ELISE“Elise...” Of course, Gian looked as guilty as hell.“How did you survive your call?” I asked him sarcastically. His eyes opened and closed like a fish trying to gulp in more water, and I felt vindicated. I didn’t want to know what my mother told him. The shame and guilt on his face were enough. I knew my mother was his first crush when he was barely ten or something. Well, my mom was a petite woman and went against the tall and beautiful woman he went to now, but he was very young and my mom might have been tall in his eyes during the time. My Inay could get really scary even if she wasn’t trying.I snorted, glad I wasn’t the only one who suffered my mother’s wrath. “Why are you even here?”“Mom wants me to drive you to Tagaytay. She still feels horrible that she wants to do something for you.”

Elise WE continued to walk. The house was getting nearer.It was a three-story rustic-designed house constructed in both wood and bricks and looked both pretty and a little imposing at night. I appreciated the design despite how I felt about its owners at the moment.I trembled from the cold again.I felt his arm land on my shoulders to carefully pull me to him to share his heat in a brotherly manner.“I’m here,” he started softly, “not only because you haven’t been here before, okay? I’m here because I got your back.”“I know.”“Good.”“It’s not going to be that hard,” I said after a moment passed, and it was heavy with things that didn’t need to be said.I always knew I had his back. That, I could never doubt even if I tried.“It’s not like it’s a sudden and impulsive decision. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. I should be grateful this is the only reason I was breaking up with him... that he’s away so many times and for too long that I’ve fallen out of love. It’s… at l

Elise THEY were so into their argument that they hadn’t even noticed our movement down here, or noticed they were not alone anymore.“Didn’t you hear what I’ve been saying? She’s naïve—innocent provincial and all that which is a novelty these days. Nothing like that has happened between us,” Brandon was saying.Lisette laughed so loudly. In my head, I was shrieking at her. It was damn insulting! “She’s a virgin?! You got yourself a virgin girlfriend?”I saw Brandon snort. “So what? She was worth more gold than anyone of you. I’ve never met a woman ever that I admire the way I do her.”Lisette stared at Brandon like he just formed another nose on his face. Then she looked like she finally believed him. “Oh my God… what is it with you and virgins?”Brandon straightened up. He looked away from Lisette, too. “I don’t get what you mean.”“I lost mine to you when I was fourteen, you hypocrite.”And there I was, with my heart melting after I heard him say he admired me.And now, this.Ok