“Yeah, it’s ice cream made with coconut milk and other yummy things.” Mara smiled. God, Luna was cute. She was still that age where she had perfectly round baby cheeks, even if she was quickly growing taller. “You should join me. I think I get a discount because I’m staying at the hotel.”
“We will take you up on that offer. Right, Jay?” Irene asked her little brother pointedly. Her smile was both diabolical and amused. Mara had intentionally not included Jay in her thoughts of inviting the Montinolas to dessert. “Luna, you want to put on your hat?”
“Yes please,” Luna said, reaching for the hat. Upon closer inspection there were still a couple of loose threads inside. It was clearly handmade. Luna saw her looking and held it up for Mara’s inspection. “Tita, did you know Nong made this for me?”
“Really?” Mara blinked in surprise. “Nong?” she echoed, turning to face Jay, who looked sheepish. “You crochet?”
“I wanted to try it after what you said. You’re right, it is soothing.”
Curses, he was cute. Mara rolled her eyes at her own fickle emotions. It was really, really hard to hold on to a grudge when Jay was making his niece cute bucket hats. Hats were hard to make, and she should know! You needed to stitch in a round, with a magic circle base, and…wow. He really tried crochet. Because of her. Mara inhaled deeply to store her kilig.
The line started to shuffle forward, and Jay squeezed past his sister to grab his family’s luggage before someone ported it out. Mara sighed and took her place in line. It was almost over.
“I feel like I should ask,” Ate Irene said over her shoulder to Mara.
“Don’t ask,” Jay yelled a few places ahead of them. But clearly Ate Irene had chosen to ignore her brother’s sage advice. Jay was quickly lost to the dearth of porters and passengers grabbing luggage left and right. It was actually kind of scary.
“What did he do?” Ate Irene asked, as Mara lifted her sunglasses to the top of her head. “Is it the meme thing?”
Mara shook her head. “He already apologized for the meme thing.”
“So he did something else,” Ate Irene mused. God help all the younger siblings who had to endure the scrutiny of their Ates. Mara pulled a half-empty water bottle from her purse and started to take a sip. “Is that why you guys aren’t dating?”
Mara choked on the water, making Luna laugh as some of it sprayed on her hat. Mara apologetically patted the little girl’s head. So cute.
“Why would we be together?” She laughed like it was the most ridiculous idea she’d ever heard, even as her heart ached in such a familiar way. Like she knew exactly how long it would take, how much it would hurt, when it would go away.
“Because he said that he kissed you,” Ate Irene pointed out.
“I asked him for a…different favor.” Mara huffed, but she looked down at Luna to indicate to Irene why she wasn’t going to elaborate more. “A more hands-on one. He declined and thought his magical, not-real kiss thing would be better.”
“Hay Jay.” Irene rolled her eyes. Again, a familiar reaction to a sibling being particularly obstinate. “I swear, his Leo placements get the better of him most of the time. He’s just had a rough time with love. Our parents, Selena…” Mara did not remember right away that Ate Irene meant Selena Guerro. “Plus, I haven’t exactly been a stellar role model for him when it comes to long-lasting love.”
“Yes, buthe’smaking these choices. He’s an adult, making them.”
“Oh, I like you.” Ate Irene gasped like she just realized how awesome Mara was. “I can see why he was mopey these last three months.”
“Mopey?”
“Like Snoopy but sad,” Luna supplied, which was only kind of accurate. Mara laughed, even as every part of her itched to ask Ate Irene justhowmopey Jay had been. If it was anywhere near as mopey as her…
“And there’s nothing going on between you. Your interest in him was—”
“Academic.”
“Sure. And he was being—”
“Philanthropic, he thinks.”
“Uh-huh. Is that what we younger millennials are calling it these days?” Mara had the distinct impression that Jay’s older sister was trying not to laugh. “You know, I think I will take you up on that Cocomo date. We have so many things to discuss.”
Ahead of them, she spotted Jay already holding two pieces of luggage on top of everything else. He was scanning the pile for a third. What else could the family possibly need? His eyes brightened, and he reached over to Mara’s luggage and pulled it from a pile. Of course he knew it was hers. Mara could read her own last name from the gigantic luggage tags her mother had gotten them for Christmas, hanging from the side of her carrying case.
“Jay!” Mara said. “What are you doing?”
“Helping you,” he replied as she, Luna and Ate Irene made it to the front of the boat, people passing them to go ahead. “That plank to the dock is rail thin and rickety. It’s really hard to do it without bags.”
“And yet somehow I managed to get on the boat by myself, like a big girl. Give me the bag.”
