Cecilia in the Laneways, two hours later. “My customers will riot.”
Kira had her morning coffee every day at Sari’s cafe. She loved it because the space was nice and airy, with enough plants and seating to feel comfortable, and Sari’s music taste was excellent. It helped that Sari was also one of her best and oldest friends. Cafè Cecilia exuded the same energy the rest of the Laneways had—stylish and comfortable. It was Kira’s favorite place to have her morning coffee.
Well, breakfastandmorningcoffee, now that Sari was officially boyfriending the baker next door, and Café Cecilia now had good food. Long story. Cute story, but a long one.
“My aircon sputtered and died the other day, and I know it’s December, but all those appliances generate heat, so it was melt city all day.All day, Sari. Including me,” Kira explained.
“Poor baby,” Gabriel, the aforementioned baker boyfriend next door, said, patting Kira’s head as he continued to eat his bowl of tocino and kesong puti on rice. He treated Kira exactly like he treated his younger siblings—slightly annoying, even if his heart was in the right place. “Did you get someone to fix it?”
“Mang Roldan knew a guy, and Ate Nessie watched the shop while he fixed it,” Kira explained as she stole a slice of kesong puti from Gab’s plate. It had been fried in olive oil, making the slightly salty white cheese extra salty and crispy and delicious. “Kasi I went to Kit and Clara’s wedding.”
“Why do those names sound familiar...?” Gab said, scratching his chin, clearly ignoring the way Kira was now stuffing her pan de sal with his kesong puti. It was really good. “Are they from Ateneo?”
“Yup. Blockmates,” she explained. She was about to start her usual roll call of all the ways Gabriel, an Atenean, also knew Kit and Clara, also Ateneans, because that was just the way they worked, when Sari stood in front of the two of them with a mug of her own coffee. The UP graduate stared at the two of them with that little look on her face, that I’m-so-glad-I’m-not-from-Ateneoface. “They had it in Manila.”
To be fair, Sari seems...more settled somehow,Kira thought. A little more mellow, as much as Capricorns could be mellow. And it probably had a lot to do with the Libra sitting next to Kira who was currently holding Sari’s hand and kissing the back of it. Cute. Air signs were usually good lifting forces on earth signs.
“Dimples, didn’t Anton Santillanalsoattend a wedding the other day?” Sari asked her new boyfriend, and god, the way Gab’s face just lit up at her mention of his little nickname was so sweet. Like those milk chocolate and caramel buttons her aunt used to bring home as pasalubong from London. “At the—”
“Carlton Makati, oo na, oo na,” Kira groaned, reaching over the counter the way she really wasn’t supposed to, and grabbed a to-go cup. “He was there. I was there. The world is too small.”
“So did you see him?” Sari asked as Gabriel gasped exaggeratedly. Kira knew it was pointless to lie to her friends and tenants. But really, more friends than tenants. Point at a tenant in the Laneways and Kira could tell you how they became friends. But it also meant that they knew everything—her life, her love life and lack thereof, what she had for breakfast, where she had lunch. It was a lot.
“I saw him,” she admitted, trying not to think about Santi in that creamy white barong, the way his lashes fluttered when he tried to smile, or that sad look on his face whenever his family was brought up. “His baby brother and I walked the aisle together. We—”
Kissed.
“Said hi to each other,” she finished, quickly pouring her remaining coffee into the to-go cup, not bothering with the lid. “Okay, I have to go. Chocolates to make, orders to fill—”
“Things to keep secret?” Sari asked, her brow rising in suspicion as Kira groaned and stuffed her pan de sal into her mouth. She’d known Sari since they were kids, and she was sure it was only a matter of time before her friend sussed out the truth, because Kira was such a generous person when it came to gossip. Even if it meant gossip about herself.
“I plead the fifth, whatever that means!” she managed to say, quickly making her escape from Café Cecilia, and out to the Laneways, where from there, it was a quick walk across the cobblestone street to her own shop, Gemini Chocolates.
Gemini was the first shop you saw when you entered the Laneways, and it was the only establishment that was actually a building and not a repurposed warehouse. It used to be an office, at least according to the plans she’d seen when the Laneways was under construction, but was now repurposed into Kira’s chocolate shop.
