In Time With You

ONE: SHOTGUN

"Hola, Manila! I missed you — not!" Sangria cheerfully said as she got out of her Uber.

"Kuya, salamat, ingat kayo!" She said to the driver.

"Kayo rin Ma'am, enjoy Zambales" Sagot nito. Muli siyang ngumitu at tumango dito. Isinara niya pinto ng itim na Civic na naghatid sa kanya mula NAIA hanggang sa parking lot ng Gateway Mall sa Cubao.

She fished out her old iPhone6 and rated the driver with five stars because he helped her with her luggages and magaan itong ka-chikahan. If anything, she missed that sense of familiarity and hospitality mula sa mga kababayan. She was in Slovenia for two years para sa kanyang graduate studies. She recently graduated at sa loob ng dalawang taon ay ngayon lang sya umuwi ng Pilipinas.

She was closing her Uber app when her phone rang, it was her high school friend Chit.

"Baklah! Nasan ka na?" bungad nito sa kanya.

"Eto na, friend, nasa Gateway na ako. Saan ko kayo pupuntahan?" straight from Slovenia, she's headed to Zambales for their annual high school reunion.

Actually, she could've said no dahil may jet lag pa sya, but these are her highschool friends and there's no other set of friends more important to her than her classmates from St. Marco Montessori Batch 2007.

Ayon sa Facebook groupchat exchanges nila noong nakaraan, sa Gateway ang meet-up place. They were fifteen to go and the ones who can drive brought their cars. They had a total of three SUVs for convoy. She can also drive, pero dahil galing siya sailang oras na flight, hindi nya keri sa katotohanan na gawin 'yun.

She missed Hailey, though. Ito ang kanyang 2005-model Range Rover trucknilang da; paborito nilang dalhin si Hailey kapag may out-of-town sila. Sa tuwing dadaan sila sa medyo deserted na area, some of her friends would ride at the back of the caddy and others would open the sunroof of the backseat and scream their lungs out on the road while singing their favorite karaoke songs.

She smiled at the thought, it made her excited to see her high school friends again.

"East Parking, look for the dark gray Adventure." Chit responded, and her heart almost leaped upon the mention of the familiar car's color and model. Of course, Chit's tone was teasing.

"Wala bang ibang pwedeng sabayan?" She joked and she picked up her luggage and started walking to the East Parking.

Chit laughed at the other end of the line, "Suuuus, choosy pa 'teh? Pa-welcome namin sa'yo yan."

"Gaga! Di pa rin ba kayo nakaka-move on sa pagla-loveteam loveteam na yan?"

"Ay ate, ipapaalala ko lang sa'yo ikaw kaya pasimuno nito noon. At aber, ikaw? Naka-move ka na?" Chit sounded sure.

She just laughed her off, "Oo naman, tagal na kaya!"

"Ay, sus, sino niloko mo Sangria Anne Rojas? O siya, bilisan mo na. Mamaya na tayo chumika. May isa pa pala kaming surprise sa'yo mamaya!" There goes Chit's cheating tone again. Hay, naku, some things never change. Her batch is too obsessed with pairing each other off.

"Andito na ko sa East, I can't see you, Chit — " hindi pa man sya nakakatapos magsalita ay naputol na ang linya. "Hello? Chit?" She redialled Chit's number pero biglang out of coverage na ito. Baka na-lowbatt?

Pulling her luggage she searched around the parking lot. There were only a few cars parked dahil Thursday at 10:30PM na, it's a weekday and the malls were already closed.

It took her more or less twenty steps to find the car she was looking for, thanks to a familiar figure leaning by the car's hood. Gone was the tall, lanky, fair-skinned and clean-cut boy next door, instead here was a gorgeous man. Probably six feet tall, muscles on the right places na alam niyang hindi batak ng gym but pure hardlabor work. His then clean-cut hair now reached to his nape but it framed his angelic, lightly stubbled face so well. And the white, crisp polo uniform was replaced by a casual Perry Elis polo, straight-cut Levis jeans and dark gray Nike sneakers.