A Virgin for the CEO

14

Days passed.

It became easier for siblings Arianna and Tommy to live those days now.

As her brother started to work in the fishponds early in the morning and came back to help her sell whenever they had more pro-duce from their little garden than they could use in the house, while their mother started to show more vigor, Arianna just couldn't help but hope they have left the past behind.

It would become easier to act like she had forgotten about it if Tommy wouldn't look like he had been bitten by a snake every time he remembered. She knew whenever this happened, and she pretended not to, either.

Instead, she would try harder to show it did not affect her any-more, even though there were times it would hit her, and she would just feel out of bounds.

Like, for a moment, she was just not herself.

It had become more and more like she was a different person that night. Like it wasn't her that walked towards that dark house at the end of that road, and she wasn't the woman who had been ravished by a man whom she considered larger than life.

"Chairman Castro was really kind to allow me to come back home and help you with this," Tommy was saying. "There was always much to do in the mornings, and I wanted to help out with feeding other livestock, but he let me make up time in the afternoon. Sometimes, I wonder if the others are feeling this to be unfair, but they acted like big brothers to me, too. I couldn't believe people are so kind, Ate. Why did I ever think it would be easier to work in town than here inside the hacienda?"

Of course, after saying that, they both remembered the fiasco in town.

They were out with the vegetables they have harvested from the garden that morning. She was thinking she had to forage in the woods for more naturally composted soil to add to her stock so they could treat the garden soil under the greens for the next seedlings, and maybe check if they could acquire more chickens next month when their funds could allow it.

She was also thinking how good that morning sunshine was and how they had left their mother in a sitter in the garden soaking all these and looking contented, when her brother suddenly said what he had said.

She compulsively reached out to his shoulders to draw him close to her. "Hey. Since then, good things have been happening. Let's not dwell on it."

He was quiet for a moment, and she pinched his ear. He looked towards her then. "Ate, I need to ask something."

"What is it?" she replied.

He swallowed for a moment. "Was he harsh? Did he hurt you?"

She somehow thought he was talking about a different kind of hurt. She contemplated for a moment what to say.

"When you say hurt... it was my first time, Tommy. Do you understand that? It was natural for it to hurt."

"I heard stories in the bar about men who... deliberately hit a wo-man because they like it. It... it..." He couldn't continue.

She finally understood and she shook her head. "Oh no, he wasn't like that!" she protested. "He was drunk and seemed... I was scared of him at first, really." She lowered her eyes.

It felt weird talking about the experience for the first time with her brother, who should be the last person to hear something like this from his sister. But she couldn't stop! She felt like both of them should hear this said out loud.

"He saw it. He saw I was scared. I didn't know if he... what he was thinking but he was suddenly... gentle. He did not treat me like a stranger... or a woman who gets paid for... that." Her cheeks were getting warm fast, and her tongue seemed to have gotten heavy, suddenly. "Tommy, I think I was lucky he was that kind of man. He was a kind man. It could have been worse. But he had been good to me that night."

She looked up at him.

Nobody knew the Señorito was even here during the time. She hadn't even remembered anyone talking about him like he still hadn't showed himself since then. Maybe he had gone back to Manila or was traveling abroad again?

But no one would think the Señorito would hire a woman to have sex with, anyway. As far as anyone knew, he was with a girlfriend. But Madame Venus said she was a gift to a heartbroken friend, which meant the Señorito had broken up with his girlfriend.

Oh.

A relief. She didn't want to think she would have to add cheating on top of the pile of her sins.

And she brutally ripped out that part of her heart that felt a twinge of joy that the man wasn't with any woman anymore. She had no right to even feel anything. It wasn't an excuse that she had admired him from afar for a long time, or had sex with him. He probably had forgotten about her already.

"So... does this good job mean you will not be going back to school this year?" she asked her brother.

Tommy had started talking about how the manager in the fish ponds was going to start teaching him to drive. He was getting excited again, mentioning gears and whatever about the truck that she would not know about or understand.

The fun was slightly reduced on his young face. "Ate, we need to save up first."

"But you haven't even finished high school yet. I don't want you to end up like me."

"We're both going back to school when we've saved up for mama's emergency money," he said determinedly. "I will try very hard to finish senior high with good grades so I can get scholarships. My class-mate—the one I was talking about to you that I've become friends with again? He said he was just waiting for his father to replace his laptop with a new one and he would give me the old one so I could continue studying using it and learn to use the programs there. He was going to give me old books of his, too. Then we can collaborate with some of the projects we have already thought of doing."

"He would just give it to you?" she asked incredulously.

He nodded vigorously. "I insisted it would not be free. I'm still going to his house and helping with his projects on the weekends and also doing some housework. They really have this big house with large grounds." Then he was smiling. "He's got a little sister, about six years old and in Kindergarten. I got to make her write some more of her letters. Their mother was a little suspicious of me in the beginning but since then, she treated me better. She's also asking about our life here, and I swear I wasn't telling her too much because I didn't want her to think I was playing to her pity. But I think my friend told her a little bit about what's happening here. I don't know..." He hung his head. "They're very kind. His father was always away because he was a pilot. But... I really didn't want to be treated like someone to be pitied. It's not like we are hopeless. I'm working hard so we can be worth some-thing one day, Ate. You're working all the hours you are awake. We're going to be fine, right?"

She could hear more hope than faith in his last statement. "I know we will be okay," she said, her eyes turning warm and misty. "Are you trying to make me cry?"

He laughed ruefully. "I know, I know. I'm too old for my age," he said jokingly.

"Yes, you are. You worry more than me. There have been many times that I felt you're older than me."

He was suddenly somber. "I'm not. If I truly was, I would have protected you better."

"Tommy... you've been doing that far more so than any brother to an older sister your age that I know," she chided him. "You know you do."

He opened his mouth to say something but stopped, looking far away.

Then he sighed and looked at her.

"I promise I'll do better from now on. You will never have to go through anything you've been through because of me, Ate."

This time, a tear did slide down her left cheek. And she couldn't say anything to tell him he didn't need to promise because she knew he needed that more than she did.

She just stood up from where she perched on the tri-bike's cart and hugged him from where he sat. She hugged him very tight until he squealed like a mouse.

Then, both teary-eyed, they laughed like when their father was still alive, and their mother was strong enough to cook them a feast when they were little kids.