Kate stared at Rob. When did this start to happen? How could I have missed it? Kate knew the answer, and she felt the guilt eat at her inside.
“Guess what?”
“What,” Kate asked, still dazed.
“I’ve even had time to read your books,” he said with a smile and a twinkle in his eyes.
Kate blushes. Oh dear Lord.
“You are a naughty little one, aren’t you?”
Kate laughed nervously. Her books had some steamy content along with the romance.
“But they’re good, very good. You’re a great writer, Kate. I was stupid to have said otherwise in the long distant past.”
Kate wanted to cry. Who is this person?
“I’m still me, Kate, a better version of me, I hope,” Rob said, correctly reading her mind.
Kate stared at Rob. What else had she missed? And then everything came flooding in her mind.
Rob was always available for her, always present. He never failed to call or text her in a day, just enough to show her he was genuinely concerned for her well-being, but never too much he became a pest. He was quick to encourage her and was always there when she needed to vent, or even cry in frustration. He was there after India when Kate became depressed about Layne. Rob didn’t ask her why she was depressed, he just made himself available to her and she remembered crying on his shoulder.
He never disappointed her, never imposed on her, never used his mind tricks on her, and never took advantage of her. In the past couple of months, Rob had become the very person Kate had been hoping he would be, and she almost missed it!
Kate’s face must have shown her “Aha” moment because Rob laughed.
“Took you long enough to notice, though,” he drawled.
“I... I’m sorry,” Kate said.
“Nothing to be sorry about. Just glad you’ve finally realized it. It wasn’t easy, you know, but I’m getting the hang of it,” Rob said.
Kate stared at Rob’s beautiful face and she saw him for the first time in a long, long while. In her preoccupation with a guy she barely knew, she had failed to notice the metamorphosis of her longtime friend.
“Rob, I—” Kate started to say.
Rob suddenly leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. It was quick and almost childlike in its intensity, but Kate was suddenly in tears.
Rob embraced her and let her have her cry. Kate didn’t know why she was crying.
All she knew was being in Rob’s arms felt a lot like home.
Kate watches Rob devour a pizza slice. She likes watching Rob do anything. Really. He is just so picture-perfect and so adorable, especially in private. To the outside world, he usually exudes more of a man-of-the-town vibe, but with Kate, he is just Rob, down-to-earth, even corny, but a very beautiful Rob.
As she remembers the time she realized Rob had become the man she had always wanted him to be, she becomes even guiltier for feeling something for a man she barely knew. She never stopped loving Rob, on that she is sure, but Layne had started to get under her skin and into her life. She had even started wearing the bracelet Layne gave her in India on a daily basis. But she couldn’t talk about him with anyone, especially not with Rob. For some reason, she felt like she was cheating on Rob, although they were just friends, and nothing more, as they had always been.
And yet, Rob had stopped seeing other women. And she had done the same—except for Layne. She and Rob spent most of their time together, but they never did anything that would label their relationship as anything other than friendship. Sure, they sat close to each other, hugged a lot, held hands sometimes, but they never made out or had full-on sex during that period. No kissing even. A quick smack on the lips is all they did from time to time, much like a kiss a mother gives her favorite elementary-school-age son. They were just very close friends.
Not that there weren’t moments when they could have taken it further. But Rob never took advantage, and Kate wasn’t really sure whether she was disappointed or she was proud of him. Rob had really matured. And she had loved him more.
“Are you eating that last piece of chicken?” Rob asks.
Kate looks at the last untouched buffalo wing piece on the table, and she looks down at the half-eaten piece in her sauce-covered hands. She smiles.
“For you, Rob, I would sacrifice that last piece,” she says seriously.
Rob laughs. “Yeah... after eating the other five, you should at least give me that!”
Kate smiles, and she feels her lips dripping with sauce.
“Oh, you slob!” Rob says, as he takes a napkin and blots the sauce from her lips.
Kate laughs. Then she remembers another time when someone else did something similar. There was buffalo chicken then as well. And sauce.
Five months ago
She saw a message on her author profile on Facebook. It was from an account she didn’t recognize. It said:
Harbour. Gate. Wall. Bracelet. Friday the 13th, SkyBar. View.
When she read the message, she knew. It was from Layne and he was asking to meet her again. Friday the 13th. There was a Friday the 13th in November and it was only in a few weeks.
Kate felt elated. She had tried not to think of Layne that much the past few months because Mumbai had been great and confusing, and for a time she succeeded, but seeing this message, all the memories and feelings returned.
What is it with this guy? He’s like a drug. No. Not a drug, Rob was the drug I, the addict couldn’t live without before. Layne is more like a fix or a binge. He is like... um... chocolates! You can’t have chocolates every day. But you binge on it from time to time. You love the feeling it gives you, but you can actually live without it for a long time. And yet, you look for it, you crave for it.
And here it was. Chocolates on Friday the 13th.
Kate laughed. Comparing Rob to drugs and Layne to chocolates! Her addiction to Rob had consumed her for most of her adult life, but she was able to overcome it. She didn’t completely flush him out of her system, but she was no longer dependent on him for her happiness.
Is Layne starting to be her new drug? No, chocolates are not as addictive as drugs, but they release all these kinds of feel-good elements into the human body. She loved the feeling of chocolates and Layne. But chocolates every day don’t seem to be good for the body. Is Layne going to be the same?
Kate thought of Rob again, and how she felt Rob was moving toward a path she had been hoping for since the first day they met. But chocolates... and with Layne, there is always regret when she leaves him. What if she didn’t leave him in the morning? What if they try it out for real? Will it work?
Didn’t she deserve to know if it could work? There’s only one way to find out.
She googled “SkyBar” and got multiple hits.
Shit. The first three hits were for SkyBar in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore. Kate knew if she scrolled further, there would be more.
So where?
And then she remembered her list. She retrieved her list and saw she was at Number Twelve.
12. I will see the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
So the place she needs to be in next is Kuala Lumpur, as per her bucket list.
If he’s there, then it is meant to be. If he means another SkyBar, then we were never meant to meet again.
She will leave it to the universe!
Kate then clicked on the website of her airline of choice and started looking for flights to Kuala Lumpur.
Four months ago
Rob watched her pack, and it was unnerving. Kate felt again like she was cheating on Rob, so she had to remind herself she and Rob were just friends. She just really needed to know for sure whether Layne was just someone she needed to get over soon or someone she needed to get serious with. In fact, Rob had been very pushy for her to try out new things, to go out with other guys. Kate felt he was letting her live her life before her thirty-fifth birthday. The significance of that wasn’t lost on her.
“Kat
e, what’s up? You look frazzled,” Rob said. He was lying on the right side of her bed, looking all desirable and handsome, his arms under his head, as she packed her suitcase on the left side of the bed.
“I am not frazzled, Rob. I just—can you just stop staring at me like that?”
Rob smiled. “Why?”
“Oh you know why, Rob,” Kate said. “I’m sure you got lots of women to do your every bidding just by staring at them like that, and you’re lying on my bed, so...” It was true, Rob was just so desirable at that very moment, and Kate, although she was packing to maybe see Layne, was still very much physically attracted to Rob.
“Okay, sorry! I will leave you in peace now.” Rob made a show of slowly rising from her bed and slowly walking out of her room, all the while staring at her with a mischievous smile.
Oh, that boy.
If Kate was to be perfectly honest, Rob would eclipse Layne in the looks department. If they stood side by side, she would first notice Rob and notice no one else. But there was something about Layne, and the fact their encounters were all Rob-free, Kate was able to realize she was attracted to another type of guy, totally different from Rob. And while she still didn’t know a hell of a lot about Layne, she knew he had a good heart.
If she were honest with herself though, if Rob and Layne stood side by side naked, she was sure to notice Layne first. While Rob had that tall, pale, lean, starving rock star body, which was sexy as hell, Layne had that muscular and fit sportsman’s body which Kate never thought she would like. That both men knew how to use their bodies to please her didn’t help either. They were both masters of foreplay, in totally different ways, and they both made sure Kate was satisfied in the end. That is if you remove all the emotionally draining encounters with Rob and just considered the times they had sex just for fun.
Something snapped her out of her hot imaginings.
Rob dropped a small Victoria’s Secret bag into her open suitcase.
“What is this?”
“For when you get lucky in KL,” Rob said with a twinkle in his eyes.
Kate opened the bag and saw three pieces of the most beautiful and luxuriously sexy panties inside. They were a combination of silk and lace, with absolutely no butt coverage in the deepest colors of red, green, and violet.
“I- I- ,” Kate stammered.
“You should pay more attention to your underwear, Kate, especially when you’re out to seduce a guy. Just saying,” Rob said cryptically.
Oh dear Lord, does he know?
“I’m not out to seduce a guy, Rob!” Liar, liar, liar!
“It’s been awhile, at least that I know of. Maybe you should. Release all that pent-up sexual tension inside of you,” Rob said.
Kate flashed back to that time Rob offered to be her release. But that was the old Rob. This new Rob did not make any offer. He just stared at Kate, trying to read her face.
“Maybe I will...,” Kate said with a smile. And with that, the guilt was gone.
She had Rob’s blessings.
2
The Plan
Layne is in a movie house with his youngest sister, Gidgette. He promised to watch a chick flick with her—a belated birthday request by the sister who could get away with anything, if she asked nicely. All he knows is Gidgette had turned on the charms and the big puppy eyes and he couldn’t say no. He also suspects she wanted to talk to him about something, so he just went along.
After the movie, which was surprisingly good, they eat at their favorite restaurant—KFC! Layne smiles as he watches Gidgette wolf down the chicken and gravy and the fries. For a petite eighteen-year-old, she eats like a construction worker. He listens to her talk, while she ate. And true enough, this was the reason for the date.
“Kuya, I’m already an adult, right? I mean I’m already eighteen,” Gidgette starts.
Layne wonders where this will go.
“Yes, you are an adult. If you live in the US, you should have been out of the house and living on a campus somewhere, supporting yourself,” Layne says slowly.
“I’ve been doing good in school, and if I play my cards right, I will graduate in two years.”
“Ah-huh,” Layne says, his eyebrows already raised. Something’s coming.
“Kuya...,” Gidgette says softly.
“Yes? Out with it, Gidge,” Layne says seriously. He is getting worried.
“There’s this guy...,” she starts.
Layne sighs. Gidgette always had boys around her. She is pretty, bubbly, smart, and vivacious. But she never took any of the boys seriously. Layne hears of her “boylets” or boy toys, probably guys who hang around her whom she can always count on for dates, car rides, etc. But she has never, ever, told Layne about any specific boy. Until now.
Layne waits for Gidgette to continue.
“He’s nice, Kuya. Very smart. And hardworking. He’s my batch mate in school, and we take most of the same classes together.”
Layne stays silent.
“I like him, Kuya. I like him a lot. But...”
“But what?” Layne asks.
“He’s not... He’s... He’s on the poor side, Kuya. He has no car. He barely has money for allowance. Sometimes, he doesn’t eat and I know it’s because he doesn’t have the money to buy food. He works two part-time jobs, and I help him with his studies because sometimes he is just too tired to concentrate in class.
“He’s not someone who will elevate our situation. In fact, he will probably worsen it, since I won’t get any freebies from him, the same as I could get from my other boy- from other boys I go out with.”
“Why are you telling me this, Gidge?” Layne asks softly.
“I more than like him. And I know I am too young to think long term, but I can see a future for us. Like I said, it will be rough, but I want to see where it goes.”
“And?”
“And I wanted to ask your permission to continue on this path with him.”
“You are asking m- my- permission?” Layne stammers.
“Kuya, I know how much you have done for our family, how much you have sacrificed to ensure we get the best we could get. I know this is probably not what you would like for me, so I am asking you to let me do this.”
Layne feels the tears prickle his eyes. Why do his sisters think he has sacrificed his life away for all of them? He hasn’t! He loves them and everything he has done and is doing is all from his heart—no sacrifices, no heaviness.
“Gidge, look at me.”
Gidgette looks up at him, her eyes filling with tears.
“I don’t know what gave you the idea I won’t be okay with this. If he is as good as you say he is, then he is worth your love. Just remember you have to finish your studies first, and he has to finish his as well. Once you have graduated, you two can plan out whatever you want to do with your lives,” Layne says. “It’s your life, Gidge. Don’t think you owe me anything. Just graduate and be happy, and I am happy.”
Gidgette stands and runs around the table to hug him tight.
“I love you, Kuya! You are the best Kuya ever!”
She showers him with small kisses on his cheeks.
“Eeew! Gidge, you’re slathering gravy all over my face, haven’t you heard of a tissue?” Layne says, laughing.
Gidgette runs back to her chair, takes a tissue and dabs at her mouth and then continues to devour the chicken drowning in gravy. Layne wipes his face with his own tissue paper and he watches his little sister, all grown up and responsible Gidgette, eating like a slob.
The vision triggers a memory. Of another slob, eating chicken, a couple of months ago.
Six months ago
It’s been two months since he and Kate met in Mumbai, and he knew he had it bad. He had it really bad. Everything and anything reminded him of Kate, and it took all of his concentration to focus on his work. A lot of times, he would lurk and check her author profile and her other social media accounts. He felt like a stalker. He kept asking himself what held him back from j
ust asking Kate out—that would ensure they see each other again, and not abroad, but in the Philippines. In Manila. They live in the same freaking city, and yet they haven’t seen each other!
Layne didn’t have a good answer. If he were any guy, he would have asked her out when he met her again in Vietnam. Back then he already knew he liked her a lot. That he looked for her after that night was testament to that. But he didn’t, and she didn’t stay. So why not in China? That was an even more enjoyable and intense meeting. Layne thought he had missed his chance, and he left it to Kate to bring up the topic, which she didn’t. And yes, she left him again. And in India? He knew back then he was in love with her, why not then? He got scared, because he had never felt the same for anyone before. And yes, she left him yet again.
So what now? Would he just hope they bump into each other again? Would he continue to lurk for clues in her social media accounts? Or will he be man enough to take matters into his own hands and finally do something, for god’s sake!
He logged on to his fake and empty Facebook account and went to Kate’s author page. Then he left her a comment he was sure she would know was from him, and would understand what it meant.
And then he planned and waited.
“C’mon, Kate, what’s Holy Week without a trip to Boracay?” Rob asks.
Kate remembers the few times she joined Rob and his friends in Boracay and she cringes inwardly. Non-stop eating and partying and alcohol and people watching and people meeting.
“Peaceful,” she replies.
Rob raises an eyebrow. “You enjoyed yourself before, right?”
“Too much. I just want to spend quality time with Jane before we—”
Rob smiles. “You still can’t say it, can you?”
Kate sighs. “Before we get married. And you can enjoy Boracay as a single guy for the last time.”
“Oh, it will be the same when we get married, Kate. We will still enjoy Boracay or any other place we visit. We will be different from the other boring married couples, okay?”
Kate, Finally Page 9