[TQS] Girl Trouble

Page 17

17: Affinity

"Mom, have you seen my new dress? The Carolina Herrera one?"

I have a date with tita Carrie tonight so I wanted to wear the newest dress I purchased online from Dubai. The problem is, the dress didn't seem like it wanted to be found.

It has been a couple of days since Aeris' party and I was able to utilise the days that has passed wisely to register everything that happened and was disclosed. No, it doesn't mean I have given up on Yves, not when I haven't confronted any involved individuals - cough Yves, cough Ren. Not just yet. I mean, why did I even trust Aeris' words in the first place? All she's ever done is provoke me, and what she said that night was probably intended to be one of those things.

And yet,

I can't help but still feel desolated. Damn. She really did a number on me with this one.

Ever since that night, a couple of things changed in the nature of my relationships, particularly with Ren. I developed this sense of distrust towards him. In the last 2 days, I managed to ignore all his calls and had left his messages seen. I even took things as far as cutting him off through social media.

"Have you tried downstairs? Manang probably took it out of the box and had it dry cleaned."

It's stupid I know, and I'm probably hurting Ren for no reason at all, but it's the best defense mechanism I could think of, temporarily.

After finally locating the dress, I instructed yaya to place it on my bed and to clean a bag and some shoes ready for me this afternoon.

I then joined my mom in our outdoor dining area for lunch. Mom and I liked having our lunch outside when we're together. I'm actually looking forward to the upcoming days because, despite my troubles, my mom will be home. Having my mother at home relieves a lot of weight off my shoulders.

I grabbed some macarons and poured myself tea while I waited for the entrée and the main meal.

"Mom?" I pried as I took a bite off the Taro flavoured macarons freshly made this morning. She glanced at me after having a sip of her tea after adding some milk in her cup.

"What is it, darling?"

"Do you know a family called Palmyras? I think they run a cosmetics line." I probed. My mom stirred her drink as she glanced about, probably trying to recall any relevant information.

"I might have heard of them from your tita Carrie, why?"

Three of our maids arrived with platters for lunch. Manang, our head housekeeper, followed, bringing parmesan on the table, one could guess we're having pasta for our main course.

"Do you know if they're related in any way with the Salvacions?" I continued as both of us fumbled through our cutlery as the salad platters were laid on the table.

"Salvacions? From the furniture industry? Not that I know of," Mom started cutting through her quiche and grabbed some baby tomatoes to eat, "The Salvacions have very few partners and even if that's the case, they only ever partner up with designers. I wouldn't think they'd have anything to do with business outside their industry."

I knew it, there's no way those three would have known each other. Aeris has been lying to me again.

"Why do you ask?" I met my mom's quizzical eyes. Now, I'll have to think of an excuse.

"My friends were just asking a couple of things, I just thought you'd knew so I asked," I smiled, I poured some salad dressing on my lettuce and scooped some dragon fruit to start my meal, "Don't worry, it's nothing important."