He shakes his head, but his eyes hint at a shadow of a smile. “No need to state the obvious, Superstar.”
I’m about to assure Pa that I’d pick him a million times over Dr. Derrick when I hear someone call my surname.
“Ilagan?”
Seph enters the bakery, his face breaking into a smile and nose scrunch when he sees me.
I have the impulse to say hi when I remember that I’m still pissed at him.
I point to the phone next to my ear when Seph keeps trying to talk to me.Busy, I mouth, and turn away from him.
“Seph? What’re you doing here?” Ma beams and runs around the counter as if a celebrity was visiting the bakery. Even my mother is always so weirdly protective over him. “Areyou hungry? Want some merienda? I’ll make you one of our special pies.”
“Thanks, Auntie. I’m here to pick up an order—” Seph gets drowned out by Ma offering him more food.
Then Pa asks me out of nowhere, “Nililigawan ka ba niya?”
“No!” I say so loudly that people shopping by the pastry displays shoot glances at me.
I lower my voice and hiss, “He’s not courting me.”
“Sure ka?” He hovers closer, his gaze bouncing between me and Seph. “You’re seeing him a lot.”
“I see you a lot and you’re not courting me.”
He crosses his arms and smirks. “Why so defensive?”
“Wait lang.I’mthe one teasing you—”
“What?” I spin around when I feel someone tapping my shoulder.
It’s Seph holding out a Buns by Beth package. His lips quirk up when I face him, but his expression seems less… cocky. Like, he’s nervous for some reason? I peer at the box he’s holding. Maybe he’s trying to return a box of expired siopaos.
Yet Ma continues to rave about Seph behind him. “He ordered some siopaos to get sent to our place, but I told him he didn’t have to go through the hassle. Give them while we’re all here!”
I stare at the ten-piece siopao box. “You ordered this for us?”
He offers the box again with a tentative smile. “Chaperone’s treat.”
“Uy.” I hear Pa tease. “I did that, too, when I was courting your mom.”
It takes all my willpower to not answer back,Seph is not courting me!
Also, no offense to my mother, but if I were being courted, I would want something nicer than a box of siopaos.
Then I hear Ma order me to take the box. “Kawawa naman siSeph. He put all that effort into giving a gift and you made him hold that box for so long.”
“It barely weighs a pound,” I tell Ma. “Also, he bought siopaos thatyoumade to give back to you. You made more of an effort with his gift.”
Ma then starts lecturing me about having better manners.
“You know, I used to love it when your dad would buy siopaos from me. I never had a day with zero sales because your dad always bought me a box!”
She keeps going on about the proper protocol when accepting gifts, but my mind barely registers anything past her first sentence.
… Did Ma just bring up Pa?
I don’t even remember the last time Ma casually brought up a memory of my dad.
