He handed Kira the box, and she eagerly tucked in, running her spoon through the layer of whipped cream, the chunks of chocolate and chocolate ganache, until her spoon met with the dark chocolate ice cream, and the mousse inside. She seemed to have no trouble balancing all of that on her spoon, then took a bite.
“Mmmmm,” she said, and Santi felt his breath catch at the sound of that little moan of ecstasy. His heart actually leaped in his chest. She seemed to like it.
“Good?” he asked. But then her face turned thoughtful, and Santi started worrying. No good came of someone suddenly becoming thoughtful after eating chocolate.
“I’m biased,” Kira explained. “But I see the problem. This dessert is all...frippy. Nothing comes together.”
“Frip...it’s all frippery?” Santi clarified. Kira nodded. “Can it be fixed, you think?”
“Of course.” Kira chuckled, placing the dessert on her lap. “I think recreating a dessert you had in Rome is a great idea. But maybe...”
“Maybe?” Santi asked, his brow furrowing.
“Maybe what tastes good in Rome is different in Lipa,” Kira told him. “Your tomatoes and basil are different, your cheeses are different, people’s tastes are different. How we enjoy something varies place to place.”
Santi frowned, considering.
She was right, of course. He’d spent a lot of time cultivating relationships with his local suppliers. How could he have just forgotten, when it came to the chocolate? Come to think of it, how many times had international brands come to Manila and admit to adjusting their menus for Filipinos? They came fully aware they were bringing something new to the table, but knew that it still had to fit the people eating it. It was all about the audience.
And Santi’s audience loved that both La Spezia and Hotel Villa sourced everything they sold locally. At the time, it had saved Santi on transportation costs, but the effect had been that it gave Hotel Villa a style that was classy but homey, gave La Spezia’s Italian dishes a familiarity.
Come to think of it, whydidn’tVilla and La Spezia have more chocolate? They could have more items on the dessert menu in the lobby lounge. They could offer chocolates on pillows for their suite guests. They could have champorado for the breakfast buffet.
“It will be something new,” Santi conceded. He remembered what Kira’s chocolate tasted like. Could only imagine what it would do to a tartufo.
He should be asking her about the Laneways, about the possibility of the family selling it. But Santi had already decided that his returning to Manila was not worth the collateral damage of Kira’s unhappiness. It wasn’t worth the collateral damage to anyone, really, but even more so when it was someone he’d known since he was a kid, someone who knew him, and remembered who he was, before he fully became Vito Santillan’s grandson. Since she’d showed up at that convenience store in Japan, she told Santi what she needed. She needed someone to believe in her.
He could do that, which was why he never minded when she came up to him at the last Laneways Christmas Party and made him join the karaoke contest.
He liked being the one she turned to when she was lost about Gemini or the Laneways. He used to be merely content with it, but that kiss in Makati had changed a lot of things for him.
But if he brought up selling the Laneways, he would lose her. And the thought of losing someone as...special to him as Kira Luz was terrifying. He was better at being a hero than he was a grandson.
“Kira, I...” he said. “How would you feel about being Villa and La Spezia’s chocolate supplier?”
Silence. She blinked at him once, twice, three times. There was a moment where Santi thought he hadn’t said it out loud, but he was sure that he had.
He didn’t think he said anything particularly funny, but Kira’s face just absolutely split into laughter, and the next thing he knew, she was leaning into him, her hand on his arm, like she couldn’t believe he just said that.
Santi was confused. Or maybe he was still a little tired from his drive from Manila—the traffic had been hell, even more than usual. But at least SLEX and Star Tollway had been clear, which still didn’t explain Kira’s laughter. She smelled nice.
“It’s like you’re asking me how I feel about centaurs wearing pants,” Kira told him, wiping tears from the corner of her eyes. “God, universe, what are youdoing?”
“What?”
“Just...can you...can you ask me again?” She got herself together, cleared her throat, sat up straighter. “I’m a professional. You want me to what?”
“Kimberly Raine Luz,” he said, serious and mostly because he knew she didn’t like it when people used her full name. “Would you like to become the official chocolate supplier for Hotel Villa and La Spezia?”
“I... I don’t know.” Kira said.
“You don’t?” Santi blinked back in surprise.
“Well, yes, I know. I mean, yes, I know, but...” Kira shook her head. “Look. The universe is wonderful and weird. But it has never given me an answer this fast. I’m adjusting.”
“You asked the universe about me, Kira?” he asked, a little slow, a little deliberately intimate.
“Um,” was all she said, and he knew it was dark, but there were just enough lights for him to notice that she was blushing. It brought him right back to that moment at the hotel, to that kiss that he still thought about, one that he agonized about days after. “Yes.”
