"Any objection?" Joey asked Adrian as he re-read the rules. He was seated at the dining table while she was cooking dinner.
"Just two questions."
"Shoot."
"How come Ched knows?"
She shrugged. "Because she's my best friend and I completely trust her. Besides, it's impossible to hide anything from her."
He nodded. "Fair enough."
"And the second question?"
"What's your middle name?"
She gave him a surprised look. "Yu?"
"Me?"
"I mean Yu. Y-U. Mama's half-Chinese."
"Oh. I see."
"And you?"
"Me? Oh, you mean my middle name. It's Vera. Mom's pure Filipino. Dad's 75% Chinese."
Joey sat across him while the meat boiled. Now that they knew each other's middle names and lineage, she steered the conversation back to the topic at hand. "That's all you want to ask?"
He nodded.
"I have a question." Joey offered.
"Shoot."
"Do you cook?"
"I can manage."
"Good....Here's my suggestion." And so she launched into a detailed description of their would-be setup. They'd take turns with the cooking and cleaning. If anyone had specific meal preferences, they're free to speak up. But breakfast was mostly on a 'make-your-own' policy since Joey subsisted on coffee and bread or cereal in the morning, except on weekends when there was time to cook. Adrian could help himself to anything in the kitchen and he was free to use any gadget or appliance including the DVD player, TV, and washing machine as mentioned in the rules. But sorry, they didn't have a piano. She then took out a set of keys from her jeans pocket and handed it to him. "Duplicates. Everything's labeled.", she said before returning to the stove to pop in the vegetables.
Adrian placed the keys in his pocket, impressed that she had everything thought out. "Are you always this organized?"
"Most of the time. So. Let's eat?"
He nodded and rose to his feet. "I'll help you."
Weird. Awkward. Like walking on eggs. Both of them felt this way as they moved around the kitchen and sat across each other for dinner. Adrian, being the more talkative one, asked most of the questions. He learned that Joey took up a Math course while taking art lessons from Paglaom, and that she had yet to stage her own exhibit. She learned that Adrian, despite spending most of his childhood in the US, was still Filipino to the core --- as Filipino as balut and bagoong could be.
Joey listened as Adrian shared tidbits about his showbiz life – how he started and what really goes on behind the cameras. While he talked, she realized that she was actually glad that she had company while Uncle Laom was away. It would have been too quiet and lonely had she been alone. And she was glad that Adrian was quite the conversationalist compared to her. When the topic moved to family though, the most she could share was her reconciliation with her mom in recent years. All was forgiven and understood between them. No wonder Joey seemed unaffected after her quite shocking revelation some days ago. But when it came to her dad and brothers, she drew the line and Adrian respected that.
