VI

   

"Where are we going exactly?" Aya prodded Lou. 

He smiled his usual poster boy smile at her. "I just wanted to take you out on a date." His eyes were fixed on the road. "I wanted to show you something too."

"So now we're dating?" Aya jeered, smiling from ear-to-ear. "That's a little presumptuous."

Lou laughed, "You've no choice". He rubbed Aya's bare leg exposed by her ripped skinny jeans. 

She was wearing a little white tee that was knotted just above her belly button, her shirt being a little sheer that when light hits the fabric, her black lace bra can be seen from underneath. Lou found it extremely sexy. 

"Four days in, we've done so many things, and we just started dating?" she quipped.

"Dami mong reklamo," he sneered at her playfully.

She leaned on toward the driver's seat and gave Lou a kiss on his cheek.

Lou pulled over and parked the car beside an old neo-Gothic building. They walked to the food stall selling stroopwafels on the other side of the road, his hand holding hers as they crossed into the light traffic.

Aya let go of his hand and wrapped her arm in the back of his waist instead, while Lou rested his arms around her shoulders.

"These are the best waffels you'll ever have," he boasted. 

"I bet they are," she smiled. Everything with him was just the best, bar-none.

Lou got them honey stroopwafel sandwiches with a heaping amount of strawberries and fresh cream, and of course a dusting of powdered sugar on top.

"This is so fucking good!" she exclaimed, having a foodgasm.

"Right?" Lou kissed the cream on the corner of her mouth. "Not as fucking good as you, though."

They were just like that the whole day - flirting, bantering, coquettish. They just couldn't get their hands and eyes off of each other. 

When they went to the movies to see Avengers Endgame, they spent half of the movie making out instead of watching. When Aya went to the bathroom, Lou followed her and they made out some more in one of the cubicles. They laughed their way out of the stall when a moviegoer violently banged on their door in the midst of making out.

---

   

They went up a flight of stairs. Lou was reaching for the keys in his pocket. They were back in the old brick building where Lou's car was parked right across the street.

"This is what I've been wanting to show you," Lou opened the door and flicked the switch lights on. 

Aya stepped in, the fluorescents wavering, then finally cast a blinding light into the entire room. 

It was an art and photo studio.

Various blank and half-done canvases and frames were either leaning or stacked across the walls. Taborets and Raskog carts filled with different brushes, pencils and paints were haphazardly placed beside the artist tables and easels.

At the far end of the room, there was a large studio space solely for photography. A heavy white muslin hung on a huge backdrop stand against the vast white walls. Tripods and light equipments were fixed on the floor.

Aya's eyes wandered every corner of the room, astounded.

"I'm renting this studio, along with some artist friends of mine," Lou uttered behind her. He walked toward the canvas storage beside the hanging backdrops and pulled out a black and white frame enclosing an abstract. Others were portraits, landscapes and the most captivating surrealism she's ever seen. "These are just some of mine. I've been doing semi-pro photography for some time now."

"These are beautiful," Aya stuttered, very much amazed with Lou's photography skills. "You should totally pursue this." Her eyes gazed at his with wonder.

Lou shrugged. "Didn't really know I had a knack for this before I went to college."

"Oh, shut up," Aya admonished. "You're a born artist, Lou. You have such an eye for this!"

Lou smiled, suddenly feeling shy. He walked to his camera drawer and reached for his Canon 5D, carefully picking a lens from the Kaizen foam. He turned the stereo on and played "Glory Box" by Portishead. 

"Come up," he instructed Aya. "Let's get you some photos."

Aya giddily complied and stepped to the white square floor surrounded by spectroLEDs.

"What do you want me to do now?" she asked, facing Lou's camera.

"Just strike a pose," he ordered, smiling, then peeked through the camera lens.

Aya pulled a stool onto the middle of the floor drop. She untied her ponytail, brushed her shoulder-length brown hair with her fingers and sat down. Her hands were on the stool between her thighs, her left foot on the stool rest and the other on the floor. 

Her eyes looked larger, framed by her dark eyebrows and long, thick lashes. And with her white shirt and radiant skin against the bright backdrop, her cherry-red lips looked so much fuller. She fucking looked like a model. 

Lou snapped away, Aya changing poses in between. 

She was so turned on by this other side of Lou that she never knew existed. He seemed to be in his natural state. Comfortable, bare, sexy.

Hot. 

She walked towards him, her eyes never leaving his, and looked at the photos he took of her. Fuck, they're good.

"I didn't realize my white shirt was that sheer under the light," she chuckled, her mouth agape. "I should've just walked around town in my bras instead," she teased, biting her lower lip.

"Let's try that then," Lou challenged, his brows raised at her.

Aya stepped back into the square, reached for the hem of her shirt, pulled it over her arms and head, then threw it to onto the floor. 

Two can play at this game, she thought.

She kicked her Vans and socks to the side and sat on the stool again, her back facing Lou.

"I didn't know you had a tattoo on your back," Lou uttered, pleasantly surprised.

It was a small geometric arrow lineart on the middle of her spine.

"You clearly don't pay enough attention to details, Mr. Hoffman," Aya sneered at Lou. She unhooked her bra and threw it beside her Vans, showing off the full detail of her tattoo. She placed her arm across her chest just enough to cover her modesty, looked over her shoulder and gave Lou a sexy stare. Her messy, wavy hair fell perfectly on her shoulders. 

Click.

   

"Nós 2" by Jade Baraldo was playing through the speakers.

Just when he thought Aya couldn't get any sexier. She was just in her ripped jeans, her bare back on the camera, looking extremely fucking hot and amazing. He looked at her again through the lens and took some more snaps of her, the lens focusing in and out because of his trembling fingers. 

He's done plenty of sexy shots, thousands of times. German girls he snapped photos for, didn't make him as highly strung as he did at that moment. But Aya made him so fucking nervous. Her stares to the camera were way too intense. Beads of sweat were forming at Lou's forehead.

He stepped to the mark toward Aya then stood beside her. 

"These shots look so cool," he said, while she was still seated on the stool, her arms crossed over her bare chest and looking up at him suggestively. He took a sharp breath, moving his gaze away from Aya then scrolled through some more of the shots. "This one's my favorite," he breathed. He showed her her photo with her eyes half-closed, facing on her side, her back was on the frame, capturing an idea of perfect symmetry and asymmetry. "You're just so fucking beautiful."

He fixed his gaze back at Aya.

Her eyes were on fire, like a golden amber from the booming lights of the spectroLEDs. Her stare pierced him to his soul.

Aya's gaze sent Lou into a spiral. He let go of his Canon5D, the lace hooked to his neck, and flipped it to his back. He grabbed Aya on her waist and lifted her from the stool and carried her to the couch beside the equipment table.

Aya was pinned beneath him, and his hands fumbled to hurriedly unzip her jeans while she pulled his black trench coat then his black shirt off of him. 

"You fucking drive me crazy," Lou whispered against her neck.

Aya arched her back, squirming with each of his kisses. "Then fuck me, go crazy," she smiled and purred against his lips.

Lou obliged, basically ripping her panties off of her. He went swiftly inside her. Consumed wholly by her. Just her. 

---

   

They were lying down on the heavily carpeted floor of the studio.

"On the Train Ride Home" by the Paper Kites was echoing through the room.

"I'll be headed home in three days," Aya turned to Lou with a sad smile.

"I've thought about that," he replied, staring up at the ceiling. He got up on one elbow and faced Aya. "Let's keep in touch, make this work," he sighed, leaning his nose down on her temple.

"I don't even have social media accounts," she laughed. "My Instagram's just for following artists."

"There's a thing called Skype. Not sure you've heard of it," he said, rolling his eyes at Aya.

"I'll send nudes," she quipped at him. "Everyday."

Lou smiled from ear-to-ear, then leaned in to kiss her. "Now that's what I'm talking about."

She gleamed back at him, her eyes still sad. "You'll be alright." She looked like she was about to cry.

"Look," he looked deep in her eyes. "I know you don't have anyone to get back to in Manila, you said so yourself," he started. "Why don't you come stay here, for good? There's plenty of opportunity for artists like you in Munich. You're a German citizen, anyway."

She was surprised at how earnest he sounded. It was as if he didn't want her to go. Reality hit her hard. She didn't want to admit it at first, but she was now inevitably in love with Lou. "I'll think it through."

"I want someone to grow with

Songs I can sing to

And a family to cling to

But if I can't get the things I want

If I can't get the things I want

Just give me what I need"

Lou pulled Aya to his arms, her head on his chest. "Stay with me," he whispered against her hair.

It was all she needed to hear. It was all she needed. Lou was all she needed.

---

English Translations:

"Dami mong reklamo" - You've got lots of things to complain about.