“We didn’t get plus ones, actually,” Scott said, chuckling after Mon rolled his eyes at his unspoken question. Scott had ordered ice cream, too, and was taking a huge chomp off of the side of his quezo real mountain like the chaos demon that he was. “So Ava took her cousin Tori to this new degustation—”
“Degu-what?”
“Tasting menu,” he explained, “in Silang. They went to a tasing menu place without me. The guy who makes a living off of food videos. They are sending photos, and it is taking everything in me not to shove this entire ice cream cone into my mouth and follow them.”
“The food here in Luisa’s is good, too, though,” Jay pointed out, but Scott answered him with a pout that was so pitiful that he actually wanted to take his words back. “So they say.”
Scott was everyone’s favorite foodie influencer, after all, and it was rare for him to be so excited about something in the Philippine food scene, saturated as it was. His girlfriend Ava’s plans had two things that were sure to make a man like Scott Sabio suffer—not being included in something, and not being included in something food-related. It was devious and hilarious, which was one of the reasons why Jay thought Ava was a perfect match for his friend.
“If it helps, I didn’t get a plus-one, either,” Mon announced. “Olivia’s in LA anyway.”
It was a flex for Mon to say things like that so casually. It came with the territory of datingtheOlivia Angeles, the most famous Pinoy in Hollywood. Since the SAG and the WGA strikes ended, Hollywood was back in full swing, and Olivia’s schedule was booked with meetings, shoots and reshoots, constantly flying back and forth. Jay wondered how Mon could stand to be half a world away from the person he loved. He hadn’t had much of a chance to see Mon and Olivia together—Jay hadn’t actually met her yet—but a Mon in love was a happy Mon, and good for him.
“Did you hear what David said when you told him that?” Scott chortled, shaking his head in disbelief. “God, I love the guy but sometimes he can be dense as… Mon, help me out.”
“Osmium is the densest naturally occurring element in the world,” Mon supplied. “But yeah, I heard it. Something about Mara not liking it if Olivia showed up and upstaged Marina. He said it when he was introducing me to Marina’s parents.”
Jay winced, becauseohDavid. He was a good guy. A really nice one, actually. But he tended to absolutely not consider anything whenever he opened his mouth, which had gotten him into a lot of trouble in the past. Like, for example, turning a photo Jay took into a meme and posting it everywhere online.
“Yeah that was really tactless of him,” Mon said. “Marina’s Ate is a bit…”
“Scary?” Scott asked, and Jay couldn’t help himself. He made a noise. In general, Jay made a lot of noise, he was a noisy guy. But the sound that came out of his mouth was partway between a laugh and an agonized whine. Because it was actually pretty funny for his friends to beso closeto his reasons for not being a groomsman, and yet so far. “What the hell wasthat?”
“What was what?” Okay, his voice was a little too high-pitched and nervous. He cleared his throat, then stumbled on his way to sitting down on the lounger next to Mon. “What was what?” He had the feeling of being caught, but without knowing what for. Not the first time it happened to him, really.
“That little Jay noise you made,” Mon said, tilting his head in confusion. Across them, Scott gasped and pointed.
“You’re scared of Marina’s Ate.”
“Okay, that’s—” he began, but really, what was the point? “Yes. Fine, fine, yes. I’m scared of Mara. In fact we are sitting here, at the very hidden corner of the entire ballroom, because I do not want her to see me.”
“Why? What did she do?” Scott asked. Jay felt like he was bracing for a punch in the stomach, because it wasn’t anything thatshehad done, it was all him. Him and an enterprising idiot on the internet who thought the image of Mara Barretto scowling was funny enough to share with the rest of the world. That idiot being David. But Jay was never going to saythatout loud. “Oh god. What didyoudo?”
“Well…” Jay winced again.
“Jaysohn Montinola. I am this close to karate chopping your ice cream out of your hand.” Scott held up said karate chopping hand, and Jay curled his body over his ice cream to protect it. Oh god. This wasn’t going to be fun.
“I may have,” he started slowly, “taken a really bad photo of Mara when we went out one time. I was just trying to capture the moment, be present, you know? And then she got really annoyed with me, and I took a photo of her, and that photo turned into a meme, and…”
“Oh my god,” Scott gasped. Mon’s confused blinking was the perfect companion to his disbelief. “Of course. That photo was everywhere. The eldest Asian Ate. Oh my god. It’s Mara Barretto?”
“Wait,” Mon said. “You went out with Marina’s sister?”
“Noooo,” Jay singsonged. “I went out with Marina. David set us up. This was like, a year ago.”
“So,” Mon concluded, because he was a terribly smart guy, “you’re the last guy Marina dated before—”
“Before she decided she would rather fall in love with David instead, yes,” Jay admitted, and as much as he was determined not to be in a long-term relationship anytime soon, it still stung to say it out loud, of course. It always did. But you learned to smile, be happy for them and move on. It was easier that way. “David thought she and I would suit each other, which is hilarious, now that I think about it. So the four of us went to that gin bar in Quezon City—”
“With the tea-based gins. Ooh, I love that place.” Scott nodded his approval. “The secret bar in Nomnom Commons has a more unique selection, but you can’t beat QC for chill vibes.”
“—and that’s when I took the picture. I was taking a picture of our drinks, and I said something about the female equivalent of a quarter-life crisis is quitting their corporate job and starting a small business.”
Both Mon and Scott’s faces were hilarious. They were the same horrified faces they made, Jay realized, when David collided with another player playing basketball and broke his nose in high school. Which was fair, because this was about the same level of “what the fuck.”
And, he admitted, that was probably the most douchey thing he’d said in a long time. He hadn’t even known Mara ran Wildflower at that point. His finger had slipped on the shutter button just as she had glared at him like a worm to crush under her boot (which, fair). Then Marina fell in love with David, he wasn’t asked to be a groomsman, and that’s how this story happily ended.
“Your fears are totally justified,” Mon said. “Because that was terrible. Cancelable. Jesus, Jay. Marina also worships the ground her Ate walks on, and David invested in Mara’s flower business.”
