Absinthe

Chapter 31: Hollywood Romance

"I'm really sorry, Rob. I lost. Don't worry, though; I'd still love to go on a date with you."

"I'm sorry, too, babe. You did your best."

Whoa! I thought. He just called me babe! I was unprepared for that moment that I had to hit the brakes of my car.

"What happened?" asked Robert. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. Almost ran the red light," I lied. "Anyway, are you free tomorrow night? We can do...um, let's see... There's this Japanese restaurant—"

"I can do better. Are you familiar with Le Chaumier?"

"Nico's restaurant?"

"Who?"

"One of my classmates at Chef Maxwell's. His family owns the place."

"He's a Leroy? Nicolas Leroy? They're my clients. Anyway, listen. I have a meeting in five minutes. I'll have Nathaniel Leroy rent out his restaurant for us. It'll be great. Bye, babe. I'll call you later."

There he was with that babe thing again. If he didn't stop, I'd probably crash my car.

When I got home, I slept like a baby and woke up around noon the following day. There was nothing much for me to do, so I thought of dialing Faye's number to invite her for some weekend pampering. And then I realized that she was still not talking to me. Ugh!

I went to Derrick's room, but he hadn't woken up yet. I figured he had had a rough night at the hospital. There was no one else I could think of to drag to a day of skin care and self-pampering.

I decided to go solo instead.

By chance, I had my hair done beside a gay comedian. I wasn't sure what his name was, but I'd seen him on TV a few times.

"Hello, sis!" he greeted me jovially. He was the type of gay to call everyone sis.

"Hi! I recognize you!" I greeted back.

"Wow, English-speaking!" he joked. "Maybe that's why you don't know me—rich people don't watch local TV."

"No, it's not that," I said, smiling and reverting to our local language. "I used to work abroad, so I never really had the chance to follow local shows. I just came back a few months ago."

"Wow, a career woman!" he joked again. "Anyway, my name's Mówcah Usóg, from ABS-ZBN."

"It's a pleasure. I'm BJ."

"I know you, sis," Mówcah said. "I follow your IG account, bjmesoftly. I love it! So witty! And I also saw you on that cooking challenge show with Maxwell Olivier."

"Oh." I smiled. "Thank you."

don't have pictures with

only did that for fun," I

do things like that for

not

I'm just kidding. Anyway, do you

response. "I don't really have one right now. Do you have someone for

don't

there's an imbalance between

there

too. "There's a surplus of tops and a shortage of

want to migrate

"Unfortunately, it's the opposite here in the Philippines, isn't it? The gay population seems to be

and here's his gorgeous face." He showed me his boyfriend's photos on IG. They were rather uncomfortable for me to look at because this

noticed my expression because he laughed and said, "Yes, it's a May-December relationship. I'm

sorry. I didn't mean

the country is countable by

not taking advantage of

care of all his expenses. We live together

you on this, but doesn't that make you

It's not like I'm paying for sex," he answered, surprisingly cheerful. "We're in a relationship, and I happen to be more financially stable. If I

quiet for a while before I was able to put my thoughts into

with a noncommittal shrug. "But isn't that exactly how heterosexual

the entire situation. "Yeah, but at least heterosexual marriages start out

being transactional in nature, I guess you could say that most heterosexual marriages begin with

"What do you mean?"

relationship as transactional then working our way

total sense. I didn't know

Mówcah added. "That idea of

love with you? What if he's only tolerating you for the benefits he can get from

was Mówcah's turn

cheat, I should be okay with it," he answered after several minutes of silence. "This may sound selfish, but what's important is my feelings. I love him. He makes me feel good. I'm not interested if he's only pretending to feel the same

of our package, which was the facials, in silence. It wasn't like we had a choice because there were a lot of products on our faces, but it forced

package, Jeremy, Mówcah's boyfriend, came over. Mówcah introduced us to each other, and then we exchanged numbers. He invited me to

condo, I slowly prepared for my date with Robert. He had called earlier that day to confirm our rendezvous at 8 that night. I had difficulty selecting which clothes to

wanted to don something that Rob could easily rip off of me after dinner. Naughty, I know, but I was planning for something to happen between me and Rob that evening. It had been months since I last slept with someone—with that lying son of a bitch

Rob

the butterflies whenever he did something sweet, but his effect on me ended there. Still, I was afraid that if I continued playing hard to get, he would lose interest and I would

minutes past 7, Rob came over, picked me

place, I thought the restaurant was going to be all ours. It would have been totally romantic if it were just the two of us inside the big restaurant hall, and we would be watching the chef cook our food a few feet

date, wouldn't it? If I

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