It was, in short, a bowl of heaven, and the perfect thing to eat this early in the morning.
“This is pretty good,” Sari announced as they both slurped their soup noisily, ordering a 1.5 litre of Coke just because it matched the lomi perfectly, nevermind that it was four in the morning.
“You say that like you’ve found a better lomi hut.”
“I have,” Sari insisted. “It’s in this old bahay na bato on the same street as Carmel, it’s dark and slightly creepy, but I swear the lomi is the best.”
“And yet I can see you’re already halfway through your bowl.” Gabriel tapped a little ground pepper into his, just because he liked to feel fancy. “Hmph.”
“Give it time, little grasshopper, you will learn to not love the first lomi place you walk into.” Sari scooped up a little bit of liver from her bowl and held it up to him. “Here. Peace offering.”
Gabriel looked at the pieces of meat hovering above her bowl.
“You hate liver, don’t you?”
“I noticed you ate yours right away, so I figured you liked it. It’s the perfect solution.” She smiled innocently at him. Gabriel pretended to be tired and exasperated, but she deposited his liver bits into his bowl after Gab gave her a nod.
“Hell’s teeth, woman, you will be the death of me,” he said in his best approximation of the Queen’s English.
She gave him the most adorable confused look he’d ever seen, but then she didn’t say anything for a full minute, and Gabriel thought that this was it. He’d given up all of his cool cards and there was nothing left. And could the earth swallow him up right now?
“Can we bake something?” Sari asked instead.
Now that, he could do and still look cool.
“You’re hijacking this date,” he lightly accused her as they walked back to his car. “But yes. We can. I have a whole kitchen and a sprinkle cabinet.”
“I think we both know that I’ve already seen your sprinkle cabinet,” Sari giggled, wrapping her arm around his waist. The way to Sari’s heart is through her stomach. Once her fingers found his skin, though, his entire body shuddered. The girl had the coldest hands and feet he’d ever encountered.
“Sari, it’s twenty-three degrees outside.” He said this the way he would say you silly goose right after.
Then, in admittedly one of his favorite moves, he took the edge of his jacket and tucked Sari underneath with him, letting the warmth of his skin envelop her. Sari snuggled closer to him, and he couldn’t help but wrap her closer around him.
“Where to, m’am?” he asked.
“Sex, then cookies,” she said, then she blinked. “Wow. Sentences I never thought I would say.”
“If it helps, I think you’re onto something,” Gabriel laughed. “My place or yours?”
“Yours. I like your bed.”
“As you wish.”
* * *
Sari took the wheel this time, and the quiet was giving way to the noise of the dawn. The sky was a brilliant blue, a promise of the bright day to come. There weren’t a lot of people out, anyone who was supposed to be in bed was probably still there.
It was a nice time to drive, this early in the morning. The streets would be free and winding, and it was so cold that it was better to keep the windows open. Gabriel managed to dig up his copy of One Christmas from his dashboard and was now blasting “Kumukutikutitap” on the unsuspecting passers-by. But everyone was used to a little noise now and then, especially here, where every street corner seemed to have a karaoke machine set up for the holidays.
“I like your house, did I tell you that?” Sari asked as they pulled into his driveway. Evidently, he’d forgotten to turn off the capiz lights under the acacia tree outside, and it made the tree swing look like something out of a fairytale.
“Thanks. I like it too,” Gabriel said, and Sari just wrapped her arms around him. She was either really cold, or a snuggler, either of which he didn’t mind so much.
They sat at the swing, and he liked that her feet didn’t quite reach the ground. Gabriel used his feet to get the swing to sway them gently, but forgot to keep the momentum going when Sari curled into him and kissed him.
“I could kiss you all day,” he said, chasing a longer taste of her bottom lip, kissing the corners of her lips quickly. “Your lips are delicious.”
“Just my lips?”
“Sarcasm, Sari? Really,” Gabriel asked, throwing an arm around the back of the swing, while the other played with the tips of her hair, which was blowing in all directions thanks to the swing.
“I just expected more from someone who found me irresistible.”
He laughed, mostly because he liked that Sari was as bastos as he was, and kissed her again. The swing had slowed its movements now, and it was much easier for him to press his hand to her cheek. Sari lightly took his wrist and made his hand move down, down the side of her neck, to her shoulder, where her sweater was starting to fall.
“May I?” he managed to ask between kisses, and Sari’s hand moved his to the collar of the sweater. Gabriel pulled down the sleeve with excruciating slowness, exposing the creamy morena skin on her collarbone. Sari tilted her head back to give him more access to the swathe of skin. He bent forward and licked the dip of her collarbone, lightly sucking on the exposed spot.
“You mean a lot to me,” he said so softly that he almost wished she wouldn’t hear it. “You know that, right?”
He lowered the sweater even more, and found the base of her throat, leaving a little mark there. Sari groaned and ran her hand through his hair, tugging slightly at his curls, letting her nails scrape his scalp.
“I know.”
They found condoms in the bedside drawer, right where he left them. Thank God, because he had wondered if he had any left.
“Don’t worry, I have spares in my bag,” Sari said slyly, pulling his arms so he stood straight, his hands moving down to grip his favorite parts of her. He left soft kisses, deep kisses, kisses that were slow as the morning.
They were creatures of the dawn, the rest of the world half asleep and half awake, while they were oh so alive. Here in the early morning, nothing could touch them, or change. Not yet, anyway.
“Sari,” he said, his voice rough and husky as her hips rolled against his.
She pushed him backward on the bed, and Gabriel rolled them over so he was on top. Her breathing rose as his hands slid down, lifting her skirt and tracing a path to her inner thighs.
“Sari,” he started again.
“No.” She shook her head, placing both her hands over his mouth to stop him talking. “Don’t say anything.”
“Why not?” Although it came out sounding more like “wrrrnnnt?”
“You say the most bastos things, and I can’t really focus on anything else when you start talking dirty,” Sari complained, lowering her hands like she was surrendering.
Gabriel laughed so hard she had to poke his waist to get him to focus.
“I am...not sorry,” he confessed, shrugging.
“See, this is my problem, you have the sweetest face, but the things you choose to say out of that mouth...” She shook her head, catching him in a kiss, as if to punish him for the naughtiness that Gabriel wanted to tell her.
“Forgive me, Sari. But I can’t help it. You are fucking irresistible. I think you are sexy. I want to come inside you, to make you moan and groan until you can’t take any more.”
“Ugh.” Gabriel wasn’t sure if that was a moan of pleasure or a groan of exasperation, and he loved it. “Put your money where your mouth is, Dimples.”
He did like a challenge. He and Sari took off each other’s clothes. He had a little mental map of what went where—it was the responsible adult in him—but who took what off, he didn’t know anymore. And he didn’t care, not when he had this absolute goddess on his bed.
“I want to try something,” Gabriel announced. God, this woman was making his brain go haywire. “Trust me?”
“Is that a question, or a request?”
He started to reposition the both of them, and he couldn’t help but see the spark of curiosity lighting up Sari’s darkened eyes as she followed his lead. He lay down, and with one arm, pulled her up so she was sitting on his chest, her thighs so close to his cheeks. Her eyes grew impossibly wider, her breath already coming in quick gasps. Even Gabriel had to admit, he was excited.
“Hands on the headboard,” he told her, pressing his lips together and using them to point to the headboard behind him.
“What?”
“Safety first.”
He could see she was nervous, but she complied, her eyes on fire with lust and anticipation. She licked that sexy bottom lip, and Gabriel could. Not. Wait. He knew how to pleasure her, she’d taught him how. He lifted his head and gripped her thighs before he licked.
Sari’s hips bucked into his face, and he liked it. The guys from New York used to say that going down on their partners was a chore, but to Gabriel, when you had a woman as delicious as Sari, it was no chore at all.
“Oh my God,” she breathed as he found her clit and laved his tongue around it. “Wait, wait...”
He stopped. He could almost feel Sari clench at the loss of him.
“We can’t. My thighs...”
“To die in your thighs is a heavenly way to die,” he said, running his hands over the backs of her legs and squeezing her butt. “We can stop if you want. What do you want, Sari?”
She hesitated for a moment. Then, to Gabriel’s disappointment, she let go of the headboard, slinking down and not-accidentally rubbing her thigh against his now very heavy erection. Gab groaned, suddenly he needed more friction. More contact. Sari’s hand was right there.
“Ah ah ah,” she said, kissing him, and he knew she could taste herself on him. She sucked his bottom lip. “We have all the time in the world for new things, Gabriel. Right now I just want you. I can’t believe you’re here.”
He shifted so he was leaning over her now—so close he could count the eyelashes that almost touched the tops of her cheeks, could notice a tiny little scar under her right eye. Dawn was taking its time today, but he could see the lights dancing in her eyes. And it wasn’t just lust. Lust was there, still hot and burning, but there was also happiness. The disbelief. The I-can’t-believe-you’re-here-and-I-like-it. All in her eyes.
“I can’t believe I’m here either,” he told her, giving in to the urge to kiss her irresistible, rosebud lips again. “Fuck, you’re beautiful.”
She raised her hips, and Gabriel’s entire body stiffened as his erection rubbed against her hip.
“Put a glove on and let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” she asked. He wasn’t going to last very long, he knew.
He bolted away from Sari, so fast that he could have outrun a cheetah in those two seconds, and grabbed a Tropical Hot Dalandan Delight, opening it and slowly slipping it on. Sari felt around his penis, as if checking his handiwork.
“Mmm,” she said.
“Again, you’re pretty bastos too,” he helpfully informed her, taking her hands and lifting them over his head, using the headboard to keep them both steady. She loomed above him, her breasts within distance of his lips, and he slid inside.
Sari set a punishing pace for both of them, and it took everything in Gabriel to keep up with her. He lifted his hips, looped his leg over hers, gripped her hands tighter as she writhed and danced above him.
And when he finished, he nearly smashed his head into hers, the release way more intense than he imagined.
“Oh my God,” Sari gasped, collapsing over his chest, her thighs squeezing him as Gabriel felt all his strength leave him. She slowly slid off him, making sure that the condom was off and everything was fine.
He slipped on his briefs and joined her in bed, wrapping his arms around her. He put a hand on her cheek and used the crook of his elbow to lift her forehead so he could kiss it.
“You kiss nice,” she told him, smiling. “Can we bake cookies now?”
“Ten minutes,” he yawned.
“Five.”
They stayed for an hour.
* * *
The Laneways was quiet when they arrived—usually Gabriel and Sari were the only two people there that early in the morning, baking goodies or roasting beans for the day. In the daytime, both Café Cecilia and Sunday Bakery were bustling and busy, with people coming in and out constantly. Truth be told, Gabriel had never seen their places like this, quiet and with all the lights closed.
He noticed that a lot of things were the same—clearly neither of them ascribed to feng shui, with all the plants they had inside. Both places were airy and modern, the kind that let a lot of light in. But where Gabriel liked clean white subway tiles and an accent neon light wall, Sari preferred natural wood tables, cool toned walls and brown paper bags of coffee as decor.
Gabriel stopped in front of his shop door and paused.
“What?” Sari whispered, and he had a brief moment when he imagined that they were about to pull off an elaborate heist, which was exciting and hilarious at the same time.
“This is the first time you’re coming into my bakery,” he said in equally hushed tones, even if there was nobody else around to hear them. Deliveries weren’t coming in until six, so they had enough time to make cookies. “This feels momentous.”
“Just open the door.” Sari grinned at him, and he turned the key. It was like opening the door into his own heart, and Sari was walking into it. She turned, and her skirt swooshed around her legs, and the smile on her face was so bright he wanted to remember it forever.
“What are we baking?” Sari asked as they went upstairs to the kitchen.
“I think I have ingredients for your favorite cookie,” he said, pointedly trying not to look at Sari’s reaction to seeing the inside of his bakery for the first time.
“Oh really? Do pray tell, what is my favorite cookie flavor?”
They walked in, and per usual, seeing the clean bakery waiting for him made him happy. For someone who always knew his place in his life—the oldest brother, the most responsible, the most reliable—this bakery was the place that felt most like home. It was a rare feeling, knowing he was at the right place at the right time, with the right person. How could he not bake cookies to celebrate?
“One of the best selling cookies in the shop is the Sosy Tita,” he explained, going around the kitchen and grabbing ingredients and tools like he did this every day (and he did, but he was usually alone). “It’s based off the legend of the Neiman Marcus cookie—”
“Where the woman bought the recipe and thought it was two dollars fifty, but it was actually two hundred fifty,” Sari said, nodding. “Which never would have happened here, by the way.”
“I know. It’s all confusing,” Gabriel chuckled, walking over to his apron rack and looping it over his head. “But anyway, when you think of that story, doesn’t it sound exactly like the richest tita you know?”
“Ah, Sosy Tita makes sense now,” she agreed, coming over so she could pull the apron up over his head. “Take this off, please.”
Gabriel couldn’t help it, he grinned. “Baby, I would love to, but I’m still a little tired, and it’s not very sanitary.”
“Get your head out of the gutter, baby.” Sari rolled her eyes and put the apron over her own head, tying it behind her back before Gabriel handed her a bandana to wrap around her head. “I want to bake. I didn’t mean you were going to help me. Just tell me what to do.”
Then she looked expectantly at him, with her apron on and her hair pulled back with a banana yellow bandana. Gabriel couldn’t help it, he took a photo with his phone.
“Sari,” he said, kissing her to placate her. “You know
how I would never presume to come into your coffee lab and tell you how to make coffee?”
“Yes.”
“So you see why I bake the cookies, right?”
“Fine,” she shrugged, turning to the sink to wash her hands. “But tell me what to do. I’ll help hand you things.”
According to his idol Christina Tosi, the secret to the perfect cookie was to cream everything together so well that the batter was almost fluffy. Baking was a science, and cookies in particular turned out perfect because you took the time to blend each ingredient perfectly with the next, so much so that your dough shouldn’t drop even when you placed it over your head.
“You’re confusing cookie dough with Blizzards,” Sari unhelpfully informed him, eating chopped walnuts that she’d deposited into her hands while Gabriel stood in front of his mixer. She had chocolate on her cheek and sugar on her neck and Gabriel had just realized that she was the worst baking assistant he’d ever had.
He bent forward and brushed the chocolate off her lip with his thumb before he sucked it.
“I thought you said you were tired?” Sari teased, and he shrugged innocently.
But she did pass him the ingredients when he needed them, and he had to admit, she was way more precise than he was when it came to measuring things. In short, they made a pretty good team.
“I could talk forever about double-rising-agent recipes, and using glucose over regular sugar, but I know what I’m talking about. Here,” he said, turning off the mixer because the batter was perfect. “Taste.”
He held his finger out to her, laden with cookie dough. Sari blinked at the offering before she looked up at his face and sucked the dough off, her teeth scraping his finger slightly.
Sweet on You Page 21