George was not at all happy to have had her trip with Jam cancelled.

It was not really because she wanted to spend time with the guy because she barely knew him. It was the fact that she couldn’t go on the hike itself. She had wanted something other than be around Jordan 24 hours for 5 days a week, and around her friends on most of seven days a week. It could have been the opportunity for her to be with herself. Jam would be a good company since she was comfortable around him.

When Jordan left very early that Saturday, she got ready to visit her mother and Vivienne.

*****

You know, Georgie, if you must know…Jordan did something really horrible. No real man would do that, you know. And if you could just freaking hear me right now, we would not be driving to your family home. We would be driving to Ayala to strangle the bastard. I rarely offer my trunk to hide corpses, but if it were to be filled with that guy’s body, I’d gladly carry it the great Negros island.

My engines sighed with disappointment.

I was making these stupid speeches toward humans and they could never even hear me. No one understood how I felt, really. The desperation, man!

My attention was returned to the present when I spotted a familiar car parked at the garage beside the big house.

Georgie’s dad was here.

Oh, oh…tires might get killed today. Run, you rich and rubbery tires! Run! I mean…roll!

*****

George hesitated when she saw her father reading the paper right beside the pool area.

Vivienne was already running toward her in her swimsuit and she was once again damp as her sister gave her a hug.

“I missed you, Georgie!”

“I am sure you do. And I missed you, too.” She gave her sister a peck and Viv held on to her hand and guided her to their father. “Papa! Georgie’s here! Georgina Lacson…George…Georgie,” Viv said, laughing at her own wit.

George messed up her sister’s hair and bent down to give her father a quick peck. “Where’s mom?”

He folded the paper in his hands and looked at her with that same serious look of his. “Supervising lunch. To what do I honor this visit?”

“Can’t come home from time to time?”

“I never thought you still consider this place your home.”

George didn’t want to have another fight so she let the comment pass by saying, “Wherever Viv is is home, right Viv?”

“Vivienne Lacson,” Viv said with a chuckle.

“Come on, let’s dry you up. We don’t want you to shiver.” She guided her sister back inside the house and left their father who was back reading his paper.

*****

“You will learn to love him as I did your father,” was her mother’s exact words when she asked about her talk with her husband. That did not even answer her question.

“That’s something I fear the most to hear from you, you know,” she told her mother. “Learning to love someone is like forcing a student to go to a class he doesn’t even want to attend. Learning,” she said, shaking her head with a mocking smile, “is not a very appealing verb for me.”

“Learning enlightens,” her mother countered.

“Learning in this household means forcing.”

Her mother pursed her lips.

“See? You learned to let go of your own voice when you married dad. You learned to let go of your own free will when you learned to love him. And as your child, I learned to hate that word growing up. I learned that love is not learned. It is realized.”

“You speak as if you know a lot about love, George, but do you? Do you even—and I am going to use your own word—realize the scope of that word?” Her mother’s face looked pained and George regretted having said anything. “Don’t judge the love between your father and I, Georgina. You may not see it, you may not have witnessed it, but it’s there.”

A lingering silence followed as George tried to collect her thoughts. “You’re right. I never saw it, I never witnessed it. Maybe because you have been keeping it to yourselves, I don’t know. But can you see? You guys did not give us enough picture of what that type of love should be. We don’t know how to learn that.”

Her mother faced her this time, looking into her eyes. “I can’t teach you how to do that, George. It is something that just happens whether you like it or not. Learn, realize…whatever word you use, love just happens.”

“But not for me and Jordan. So please, just talk to dad. You know him better than most of us. You know what makes him tick.” She was desperate. Her mother wouldn’t budge!

Tears started to pool her eyes and she couldn’t stop them. She wiped them off as fast as she could but her mother saw them even before they came. “You still have a few months to be with Jordan and get to know him.”

George’s jaw clenched as she tried to take control of all the emotions swirling inside her.

Her mother squared her shoulders. “Okay. I will talk to your dad about this. I will tell him that I will not let you marry Jordan if both of you still thinks that you cannot work out after three months of getting to know each other.”

Hope flared inside George. “You’ll do that?”

Her mother weakly smiled at her. “It will be difficult, but I can make him listen to me if I wanted to. And no, I will not use the threat you suggested the last time about money. I am disappointed you even thought of that. It just shows how we failed as parents to have our kids think that money is all that matters.”

George wanted to make a good argument out of that, but she didn’t want to spoil her chances with her mother. It was better to be quiet and endure the lunch that would follow.

“By the way, I am glad that you came. Jordan told me—”

“It’s cool, mom. I wanted to visit anyway. And Viv throwing a tantrum to see me is very much welcome.”

Her mother eyed her with warmth. “I hope you are feeling okay. If you think you need someone to talk to, you know you can always call me. Jordan said that you had been—”

“Difficult on him?” she tried to jest. “Of course. Don’t worry. Don’t believe everything he tells you. And I didn’t know you even talk.”

“He actually—”

“Of course, you guys want to keep tabs. But I hope he is telling the truth whenever he talks to you.”

“He is an honest and concerned man, George.”

She did not comment and just shrugged her shoulder. “I’ll go get Viv ready for lunch.”

*****

That evening was actually the start of something far more exciting for Team Ja.

Why?

Because after that not-so-pleasant visit at her family home, Georgie asked Jackie girl and Dannie baby to go drinking.

And both of them refused.

Jackie said Anon would not be playing that night so Dean would be spending some time with her somewhere, just the two of them on a date.

Dannie said she’d stay at the apartment because she had to finish checking papers and lesson plans.

That left Troy, Miguel and Lee.

All three men were eager to say yes and we did just that.

Technically, weekends were Dannie’s time with me but that angel rarely went out during weekends on her own so I would often end up with Jackie or Georgie. But mostly Georgie nowadays since Dean was now in the picture.

“Of all places, George,” Troy complained.

“Why? What’s wrong? Did you expect me to meet you all at Art?”

Troy looked around the dark port.

We were in a shipping port just near the Bacolod plaza. Though there was a part of the port that was open for the public, a darker part was often closed to everyone. Well, it was not really close. It was just that no one really went there at all because it was the part of the port where the big, container ships would dock. And plus, there were lights and food and drinking on the public part of the port.

But Georgie chose this side because it was quiet and it was not that dangerous now that the guys were there.

“As you can see, we dressed for a party,” Lee complained, fingering his shirt and shaking his new shoes.

“Where are the other boys?” Miguel asked, opening a can of beer from the cooler Georgie brought along.

“Dannie’s home. Jackie went out with Dean.”

“Then let’s just go to your apartment,” Troy said. “Ruin Dannie’s night.” He followed it up with a chuckle. George threw him a darting look and he said, “Kidding!”

“Jam’s on his way too,” she added, gulping her beer.

Troy did not say a word, but a question was pasted on his face. It was a Jordan question but he did not voice it out because Lee and Miguel were there and they were not really well-oriented with the Jordan-Georgie issue.

On the other hand, my bumpers almost fell down and I almost pissed out all my gas with excitement.

No Jackie to say something stupid. No Dannie for conscience. No Dean to guard the boys. No JORDAN to ruin the night.

Troy, Lee and Miguel didn’t count. Their presence didn’t really bother me because I was pretty sure they would be out of the picture sooner or later. I could almost smell their eagerness to go to somewhere else where women with short skirts would be dancing the night away.

And that would leave Georgie and Jam.

Alone.

Together.

Tata reminded me once more that we didn’t know Jam that well for me to be happy with him being alone with Georgie.

Nah, Georgie could handle him. She can bring him down in seconds if he tries to do something criminal.

Surely, true to his words, Jam arrived astride his motorcycle who was Nomad. Yes, people, Jam named his bike Nomad. Cool name, right?

The guys started talking random things, having bonded weeks ago at Art where they first met. They talked about traveling, hiking, photography, blogs and music. Georgie joined their conversations, but she just listened for most part.

About two or three hours later, sure enough, like I had predicted, Troy, Miguel and Lee left early.

Troy even whispered to Georgie, “Send us a text or give us a ring if he as much as starts making you uncomfortable. Which I doubt, by the way.”

I almost rolled my headlights. Of course he’d say that. He was friends with Jam now. But I liked that! Who wouldn’t?! If Jordan was friends with Georgie’s friends, so was Jam my man!

I said goodbye to Tata (too eagerly that she did not really like it but I didn’t really care) and enjoyed my Team Ja moment.

George was sitting on my hood and Jam was standing on the ground but leaning against me.

“I did not expect them to bail out on us, sorry,” George said to Jam.

“That’s okay. I like your company,” he said with a smile. He was dressed in a simple black shirt with white prints that said, ‘It’s a biker thing…you wouldn’t understand’ and a pair of faded jeans and dirty sneakers.

I saw Georgie swallow and she immediately changed the topic. “When do you plan to go on that Kanlaon hike?”

Jam closed the lid of the cooler with his foot saying, “We should stop drinking. We are both going to drive. And about your question, we can’t go next weekend. There were reservations and they’ve reached the limit of hikers. Next, next week is good though. Should I get a permit?”

Gerogie shrugged. “Sure. I hope you’re not disappointed we didn’t go.”

“That’s okay. How was your emergency?”

“It ended up okay, actually,” she answered with a slight smile. “Things are getting better.”

“Good.”

“Which, reminds me about something,” she immediately said.

“About what?”

“I was made aware that Jordan told you he is my fiancée.”

Yes! Go, Georgie! Tell him the truth! Release Jam from his leash!

“Yeah, he did. I am sorry if I had caused you guys some misunderstanding and—”

“He’s not,” George interrupted. “He’s not my fiancée.”

Jam seemed surprised and pleased at the same time as he gave her a confusing smile. “Then why would he say…”

“Because that’s what our parents want us to think.”

Jam’s frown deepened.

Georgie laughed. “I was arranged to be married to him.”

Jam looked at her in disbelief.

A chuckle escaped Georgie’s lips. “Yeah, I know what you’re probably thinking, but that’s true. We’ve been arranged to be married by our parents. But we are trying to get out of it at the moment.”

Jam did not say anything. He had already turned around to face Georgie with an amused-mixed-with-confusion look on his face.

“What?” Georgie asked laughingly. “Stop looking at me like that.”

Jam let out a scoff as he shook his head. “I can’t believe such a thing still exists.”

“Believe it.”

“But can I ask you something?” he asked, leaning closer to her.

Oh, I don’t usually enjoy such display but I am excited about this.

“What?”

“Does that mean you are technically single?”

“Of course.”

“And you are not going to be a soon-to-be-wife?”

“Of course.”

“And you can freely date?”

“Jordan actually has a girlfriend. So, yes, definitely, of course.”

“And I can kiss you right now?”

“Of cour—” Though Georgie stopped midway, Jam did not even pause when he leaned in to plant his lips on hers.

TEAM JA! TEAM JA! TEAM JA!

I could have sent Georgie flying toward the ocean if my hood responded to the excitement I felt that moment.

But she was still on my hood and she seemed to be answering Jam’s kiss.

It was a slow kiss and it seemed like the two of them were testing each other out.

And before it got awkward for me, they had the decency to stop.

When they did, Georgie pushed Jam away gently with a small laugh. “Don’t do that again.”

Jam smiled, stepped back, held up his hands and said, “I can’t promise that, but I will try.”

Though she was not angry, George said, “The next time we kiss, it will only be because I’ll ask for it.”

Jam grinned. “I hope you will. Whatever your reasons for asking it later, I’d gladly oblige.”

Georgie just shook her head and jumped off my hood. “Let’s go home.”

*****

When Monday came, I was practically bragging at Jordan’s face.

Well, he couldn’t hear me, but Vicky did. And Vicky was horrified to learn that Georgie kissed some other guy that was not named Jordan.

So, to keep her from nagging about it, I asked what happened to one of her doors which had scratches all over it.

And as an expert that I was when it came to distracting the female specie of my kind, Vicky angrily recounted her encounter with the dog, Mallows and his paws.

But what about Georgie if you may ask?

I actually had a feeling that she was somewhat bothered about the kiss. She did not tell the other boys about it, of course, because they would have freaked out in different ways. But as we drove toward Ayala earlier, she was surely thinking about something. But she wouldn’t tell me. Was it a good kind of bothered or a bad one? The pro-Jam kind of bothered or the pro-Jordan kind of bothered?

I’d have to find out, I thought as I tried to keep track of Vicky’s story.

*****

She was not sure why she was suddenly feeling guilty when she saw Jordan in the dining area eating his breakfast.

“You’re almost late,” he uttered without looking up from his phone.

“Almost is the keyword,” she managed to answer, taking the seat to his left. She grabbed a bread to keep her mind busy.

“You have not had breakfast yet?” Jordan asked, looking at her with those flat eyes.

The kiss with Jam suddenly flashed in her mind and she shook her head to erase it.

Thinking it was her answer, Jordan called for Tippy to set her a plate.

“What did you do this weekend?” Jordan asked, his voice sounding a bit cautious.

She couldn’t help but wonder if he knew. Of course he didn’t, she reasoned.

But he had followed her in the past. He could have followed her this weekend too.

“Nothing. Visited home and talked with my mom.”

Then she saw something flash in his eyes at the mention of her mother. “What did your mother tell you?” he asked.

George frowned. “Why? Is there something I should know?”

He leaned away from the table and shrugged. “I don’t know. Why?”

“You talk with my mom all the time?”

“No, not really.”

“What do you tell her?”

She thought she saw relief on his face but it was immediately replaced by a frown. “Nothing important. She worries about you.”

“I know.” She sighed and looked around. “Let’s not talk about my family. I just want to eat some breakfast, if you please.”

Jordan surprised her a bit when he lifted one corner of his mouth in a grin followed by a shake of his head. “Of course, I would not interrupt your insatiable appetite.”

She wanted him to erase that grin but it stayed for quite some time until he was done eating and back to his phone. Jordan grinning was only making her feel guiltier.

But why would she be guilty?

He had a girlfriend he talked to almost every day.

And it was not as if she did not like Jam’s kiss. It was actually fair to say she enjoyed it.

So why was she feeling guilty?