“I didn’t?” she asked innocently. Mara couldn’t see the expression on Ate Irene’s face because a drop of water had pooled at the tip of Jay’s hair, then splashed on his collarbone, then started to slide down the middle of his chest, and—oops. Into the happy trail it disappears. Oh wow. Newton had been on to something with those laws of gravity. “Gosh, I must be getting old.”
“I would offer to help, but you’re trying to escape from me, and I’m naked,” Jay announced, glaring at his sister. Mara also realized that this was the first time she was seeing all of Jay’s body in the daylight, and wow. It was fascinating to watch his muscles move and tense as he twisted away from her. He was more wiry and skinny than she pictured (than she’d actually held, and touched), but she knew that was the frame of a man who could part her thighs and hold them open while—
“Right, Mara?”
“Hmm?” she said innocently.
“Oh well, I have to go get these babies settled in our unit.” Ate Irene shrugged, moving past them. “Our apartment isn’t going to make itself cozy.”
Mara remembered that Irene and Luna were moving. She’d heard someone mention that Irene’s wedding was coming up soon, but she didn’t know any of the details and didn’t want to press the matter.
“Do you need help, Ate?” Mara was distracted, not rude.
“No, no!” Irene shook her head, butting the box against the wall so she could open the front door, wedge her foot through the gap and move it wide enough so she could pass. Mara held the door open for her so she could change into a different pair of slippers. “The two of you stay. It’s literally across the way.”
“Your car?”
“Her condo,” Jay explained, hand still on the knot in the towel. And no, Mara wasnotgoing to think about what he was trying to keep out of her view. Nothing she hadn’t seen before, and touched, too. “She and Luna are moving to Kuya Nige’s place in St. Tropez Court.”
Mara had seen it when the Grab car had dropped her off here. It wasn’t far at all, but she supposed if you were comparing it to someone being ten steps away, if you compared it to moving all the way to Hong Kong, it was a huge distance either way.
She helped Ate Irene to the elevator anyway, leaving the door lodged open. She came back to the unit to find Jay still standing where she left him, a little less wet, but seemingly a little lost. So she closed the door behind her, and he showed no signs of acknowledging her. Instead he was looking around the apartment, like he was trying to find something that was missing.
“You okay?” Mara asked as she took off her shoes. Jay blinked at her. She assumed that he’d forgotten she was there, deep in thought as he seemed.
“Yeah, I—I just realized that was the last of their stuff.” He frowned as he glanced around the apartment one more time. It didn’t look empty exactly—most of the major furniture items were still there. Maybe a little big. Spacious, which he probably wasn’t used to yet. “My family moved out of the apartment.”
“Oh, Jay.” It broke her heart to see him so defeated. She took his hand, the one that wasn’t keeping the towel tied to his waist, making him turn to face her. Then she pressed a hand to his cheek. Jay sighed and closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. “You want to talk about it?”
“Not—” he started, but Mara was already halfway to saying something else.
“We could order tacos. There’s a Takaw Tacos near you, right?”
Maybe he was craving birria tacos. Maybe he’d wanted to have it for weeks. Maybe it was something else entirely, but the way his face changed from a broody seriousness to a soft happiness to a full sunshine smile made Mara’s heart flip three different times, three different ways. She liked how easy it was to make him smile. She wondered if it was always going to be this easy with someone else.
“Yes, please,” he said, pulling on Mara’s hand so he could plant a long kiss on her temple. He squeezed her hand. “I’ll go get dressed?”
What an odd question. Of course he should get dressed. They were going to have tacos. But the way he looked at her, Mara kind of had an idea.
“Oh god!” she exclaimed, shaking her head. “No, no. Jay, you don’t have to—I mean unless you want—”
“Doyouwant?”
“I think I want us to talk first.” She laughed, shaking her head because she’d been so worried and nervous the entire car ride here, rehearsing things she wanted to say and how she was going to tell him that she was done, he was right, she couldn’t do this.
All that seemed to fly out the window now.
But, no. They were adults who could have a friendly, but serious, conversation over birria and horchata. Okay, maybe not horchata. Takaw Tacos’s house-made horchata was usually sold out by the time Mara got to them. “Go na.”
So there they were, sitting on the floor of his living room, eating tacos and drinking Coke Zeros. One of them was dripping birria consommé on the bare floor, and the other one was Mara because she’d put her tacos in a bowl, dripped consommé over them and ate it all like a rice bowl.
“I don’t know what’s more unhinged.” Jay laughed, wiping the dripping sauce off his lip and licking the tip of his finger. “Your way of eating tacos or me not having a rug.”
“I don’t think you’re using the wordunhingedright.” Mara added more of the tomato thing. It probably wasn’t proper salsa. “Why a rug?”
“A rug adds a vibe,” Jay argued, whipping out his phone to pull up a Pinterest board. Mara tried and failed to be subtle about peeking at his boards—“Photos,” “Interiors,” “Outfits.” Simple. Jay pulled up the “Interiors” board and showed her what he’d pinned. All the spaces showed sunny, comfortable rooms with soft furnishings, but had very modern touches. The rugs were all checkered and slightly shaggy. The coffee tables were sometimes colored acrylic. Mara was surprised. None of that was currently in the half-empty living room. “See?”
“Mmm-hmm.” She nodded, scrolling the board a little more. It was a little too trendy for her tastes (god, some of these rooms had a disco ball), but she could easily picture some of her own furniture pieces fitting in these rooms, too. Her bookshelf. The vanity she’d thrifted that was likely a desk. Vases full of flowers.
