Claire's Home

Chapter 2

The past two weeks since moving here have been eventful. I have been hanging out with Mary every weekend. We talked about different things and our love for Taylor Swift. She showed me her collections of different merchandise and she have all her albums.

Work was also cool. My coworkers are all friendly and they welcomed me with great hospitality. I was like their younger sister when they take care of me during my first week. I've been enjoying my work so far as there's not much work as of the moment and there's no pressure from our bosses.

I just bought grocery for the first time and decided to cook for lunch. I tried to cook my favorite Filipino dish which is Sisig. It turned out great but I made too much for myself.

I decided to knock on Mary's place and offer some of it.

"Hey, did you have lunch yet?"

"Oh, hey, nope. I just showered and was about to go out to go for lunch."

"Say no more, I brought some extra food I cooked. I can't finish it all by myself." I said as I hand her over the plate with the food.

"It smells amazing. Come on in," Mary gestured for me to come in and went to the kitchen to get some fork. She took a bite of the Sisig and her eyes light up. I was worried that the food wouldn't be to her liking as it wasn't like the usual food she eat.

"Wow, this is really good. What is this called?"

"Thanks. It's called Sisig, it's a Filipino dish made from pork," I smiled at her as I explain the dish and how I cooked it. "It's perfect with rice, try it!"

"Goodness, thank heavens I haven't gone out to eat yet, I could've missed this amazing dish!" Mary said as she put more in her mouth.

"Don't flatter me too much. I can only cook this one dish and I suck at anything else," I sighed as I handed her a glass of water.

"Don't you worry, I can teach you to cook some dishes of mine," she stopped as if like a bright idea comes to her mind and said, "How about this, I teach you how to cook and we can have dinner here together?"

"Oh no, I don't wanna impose,"

"No, that's fine. I'm by myself and it'll be nice to have someone to eat with sometime."

There's a sudden pinch in my heart when she said that so I agreed to her offer immediately.

"But we can't do it every Friday as you know, it's a night out," she winked and giggled.

I don't know exactly what she does on Friday nights but I may have an idea while I'm just stuck in my bed watching some dramas to keep me company.

"Oh, that's fine. I can do anything else on Fridays." I said looking a bit uncomfortable.

She laughed hysterically and slap my arm as I looked at her bewildered and wondering why she's laughing.

"I was kidding, Claire! You look like you were about to throw up," she said as she wiped some few tears that escaped from laughing. "I have a book club meeting every Friday so I won't be able to accompany you."

I sighed in relief as she explained about her book club and what she does in there. Basically, they read a certain book and talk about it afterwards with the members, they're just socializing and stuff. The members there are of the same age group as her as the youngsters nowadays prefer going to parties and drinkings.

"I see, sorry if I reacted that way. I think I'm just a prude who don't know how to socialize," I felt so ashamed of myself acting that way.

"Don't you worry, you should meet my nephew, he's an introvert and likes to keep to himself."

"Was he the one on your picture frame back there?"

"Yes, it was taken when he was just 12 years old." Mary looked at the picture frame from her dining area as she took a deep breath and sighed. She looked up at me and smiled, "Would you like to go for a walk? I haven't show you around the area yet and I want to introduce you to some people."

"That would be awesome!"

"You know Claire, I think you're just shy in the beginning but when people get to know you and you get comfortable with them, you're just like the light that brightens up the whole room."

I blushed at her words and help her clean up the table.

Later, we change into something warmer as it's very cold outside. I hooked my arms on her as we went out to walk.

Her words earlier had me so happy that I just realized I was very comfortable with her since I met her and I just showed her my true self from the beginning.

She's so lovely and pure that a part of me reminded her of my mother. Maybe that's why I felt this connection to her.