You Can Friend Me Now

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One of the things that Sabrina secretly hated about her job at the Mojica Foundation was the ridiculousness of the grant applications that she had to review. There was only so much that the foundation can do with their money; in the last year alone, several NGOs lost their funding when they failed to follow through on their promises by leaving projects unfinished. Every stakeholder relied on her and the rest of the staff to review all grant applications with a critical eye, making sure that none of these requests were the work of bullshit artists who could talk their way into a generous amount of money.

And to think that people would think that she was wasting her time on that writing workshop with Celeste Ballesteros.

The workshop. Sabrina remembered that she and the members of that small writing group had promised to add each other as friends on Facebook. She put away the office work and went for her smart pad, where she found four friend requests on her social-network account. 

Friend request: Rho Belle Jammyjazz, aka Robert Leslie Jamias.

She went to Rhobelle's site, and saw posts of him at the beach with sexy, scantily-clad people on the beach of all ages and genders. There was even a picture of him in tiny beach shorts, lolling around in the sand with cat-eyed glasses. 

Click. Approved. 

Friend request: Kim Santiago. 

Lots of link-backs to George Takei, 9GAG, and ICanHazCheezburger, plus pictures of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Fassbender, Tom Hiddleston, and Benedict Cumberbatch in varying degrees of undress. If Kim really did believe in string theory, Sabrina surmised, any of these unbelievably gorgeous men would have been hers for the taking. 

Click. Approved.

Friend request: Char Char, aka Czarlie Ann Purungganan.

Inspirational quotes from the Bible. Music videos from Hillsong and Don Moen. Sweet messages in Ilonggo to her closest family. 

Click. Approved. 

Friend request: Luis Alcantara. 

Sabrina hesitated. She remembered how Luis took no hesitation in sending her those text messages so soon after their post-workshop meeting at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.  Maybe he got affected after she called him out on what he knew about Paulo Coelho and U2? 

She went straight to his Facebook account. He didn't set it as private, but it did look like she would never have viewed it if she had not friended their other classmates first. 

No Bible quotes. No pictures of men in Speedos or women in bikinis. Not even a picture of Magneto. 

He did, however, have some interesting posts on his timeline: 

Luis Alcantara shared a link from Spot.ph: Top 10 Best Chicken Barbecue in Manila.

Status Update: Just watched that episode of CSI where they shot Justin Bieber. That episode never gets old. 

Maps: Luis Alcantara was at Jollibee East Avenue.

Status Update: Halfway through Cloud Atlas right now because my friends told me that I should read it. Confusing, but I'm getting intrigued by the structure of this whole book. Wonder how the other half of the book will turn out?

Luis Alcantara shared a picture from Bogart the Explorer.

Status update: Bitch workshop coordinator took down my essay. Who does she think she is, Shakespeare? If she wants a re-write I am going to give her a damn rewrite

That was it, Sabrina thought. She was ready to go ahead and approve the friend request so she could continue her ongoing conversation with Luis about the whole "nice guy/bad boy" dichotomy.

Then she found herself clicking through the "Photos" section. 

His profile photos were nothing special - shots of him in his work uniform, childhood photos with his classmates, some nice photos of him in a barong with his family. For a moment she wanted to look at some of his pictures from outings in Boracay and Puerto Galera to see if there were shirtless photos of him - with or without sexy bikini babes, as if she was interested - but one album in particular intrigued her: 

December 31, 2001. 

New Year's Eve. The day - or night - when she met The Guy. 

Out of sheer curiosity, she began to browse through the pictures from that night. Luis was dressed up for the occasion in a long-sleeved shirt and slacks secured with a nice belt. One set of photos were carefully cropped, with parts of arms mysteriously draped around his shoulders. The other pictures had him hanging on the shoulder of two male friends - members of his barkada, she assumed - with a bottle of Red Horse in his hand, his eyes showing defeat and exhaustion. 

What intrigued Sabrina, however, was the backdrop of the pictures. Luis and his friends were posing next to a buffet table with platters full of smoked salmon, cheese with crackers, and cold cuts. Behind them was a set of lights and buildings which looked like a view of Roxas Boulevard and Manila Bay from a high angle. One of the buildings, in fact, looked eerily like a miniature version of Star City. 

Could it be that Luis was there at the party?

She clicked on one last picture, and she saw three shadowy figures in the background. Two of the girls had their backs to the camera, short dresses and high heels in view. And the third figure wore… a familiar-looking Armani suit. 

That did it. Sabrina had to find out what Luis knew about that night.

Click. Approved. 

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