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Photo: The three Aunties

Chapter 28

Angelo's P.O.V

"Yes. I still do." Was my answer to his question.

Right there, I saw his face slowly frowned and I could almost hear his heart tearing up into bits and pieces. And then I realized that he misunderstood me.

He sighed. "It's alright. I mean, he is your first love and I guess first love never dies eh?" he said.

I was astonished and I tried to say something but he cut me off quickly. "You don't need to explain. I understand. I really do. And who am I compared to him. Anj, you've known him and probably love him since like forever while you've only known me for what, 3 or 4 months?" he tried to smirked but failed miserably, I could also see a thin trace of tears on his eyes that was ominously to fall.  "And the fact that I hurt you from the very first time we've met, I am just so not worthy for you. I'm so..."

I jumped on his lap and strangled him while I my lips connected deeply with his own sweet lips. At first he was shocked by my sudden action but after a while, he kissed me back. He bit my lower lip softly asking for entrance which I granted without any questions. His tongue explored and battled with mine for dominance but I submitted quickly to let him take control.

He broke the kiss to catch our breathe and we looked at each other's' eyes. Both of us were breathing heavily and his pupils were dilated. Meanwhile, I knew that my eyes were pure black from that intense feeling and emotion that I felt.

"Listen to me Daniel James Bradley." I said, my arms were around his neck. "Yes, first love never dies, however, you are my real first love and you made me realized that Nathan wasn't my first love. I love Nathan before, and I loved him now. Nathan will always have a special place in my heart but you have my whole heart." I noticed his first tears falling from his right eyes while I was speaking and a flash of relief was painted on his face.

"Remember this, you can be in a relationship for three years and feel nothing; you can be in a relationship for three months and feel everything. Time is not a measure of quality; of infatuation or of love." I kissed his forehead. "Daniel, you made me feel everything that I didn't feel with Nathan. With you, I am strong. With you I am happy. And the first time we've met was the best day ever in my life because from that moment, you've started to change my life. You developed the person who I am now." I hugged him so tight. He didn't complain as he hugged me back, letting me feel his comforting heat rushing through my body.

"Anj, I'm sorry I doubted your love for me. I was just so worried that you might leave me and Jared. Man, I don't know how to live without you. I mean, you are my life now; you and Jared. And I love you so much." He said. He buried his face on my neck, giving me a tingling sensation throughout my body. My heart beats really fast as he spoke the words I love you.

"I love you and Jared so much. And I'm really sorry for making you worried earlier and for showing you how weak I am."

"Hey..." he held my chin and gently pulled it up so that his eyes meet mine. "We are committed to each other. Don't apologized when you're talking about your problems or anything, okay? I love it when you talk about anything. I love it when you tell me things. I love to know about your life, okay? I love you." He then kissed my forehead. And it was enough to feel how much he meant every word he said to me.

After a while, we decided to lie down and snuggled on his soft and comfy bed. I asked him not to put his clothes on because I wanted to feel his heat embracing my body. He didn't say anything or even complained about it though.

"You know..." I started, while staring at the empty ceiling. My head was on his chest and his arms were securely wrapped on my body. "Sebastian told me to face my problem. I'm always running away, and I thought it was the best thing I can do. He made me realise that running away from it doesn't fix it at all."

I couldn't see it but I could feel that he smirked. "Anj, your butler creep me out a bit to be honest, but I think he made a right point there." He paused and heaved a deep sigh. He then gently tightened his grip on me; it wasn't too tight and it wasn't too loose. It was enough to make me feel secure. "So what's your plan to do?"

I kissed his cheeks before answering, he responded me with his content smile. "My aunties told me that Nathan wouldn't last for a week." My eyes were starting to get teary once again but I tried to fight it off. I didn't want to cry anymore. "Nathan... he was my first protector. He never left my side and he was always there whenever I'm weak. He was my strength and happiness; until the day when he started to changed. He may have told me that he doesn't love me anymore, but I believe that there was a deeper reason on why he chose to hurt me. And I forgive him. I forgave him when I found you."

Daniel was really silent while I was telling him what Nathan meant to me. I was actually worried that he might have decided to end up our relationship even though I didn't want to. I will never want to. It was my turn to doubt his love for me even though I wasn't in the right place; even though it was me the reason for that doubt in the first place.

But every worries and doubt that was clouding my judgment and sanity had vanished when he spoke up. "We belong together. From the very first beginning." He said, looking me in the eyes. His blue orbs were shining bright from the lamp that was illuminating the room. "Now I know why it didn't work really well with me and Jared's mum. I've been asking myself why although these years, and I never knew the answer until I found you. You are my soulmate. You are the missing piece in my life, in our life together with Jared. And as much as cheesy as it may sound, I love you so much it hurts. And if hurting is the only way to love you, then I volunteer to suffer all the torture that the future might give because it's all worth it." He held my hands and kissed it.

The tears that I was trying to hold before had flowed down from my eyes. My heart was swelling from happiness and it felt so good it hurts. However, I like how it hurts because I know that it was from a reasonable cause. It was love.

Daniel wiped away the tears from my eyes and we went back to bed, snuggling and cuddling under the soft blanket. I was laying my head on his chest and his arms were back around me, securely  and surrounding me with his love. There was a moment of silence between us until he spoke up. "So what's our plan?"

At first, I was confused. And then realization hit me. "I'm going home to see Nathan."

I was looking at him seriously when he suddenly chuckled and playfully pinched the tip of my nose with his finger. "Yes and Nope."

"Huh?" I asked dumbfounded.

"It's a good decision that you'll want to see Nathan. You need a closure."

"Okay... so what's with the 'NOPE'?"

"I said "What's OUR plan?"" he answered, emphasizing the word 'our'.

"Daniel, I can't let you ruin your plan with your family for me. I can't just..." He silenced me with his finger over my lips. We actually planned to go to Tangalooma Island for a week before the school starts. Ever since we went to Sea World themepark, Jared never stopped talking about dolphins, and since they have a dolphin feeding in Tangalooma Island every night, we thought that it would be fun for our little cutie to have.  Fortunately we haven't booked in our stay there yet, because Daniel just decided that he is going with me no matter what reason I could think of for him not to come. I feel bad for ruining the plan for his family though. I couldn't bear to see how I spoiled their excitement. And I must do something about it.

"Fine." I said. Daniel looked at me confused, arching his left eyebrow. "You're coming with me and we'll stay there for three days. I guess that's a fair duration for a closure."

"Good...good." he said between his kisses.

"And Daniel..." I mumbled and he hummed in reply. "I'll be the one to pay the plane tickets. Try to complain about it and there will be no more kisses from you starting right now."

"But..." he tried to reason out but I cut him off.

"No kisses..." as I faced the other side of the bed, my back turned on him.

"Arrghhh.. Not fair." He stood up and started to throw tantrums like a kid.

I on the other hand wasn't flinching or anything. His childish act doesn't have any effect on me at all. In the end, he gave up and laid down beside me. His hand snaked on my hips and he kissed the back of my neck.

"Fine." He mumbled as we started to doze off. My lips quirked in a smile.

Daniel's P.O.V

I was in awe to see how busy Angelo's hometown called Pampanga. There was the colossal mountain sitting on the east of the city as if she was watching over the place. On the both side of the road was the tall buildings towering each other. People and cars were everywhere, trying to race the heavy traffic to get to their destination.

It was just an hour of travel for Manila International Airport to Pampanga, but my dear Angelo was exhausted and as soon as he was seated at the van that picked us up from the airport to take us to Angelo's home, he passed out.

Of course I panicked and all, but then I remembered that Angelo really hates travelling. He told me about this problem and asked me to expect that he'll be like that all the way. Aside from his travel sickness, Angelo told me as well on what to expect in his hometown especially the way of living.

The next morning after we decided to see Nathan in the Philippines, he quickly asked his butler, Sebastian, to prepare a ticket to Philippines. His butler got a ticket as quickly as typing QUICKLY can and it was scheduled the next day.

I, on the other hand, explained to my mother what was going on and she just told me to support Angelo. She said that Angelo's strength is me and he needs a shoulder to cry on. He needs someone strong to hold him if he breaks down. My mother told me that I am the only one that Angelo needs to stand up once again, especially now that we didn't know what to expect.

Angelo told me that the way of living back in his hometown is not fancy as we have in Australia. Their place was isolated from modern society and they always strive hard to have something to eat. He told me that it's all about working hard to survive. He told me that there was no concrete house, what they have instead was a hut. He warned me about leaving the fancy life of Australia and about the other side of life.

I wasn't actually scared to live in a low class environment. In fact, I was really excited to see where Angelo's instinct of survival and insights and compassion had developed.

Right now, we were in the van travelling to his exciting hometown. I was looking at his peaceful face while his head was comfortably lying down on my lap. The sun was already setting in and the driver told me that it would be another 3 hours of travel to get into our destination. Mr. Jeff, as he told me his name was, asked me to take a rest for a while because the journey will be quite long.

Without any complain, my eyes started to get heavy as the exhaustion took over me as well.

After a couple of hours of travel which felt only a minute when you're sleeping, I was woken up by Mr. Jeff to tell me that we arrived. It was already dark outside and really quiet. The only noise that I could hear was the buzzing sound of cricket around the place. I looked up at the digital clock blinking on the stereo on the dashboard to see that it was already 8:45 in the evening.

I stretch my arm and started to wake Angelo by shaking him softly and giving him butterfly kisses on his cheeks.

"Daniel, let me sleep." He said. His voice was groggy while his eyes were tight close.

"But babe. We are here."

As if on cue, he instantly opened his eyes and stood up, hitting his forehead with me in the process. "Awww!"

"Now, now Mr. Grande. Someone is so excited at the moment." I smirked, massaging my forehead.

"Geez Daniel, I'm sorry. But I have to say you got a really hard head there." He apologized and kissed my forehead. However, there was something going on in my mind when he said that I really got a hard head, I mean I was thinking of the other head, and it wasn't appropriate to tell him that at that moment.

Bad Daniel. Bad. Focus.

The back door of the van closed as Mr. Jeff put our baggage down by himself. I was so embarrassed that the I let the old man do the work by himself. I was about to tell Mr. Jeff that I'm sorry but Angelo stopped me and told that Mr. Jeff doesn't want being helped with his duty because that would make him feel old.

I raised my eyebrow in question. Angelo just shook his head up and down in agreement. I just brushed off the idea anyways.

After a while, Mr. Jeff opened the door. And there we saw the three women waiting excitedly. I was expecting to see  a bit old women with crinkly skin but what I saw was three beautiful dazzling women that look like in their mid- 30s. The thing that hit me was that they were all crying, and I know that it was from excitement.

I looked at Angelo to see his reaction and no doubt that he had the same emotion as the three women. His eyes were starting to get cloudy from his tears and he was smiling from ear to ear.

"Ready?" I asked and he nodded in response. I got off first and held my hand to him. He took it and get off from the van.

The three women, who supposedly were Angelo's aunties, came closer to us and bowed in sync. "Seniorito." They said together.

I was shocked, and so was Angelo. But he recovered quickly and walked in front of the three women. "What's up with being so formal? Get up and give me a hug!"

The three women almost jumped on Angelo as they shared their hugs and kissed after 4 years of being away from each other. On that moment, I knew that Angelo has a special talent for touching the lives of other people.

I was standing there, looking at the precious moment of Angelo when Sebastian spoke beside me.

"Welcome to Philippines, sir."

"Ahhhh!" I screamed, holding my chest with my hand. "Don't dothat again, Seb. You're gonna kill me from heart attack!" I jokingly said.

"Sorry sir, I didn't mean to. My apologies."

"Nah mate, no worries. All good."

Then I noticed that everything became silent. Right then, I noticed that everyone was looking at me. The three women were staring straight at me together, and I could see Angelo trying to hide his laughter.

A moment after, the three women were scanning me closely while moving in circle. I actually thought that if I made a single wrong move, they'll magically turn me into frog. And so I resorted to my one and only savior. "Uhhh.... babe... You're aunties making me feel awkward now."

Then the three women said together. "Babe?" and turned their looks at Angelo, who was by then trying so hard not to laugh.

"Babe? Dios Mio, hijo! This handsome guy here is Daniel?" asked the woman with curly hair.

"Opo, Aunt Lisa. (Yes, Aunt Lisa)" Angelo answered.

The shorter woman of all the three with straight hair smelled me. I, on the other hand felt really awkward. "Angelo..." she said, "Ang bango nya! (He smells really good!)"

Angelo couldn't contain his laughter anymore. He walked beside me and held my hand, which gave me an instant relief from being uncomfortable. "You're scaring him Aunties." He said jokingly.

"Tama na yan, Lisa, Anna. Pumasok na tayo sa loob. (That's enough Lisa and Anna. Let's go inside.)" said the woman with short hair and she had an impression of being strict. So the woman who smelled me was aunt Anna. And the strict woman must be aunt Carol then.

We were walking toward the house when Angelo stopped in his tracks. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"The hut."

"Huh?" I asked, confused. And then I realized that he was talking about the hut that he used to live at. His face was full of surprise because we were looking at a concrete small bright house. There was no hut or anything. In fact, it looked modern. I couldn't make out of the surrounding yet because it was still dark and the only sounds that was accompanying us was the sound of frogs syncing with the song of crickets.

Angelo then turned and faced his aunties, who by then had the same face of confusion. "Aunties, what happened to the kubo (hut)?" he asked.

"It's on the back of that house dear." Aunt Carol answered.

"Why? What happened?"

"You see..." It was Aunt Anna's turn to explain. "We thought that you wouldn't be comfortable sleeping on your old hard bed. So we decided to build you your own comfortable house if ever you decided to visit us. And since you have a guest, it would be really useful because we're sure that Daniel isn't used to sleeping on the floor. Right?"

I was actually embarrassed because most of what Aunt Anna said was true. I wasn't sure if I could get a sleep on a hard bed. Luckily the climate was fairly cool and isn't hot contradicted to what Angelo told me. "I'm sorry Aunt Anna. Please don't worry about me. I'm fine really." I said.

"Tingnan mo ginawa mo kay Daniel! (See what you did to Daniel!)". Aunt Lisa scolded Aunt Anna.

"Oh dear. I didn't mean to offend you or anything." Aunt Anna quickly apologised for no reason. Her Filipino accent was getting stronger every time she speaks.

I smiled at her and took her hands. "It's all good Aunt Anna. No offence was taken."

"Oh my gosh. I like this guy so much now!" she giggled.

"I appreciate your care and worrying for me Aunties." Angelo said. Everyone stopped and looked at him. "But I'm really fine if I sleep on the floor. It is still me and nothing has changed." And then he smiled. "And thank you anyways for building this house. Let's go in then."

We had a quick snack before going to bed. The house was just the size of Angelo's apartment in Brisbane and it fits two people. There were actually two separate rooms, both have a queen size bed. All in all, the house was decent and comfortable just like in Brisbane.

In the midst of eating snack, Angelo suddenly asked his aunties about Nathan.

"How's Nathan?" 

The three elders looked at each other and gazed on me sympathetically. I suppressed a smile at them with the message telling them that I was fine. To be honest, it hurts a bit whenever Angelo mentions Nathan's name. Let's be real, there's a great percent that Nathan might still have a feeling for Angelo. And whatever his reason for leaving and hurting my mate before, I would never let it happen again.

"Angelo dear, you should prepare yourself on what you're going to see. I'll be honest with you; it's getting worst and worst every day. He only got so lively and energetic again when we told him that you are coming back to see him."

"I want to see him now." He said.

"Babe, you need to take a rest. Let's see your friend tomorrow okay?" I whispered to him, my arms are on his shoulder.

"He's resting now hijo. He's getting as much strength as possible, for you. And his doctor won't let you see him until tomorrow." aunt Carol explained.

"What if he...." He couldn't seem to continue.

"Don't worry dear. Nathan promised us that he would never let go until he sees you again." Said Aunt Anna, flashing her comforting and genuine smile to Angelo.

"For how long has he been going like this?" Angelo asked, looking at his cup of hot chocolate. The whole house was complete with appliances and grocery items. They told us that Sebastian did all the preparation the day before we arrive.

"Since June last year. His body started to weakened until the doctor said it was a Stage 4 lung cancer." Aunt Carol said.

"June? That's when the dreams started. I was always dreaming about Nathan ever since then. So it must be a sign. And no one ever bothered to mention it to me?"

There was a moment of silence around the table. Then Aunt Lisa started talking. "Hijo, it was Nathan's request not to tell you yet. He doesn't want to worry you and he wanted you to live your own life without him giving you burden."

"That idiot." He mumbled. "He is always an idiot."

"We are not in the right place to tell you his side of story. So my dear, let's wait for tomorrow so he can tell you everything. Okay?" said Aunt Carol, standing from her seat. "Now, we're going." She looked at the other two woman, who by then was happily enjoying their hot chocolates. "Lisa, Anna. Let's go. Let these boys take a rest"

"Awww... but we're not done yet." Both of the other women complained in unison.

"You are done now." Aunt Carol ordered, her eyes grew bigger and her voice became hard.

As if on cue, aunt Lisa and aunt Anna quickly rose from their seat. "Oh yes. We are finished. We're ready to go, right?" they said in panicked.

After the three aunties gone home, which by the way, was just at the back of the concrete house, Angelo and I went straight to our room. Of course I wouldn't sleep on the other room. Angelo ordered Sebastian to take the other room instead.

We didn't talk much longer though, because as soon as Angelo hit the bed, he passed out almost instantly.

I, on the other hand, couldn't sleep. I was thinking about the thing that was going to happen by tomorrow. There were a lot of what ifs going on my mind.

Angelo was comfortably sleeping in my arms, peacefully breathing in and out. I look at his face until satisfaction hit me. I was satisfied with Angelo here by my side. And his presence is enough to comfort me and disintegrate the worries that were eating me inside.

I didn't know when, but while I was staring at Angelo's peaceful face, I started to drift off, my fore head resting on Angelo's temple while his body was securely wrapped in my hand.

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