Hanggang sa Huli

11-A

~ FEBRUARY ~

Phuket is amazing, but with the company she was with, it wasn't really enjoyable. She knew Anntonia frequents the place before and she has no doubt she'd have the grandest time here if she was the one with her. Except maybe her problem with Anntonia's two-piece bathing suits and the ogling eyes she attracts when wearing them.

It was their second day, Pam's birthday, and they were in a restaurant by the beach for lunch. She was a little bit sleepy since they stayed up late to do the whole birthday salubong thing. She wouldn't really do it if it was just her, but it was their other friends' idea so she had to participate. They set up some balloons, flowers, and a cake for Pam at midnight.

She has her phone in her hand when Anntonia's text came.

BABY!

Please, please, please tell me you're free to do a video call right now?

Oh! Don't panic! Not an emergency!

She looks around the table and Pam and their friends were all on their phones, likely choosing what to post in their respective social medias. She texts Anntonia before she takes her Airpods and excuses herself.

Sure, let me just get away for a while.

She wears her Airpods as she goes outside of the restaurant, out into the the beach where no one can see her screen.

Okay, I'm good.

Not even a second later, her phone rings indicating a Facetime call from Anntonia which she immediately answers.

"BABY!" Anntonia's excited face fills her phone's screen. "Look! Look! Look!"

Before she can even react, the view of the camera flips and her screen's now filled with the view of a glass enclosure, with something brown on top of a rock looking like it's sunbathing.

"Is that a..."

"IT'S AN OTTER!!!" Anntonia answers with a squeal.

"Baby, where are you?" she asks.

"At the zoo," she replies. And then she starts squealing again when the otter gets up and dives into the water. The camera starts following the swimming otter now as it goes back and forth and back and forth. "Look, look, look how fast he's going."

"I see him," she says with a smile, because Anntonia's enthusiasm is nothing but contagious.

"There's also an area where you can see this enclosure from the side and below. I'll take you there later too. I think they were asleep inside earlier when we went through the first time."

She nods, her eyes glued to the swimming otter with fascination.

"Oh, these are river otters though, baby. Not like Herman who's a sea otter," Anntonia says like a tour guide with an expertise on otters.

"So they're like his cousins?" she asks.

"Yeah, guess you can say that."

"Don't let our baby see you gushing over his cousins like that, Mommy," she half-jokes.

"Shh," Anntonia says conspiratorially. "He's in my bag, he doesn't know."

"What," she lets out a laugh, amused. "You really brought him with you?"

"I did!" Anntonia flips the camera to front view and her face once again fills her screen. She points the camera towards her tote bag which was slung over her shoulder and opens it a little and reaches inside. She pulls on Herman, but it was his tail that she pulled on. "Ooops, got his tail."