by Thessa Lim
♦ ♦ ♦
The friendship of four Filipinas is tested when Jazmine Abaya, a foundation worker in Manila struggling to make ends meet, grapples with the consequences of an unplanned pregnancy and contends with the father, who refuses to take responsibility. When rich girl Anne Tioleco, a sales executive at a multinational firm, announces to her friends that she is eloping, tensions mount; and social classes, jealousies, and regrets threaten to tear the four ladies apart.
♦ ♦ ♦
For Mark,
who is my Matthew,
for Caleb,
who is my Liam,
I love you
Contents
Chapter One Jazmine and the Tunnel
Chapter Two After the Tunnel
Chapter Three Zara and the Break
Chapter Four Anne and the Cranny
Chapter Five The Feasting on Lechon
Chapter Six Laine and the High-Rise
Chapter Seven Jazmine and the Intersection
Chapter Eight Zara and the Pit
Chapter Nine Jazmine and the Shoulder
Chapter Ten Zara and the Big Ladder
Chapter Eleven Jazmine and the Mommy Highway
Chapter Twelve Laine and the Bridge over a Pond
Chapter Thirteen Jazmine and Braden
Chapter Fourteen Anne and the Skyway Idea
Chapter Fifteen The Elopement Notebook
Chapter Sixteen The Wedding Gown
Chapter Seventeen Four Years Ago
Chapter Eighteen Hearts Are Tested
Chapter Nineteen Jazmine and the Concrete Barrier
Chapter Twenty Rules of Engagement
Chapter Twenty-one When Girls Go Marching In
Chapter Twenty-two The Manhole
Chapter Twenty-three Zara and Matt
Chapter Twenty-four The Videoke Madness
Chapter Twenty-five Last Chance
Chapter Twenty-six The Day before the Wedding
Chapter Twenty-seven Anne and Daniel
Chapter Twenty-eight Salvage Some
Chapter Twenty-nine What Lies Ahead
Chapter Thirty Girlfriends Make It All Good
Anne
Jazmine
Laine
Zara
CHAPTER ONE
Jazmine and the Tunnel
Snorts of laughter erupted inside the car.
Anne took her eyes off the road and stole a glance at the rearview mirror. The curls in her hair shook as she laughed noiselessly. Zara, who sat in the front seat, muffled a giggle, her eyes tearing up.
“Quiet, you two!” Laine hissed at them from the back.
Another snore came from beside Laine—Jazmine was plastered to the backseat of Anne’s brand-new Prius. The hair of the morena[1] fell across her face as she blew out a breath.
“This is funny, but I hope she doesn’t freak out when she wakes up in Batangas,” Laine whispered as she leaned forward into the space between Anne and Zara.
“It wasn’t my idea!” Anne piped.
Anne snuggled down in her seat and smiled. She had bought the car a week ago after her father volunteered to shoulder the down payment. Its metallic red resembled her favorite lipstick, and its contours were edgy, suiting her. She relished the smooth way the gears shifted as she sped through highways. That and the smell of new leather.
She had vowed to take her girlfriends out of town as soon as all four of them were free. It was Zara, though, who suggested that they not tell Jazmine about the trip. They told her that they would just drive around Metro Manila to break in the new car. Unfortunately for Jazmine, they picked her up right after she had shopped for groceries, and she fell asleep twenty minutes into the drive.
“It’s fine. She’ll be knocked out for at least another hour,” Zara assured them. “Besides, we can’t go out of town and leave her in the city—her and her humongous belly.”
They turned to glance at Jazmine’s eight-month baby bump.
Laine looked at the others. “Really? She doesn’t need any medication back home?”
Zara stiffened and turned. “Not that I know of.” She raised an eyebrow. “You?”
Laine shook her head.
“She’ll be okay. For now, let’s have some fun before the little bundle of joy arrives.”
Anne’s eyes met Laine’s. When Zara caught this, she merely sighed. Jazmine let out another snore, but this time, the girls did not laugh.
“This is nice!” Zara squealed as she walked up to the cottage after her swim.
It was only five o’clock, and the sun was still up. She dug her toes into the fine white sand while Anne and Laine settled in the lounge chairs they had dragged along the beach to the front of their cottage.
Zara put on a black cotton tunic on top of her wet purple ruched two-piece. Anne, in her usual beach style, had on a sporty zebra-patterned high-neck bikini. Laine wore a white floral-print monokini, a green sarong wrapped around her hips.
Ten modest cottages lined the beach, each with a porch on which a coffee table rested. The beach was deserted apart from them and a little girl and a woman playing on the sand.
They arrived at the Sea Springs Resort a half hour ago. Jazmine slept through the ride. When they pulled up to the parking spot beside their cottage, with her eyes still closed, she only turned to her side and tucked a pillow beside her face. The three girls left the car’s air-conditioning running and the windows down. Laine stuck a note, which said, “Beach,” and had an arrow and a smiley, on Jazmine’s phone.
“So, Anne, is Daniel okay that you came here without him?” Laine asked.
“Oh yeah. He didn’t really say much about it.”
“How are things with him?” Zara grinned at her friend.
“He’s great—still romantic and sexy as ever. He takes whatever I dish out at him: drama, getting clingy. He accepts me, knows how to soothe me.” Anne grinned and put on her sunglasses. “We took it slow the first three months, but now . . . he’s gone where I’ve wanted him to go since day one.”
Zara chuckled and said, “Ahh. I take it from your smile that Daniel didn’t disappoint?”
“He did not,” Anne replied in a singsong voice and sighed. “He’s really hot! Very macho in all the right places. If there was one thing though . . .”
“What is it?” Laine asked.
“After we’ve made out, have gotten hot and heavy, he does this thing where he closes his eyes and grunts like . . .” Anne made a low, short guttural sound.
Zara chuckled. “Maybe he’s trying to hold himself back? Before he ravages you?”
Anne mulled over this. “I don’t think so.”
Laine tittered. “And you were complaining that he was a take-it-slow kind of guy.”
“Well, we did take our time before having sex.” Anne rolled her eyes, but a smile was still on her lips.
“Maybe he’s just traditional,” Laine suggested. “Maybe he was waiting for marriage before going all the way.”
Anne and Zara each gave her a stern look.
“What? Some people take that seriously.” Laine shrugged. “I’ve been waiting myself. But anyway . . . he couldn’t resist you, and now you’re both happy.”
“It doesn’t seem like he’s conservative. He’s Catholic but rarely goes to church. He works out regularly . . . He keeps himself in shape,” Anne mused. “The other day, we were watching the latest Angelica Panganiban movie at the Cineplex . . . that movie about the mistress . . . I can’t recall the title. Anyway, I thought it would turn him on right there. So I turned to hug him, put my hand on his thigh”—she leaned toward Laine and mimicked the motion on her—“and slid it up.”
Laine giggled and moved out of
her reach. “You didn’t!”
Anne nodded, and Laine’s eyes widened. “Then what happened?”
“He stopped my hand and told me, let’s wait till we get to my place.” Anne threw her hands up. Zara and Laine broke out laughing.
“If that were Jake, he’d have slid my hand all the way up to where it counts.” Zara grinned. “Oh, stop blushing, Laine. We’re in our midtwenties.”
“That was pretty gentlemanly of Daniel,” Laine contended.
Anne simpered as her friends argued about her man.
Jazmine woke up and looked around the car. Her eyebrows furrowed. The last thing she remembered was the car passing by Bicutan along the Metro Manila Skyway.
The light streaming in the windows was dark orange; the sun was setting outside.
“Oooh! Fruit shakes! Thank you, Kuya!”[2] Zara’s voice flitted in from outside.
Jazmine panicked and felt her belly. Relieved when she felt the baby moving inside, she grabbed the note. Her heart raced. She got out of the car and walked toward the beach.
A sight to behold: her three friends on lounge chairs on the beach, sipping fruit shakes.
“You girls have no shame!” Jazmine wailed at them as she stared out at the long stretch of sand and the sea in front of her. Her eyes and nostrils flared.
Three heads snapped back to look at her. Three faces tensed. Laine jumped up and rushed over to Jazmine.
“Jazmine, surprise! We’re having your baby shower here at the beach!” Laine was all smiles at Jazmine, but her voice came out all pitchy.
“Where are we?” Jazmine demanded.
“At the Sea Springs Resort . . . in Batangas,” Laine answered sheepishly.
“Batangas? How can you take me all the way here? Are we going back soon?” Jazmine turned and looked at the cottage, the door was ajar, and she spotted Anne’s bag on the table on the porch. She turned to look at them again. “Did you bring my things?”
“We got you day and night clothes . . .”
“What about my baby books? I have to read to the baby tonight. My vitamins? Bolster pillow?”
“Umm . . .” Laine cringed.
“And I have to meet with Sue tomorrow! How can you do this without telling me?”
“Jaz, calm down. We just wanted to go before the baby arrives. We won’t be able to do this much then,” Zara tried with a soothing tone.
“You won’t be able to do this much? No, you mean, I won’t be able to do this much. While you guys will get on with your carefree ways, vacations, and nights out, I’ll be stuck at home with the baby alone.” Jazmine was close to tears—they swore she could be set off sobbing with a snap of a finger those days.
“Jaz, we’ll be with you all the way. We’re not like Braden, you know,” Anne pitched in.
“Gals, I can’t do this right now. I’ve so much to prepare for.” Jazmine sobbed. “I’ve to watch those labor videos and practice my Lamaze breathing.”
“Jaz, come on.” Laine hugged her.
Anne and Zara walked toward her too.
“Group hug!”
Jazmine pushed them away, still crying. “Hold on. I think I’m hyperventilating. Oh my gosh.” Suddenly she froze, and her eyes widened like saucers. “Oh my God!”
Jazmine eased down to the sand, holding on to Laine.
“What’s wrong with her?” Anne asked, pulling at Zara’s wrist.
“I-I don’t know!” Zara looked at Jazmine.
Laine knelt beside Jazmine and held her. Suddenly, Laine felt the sand around her knees become wet.
She gasped. “Gals, I think her water just broke!”
“What do you mean her water just broke? She’s only eight months pregnant! Don’t you need nine months for that?” Anne cried.
Jazmine clutched her belly. “I’m thirty-six weeks pregnant! I can go . . . anytime. Ahh! What was that?” She paled and looked up at her friends. “Aaahh! Why the hell is it hurting? Shouldn’t I have some time,” she grunted, “after my water breaks? Am I in labor already?”
When Jazmine began to writhe, and her breaths began to come in rapid succession, the three other girls grabbed one another’s hands.
“Shit!”
Zara hastily scanned the area; they would be lucky if there were a doctor in one of the beachside cottages. She closed her eyes and steadied herself.
“Okay, gals, this is what we’ll do. I’ll get her mobile and call her OB. Maybe she knows a doctor here. Or a midwife. Anne, ask the receptionist for directions to the nearest hospital.” Anne nodded and clapped her hands, like she would for an obstacle course. “Laine, stay with Jaz. I’ll pack up our things. We’re going to the hospital!”
There was a frenzy as Jazmine’s friends scurried about. Laine led her to one of the lounge chairs. Jazmine sat down and tried to drag her mind away from the pain. Hoping that it would help to look at the sea, she looked around her, and calm came over her.
This place is beautiful.
The sun was setting in a picture-perfect way. The waves twinkled and crashed against the shore. Coconut palms swayed along with the soft breeze. A little girl was running around a sandcastle while a woman prodded her on with cheers.
Zara was on the phone. “Dr. Nats,” she said, trying to keep calm, “it seems that Jazmine’s water has broken . . . Is it early? She’s in pain. We’re now in Batangas, so we can’t get to you.”
The doctor barked that Jazmine should not have been traveling but then gave Zara an obstetrician to contact.
As the doctor spoke, Zara scoured the cottage, grabbing what she could find, rushing to drop them at the car trunk, and tripping over her feet a few times.
When Anne came back, she reported, “The receptionist gave me the directions to the hospital. I also already checked us out.”
“I got the local doctor. She’s got a midwife in the hospital. She’ll come in as soon as she can,” Zara announced from the porch.
“Laine, let’s go!” Anne called out.
Anne hurried to help Jazmine up. “Come on, girl. Let’s do this shit!”
In a few minutes, Anne was speeding through the provincial roads. Zara was on the phone with the local doctor again.
“Jaz, she said it’s normal to have contractions after your water breaks.”
Jazmine was now sweating, going through the onset of labor. “Uh-huh. Can you ask her how to stop the pain then?”
“She said to take slow and deep breaths.”
“If something happens to Jaz, I’ll never forgive myself,” Laine cried.
“This was my idea!” Zara buried her face in her hands.
“Suck it up, you two!” Anne hissed. “From here on, only Jaz gets to whine. Now, according to this map, just two more turns and we should be at the hospital.”
The midwife was there to greet them at the hospital reception and led them to a labor room. Zara did the registration as the midwife gave Jazmine instructions.
“Count the duration between the contractions,” she said. “I’ll check in on you every fifteen minutes.”
After the midwife left, Laine asked, “Jaz, are you okay? How are you feeling?”
Jazmine sat on the bed, sweating and getting paler and paler.
“What do you think?” Jazmine hissed in between labored breaths, but her eyes were alive with purpose.
“We’re so sorry about this. Please forgive us.”
“If Liam and I live through this, let me get back to you on that.”
“You’re naming him Liam?”
“Yes.” Jazmine then grunted as a contraction tore through her. “Like a lion!”
“A lion? What lion?” Anne asked Laine, who shrugged back.
The girls took turns massaging Jazmine’s lower back, wiping her face, getting a fresh hot compress, and helping her to more comfortable positions. After three hours of monitoring the labor, the midwife did another check on how dilated Jazmine was.
“Shit!” Anne covered her mouth with her hand and mumbled, “She looks like
she’s in so much pain. I-I . . .” Anne turned around and headed for the only couch in the room.
Laine gulped as she spied the smears of blood on the bed. “Sh-she’s strong. She’s g-going to be fine.”
Zara grabbed Laine’s hand and whispered, “I’m about to freak out, Laine. I never expected . . . this. Stop me from freaking out?”
Laine squeezed her hand. “They’re going to b-be fine.”
“She’s in the final stages of labor. The doctor is already in, so I’ll take her to the delivery room. You girls will have to wait in the visitors’ area,” the midwife announced, and she rolled Jazmine’s bed out of the room.
The three girls cheered Jazmine on, but as soon as she was out of sight, what little that was left of their bravado deserted them. They sank onto the couch, heaved sighs, and uttered prayers for their friend. It had been the most intimate and scary night of their lives.
CHAPTER TWO
After the Tunnel
Jazmine drifted awake. Her hand reached for her stomach, but she felt only her own flesh there. Images of the night before flashed through her mind: the doctor encouraging her to push during her contractions, the midwife pressing down on her stomach to help the baby come out, and then, her baby. Her baby was held by the doctor as he bellowed his first cry. They had let her hold him as mother and child were wheeled into a hospital room. Her friends had come to her room with expectant grins and had taken turns holding the little one. Sometime in the middle of the night, a nurse dropped by to remind them that visiting hours were over and only one visitor could stay overnight. The nurse urged her to rest and then took Liam to the nursery.
Jazmine tried to move, but her lower back was stiff. She tried to push herself up, but her arms were tired.
What had I been doing during the delivery?
She tried to speak but could only cough.
“Zara . . . ,” she called when she saw Zara lying down on the couch by the window.
Zara woke up with a start. “Jaz! How are you feeling?”
