Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25

N ew Year’s Eve with his family went much better than I thought.

The roads were clear and we made it to Kuya Chan’s building from Las Pinas in less than an hour. We pulled into the parking area and Cholo gave me a curious look.

“Huy, Vinnie. I’m getting worried now. You haven’t said a word since we left Las Pi?as.”

“Don’t talk to me, kinakabahan ako,” I told him, my heart beating wildly.

We got to the elevator and Cholo pressed the button for the top floor. I raised an eyebrow but kept my thoughts to myself as the elevator shot up, causing a weird sensation in my ear as we were going so high up.

Wow.

I barely had any words to say when Cholo entered the key combination and tapped the card on the door. My eyes roved the hallway and found very interesting details—subtle gold paneling, among other things.

“We’re here!” Cholo said.

“Hiw! Hiw!” a small voice called out.

“Risa! Where’s the pretty baby?” Cholo excitedly replied, throwing his backpack on the floor and running on the hallway. A little figure in pink appeared around the corner, running as fast as her little legs could carry her.

“Bebi!” the child said. Her whole face brightened as she looked at Cholo. Her hair were in two buns on both sides of her head and Cholo scooped her up in his arms upon reaching her.

I smiled to myself as I watched him.

“O, Risa, tell Ninong Cholo your latest word,” said another voice.

I took off my shoes and closed the door behind me, walking towards the end of the hallway.

“You learned a new word?” Cholo said. I came closer and saw that a taller figure was standing near them, looking amused. “What’s the new word, Risa?”

“CHOCHO!”

“No, the other one, Risa. How do we call Ninong Chocho from now on?”

“CHO-LENG!”

Four voices roared in laughter and Cholo made such a pikon expression that I could not help joining in.

“Soli na nga kita sa magulang mo,” Cholo told her, and she hugged him tight in response.

“Mith you, Chocho!”

“Ay, she knows,” somebody commented. “She knows you won’t resist.”

“Anyway, I brought Vinnie!” said Cholo, turning to face me and using his head to beckon me forward.

The four of them—Kuya Chip, Ate Ania, Kuya Chan, and Asher—all welcomed me with a hug. Risa followed and shouted “BINI!” in my ear, mildly shattering my eardrums.

When the round of teasing Cholo was over, they showed me around the place. The unit was huge and beautiful and I enjoyed hanging out with all of them. Kuya Chip was accommodating and funny and Ate Ania let me help with the vegetables. She was low-key a mom to everyone in the room and it was endearing whenever she nagged them.

Kuya Chan was soft-spoken and thoughtful, the complete opposite of Asher ( “Do not call me Kuya! Just Asher is fine.” ) who had something witty to say at every turn and had no qualms about voicing it out. Risa brightened up every room with her laughter and broken Tagalog.

“Look at Vinnie,” Asher pointed out when I ended up with Sprite coming out of my nose during Media Noche, “Tuwang-tuwa sa ‘kin! She loves me now more than you, Choleng!”

Cholo, being the good sport that he was, threw a rolled up table napkin at Asher. Kuya Chan joined in the fight and threw something else at Cholo in retaliation for his boyfriend ( “Kaloka! Kilig si watashi! Go, Channie!” said Asher, and Kuya Chip had to explain to me that ‘watashi’ meant ‘I’ in Japanese). Cholo looked at me for backup and I joined in, only stopping when Risa banged on her high chair with her plastic spoon and screamed at us in her cute baby voice to stop fighting.

Cholo and I were again assigned to do the dishes afterwards and then were left on our own as Kuya Chip and Ate Ania put Risa to sleep. Kuya Chan and Asher also wanted to light Roman Candles on the rooftop so Cholo and I hung out on the veranda, sharing one cushioned veranda chair.

We were both tipsy, having had a couple of shots from after dinner. He had a finger lazily tracing my upper arm while I snuggled in his chest.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go with us to CamSur tomorrow?” Cholo asked.

“Nah,” I said. “You know I don’t like beaches. Plus, I don’t want them to miss me too much at home.”

“Missing Juliana already, knew it,” he said, clicking his tongue, and I pinched his tummy. His reaction almost got us toppling over—yes, along with the chair—as he jerked away from me. I laughed my head off as he tried to balance us both again.

“I’m gonna miss you, though,” I said.

“You’re going to miss having a human bolster pillow,” he corrected me and again I giggled.

I leaned in and kissed him full on the mouth.

“The liquor is making me giggly but you are making me happy,” I replied after, my voice low. Only then did I become aware of the fact that half of my body was on top of his and instead of getting embarrassed, I just wanted to be closer. As if that was possible.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you, too,” I replied, my face stretching into the widest, goofiest grin I’ve ever made. “Let’s go sleep?”

He groaned as I sat up and tried to pull him off the chair, asking if he could please have just one more good night kiss. I poked him hard at the back of the head, scolding him for getting too much alcohol, to which he replied “Oh please, you had just as many shots as I did!” and then almost collapsing when he tried to stand up.

I then brought my tipsy boyfriend inside the unit as Kuya Chan had provided comforters for us in the living room for sleeping just before they went upstairs.

I had barely closed my eyes when I heard my phone ring. Cursing, I took it out from under my pillow and saw Seth’s name on the screen.

“Hello? Vinnie?” came his panicked voice from the other line. “Would you know where Cholo is? He’s not picking up.”

Wait—oh. Cholo updated us on Facebook. This must be why I became the ‘where-is-Cholo’ contact.

“He’s asleep. Why?”

“Our contact for the lights and sounds for Ephemere are threatening to back out.”

“What? Why?” I sputtered.

I could see why Seth was panicking. They barely managed to make this contact agree to our price. Without them, we would not be able to pull Ephemere off and the other suppliers would be charging us tens of thousands more if we tried to get them now.

“They got pissed off. Summer was supposed to meet him last Saturday and she didn’t turn up.”

“What the fuck?” I exclaimed, forgetting to tone my voice down. Even for Summer, that was just so in-your-face rude. I stood up and proceeded to the veranda so I would not wake anyone up. “Where was Summer?”

“No idea. She wasn’t picking up our calls either. Would you know if Cholo has a thing tomorrow? He could meet up with the contact instead.”

“He can’t,” I said. “They have a family trip to CamSur. Wait, why is the contact asking for a meeting on freaking January first?”

“He says he has a flight the next day and as we’re basically begging them not to leave us hanging at this point, we have no choice but to give in to his demands. I called Cholo first, him being chairperson and all, and per checking my Instagram feed everyone else in the team is overseas?—”

“Well, tomorrow I’ll just be in Ortigas. Can you give me the contact’s number?”

“OMG, yes! You’re a total lifesaver, Vinnie. Thank you!” he said.

I received Seth’s text containing all the details I asked for just a full minute after hanging up. Yawning, I set my alarm early for the next day.

Alarm label: Girlfriend duties .