I knew Jelynne was looking out for me, but I didn’t expect her to be so angry about seeing Dani. I made a mental note to talk to her about it later. I know she’s disappointed in me, but last thing I wanted to do was make things more uncomfortable for Dani and upsetting Jelly any further.

“You kids better stop talking about that stuff in front of my little angel,” Adira warned as she picked Ryan up and covered his ears. “You don’t listen to these naughty adults.”

“Yes, Momma Adira,” Ryan beamed.

“And Ms. Dani, my apologies you have to put up with these five knuckle heads on your first day with us. I promise they’re not this stupid all the time.”

“It’s alright,” Dani smiled. “It’s nice to meet Nico and Se…Johnny’s friends. Maybe not in the most traditional way, but the chaos tells me that you all care deeply for each other.”

“She gets it,” Mateo clapped his hands. “I like this one. I approve.” He winked at me as he took a seat at the table. “Let Nico sit next to his husband and have a seat next to your friend.”

I rolled my eyes as I moved my plate across the table and sat beside Dani. I gave her a nervous smile before digging back into my breakfast. I was thankful that Nico didn’t bring up any stories Dani had shared with him about me. It was embarrassing enough for her that Nico had spoken so openly without realizing I was the source of his distress. She’s fitting in with our little group very easily. There’s a likelihood we’ll run into each other more often outside of class, so it’d be best if we cleared the air between us.

We sat around the table chatting and laughing longer than we expected. Before we knew it, it was nearing noon.

“Oh shoot,” Dani groaned. “I didn’t realize how late it was. I need to get my car if they haven’t towed it already.”

“I completely forgot,” Nico sighed as he slapped his forehead. “Let me change and we can head out.”

“I’ll take her,” I offered without second thought. “I mean, I was going to head out in a bit anyway. I don’t mind taking her so you don’t have to go back and forth.”

“Don’t you live down the stre…ow!” Mateo yelped as Adira kicked him under the table.

“That’s so sweet of you, Johnny,” Adira smiled. “Such a gentleman, wouldn’t you agree, Dani?”

“Oh, he sure is something else,” Dani teased as she nudged me with her elbow. “I’ll just grab my stuff and we can get going.”

All eyes were on Dani as she walked down the hall and disappeared around the corner.

“That’s her right?” Mateo whispered loudly. “That’s the chick you’ve had a hard-on for?”

“That’s disgusting,” Jelly rolled her eyes.

“She’s absolutely precious, Johnny,” Adira gushed.

“You’re gonna go for it, right?” Nico asked as he bounced in his seat.

“She’s cute, witty, and doesn’t take Jelly’s shit,” Theo teased. “She’s probably the closest thing to perfect you’ll find.”

“Shut up,” Jelly growled she punched Theo’s arm.

“Guys, calm down,” I pleaded. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We aren’t even that close.”

“She’s seen you naked. How much closer do you need to be?” Nico commented.

“She’s what?!” Adira yelled.

“Shh!!” I hushed. “That…was an accident.” I looked over at Jelly. She seemed so distant and uninterested. “What do you think, Jels?”

She looked up at me with a stone-cold glare. “What does it matter what I think? You’ll just do what you want.”

“It matters. I’ll admit I’m not always the best judge of character. Last time I didn’t take everyone’s thought into consideration, it was a disaster. I like her, but I’m not starting anything. She doesn’t want that. I just want to know if she’s ok to bring around you guys or if it’s strictly my house.”

She let out a sigh and shrugged. “She’s alright I guess. Despite making you miserable, you also seem…happy around her. That’s a Johnny we haven’t seen in a long time.”

Our conversation was interrupted when Dani walked back into the room. Everyone pushed away from the huddle we had formed, chairs scraping across the floor letting her know something was up. She changed back into the clothes she wore the night before. 

“Damn it, she is cute,” Jelly mumbled.

“Hey guys,” Dani laughed. “Was I interrupting something?”

“Not at all,” I exhaled as I stood. “You got everything?”

“Yes, I do. Nico, I left the clothes you lent me on the bed. Thank you again for letting me crash here for the night.”

“You’re welcome back anytime,” Nico smiled. “Seriously, come back.”

“I will.”

“Ryan, time to go,” I called out to my son who was trying to climb on Theo and Nico’s golden retriever’s back. “Son, I thought I told you Nala isn’t a horse. We don’t ride dogs.”

“That’s a life lesson for everyone,” Theo joked. 

I shook my head as Ryan came running over to me. “Daddy, is the magandang babae coming with us?” he asked.

“Yup, but we’re just taking her to her car,” I said. “We got church and Ms. Dani might have other plans today. Ready?”

Dani nodded. She looked past me and waved at everyone at the table. “It was nice meeting you all.”

There was overlapping goodbyes as they all waved goodbye to Dani. I picked up Ryan’s bag on our way out the door and led Dani and Ryan outside.

“Ms. Dani, can you hold my hand?” Ryan asked.

“Of course I can,” Dani smiled as she took his hand.

“How old are you, Ryan?”

“I’m four-years-old! I’ll be five soon. Daddy is sad because I’m going to school soon.”

“I’d be sad too. Are you ready for school?”

“I am. I know my name, daddy’s name, our address, and our phone number.”

“Do you?”

“Mmhm. My name is Johnathan Ryan Mallari Park Jr., but everyone calls me Ryan so they don’t confuse me with Daddy. His name is Johnathan Rian Mallari Park Sr.. He also has a Korean name, Park Seojun.”

“What about you? Do you have a Korean name?”

“Mmhm. Daddy said that it’s not off…um, off…”

“Official,” I said. “I, uh, never registered his birth with the Republic of Korea so he doesn’t have dual citizenship like I do and doesn’t have a need to use the Korean name.”

“But I have one!” Ryan smiled. “It’s Park Eunwoo.”

“Wow! That’s a great name,” Dani gushed. “What about you m…”

“Pst!” I interrupted as I shook my head, indicating to her not to bring up Ryan’s mom. She stared at me with a raised brow as we approached the car. Another thing to explain to her.

“Come on bud,” I said as I opened the car door. I picked Ryan up and lifted him into my truck. “There we go bud. Need me to buckle you up?”

“I can do it,” Ryan stated as he climbed into his booster seat and started to buckle himself in.

I closed the door as he was half-way done and came face to face with Dani.

“Does he not know about his mother?” Dani asked in disbelief.

“His mom hasn’t been in the picture for a very long time. Like since he was three months old,” I explained. I looked into the car at my son as he struggled to buckle himself in. “That’s a long story. Can we talk about this later? I’ll explain more, just…not now.”

I opened her door for her as she stared at me. She must see me differently knowing that Ryan knew nothing about his mother. I was worried she would head back into the house, but she climbed into the truck. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding as I shut her door and got into the driver’s seat.

“Daddy, Paw Patrol?” Ryan asked.

“Yup, I got you kid,” I said as I reached into his bag to grab his tablet and headphones. I set him up with his show and waited for him to have his headphones on before pulling away from the curb. I unlocked my phone and handed it to Dani. “Wanna plug in the bar’s address?”

“So, I’m a pretty lady?” she asked as she plugged the address into my phone.

I let out a laugh. “So, you did understand.”

“Parts, but I noticed that you were speaking another dialect too.”

“My maternal grandfather was Kapampangan and my mom wanted to be sure we could communicate with our family back home. I speak it more than I speak Tagalog or Korean.”

“Really? Even when you lived in Korea?”

“Mmhm. Our maid was from Pasay. She spoke Korean, but it was just easier to speak her native language. So when I was home, I spoke Kapampangan and in public and at school I spoke Korean.”

“You had a maid?”

“Um, yea,” I mumbled. “We kinda have…money.”

“I see.” She turned to look out the window. “There seems to be a lot about you I didn’t know.”

Great, I’m a rich single dad that pretends his son’s mother doesn’t exist. Chances of a rekindled friendship are dwindling.

“I’m sorry,” I said, unable to take the silence. 

“For what?” she asked as she looked in my direction.

“For ignoring you. I didn’t apologize properly the other day. You were right though, I was purposely avoiding you after that night,” I admitted. “It wasn’t to hurt you. I’d never do that. I just…couldn’t face you.”

“Why not?”

I cleared my throat as I scratched the back of my neck. “Are you really going to make me say it? Don’t act like you don’t know.”

“Say what? I really don’t know why you couldn’t face me. I’m the one that should be ashamed of how I acted. I said those things to hurt you and push you away, yet I constantly tried to contact you to say I was sorry. You had every right not to accept my apology but here you are saying you’re sorry to me.”

“I know, but I wanted to accept it. That’s not what I’m talking about though.”

“Ok, then what was your reason? You asked an honest question and I reacted badly. You have nothing to feel embarrassed ab…”

“Because I had feelings for you,” I blurted out.

She knew. She had to know. It was obvious to everyone around us, so there’s no way this shouldn’t have come as a shock to her. Yet her face, flushed red from her cheeks to her ears, said it was. Maybe the confirmation of what she pretended not to know was a surprise. She didn’t expect me to confirm it.

I sighed as I pulled into the bar’s parking lot, parking a few spots from her car. This was a conversation we needed to have while I wasn’t driving. “I liked you. Not just as a friend or a girl in my class, but like men like women,” I confessed. “When you said we weren’t friends, I was crushed. I felt like an idiot. Like I’d fooled myself into this delusion that maybe…” I scratched the top of my head irritably. This was harder than I thought. “I was embarrassed for how I acted so shamelessly. I didn’t consider that you didn’t want to think of me as anything other than your teammate. It was inconsiderate and I didn’t have the courage to face you after that. I’m sorry.”

“I-I didn’t realize.”

I shook my head. “That’s not true. You did. Everyone did. You just didn’t want it to be true. I don’t know why you didn’t want it to be, but you had to have known. I was pretty obvious.”

I hugged the steering wheel and rested my face against it with my head turned toward her. She was staring at me with a shocked expression as she tried to process what I was saying.

“You’re a beautiful woman, Dani, and I really liked you,” I confessed. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that, but I want to tell you that at least once before I let this feeling come to an end.”

“C-come to an end?” she stuttered. “Wait, you said you liked me. Does that mean…”

“I told you, I won’t make you feel uncomfortable with my unrequited feelings. I won’t ever misunderstand how you feel or what you and I are again.”

“What are we?”

“Friends. I’d like it if we could be friends. If you want to be as well, I promise I won’t cross that line again. I’d rather be by your side as a friend than not at all.”

There was panic in her eyes now. Was it that much of a shock to her that I had feelings for her?

“Well? What do you say? Can we be friends?”