Before nine o'clock that night, all of their belongings—as meager as they were—were moved from their old hut to the bigger and sturdier house near the fishponds. That house was built a year ago and remained vacant, only occasionally used by a consultant for the fishery who visited the hacienda when needed.They first got the bedrooms ready for sleeping that night so their mother could get rested as soon as she comes back in the morning from the hospital. That left their other stuff scattered in the living room of the house. There were three bedrooms upstairs, which meant they would all have their own rooms. They didn't have time to go to the hospital before visiting time was over, but a nurse Zoren knew had arranged a video call with Zoren's phone so they could show their mother the mess in the living room and their bedrooms. She looked happy and so well that Arianna felt guilty after the call for arguing with Enrique—Eric—too much about moving, as it was supposedly their mother's
Right after breakfast, Yna prepped the kitchen for cooking. She wasn't worried about her mother because the hacienda staff who brought her to the hospital promised to take care of her and bring her home after they finished with her last test results. She wanted to get everything ready for lunch so she could have time for her mother when she arrived.She had just finished clearing up when someone came with a clean sack of whole plucked chickens and slabs of pork ribs. Another neighbor brought large pots and pans that she said the former cook used for cooking. That cook left to work abroad just a month ago. Other neighbors came to help her on her first day, and soon enough, the kitchen and backyard were busy with women peeling and cutting vegetables and parting meat for the boiling water in the big pot or oil in a big pan.Before she knew it, the steaming chicken tinola was being transferred to lunch containers and kangkong (water spinach) with pork ribs and rice to bilaos layered with
“What the hell are you doing up there?” he asked angrily. “Are you not afraid to fall?”She raised one eyebrow at the question. How could the hanging of a curtain on a window be possible if you would not climb 'up there?' But Eric was already there, hooking an arm around her waist to pull her down so that she had no choice but to let go of the curtain or it would rip. She fell right into his arms.He let her slide down slowly, both of them already aware of each other's bodies by the look in their eyes. Thank god they were standing on that part of the window where one curtain already hanged, so they were covered from any eyes that happened to be looking from the outside. He was wearing a shirt with a hood that looked fashionable and appealing, and gym pants, as if he'd gone out to run. She already knew his body without them. She could only gasp as heat suffused her face and warmth, her body. Her heart was suddenly beating so fast.Why couldn't he keep his hands to himself? Why did he
They kissed for what felt like forever before he let her go, but because she insisted on cleaning up and getting herself in order. And even then, after he’d fixed his pants, he embraced her from behind and continued to kiss her down her shoulders until he could turn her around to kiss her fully in the mouth. “You have to leave,” she whispered to him as soon as he allowed her lips freedom to speak. “My mother will be up soon, and I don’t want her to see you.”A strong hand cupped her jaw as he smiled. “I know. One look at you and anyone would know you’ve been ravished.”She took a long, deep breath. “Right. Please…”Something in her voice might have told him what she was thinking, and he frowned. “What is it, Yna?”She shook her head. “Tell me,” he insisted. She forced a smile at him. “Nothing. Please, go. I can’t explain. She mustn’t know. It’s going to break her heart if she finds out about this and—”“What if she finds out? There’s nothing wrong about this.”Her eyes closed invol
“Okay,” she finally said. “Let’s do it. Fine.” He was watching her face like a hawk while she deliberated. He blinked. “Are you sure about this?”“Yes,” was her soft answer.“Shall we kiss to make it official?”She gave him a look that could have hurt him, but she couldn't run away when he bent down to kiss her lips like he was punishing her for it. When he pulled her closer to him, she couldn't even say any-thing. She just closed her eyes and thought that, from the outside, he was being kind and thoughtful to his ‘girlfriend’ whose mother had just had a very terrifying stroke, right on the day she left the hospital after passing her medical exams. And that was what was needed for the charade. Except he’d always kissed her like this. Like he was always hungry. Like he truly thirsted for her lips.Then he lifted his head and hugged her close to his chest. For a moment, it felt like they were in their own world. Or maybe because the nurses were now very quiet. She could feel the wav
Arianna knew exactly who’d arrived just by the kind of noise she could hear from outside the house. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm herself, and then she stepped out the front door.And she sighed again when she saw her ‘boyfriend’ standing there, with a smile on his handsome face, talking to Chairman Castro in his soft, modulated, and manly voice that seemed always private and intimate to her ears, his eyes focused on the door where she just came out.Even if she knew it was all an act, her heart still melted at the way his aristocratic face seemed to light up when he saw her. As if she was a favorite sight those eyes wanted to see. As if all his worries and problems melted away. And he was so convincing.The workers were grinning at their lunch plates while they sat at the two long tables set up under the shade of the trees that protected them from the direct hit of the midday sun. Meanwhile, her servers (the neighbors) were giggling their delight as they
Many attested that since he’d been with her, he smiled more and had become more approachable.There was no doubt that he was in love with her, they said, because of the change in his behavior. People who were supposedly in love were happy people. He had never looked so cheerful and he was always laughing these days, they said.Even though she could detect surprise at this development from the hacienda staff telling her about this, she could see that Eric also had them convinced.But some praises were veiled envy.The condescension at being told she would eventually give in to the easy life Señorito Enrique was offering irritated her.But the first and only time someone mentioned this while her mother could hear received a tongue-lashing from her usually mild-mannered parent.“Have you ever seen us asking for or accepting anything we couldn’t get our own way? Have we complained while we lived alone and my children worked like horses so we could eat decently all those years since my husb
It was the second day that Eric was in the hacienda.Again, he came for the lunch and ate there while chatting casually with the workers. He had a denim shirt on and ripped jeans, boots for mud on his feet, and a farmer’s hat on his head. He had dirt on his arm when he arrived with some of the men and a bit of dried mud on one cheek.And he never looked more handsome.She was told they repaired one of the water canals that came out of a spring brook inside one of the woody parts of the hacienda. It was at the foot of one of the hills dotting the north side of the land and the señorito helped with his own hands.This seemed to make the workers feel good about it because even though they remained polite, there was no shortage of smiles and laughter since they arrived as they teased the younger man about a few misconceptions and mistakes he did as they ate.After serving the dessert, which was just plain gelatin with raisins and milk, she went back inside the house. She was going to wash