Page 37 of Chasing Mr. Prefect
“Bati na tayo, ganon?” I replied.
He shook his head and let out another dramatic sigh. “Leave it to you to play innocent just to rub it in. Yes, this is me acknowledging that I lost our bet,” he said, lifting the blue book. “And traffic will be horrendous as it’s a Friday so I’m offering you a ride. Unless of course you want to try your luck with the trains again?”
“You’re…you’re not mad at me anymore?” I asked. I was not even teasing or being a prick. I just needed to hear it.
“Well, the bet states I can’t be a jerk to you anymore, I need to treat you as I usually do and leaving you to this Friday-rush hour Katipunan traffic goes against that. Mad or not, I don’t have a choice.”
“Alam mo, ang dami mong sinabi,” I said, laughing and trying not to mind the fact that my eyes were feeling watery. He turned his back on me and led the way to a black Toyota Altis. “You could’ve just said you missed me too, you know.”
“Miss youtoo? You wish. Ikaw lang ‘yon,” he quipped, taking something out of his pocket and pressing a button.
I pulled a face at him as he opened the passenger door of the car for me. “Kapal mo kahit kailan!” I retaliated as I took the seat, and he closed the door. I waited for him to get into the driver’s seat before I exacted revenge by pinching his arm.
“Aray, aray, aray! Lavinia?—”
“Namiss kitaaa!” I said, laughing before he lightly slapped my hand away and started his engine.
“Seatbelt mo,” he scolded. Still laughing, I obliged and put my seatbelt on, sitting put before he could kick me out on theroad. He then reached into the back seat, took a maroon T-shirt, and removed the one he was wearing.
Talk about revenge. Nowthatgot me to stop laughing.
“What the hell?”
“What?” he asked, looking completely puzzled, blue dress shirt now on the ends of his arms.
Good lord, those pecsweresolid.
“You can’t go around flashing people and taking your shirt off like that bigla-bigla!”
“What? I’m not flashing you. Ayokong matuyuan ng pawis! Do you want me to get pneumonia?” he demanded. “And why on earth am I being told not to do stuff in my car? Did you want me to do it outside?”
“I don’t know…maybe because there’s a girl here? Because you’re attractive and it’s jarring?”
“Well, so are you, ma’am, do you see me complaining about it?”
“PUT THE SHIRT ON!”
“I’m trying to but you’re still yelling!” he said, and in a quick motion, he slipped the replacement shirt on. “Don’t worry. Next time, I’ll ask you to get out.”
I glared at him but it was so absurd we just burst out laughing till our stomachs hurt.
“God, you’re ridiculous,” he just said, shaking his head and turning on the air conditioning.
The car smelled of him and his minty cologne. For some reason, it put me at ease. I felt my shoulders relax and I leaned back into my seat comfortably as he drove out of the coffee shop’s parking lot. “The lever’s on your right, if you want to lean back further.”
“Careful. I’m starting to think you’re concerned.”
“Bumaba ka na nga,” he said and we just started laughing again. “Anyway. How was your week?”
“Oh. Holy crap. I don’t even know where to start. Has it really just been days that we weren’t talking to each other?”
“Well, we have all of the three or more hours back to Las Piñas to catch up,” he said, looking back at me with a bit of a smile before focusing back on the road. “Humor me.”
I did not need to be told twice.
CHAPTER 16
Idid not think I would need three hours but it proved to be just enough for me to tell him everything—the meeting with Mikayla, other club stuff, the heavier things like the things I was processing with Liana. We had just exited off the freeway when I finished explaining all of it.