You Just Me (Just Between You and Me)

Chapter 18

These past weeks, Mace has been keeping himself occupied with school every weekdays and his work in the café on weekends that we barely have time together compared before. The contest may have been over but he still had a lot of reasons to be busy. Jas told me it was a tough face-off between Mace and his old friend that the two of them had to go into a couple of tie-breaker questions. But in the end, just as I expected, Mace and his team brought pride not just to their faculty but also to our entire university.

About Jas, I definitely had spent more of my time lately with her than with Mace. It seems like things are working on my favor and I feel happy about it. I took her out to dinner twice, well Josh was always with us but I didn't mind. What's important now is that I'm starting to make moves to show my intentions of courting her. She may have found it odd at first, but I believe she's getting the hang of it.

I got pulled out of my thoughts when I felt my phone vibrated.

9:19 A.M.
Mace S.
May gagawin ka ba ngayon Lance?

It has been a while since he last sent me a message. But should I even be surprised? No, because Mace will always be Mace. Rather than texting him back, I decided to dial his number and make a call.

"Before I answer your question. You have to promise me that there will be no surprises this time." I'm not good with greetings in general. I don't think it is necessary to do that to Mace anyway.

I heard him giggling from the other line. "Nasasaiyo naman iyon kung masusurpresa ka eh. I have no control over your feelings, Mr. Davis."

"Looks like you have another surprise for me then. Okay, monthsary naman eh. Maybe I can let it slide, my angel." I retorted. Actually, it was Jas's idea to have Mace and I call each other with pet names. Romantic, as how she described it. So to impress her, sinunod ko ang suggestion niya, but only on selected occasions.

"Pwede din ba akong humingi ng pabor sa'yo Lance?"

"You're not gonna ask me to jump off a bridge, will you?" I joked.

"Hindi naman." He laughed. "Magpapabili lang sana ako ng maliit na cake at tsaka drinks bago tayo magkita."

"Do you have a particular cake flavor in mind?" I asked.

"I have always trusted your choices, Lance." He said. That sounded to me like it wasn't just meant for the cake. Well, he's weird like that so I shrugged it off.

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"Nasa ospital ako ngayon Lance, yung malapit sa mall. Sorry kung dito na ako magpapasundo. Patapos na din naman ako dito. Maghihintay na lang ako sa labas." He told me when I called him. Bringing the things that he asked me to buy for him, I drove straight to the hospital. Gladly, traffic wasn't heavy considering it's a weekend. I was already near when I saw Mace standing on the sidewalk, carrying a big basket. I stopped my car a little bit far from where he was. By now, I know na alam niya kung paano ako bumusina so he was quick to turn and ran towards my car.

"Good afternoon, Lance." He greeted with cheer when he opened the door. I nodded at him. "Nasubukan mo na naman mag-picnic diba?" He showed me the basket. From the look of the basket, of course I knew we're having picnic. Once he got settled in, he gave me the directions to where we were going.

"What were you doing at the hospital Mace?" I asked when we stopped at an intersection.

It took a while before he could answer my question. "Ah may kinuha lang ako Lance." He took a small envelope out of the basket then showed it to me. "Para kay Lola kasi ito." He stared at the envelope for a moment. "Oo tama, para kay Lola nga ito." He sighed.