Maybe, Almost, Always

Maybe - 1

Basti and Ali were sitting at the airport, waiting for Iris to come in with her family, so her and Basti could leave for Greece.

Ali had come back from PMA, after earning a long, verbal scolding from Gregorio, and went to a culinary program at Iris' school. Because he quit while Iris was already a year into her program, it would take a year before he could do his training program overseas and be in Greece with them. So for now, after much convincing to Cassandra --- mainly because she didn't want Iris around Nestor, Val, and Basti --- Iris was able to send her application to finish her hospitality management studies overseas.

When Ali's online bestfriend turned out to be Nestor Valderama's son, Cass and Agnes were close to shutting down the friendship until they found out that their incommunicado friend, Val, was engaged to the man. The fight when Nestor and Val returned to the Philippines with Basti to announce their new business venture and recent engagement wasn't short-lived -- in some aspects, the fight was still brewing up stuff yet to be brought up. The main argument was with Val being convinced that Cass was just jealous that she was the one who ended up with Nestor, while Cass felt betrayed that her supposed "bestfriend" and ninang to her daughter would go back to the man who played all of them. What hurt Cass the most was the one friend who told her that Nestor didn't deserve a second chance was the same woman who gave him exactly that. Val was even more triggered about Cass being around Nestor when Nestor told her to put off their wedding until she patched everything up with her friends. Agnes, being "Ateng," just listened to all the sides, but never meddled.

Tensions only increased when Basti and Ali started to spend more time with each other, now that Basti was no longer just an online friend. This annoyed Iris to her limits because it didn't feel like Ali was courting her anymore. It didn't feel like she was his best friend anymore because he was always with "walang direksyon sa buhay" Basti. She didn't agree with his lifestyle and thought he was just a nuisance, so to have him around and influencing Ali made him Iris' least favorite person. 

When Iris found out that Basti would be going with her to Greece -- apparently he had to finish up some photography job over there -- she was less than pleased to learn that Ali wouldn't be coming along until next year.

"Iris!" Ali yelled over the crowd when he finally spotted the braided hair.

Iris turned around with the trolley full of luggage and smiled, walking over to him.

All the parents were there and the tension was thick in the air, but Basti and Iris tried their best to remain civil so their parents wouldn't cause a scene in the airport.

"Sebastian," eyeing him up and down and crossing her arms while Ali still had his arm draped around her.

"Iris... you can call me Basti," stepping towards her and away from his dad.

"Sebastian."

He sighed. There's no winning with this girl. "Did you read the book I gave you?"

Iris eased up because she didn't want to seem too rude to him. Basti had given her a book with simple Greek phrases and had been practicing with her whenever he was with her and Ali, which was often.

"Ναί." / "Yes."

"Pós légese?" / "What is your name?"

"Légome Iris" / "My name is Iris."

She bit her lip, nervous of what else he could answer, but he never pushed forward and just smiled sincerely at her.

"That's good, Iris. You kinda have the accent with it, so you'll be able to survive. Just make sure that you're not too formal, unless you're in class. Then use the front part of the book."