New York
October 2016
Thirdy woke up with a smile on his face. Naunahan niya pa yung alarm niya today. He went to the kitchen and prepared all the ingredients. He'll be cooking pancakes with berries, Honey Garlic Salmon for lunch, and Grilled Steak with mashed potato and Greek corn salad.
He went sa bathroom for a minute to do a morning routine clean-up and fetched his phone na ngayon lang nagalarm.
"Bagal mo," sabi niya sa phone niya. He connected his phone to his speakers and played the #KiligPaMore playlist on Spotify.
He marinated the salmon and the steak and put them in the fridge. He's now preparing the pan for the pancakes and checking his berries in the fridge when his phone rings.
"Miss mo naman ako agad," sabi niya when he heard his phone ring. He answered but not with much excitement because it's just Loel.
"Bro," bati ni Thirds.
"Chef..."
Pinutol siya ni Thirdy at sinabing, "Wala tayong session. Go to sleep. Too early ah."
"No, no, no. It's about Beatriz."
Sumeryoso si Thirdy. "What? What happened?"
"Uhm, ano kasi," Loel said.
"Fuck it, Loel, what happened? Where are you?"
Biglang tumawa si Loel at narealize ni Thirdy na pinagtitripan lang siya. "Fuck you. I'll effin let you cook hard dishes next week. Watch out."
"No, no, seryoso. I'm on the way home from the hospital. Bea needs to be there for an emergency duty. Nagkaroon ng protest yung ibang doctors so the college had to call the interns. Wait, do they call them interns? Or residents?" tanong ni Loel.
"Malay ko? Chef lang tawag sa amin eh," inis na sagot ni Thirdy.
"So ayun nga, sabi niya sabihin ko daw na wag ka na magabala. Sungit mo, nagprepare ka na ba? Ako na lang kakain niyan."
"Ikaw na din magluto," Thirdy said at binitawan ang hawak niyang flour.
"Ay, attitude," Loel answered at binabaan siya ni Thirdy.
After a few hours, Loel arrived with cookies from Levain. Inabot niya kay Thirdy.
"Sayo to galing? I have so many cookies pa in the fridge."
"No, she bought that and told me to deliver it to you," Loel said at saka tiningnan ang iniwang gamit ni Thirdy sa kitchen.
Napangiti naman si Thirdy and tinitigan ang cookies.
"Matutunaw yang cookies," Loel said.
"Tanga ka," Thirdy answered.
"Huy. That is a no-no word in the house. What does that mean?"
"Tanong mo kay Tito Elmer."
"Seriously? What nga?"
"Search mo," iritang sagot ni Thirdy.
