“We needed to list three whens, basically conditions to when breaking the vow was okay,” Alex started. “Instead, Miss Lover Girlie here listed three conditions to falling in love.”
“Love and sex were intrinsic to me! Inhigh school.” Mara gave Alex a scathing look, muttering something about not having proper sex education and having to learn it all from fanfic.
“First, kailangan there’s amagical moment.” Alex emphasized the words to sound like she was in a soap opera, or a nineties-era teen movie.
“Oh god.” That was Mara, still pretending to ignore them. She bent over, trying to reach for one of the roses, which was just out of her grasp. Jay plucked it from the bed and handed it to her. Neither of them caught Alex observing the interaction and trying to hide a smile.
“What’s a magical moment?”
“Oh, you know.” Alex waved a hand around. “The world falls away, all is quiet, ‘214’ by Rivermaya is playing.”
“Grabe ‘to.” Mara nudged her. “I’m more an Ebe Dancel girl.”
“The second condition. Mara, what was the second condition?”
Mara said something, but she spoke it so softly, and with her head turned away, that Jay had no idea what it could possibly be.
“Right! You said you wanted your heart to skip a beat.” Alex nodded.
Then she looked around the room. “Why the hell did we order so many flowers?”
“Because you love love, just like me,” Mara teased. Alex didn’t argue. Instead she started to wander the room, looking at the arrangements.
“Heart skips a beat. That’s easy enough,” Jay said. “And the last?”
“The sinok,” Alex declared. She then plucked a hot pink gerbera daisy and whirled to face them.
“The what?”
“Hup!” Mara made a little noise, like she’d swallowed air too quickly.
Jay’s brain did the connecting for him. Sinok. Hiccup. Mara’s eyes widened in surprise, and their eyes met across the bed. A magic moment, a heart skipping a beat and a sinok. All simple things that happened…well, most days. But as they gazed at each other across his bed, on a completely different island, Jay had a feeling that Mara’s high school self had somehow called to him. Dreamed him up somehow.
All she needed to do was ask. Out loud.
“Why are there still loose flowers, though?” Alex’s curiosity pulled them both out of the moment. Mara’s cheeks were pink as she picked up the bouquet she’d been working on, spinning it in her hands.
“Because we still needed the bridal bouquets,” Mara explained. “This is yours.”
She grabbed one of the roses, long stemmed, the big red petals clustered close together, and slowly teased open the petals with her fingers, folding it back to look less like a fluttering heart and more like one that was bursting open. It was captivating to watch. She added it to the bouquet, doing it a few more times before she held it up to her friend.
“Wow,” Alex gasped, taking the flowers and cradling them in her arms. The baby blue of the ribbon popped against the deeper berry flowers, a collection of gerbera daisies, carnations, roses and eucalyptus, and in Alex’s hands, it looked like a heart, bursting out with love. “Roses are my birth flower.”
“I remember.” Mara nodded, tenderness in her eyes. The look they exchanged spoke volumes that Jay only ever hoped he would know about her. “But I know speaking from your heart was something you didn’t find easy back then. Maybe the flowers can speak for you, you know?”
“Yeah.” Alex caressed the blooms gently.
Mara was so good at this. Jay longed to squeeze her hand, tell her how good she was at this, but let the two reunited friends keep their moment instead. “Seat mate. Come to the wedding tomorrow.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to—”
“I want you to,” Alex insisted, squeezing Mara’s hand. “I want you to meet Tori. And Jay doesn’t have a plus-one.”
Both Mara and Alex turned to him in varied expressions of, “Oh, I completely forgot you’re here,” and, “You aresowelcome,” respectively. Jay narrowed his eyes at Alex in response, because he didn’tneedher help. But this was Alex’s big day, and since Jay was fully committing to being the supportive friend (and honestly, because he would love to spend more time with Mara), he slipped his hands in his pockets and shrugged.
“I’d love to be your date.”
And that, ladies and gentlefolk, was how Jay Montinola ended up at another wedding with Mara Barretto.
