“May I kiss you?” he asked, and her eyes widened in surprise. But she knew what he was really asking her.May I kiss you, so you can find someone else?
“Okay,” she finally said. She sounded nervous. Why nervous? Unless she… Oh fuck.
“You’ve never kissed anyone, have you?”
“Well. Not like this,” she admitted. His face blocked her light just enough so he could tell she was blushing. “Once. High school in an exclusive girls’ school can get confusing. She was very good at it.”
It was enough to ease the tension between them, just enough that Jay could reach for her with the hand that wasn’t anchored on the middle console. Touching her arm, fingers creeping up until he made it to her cheek. His hand cupped her soft, supple skin, and he didn’t know what was louder—his thumping heart or her short breaths. His thumb brushed against her lips in a gentle caress, teasing them slightly open.
Then he kissed her. He hadn’t intended to do more than to press his lips on hers, to infuse…whatever it was about him that made others find love in a single kiss.
But Mara parted her lips more, invited him in. And Jay was lost to the kiss, taking her parted lips as his invitation to take away her longing, to kiss her like there would be no other kiss after him. And he let her take everything she wanted from him, everything she wanted to experience. Her hand gripped the front of his shirt, fingers slipping through the buttons and on to his heated skin. Jay’s lungs constricted, and his heart wrenched. She was very, very good at this.
But as he thought about what else he wanted to do, how he could push this further, he was struck with a mental picture of her with someone else. Someone tall and handsome, with a soft, cheeky smile, who could open any guava jam jar she wanted and stick around for the next morning to have SkyFlakes and kesong puti with said guava jam.
He was kind of picturing Tuxedo Mask fromSailor Moonfilling that role. It definitely wasn’t him, and it made him pull away suddenly, abruptly.
He instinctively raised his hands to stop Mara from losing her balance, and he felt his chest ache when she looked at him in pale-faced shock. After a blink, she cooled and wriggled herself free from his grasp, collecting her bag and exiting the car. With the door still open, she paused and turned to him, bending forward, one hand on the door and another over her cleavage.
Jay tried very hard not to look at the hand covering her cleavage.
“Do you live in Quezon City?” she asked.
“Pasig,” he admitted, and she nodded like he had absolutely confirmed something for her that he wasn’t prepared to admit. He knew what it meant, driving someone to a different city. It was a commitment, in this country with a broken transport system, to drive someone home. It was expensive to take the Skyway, the gas wasn’t cheap. The roads were nuts. But it didn’t matter.You’re home, and you’re safe. That’s what I said I would do.
“You still have a long drive, then. I’ll let you go,” she said, nodding then slamming the door. Jay rolled the window down, because this wasn’t how this was going to end, was it? All his instincts told him to get out of the damn car, follow her to her gate, tell her not to go, tell her that he could be everything she wanted and more. “Night, Jay.”
“Good night, Mara.”
Jay took all of those instincts, balled them into his fists and kept them clamped down. He watched Mara slip her hand through the bars of the gate, wriggle the lock open and walk through and up to the warm light of the home that waited for her. She didn’t turn around. Didn’t give him one last look.
All chances gone.
Just as well. She was about to fall in love with someone else. And Jay would have a squirrel, a bunny and a beagle to keep him company all the way to Pasig.
Alex and Tori are getting married!
See you at the beach.
Shorewinds Hotel, Station 1, Boracay
EIGHT
It took three months, some logistical finagling and careful consideration for Mara to decide to spend her wedding money on a summer trip to the beach. It took a week for Mabel to say she was joining her, and another week for her to then back out. Marina and David considered coming for about two days—until they decided against it, and Mara was alone.
So one warm March day, Mara sat her parents down and told them she was going to the beach for a week. And her parents, knowing fully that there was nothing they could do when their daughters made a decision, could only ask, “Which one?”
Which beach was a question as essential and philosophical as asking someone their star sign. In a country where moving in any direction will eventually lead to a beach, whichkindof beach was an important distinction. Beaches to the north—La Union, Zambales, Bataan—were all black sand and warm waters. They were made mostly for serious surfers, getting tanned in the sun while dining on niche food concepts among Manila folk who were looking for a hip, young surf town vibe. Mara never enjoyed a beach she couldn’t swim in, and she was never a party girl, so pass.
Slightly to the south of Manila was Anilao, a diver’s paradise that had since evolved to have gorgeous resorts with even better pools. But it was a two-hour drive with no commute options, and it made no sense to rent a van for just one person. Venturing farther to the west via plane landed you in Palawan, God’s gift to the Philippines in the form of gorgeous rock formations, open sea, hidden lagoons and lakes to discover for the more adventurous tourist. These were the tourists willing to sit for an hour or longer on a little boat to experience the islands’ otherworldly beauty.
But Mara wasn’t looking for adventure. What she was looking for was a Lazy Girl’s Fancy Beach Vacation, one that didn’t require a car, much thought or consideration, and with enough convenience and people for her to still be relatively safe on her own.
And so, Boracay.
Mara loved Boracay. She loved it as a child, willing to sit through a nine-hour ferry ride and another thirty-minute small boat ride just to get to the island’s crowded, noisy Station 3. She loved it as a younger adult, blowing her parents’ money to party with her college friends in May for Laboracay in Station 2. But she loved it the most as an adult, spending her own money on a proper flight, an even shorter fast craft ride and a nicely appointed hotel in Station 1. It was quieter on that part of the island, with more space to enjoy the perfect white sand, crystal blue waters and her favorite sunsets. The fact that the restaurants along the beach rivaled those in Manila, and the café there was slightly better, was also a big plus in the island’s favor.
Mara wasn’t even there yet, and already she didn’t want to leave. But before she could get there, it did mean having to ride a fast craft from Caticlan Jetty Port to Boracay.
