by Tara Frejas
How much did he know about Audrey so far? From her drunk rambling in Ortigas, to those random bursts of conversation in Baguio, to the short exchanges during tonight’s party, everything Pio knew about her was anchored to a memory she would maybe rather forget.
He didn’t like that.
“Remember when you said I can ask for anything in exchange for this date?”
“Yeah. Have you figured out what you want?”
“I want you to tell me something about yourself.”
“That…can’t be all you want.”
“Oh, but it is.”
They passed an intersection and turned to enter her neighborhood, a small complex of tenement buildings identified by letters and digits. Pio pulled over in front of Building 17-A and noticed how the lights on the lampposts were all off.
“Is it always this dark in here?”
“Yup.” Audrey unbuckled her seatbelt and put her shoes back on. “Election season is over. The barangay doesn’t care about the voters anymore.”
“Walk you to your unit?”
She laughed. “I’ve lived here for years, Pio. I’ll be fine.”
“Okay. But can I see your place from here?” He opened the window and peered out to take a look at the structure. Apart from the hallway entrance, only one unit on the second floor had its light on.
“Fourth floor corner unit. Left side.”
Pio counted the floors and tilted his head slightly to the left, spotting the corner unit she mentioned. “Ah. I think I see it.”
“Hey, Pio.”
He turned to face her.
“Thanks for being my date tonight. I didn’t think I’d say this, but I had fun.”
She spoke with embarrassment in her voice, as though she had crossed a line because she enjoyed herself for the evening. He didn’t understand. Did she feel like she had done something wrong, spending time with someone else after dating someone for so long?
“Me too. You were an awesome dancer,” he said and waggled his eyebrows playfully.
“Ha. Ha.”
Pio rubbed his hands together and made a “pay up” gesture that drew a sigh out of her. “What else do you want to know?” she asked. “I’ve told you so much more than I’ve cared to tell even my family.”
“All I know about you is that your on-again, off-again boyfriend of ten years dumped you months ago, resulting to extreme stress and binge drinking. That, and that my birthday was supposed to have been your anniversary...which ew.”
She laughed and smacked him on the arm with her purse. “You also know that I have the tendency to be anal retentive when it comes to work, and that I am willing to forgo sleep if I had to buy my mom a Baguio broom.”
“Which translates to you being a professional and family-oriented.”
“There you go. You practically know me more than half of SFM’s new hires. And we’ve known each other what...a month?”
“One more thing.”
“Ask me a question, then.”
Pio’s eyes wandered from her face to that curious, wispy tattoo that’s been teasing him all night. “What does that say?”
Her hand flew to her chest, fingers touching the elegant curve of the exposed letter. “Ligaya,” she replied. “My second name is Joy, so I had the Filipino equivalent tattooed on me in Baybayin.”
“Ligaya,” he murmured, lips curving upward along the syllables. “That’s perfect, Audrey Joy.”
“Call me that again and I’ll hit you.”
Pio raised his hands in mock surrender, making her laugh. The sound was gentler now, more affectionate. Warmer. Like a brief embrace he suddenly craved more of.
“Are we good? Can I go now?”
“Yes,” he said. “Good night, Audrey.”
He sensed a second of hesitation before she leaned across the console and pressed her cheek against his, her “Good night” a whisper that tickled his ear. Pio sat there, unmoving, as she stepped out of his car and walked briskly into her building.
He drove off only after seeing the light in her unit switch on.
EIGHT
T he last time Audrey found herself lying on the floor of her apartment spent and all cried out like this was when Luigi told her he “Can’t do this anymore,” and “It’s been over for me a long time ago, I just didn’t know how to tell you.”
It’s been three months.
When she woke up Sunday morning, she resolved to take control of her life again. No more burying herself under piles of work just so she wouldn’t fall prey to her idle thoughts. No more skipping family weekends anymore, either, especially since her niece, Bella, was turning seven come Saturday.
Which was why she spent all day clearing her apartment of everything Luigi.
Going through every single item that Luigi left in her apartment was quiet torture that left bruises in her soul. In the end, every tangible trace of her failed relationship—clothes, stacks of CDs, movie tickets, love letters, and all sorts of mementos—were deposited in a box together with framed couple photos she took off her walls. She marked it with an X.
After everything got sorted, Audrey set off to clean. She swept and mopped and scrubbed the floors, dusted her furniture, wiped down the walls. She did the laundry and aired the mattress and stopped only when she took a good look at her place and didn’t recognize it anymore.
She let herself collapse on the floor, let the day’s exhaustion and the months of misery consume her.
When she woke up, it was already 9:00 p.m. Her phone burned with notifications.
Shit. Viv found out. Through Facebook, shit.
Of course Vivien would, how could Audrey have overlooked that detail? Unfollowing Luigi on every single social media platform didn’t automatically mean the rest of her family would do too, after all. Of course her social media-savvy sister would have seen Luigi’s new profile photo and relationship status. That it had taken her this long was actually more surprising.
Is this why you haven’t been showing up during weekends, Ate?
Because you’ve been sulking? Because Luigi dumped you?
When are you planning to tell Mom and Dad about this?
Did you know Mom invited Luigi to Bella’s birthday party next week?
Ate Aji? Why aren’t you replying? If you need someone to talk to, I’m just here, okay?
Audrey stopped scrolling through Vivien’s messages just long enough to adjust her blinding backlight settings. She sat up abruptly when she returned to the messages and read “OMG ATE ARE YOU DATING PIO ALVEZ?”
Vivien attached a photo of her and Pio at last night’s event, looking cozy as they danced. The photos from the anniversary party must have already been uploaded on the company page.
This must have been what triggered the twenty-seven missed calls.
“Ate!” came Vivien’s voice when she answered Audrey’s call.
“Viv, I’m so tired today...let me talk first, okay?”
“O-okay.”
“Yes, Lui and I have broken up. He...cheated on me.”
“What the fuck? Ang kapal ng m—”
“Viv. Please,” Audrey cut her off, and Vivien apologized. “It’s been three months. I spent all day cleaning out my apartment and my phone got lost in all the mess, so I wasn’t able to reply to your messages. But don’t worry about me. I’m coping. I’ll be fine.”
This was coping, wasn’t it? Was she doing it right? Where was that Idiot’s Guide to Getting Over Your Ex manual when you needed it?
“I’m glad to hear that, Ate Aji. But...” her sister’s voice hushed. “Are you dating Pio Alvez?”
“It’s not like that. He was a guest at our event because he endorses one of our client’s products.”
“Oh. Okay.” Vivien’s tone dropped, obviously disappointed. “Is he nice, though? Is he mabango?”
Audrey heard herself laugh. “Yes and yes. He is a dream.”
Vivien squealed, prompting Audrey to laugh even more. The noise permeated the air, giving
the space around her a little life, a little warmth. For a split second, she heard Luigi’s laughter in her head, and she craned her neck to look at the couch on instinct.
“Ate? You still there?”
She blinked, the image of Luigi laying on the couch with her fading before her eyes. “Y-yeah. Sorry, you were saying?”
“I was reminding you of Bella’s birthday party this weekend.”
“Oh, yeah. I’ll be there.”
“Good. Sleep over, okay? Let’s talk ab—”
“We’ll see. Viv, I gotta go. I think it’s drizzling and I have to collect the laundry. See you soon, bye,” the words tumbled out of Audrey’s lips so fast, she wondered if she even made sense. She ended the call, took a deep breath and laid back down on the floor.
Cut! she thought, and scoffed at herself. How she wished it were that easy to put an end to this god-awful scene she had been struggling through for months now. How she wished she could just yell “Cut!” to the universe and watch this nightmare get stripped away to nothingness.
For now, she could only close her eyes and wish for a dreamless night of slumber.
We’ve packed up, Audrey. It’s a wrap.
“The rushes look great, Aji,” Crissy commented upon reviewing Audrey’s footage on Monday afternoon. “I can’t wait to see the finished product!”
“Thanks, Cris. The team will begin post-prod tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll have a rough cut by the end of next week.”
Crissy nodded. “Let me know if you need help with anything.”
“Will do. Thanks.” She pulled the screen of her laptop shut and gathered her things, pausing when she noticed Crissy’s scrutinizing eyes on her. The smile that appeared on her face was the kind that told Audrey that she just switched from “boss mode” to “friend mode.”
Audrey sighed. Since stepping into the office today, all everyone seemed to care about was how the hell she got Pio Alvez to come to the Same Feather Media anniversary party as her date.
“Let me guess. You’re going to ask about Pio too.”
“Uyyy, first-name basis!” Crissy teased, her pitch going up a few notches. “No, but really—Ayo and I were super worried you weren’t coming to the party at all. I was happy to see you there. And with a date too? You go, girl!”
Was “thank you” the correct thing to say?
“I must say...” Crissy leaned back on her swivel chair and playfully twirled a pen between her fingers, a habit she’s had since college. “Datu’s little brother had some guts. And he’s pretty cute. I approve.”
“He’s…okay.”
“I think you look good together.” A huge grin appeared on Crissy’s face, but was quickly replaced with a scowl. “Frankly, I’m not sure what’s happening to Lui lately. What he did to you was unacc...”
“Cris, please. Let’s not.”
“All right, I’m sorry. I’m just—I mean, we’re still friends, aren’t we?”
“Of course, we are!” she replied. “But I don’t think I want to discuss this with you.”
She let go of her pen and raised her hands. “Right, right. Of course.”
“If there’s nothing else, then, I’ll be going. I have a meeting with the post-prod team.” Audrey left her seat and went straight for the door.
“Aji, wait.”
She spun on her heel.
“If he makes you happy, go for it, okay?” came Crissy’s unsolicited advice. Audrey almost laughed, but the sincerity in her friend’s voice made it difficult for her to pass this off as a playful remark. “Boy looked smitten. And you—you looked happy! I’m glad.”
Huh. Pio’s plan actually worked, didn’t it?
She was on her way to the post-production suites, mulling over what her friend said when she bumped into Luigi down the hallway. Her ex-boyfriend wore a smug little smile she fully intended to ignore until he opened his damn mouth.
“I’d expected you to have more spring in your step today, Aji.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Aren’t you over the moon, getting a new boyfriend and all? Or was all that…” He fake gasped. “…just for show?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. Why was he provoking her?
“I mean if you wanted to make me jealous, you could’ve gotten someone better.”
“Oh, I did,” Audrey’s reply came out like a knee-jerk reaction. And while she felt blood rush up her face, she managed a smile. “He is better than you. In so many ways.”
She would be a hypocrite to say she didn’t feel victorious seeing Luigi’s smile fade. If, for some sick reason he wanted to rile her up, she wasn’t going to give him that satisfaction.
“And oh, I’m sorry…you thought this was about you?” She beamed at his bewildered face. “No, honey. I don’t have that much free time.”
With that, Audrey walked away, fingers wound tightly around the laptop she held against her chest. As soon as she turned the corner, she pressed her back on the wall and exhaled. An annoying lump lingered in her throat as she attempted to make sense of Luigi’s behavior.
Could Pio have been right all along? Was Luigi feeling “territorial”?
That…didn’t make sense.
Still, Audrey knew she knocked Luigi down a peg or two, and that felt so good.
Thursday evening found Audrey checking out swatches at the paint section of a hardware store. Engrossed in her selection process, she didn’t notice someone had come up behind her until a low voice slithered along the back of her ear. “Trying to bore holes on the swatches?”
Startled, Audrey turned and slapped his chest with the paint samples in her hand on impulse. “Don’t do that!”
“Man. Thank god you weren’t looking at cutlery!” Pio half-winced, half-smiled as he rubbed his hand over his chest. “What are we here for, anyway? Is this your version of a date? At a hardware store?”
“No. This is not a date.”
“Not yet, you mean.”
Audrey had called him on Tuesday and asked if they could meet for a “new project.” And because he would not stop asking her what it was, she was forced to disclose what she had in mind. “Fake dating, three months,” was all she said, and he was game, to her surprise. Audrey hadn’t even figured out yet what she could offer in return for his “services” or asked for what he wanted in exchange.
He simply said yes, no questions asked.
“Today is ground rules day,” she said, eyes still on the swatches. She had shades of green on her left hand and blue on her right. “I don’t have a lot of time to sit and chat, though, so we have to do this while I’m on a personal errand.”
“Which is...choosing paint colors.”
“Mm-hmm. I cleaned out my place over the weekend, but now my walls have these frustrating picture frame spots I can’t scrub off no matter what I do...so I’m repainting.”
Finally, Audrey decided on two colors and took note of their swatch names and number codes. Moving along the aisle, she checked the shelves to see if her selections were in stock. Fortunately, they were, but her vertically challenged self struggled to reach them.
Pio stepped up from behind her and, without much effort, tapped the side of the paint can she was trying to reach. “Tantalizing Teal?”
“Yeah. And Mesmerizing Mint.” She pointed to another can to his right. With care, he pulled out both cans and set them down on the floor.
“When are you doing this? Do you need help?”
“It’s fine, I can manage. My apartment’s not that big, anyway.” She picked up one can. The other, Pio grabbed before she could get to it.
“Are you sure?”
They turned the corner and walked into the next aisle where Audrey made a beeline for the roller brushes. “I’m sure. I know my way around paints and roller brushes, you know. Had a lot of experience painting stage backdrops in college.”
“Wait.” Pio’s pristine white sneakers squeaked against the floor. “You’re...a theatre chick?”
�
�I guess, if that’s what they’re calling it nowadays.” She put her can of paint down and picked up a roller brush, examining it for a bit and putting it back. She did the same for another brush, and another, until she found one that she liked. “I was part of Dulaang Diwa’s production design team for three years.”
“Wow.”
“Uh-oh.” Audrey paused to look at him. “Are those hearts in your eyes?”
A slow smile spread across the actor’s face, and Audrey wondered whether Ace Hardware had ever looked this bright before. And when did Pio decide to grow out his facial hair? It’s incredibly disorienting. Also, sexy as fuck.
Which was a thought that lingered all three seconds before she had to kick it out the window.
“Maybe.”
“Careful, boy. You might fall in love with me.”
“I am not a boy.”
Prove it, she almost blurted out but caught herself in time. She might not know much about Pio Alvez, but she has seen enough of him to know he delivers over and beyond what’s expected of him. Audrey was inclined to believe it’s a family trait, considering how his brothers excelled in their chosen fields as well. It made her wonder what else Pio was exceptional at.
“I’m assuming that’s a rule,” was what he said next, grabbing a pushcart when they passed by an empty one between aisles. He placed Tantalizing Teal in there.
“Wouldn’t that make me presumptuous? I was kidding, Alvez.”
“Don’t...call me Alvez.” He took Mesmerizing Mint from her and put it in the cart. “That’s a rule.”
“Why not?”
“It’s too bro-ey. Who calls their boyfriend by their surname?”
She shrugged. “Fair enough.”
Audrey picked up a few more items before heading to the checkout counter. “Anyway—three months isn’t too long for you?” she asked, turning when she realized Pio wasn’t walking in stride with her. She found him standing in front of a display rack, examining a set of screwdrivers.
“Pio.”
“I heard you,” he said, placing a medium-sized box in the cart. “And the answer is no. Do you have any specific...requirements, though?”
Requirements, sure. How amusing was it that they were discussing this like an actual job? Perhaps to him, it was. Just like the movies.
