Autumn and Sawyer's Sweet Secrets (Ongoing) - 37,000 words :)

Day Off Driving

It's SATURDAY- Autumn's first day off. She wakes up very early, excited to once again be behind the wheel of her little pink car. She wakes up early in the morning happy and excited. "Go0o0o0o0d Morning Auntie Tricia! I'm ready!" She greets her aunt with her ever so happy and melodic voice.

Aunt Tricia is in the kitchen, about to prepare their breakfast. "Good morning Autumn. Looks like you're in a very good mood today," Aunt Tricia comments.

"Yep. Ready na akong magdrive Auntie! Tara!" Autumn urges with enthusiasm.

"I think it's a little bit too early Autumn. Hmmm... tell you what. What say you and me, we drive to the palengke and buy tayo ng mga kakanin like bibingka, puto and cassava roll for breakfast? I'll drive of course, then after breakfast, I'll let you drive around the village," Aunt Tricia suggests.

"OK Auntie! Call!" Autumn agrees as she goes up to her room to change.

Outside the local market, while searching for a suitable place to park, Aunt Tricia sees a guy wearing a longsleeve shirt, shorts and sandals, carrying with him a plastic bag full of kakanin- specifically, the large flat puto and bibingkas that she is craving for. As the man crosses the street in front of them, Aunt Tricia tells Autumn to talk to the person and ask him where he got the kakanin because both of them don't know where it is. Aunt Tricia rolls down the passenger side window exposing Autumn. Without first looking directly at the man she starts talking "Excuse me. Magandang umaga po," she looks up to talk to the man eye to eye, she is startled to see that the man is Sawyer. She immediately looks down and rolls her windows up to her nose to cover her face. She continues talking still a little surprised about meeting Sawyer there.

"Yes?" Sawyer asks.

Aunt Tricia, unaware of who the man is and seeing that the window is back up, starts to rolls down the windows some more.

"Ah, eh.. magtatanong-"Autumn pushes down on her window buttons to roll the windows back up. "-lang po sana" Aunt Tricia rolls the windows down again."-kami kung saan nyo nabili" Autumn rolls the windows up. "-ang puto at bibingka?" She finally finishes her question amidst the window controls power struggle between her and Aunt Tricia. Sawyer is looking at her the whole time. What Sawyer sees is a pair of beautiful light brown eyes, beautiful wavy brown hair scrunched up in a haphazard bun. He doesn't get a clear view of her face.

"Ah... ito? Dyan lang sa loob," Tinuro ni Sawyer ang isang entrance papasok ng local market. "Tapos derecho lang kayo hanggang makakita kayo ng mga nagtitinda ng itlog. Tapos kakaliwa kayo, derecho ng konti at andun na kayo sa mga puesto kung saan nagtitinda ng mga kakanin," Sawyer says with a smile.

"Thank you Sawy-Sir ha," Autumn blunders. Autumn's mistake grabs Sawyer's attention. He thinks that he has heard the girl in the front seat say his name, but he tells himself that it couldn't be because he doesn't know this girl. He gets a last look at Autumn's brown eyes as she rolls the windows up. In a brief instant Sawyer feels a slight sense of recognition or at the very least, some sense of familiarity with the strange girl who just asked him where he bought his family's breakfast.

Back at home, Aunt Tricia and Autumn enjoy their delicious Filipino kakanin breakfast. Aunt Tricia bought one big puto layer, a couple bibingkas, a few sumans, two sapinsapins, several kutsintas and one cassava roll. To complete the Filipino breakfast spread, they also boil tableya, creating a rich, dark and sweet chocolate drink that has a 100% Pinoy taste.

"This is what you'll miss when you're in the States- the little things you grew up enjoying that tell you you're home," Aunt Tricia says sounding patriotic and nostalgic as she bites into slice of puto.