Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Cam
Nikki
status report?
Cam
blood-free. i dsrve a reward
Nikki
get through the week like that and i’ll have your favs ready when you get back
Cam
im holding u 2 that
Nikki
as long as you’re nice to lonzo too ;)
Eric
What exactly do we mean by nice?
Cam
so u 2 r a we now?
“Is it true that you didn’t finish college?”
I turned to the guy sitting next to me, and my eyelids almost cramped with the effort it took not to glare at him. This was proof that I deserved my shake with extra buko strips and an unlimited supply of any food I wanted.
“Yes,” I answered tightly.
He gawked at me like he didn’t expect me to own up to it. “How did you end up here?”
“Same as you,” I said as I went back to typing. “I met the requirements and passed the interviews.”
“Oh. I guess that’s why they have this boot camp.”
To weed out the ones who aren’t good enough , his tone insinuated.
“Yep. You never know how good someone really is until she kicks your ass in person.” We’ll see who’s good enough . I’d glanced at his screen earlier and found him struggling with a code segment. One I’d nailed an hour ago.
He sputtered. “She?”
I smiled at him and took pleasure in how his derision morphed into shock as his eyes darted to my screen. His head swiveled to face his own laptop, and I nearly laughed as he angled it away from me.
Look at that. I’d managed to shut him up without resorting to violence. Yay me.
Caloy, the only teammate whose name I’d taken note of, spoke up from my left. “You enjoyed that.”
I shrugged and continued working.
“I’m betting on you, by the way.”
“Good.”
He chuckled. “Confident. I like that.”
There were three scenarios I could foresee involving the guy on the right.
Either only one of us got through, neither of us made the cut, or we both did.
Two of those meant I’d never see him again, and the third would show him I had just as much right to be here as he did. That would teach him not to judge.
Look who’s talking.
My fingers paused on the keys. Shit. My conscience was right.
My brain switched back to Alonzo, which was highly inconvenient given I was here to get a job, not get stuck on a guy.
And yet I couldn’t deny that I’d been rehashing the events from last night and wondering what might have happened if he had gotten in bed with me.
Something told me we would have had far less sleep.
Worse, he would have sunk deeper beneath my skin, which he already had to a terrifying degree.
I couldn’t believe I’d told him about my parents. Only a handful of people knew, and I’d promised myself not to tell anyone I didn’t trust implicitly, much less an almost-hookup.
Then again, that label no longer fit Alonzo. He wasn’t a stranger or an acquaintance anymore, yet the label friend didn’t match up either.
The puzzle hovered in the background of my mind as I went through the rest of the training sessions, giving me zero capacity to care about the mutterings and side-eyes going on around me.
Good—I was one day closer to my prize. Just three more days of this and I could go back home, hopefully with the promise of a job and financial stability.
I made a quick call to Inang to check if everything was okay. After she assured me she was taking her medicines, I told her to take care and headed for my new rental. Fingers crossed it would be better than the previous one.
This was more like it.
I stepped inside the room and closed the door behind me.
This place was small, but it was clean and had a window and a door with an actual knob and two functioning locks.
The double bed took up half the room, leaving just enough space for me to walk between the desk and chair setup, but it looked like it could fit two.
You know, just in case.
Setting my bag on the chair, I unzipped it and reached for my laptop. I put it on the desk and dug into the back inner pocket for my charging cable, only for my fingers to catch on a paper rectangle. Pulling it out, I found two hundreds pesos folded into quarters.
My mouth fell open. It was the money I’d given to Alonzo for my food. Somehow, he’d snuck it into my bag along with a torn piece of paper. On it, he’d written:
Maya—
Dinner’s on me. Good luck with boot camp—if you’re still there when you see this.
If not and you’re back in Juana, I hope I got to see you before you left...and that you left with better memories of Manila than what you came with.
Alonzo
My chest seemed to constrict, and I told myself it was from stress and frustration. Grabbing my phone, I sent him a text.
Cam
u messed w my bag?!!!
The past times I’d texted him, he was quick to reply. This time, my phone remained silent. I wondered about the delay, and then I remembered him saying he had a shift after class today.
I dropped my phone on the bed and paced across the room. It took me three steps. It would probably take him two.
Damn it. I reached for my phone again and dialed Nikki, tapping my fingers against my thigh as I waited for her to pick up.
“Please don’t tell me you’re calling from jail.”
I snorted. “I don’t think they’d let me use my phone there.”
“Good point,” Nikki said. “What’s up?”
“He returned my money.”
I heard a scuffle on the other end of the line, and then my phone pinged with a request for a video call.
I accepted it.
Nikki and Jo grinned at me. “Hi, Tita Cammy,” Jo called out.
Even though I missed the little girl and would have wanted to see her at any other time, I wished she wasn’t in the call right now because it meant having to sanitize my words.
“Hi, Joey girl,” I said. “How are you?”
“Great! Tito Eric brought Milo here yesterday, and I get to play with him for three more days! Milo, say hi!”
The camera swung down to show the dog sitting next to Jo’s legs as she scratched him behind his ears.
I smiled, my tension easing at her giddiness. “Hi, Milo. It sounds like you two are going to have lots of fun this week.”
“Uh huh!” Jo said.
“Don’t forget you need to clean up after him too,” Nikki reminded her daughter.
Jo let out a dramatic sigh. “Yes, Mama.” Looking back at me, she asked, “Is Tito Ally with you?”
I’d been stifling my laughter, and then she hit me with that question. “He’s working,” I answered without thinking.
Nikki pounced on my slip-up. “Isn’t it nice that Tita Cammy knows where Tito Ally is?” she asked her daughter in an annoying sing-song voice.
“You should visit him!” Jo announced.
“Good idea, anak. Then she should call us again so you can say hi to Tito Ally, yes?”
“Yes!” Jo bounced up and down, and Milo barked like he’d caught her excitement too.
Nikki was a goner. I unleashed the full force of my withheld glares on her, and she laughed. Laughed . “He’s busy,” I settled on saying because what I really wanted to say wasn’t suitable for Jo’s ears.
“Bet he’s not too busy for you,” Nikki said slyly. “Besides, don’t you need to give him back the money?”
“He already refused it.” Although I did need to give him a piece of my mind for messing with my bag. Also to tell him to stop leaving me these notes—the latest of which I still had tucked tight in my hand.
“You don’t want to owe him anything, do you?”
Damn Nikki for knowing exactly what buttons to push. “I can’t wait to see you on Saturday,” I told her between gritted teeth.
“Me too, Cam. Don’t forget to call us later, k? Jo and I will be waiting.”
“See you, Tita Cammy!”
Nikki was lucky I was so far away, or I would have stormed over to her place and told her what I really thought when Jo wasn’t around to hear.
Though she did have a point.
Last night, Alonzo told me he worked at some third-wave coffee shop near the school, which should have been enough reason to avoid it like the plague. But that meant letting them win, and I couldn’t accept that.
I looked up the directions, swapped my pants for shorts, and stuffed my money and key in my pocket.
Forget Nikki’s maneuvering. This was a point of pride now.
And maybe a part of me—just a tiny one—wanted to see Alonzo in his element too.