Dane tried her best not to hold on tighter than what was morally appropriate, but Talia had sent her motorcycle tearing through the roads that would have shamed the Ghost Rider. As they drove along the highway, Dane kept her eyes on the scenic view of the Manila Bay.

It was all she could do to distract herself from how fragrant the driver’s hair was.

They reached a spot overlooking the Manila Bay, and Dane could see the divide between New Manila and a neighbouring city clearly.

“Something tells me you go here often,” Dane said, initiating conversation.

“Yeah,” Talia replied. “I head off here to take a break from the city. Grandiose as New Manila is, one can’t help but long for a change of scenery every once in a while, right?”

Dane nodded in agreement. She let her eyes wander throughout the horizon, taking in every inch of it. The midday heat had them ducking under the shade of a nearby tree, and there they resumed their conversation. Talia started talking about her experiences in her college days, which Dane reciprocated by regaling Talia with her days in the university’s labs, although she narrated them with sarcasm.

“Did you hate your degree that much?” Talia asked afterwards.

“Not really. I just wished things were easier there,” Dane answered. “In the long run, I understood why I had been in Biology...I had to grow up.”

During college, Dane had been the butt of a lot of jokes in her circle. Her colleagues had reason to do so, since Dane was childish, weird, and ridiculous in a lot of aspects. She was the kind of person who nobody would invite for a hang-out, and Dane didn’t take that lightly.

Franco and Tin-tin were the only people she could stand in that circle of people she called “friends”, and they helped her grow as a person, albeit in the form of tough love. As Dane was showered by one insult after the other, she had learned to keep her cool and shrug it off. Even as they were living together, the biting words would pop up every now and then and Dane had become desensitized to them—most of the time.

“My time in Bio helped me grow as a person, and it wasn’t just confined to the four walls of a classroom. It was in Bio where I learned the hard way that I can’t please everyone, that I shouldn’t be a crying mess when things get out of hand, that I have to put a little more faith in myself than usual, and that I had to be more responsible. Sometimes I wonder how I’d fare if I took a different degree. Maybe I’ll still be the worst version of myself...I don’t know. I don’t like my degree, but I don’t hate it either.”

“Wasn’t that a waste of time?”

“I’d say no. It was all worth it. If I hadn’t picked Bio as my degree, I wouldn’t have met Franco and Tin-tin. I wouldn’t have lived in New Manila. I wouldn’t have shared a house with them.” Dane shifted her eyes to Talia. “And I wouldn’t have met you.”

Talia blushed. She did not expect how the conversation was going to turn out, so she just sat there in stunned silence. Dane kept the warm smile on her face as she gazed at Talia, and the brunette was certain that it was a sight she’ll never forget.

“‘The universe works in mysterious ways, so to speak,’ right?” Dane said with a smirk.

Talia nodded and smiled softly. “Yeah, it does.”

-+-

Franco drummed on his desk with his fingers as he revised his article. The call from Julius comes up when he wasn’t thinking about anything, and Franco wanted to be rid of it.

Now the question is how he was going to do it. He couldn’t pick between meeting up with Julius or bluntly ignore him until he stops. The tinge of societal conscience within him would nag whenever he starts to settle on ignoring Julius to the very end, and his anxiety over meeting him again would rear its ugly head.

Bullshit. I shouldn’t be thinking about this.

-+-

Dane arrived at their home in Project Resurreccion later in the afternoon.

“I thought you’re pulling an all-nighter at Talia’s,” Tin-tin said as she swept the floor.

“There’s no need, so shut up,” Dane said with a growl. “Is Franco working overtime later?”

“He hasn’t called yet, that’s up in the air for now,” Tin-tin replied. “So, how did the coffee date go?”

“It wasn’t a date, it’s a meet-up at the wrong time of the day.”

“You’re such a party-pooper.”

“And you’re obnoxious.”

Tin-tin then invited Dane for a trip to the grocery store, which the latter accepted. While walking along the soup aisle, Dane asked about Julius’ unexpected 4 am phone call.

“It surprised me, too,” Tin-tin said. “After three years...who knew he’d pop out from whatever hell he came from and disrupt Franco’s beauty rest?”

Dane chuckled. “If Franco decides to get back with him, it’s gonna be hellish. And we’re going to be caught in the thick of it.”

“Yeah,” Tin-tin agreed as she picked up a can of mushroom soup. “It’s up to that princess now. Honestly, I’d like it if they don’t hook up again, it was toxic. But if Franco chooses to rekindle the flames, who am I to go against it?”

“But we’ll be there for him if things get awry again, right?”

Tin-tin rolled her eyes. “Yeah...what are we for, anyway?”

The two turned to the meat section. Tin-tin planned on making roast beef for dinner, which was something Dane was eager to help with.

“So, tell me what happened with the coffee date,” Tin-tin said while picking the beef cuts.

“No, I am not spilling a single word of it for your amusement,” Dane snarled.

“You’re no fun. Come on, Llanera, this is the first time you’ve gone on a date! Okay, not a date—date, but some sort of a date. Don’t tell me you just sat there and stared.”

Like, about 90% of the time. “We talked. We drank coffee. We ate pie. Nothing else happened.”

Tin-tin hummed as the butcher gave her the cuts. “This is different from when you were head-over-heels for She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. You tell us every trivial thing about her—to the point that it sounds stupid and you look pathetic to us.”

“Now I’m doing you guys a favor and keep these things to myself. I don’t understand why you became oh-so-interested with Talia.”

“Dummy. She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named almost got you dead from self-neglect. Now that you’re starting anew, surely it’s not that much of a bother if we’re thoroughly interested because we’re just happy for you?”

Dane sighed and slid her hands into her hoodie pocket. “Fine. But please stop making fun of me while I talk, it’s degrading.”

“Sure thing, Casanova. Okay, spill it.”

Dane minced her words to give Tin-tin the briefest yet substantial summary of her meet-up with Talia as they strolled around. Tin-tin grinned like a contented old woman as she listened to her housemate, and for a moment, she was relieved. For some reason, Tin-tin had grown used to seeing Dane as a misguided younger sibling, and looking at the librarian, she couldn’t help but feel proud.

But she’ll never tell Dane. It would ruin the I-don’t-give-a-damn facade she’d been keeping intact for years. All she could do was listen and keep her pride from showing too much, and maybe think of a biting compliment or two. Or three, who knows.

“There, I’ve told you everything. Happy now?” Dane snarled.

Tin-tin shrugged. “Well, for a first date, that was pretty boring,” she said nonchalantly. “I was actually waiting for you to tell me something bombastic like making out in an alley somewhere. Turns out it wasn’t meant to happen.”

“Tin, we’re just friends. We’re not gonna make out. Heck, she wouldn’t touch me with a ten-foot pole for all I know.”

“Ten feet is way too much, damn. Six inches should be enough.”

“Excuse me?” Dane bellowed.

Tin-tin roared in laughter while Dane glared at her, her face burning in sheer embarrassment. Eventually, the petite woman regained her composure and was about to laugh again when she saw the tint on Dane’s ears and cheeks.

“You’re red,” Tin-tin said. ”Are you thinking about buying a di—“

Dane pushed the cart away. “Can it, Tin-tin, it’s not funny.”

“What? People have urges, and when no one’s around to give it, they use things and do the job themselves. It’s normal!”

“You just suggested that using sex toys with Talia would be enough for me and how am I supposed to feel about that?”

“I don’t know...happy? Thankful because I gave you sex advice?”

“I don’t even need it!”

“Who knows...maybe you will?”

“I don’t know, maybe never? Just...shut up and pick up what we need for the roast beef.”

Tin-tin smirked at the taller woman and led the way to grab what’s left in her grocery list. The drive home went on as usual, with Tin-tin having her fun at Dane’s expense. Eventually, Dane decided to let her irritation go and help Tin-tin with making dinner. Franco was set to arrive by 8:30 in the evening, which gives the two ample time to cook the roast beef without so much as rushing it.

All three of them can cook well, but it was Tin-tin who had more experience with the kitchen. Having grown up doing almost all the household chores when she was younger taught her a lot of things concerning housekeeping. Reading recipes in her spare time helped expand her sets, and the occasional cooking show was not to be missed. Dane can whip up a good tinola or pork sinigang and Franco prides himself in making the best Korean dishes, but they gave the kitchen’s reins to Tin-tin and would only cook if she wasn’t around. This was an arrangement that Tin-tin eventually agreed to, seeing that her housemates’ expertise in making decent meals are somewhat limited, and in Franco’s case, costly.

These buffoons shouldn’t get used to this, though, Tin-tin thought. If I get a job one of these days I might have to lessen my workload in this house. They should prepare for it.

The roast beef was done at exactly 8, and Franco was only too glad that dinner was ready when he stepped inside the dining room. He sat down before his legs completely gave way.

“Rough day at the office?” Dane asked.

“Yeah,” Franco breathed out. “Tucker had a shoot in the 2nd district, and I had to fill in as his assistant since Greta was on maternity leave. Marie then asked for my help with the article on Talia Aldeguer. She knew I got to one of her exhibits, and she wanted another source aside from herself.”

“How’s your article on the secret restaurant going?”

“I already finished it. Gonna pass it tomorrow since I still have to proof-read it tonight.”

“You know, it’s not a good idea to take your work home,” Tin-tin said, bringing in the roast beef.

“I don’t do it that often,” Franco countered.

The three started to eat, and Tin-tin told Franco about Dane’s “date” with Talia. The journalist could only gawk at the blushing librarian sitting across him. Franco asked when the second date will be and where, to which Dane adamantly told him that there will never be another date.

Franco decided to halt the teasing right there. He studied Dane as she berated Tin-tin for bringing up the meet-up she had with the artist, and he did not miss the apparent interest Dane had for Talia. Hide it as she might, Franco would still see it in plain sight.

This paled in comparison to Joey, though, he thought. It’s nothing surprising, considering what she had been through back then.

“What do you plan on doing after that, Dane?” Franco asked. “You said there’s not gonna be second date. What do you want to do as friends, then? Hang out like we do?”

“You mean rush to night clubs and drink until we could barely walk? She doesn’t seem like that kind of person to me.”

"Idiot, it's not like that's the only thing we do every time we go out," Franco said, flicking a green pea at her.

Dane glared at the offending pea that landed on her plate. "Can we just drop this?"

"Why? We're having fun," Tin-tin said.

"At my expense."

"Yeah, but still, it's fun nonetheless."

Dane could only sigh in resignation. Dinner was done several minutes later, and the trio regrouped at the couch to watch a movie. Franco scheduled a horror flick for that night, much to Dane's consternation.

"Stop being a pussy and get back to your seat," Franco chided as Dane tried to sneak to her room.

"Dane. Get your stupid ass back here," Tin-tin said through gritted teeth.

This immediately changed Dane’s mind and she soon returned to the couch. They sat through the movie with Dane spitting profanities at every jumpscare and Tin-tin yelling at how dumb the people in the movie were. It eventually sent all three of them into a laughing fit and the film’s fear factor was lost on them.

Such nights were the kind that put Dane at ease. Back then she would sneak out of the house in the late hours of the night and loiter around the Central Pier with six-pack beer she’d buy from a nearby convenience store. She kicked herself out of the habit when her housemates found out, figuring Franco’s scheduled movie nights were far better options than sitting at the docks.

However, she doubted that she’ll sleep soundly that night after enduring the horror flick.