They're Playing Our Song

Careful What You Wish For

Be careful what you wish for. You might just end up eating dinner with the most handsome guy in the room.

Nora wanted to laugh. If only the titas and titos could see her now.

After twenty nine years of being told 'sayang ka, if only you were thinner,' she was only just starting to stop believing that. If only you were prettier, ate less, exercised more, asked for less, expected less, and settled, you can get a man and be happy. She grew up believing that, grew up thinking that all it took to 'fix her' was to lose weight, get married and have kids. That all she needed in life was to find a man, and she couldn't get one if she wasn't thinner. Some days she still had to talk herself down from that road.

And she was twenty nine now, much happier with who she was now than she had been in years, even in a size 3XL. She'd done the soul searching, gone through the stages of realizing how fantastic being herself was. Even if it did mean that she trusted the people around her a lot less.

Look at her now, having dinner with Leo Solano, and really, really enjoying herself. Sure, they were clearly avoiding some huge landmines, but this was a one night only performance. Nora had a job and responsibilities to go back to tomorrow.

Tonight, she was going to bask in the warm glow of being flirted on by one of The Sexiest Men Alive.

"Dessert? Dessert," he announced, nodding after they finished. "Breakfast isn't complete without dessert."

"Neither is dinner. Lead the way."

Nora led him to Elyu Coffee. She liked their place, and loved their coffee even more. The cafe was open, just a kitchen and a bar with mismatched tables and chairs strewn in front of the bar and courtyard. She tried to ignore the pointed look the cashier gave her when Leo placed an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to him, their bodies warm as they pressed together, her squish against his hardness.

He had a mischievous smile on his face while he perused the menu, a smile that she was just learning to recognize. The kids from the music school smiled like that when they were about to do something particularly devious.

"Why do I have a feeling that you're going to order—"

"One large s'mores, please."

"That."

"To be fair, I said we were having dessert," he said. They added a dirty horchata (his) and an iced latte (hers) to their orders, which he paid for before he led Nora to the one free table overlooking the courtyard of the hispter-vibes food park under the stars.

The playlist alternated between oldies soft rock music, KPop and Carly Rae Jepsen, and Nora loved the combination. "Did you not want s'mores?"

"I like s'mores," Nora smiled, resting her chin on her hand, her elbow on the table and sighing as she looked at him again. This whole date felt like a dream. From the exchange of cheesy pickup lines, the food, and now this. "And I need to ask you something."

"Okay, shoot," he said, drumming his hands on the table.

"It's about your musical. Swan Song."

There was one second where Nora could have sworn that Leo had looked nervous, but it passed so quickly, she couldn't be sure. He chuckled instead, and Nora had the weirdest feeling that he knew exactly what she was about to ask him.

"Is this about Olivia Cruz?" he asked, his brow lifting.

"Why did you cast Olivia Cruz?" She asked almost right away. "She would have been the last person I thought to be Arielle Beaumont. I mean, she's Pinoy! Arielle is French!"