More to Life ✔

Chapter 32 Wat Arun

"Mine kicked me out my second last year of high school," Jomari said.

"That's awful. What did you do after?"

"I went to live with my aunt and things got better. She's the one with the connections that found me some work here. I'd rather have her in my life than him. I missed seeing my younger sisters grow up though." He paused and looked over at the stained glass windows before turning back. "I'm sure your situation will be different."

"Sorry, that sounds rough. My mom is doing everything she can, but he is a stubborn man."

They settled into a comfortable silence as the other conversation fizzled out too.

"What meal do you miss the most?" Benilda asked.

"I've been craving sisig today, but probably because I was out drinking last night," Maria answered.

The group laughed. "We'll all go out for Pinoy food after mass one week," Jomari said, "And pretend it tastes half as good as what we grew up with." Everyone chuckled again. "Maria, you'd be used to that growing up in the West. Restaurant's pale imitations," Jomari said.

"They're not so bad. My friend runs a restaurant his parents started, and they were first-generation immigrants. It's not too different from what my mom and tita would make."

"So you grew up away from our homeland?" Benilda asked.

Maria nodded. "Born and raised in Canada."

"Did you have the white picket fence, a big house, and a golden retriever?" Jomari teased.

"My aunt had a two-storey house we squished two of our families into for a few years. Three of us in a bedroom. I think the place is almost a hundred years old."

"Not the dream from TV, though still seems better than home," Jomari said.

"Yeah?" Maria didn't want to push too hard considering what he'd shared earlier, but she was curious.

"My parents kept being blessed with children they could hardly feed. Some months, my brother and I took turns eating supper so our younger siblings could eat more," Jomari said.

Maria pressed her lips together. From time to time, her mother had done the same for Maria and Tina.

"My sister thought she could land a job in Manila to help us all. She never came back. Family friends told us they heard she was living in the slums. We wanted to find her, but none of us could afford to stop working or to get to the city. By the time my brother searched for her, he disappeared for a week and returned with news that she'd been assaulted in an alleyway and hadn't survived," Jomari's voice grew faint.

Benilda pulled him into a hug as Maria whispered her apologies. Maria would be distraught if she was unable to search for Tina if she went missing. Maria's mother had fretted about her meeting that kind of fate in the neighbourhood she and Adrian had lived in, but Maria had always assumed she was being dramatic. Living with that pain every day must have taken a lot of strength for Jomari.

Benilda changed the topic to Bangkok attractions that Maria needed to visit and the mood brightened, even Jomari's.

Maria's phone buzzed, and after Mitch's name appeared, her eyebrows shot up. How could she forget he was meeting her here? She texted him to explore while she finished up her coffee.

"You blend in too easily." Mitch's words made her jump.

When she turned around, her breath quickened as he'd cleaned up well in a fitted, teal checkered dress shirt and snug jeans. It contrasted the sweaty, lipstick and perfume-dusted clothes he'd worn a few hours earlier when they crossed paths as she was leaving the apartment. As her gaze lingered on his broad chest, he shifted, winked, and her cheeks reddened.