The Young and the Beautiful

Chapter 30

Camila was only a few weeks away from giving birth to our child. Our parents guessed that our child will be a boy, we agreed to name it Charles Francisco, and if it's a girl we'll call her Isabela Cristina, named after our mothers.

Everyone was excited to see our little one soon. Pápa and Máma hosted lunch for us that Sunday after going to church. He's now working with Pápa as an architect, finally he's doing something he loves. He designed one building in Makati and we couldn't have been prouder for that. He just made history. The building is the tallest one in the post war era.

Andres broke the news that he just purchased a rest house in Batangas, South of Manila. It is nearby a new and rising polo, and golf club field that our company developed. He said that his wife Victoria found a land by the sea, perfect for sailing.

He showed me pictures of the house and it looked like those beach houses in Rhode Island in the States and looked like the Kennedy estate in Hyannis Port. I wish we can go there soon, but with a baby on the way I think it would be for a while.

Papa offered me to work in our company as I took a break for a while. I was offered to work as an ambassador of the Philippines to Italy. I would love to do it but I'm going to have a child soon. So I settled on working here in the Philippines plant some roots with Andres and Papa.

The real estate business starts to boom once again as it did before the war. We just developed some new districts around the metro and nearby suburbs just an hour away from our home.

I got used to my routine. Since the war ended various residential projects were given to Filipinos by the government that they can pay for twenty-five to thirty years.

"Pancho, did you do finalize the contracts? I asked you to do it yesterday." Andres said to me. He was quite different here in the office than at home. He takes his job quite seriously.

I actually didn't finish reading it yet. My background is in diplomatic relations. Not business relations, I still cross referenced each clause mentioned in the contract and note it down. I need to explain it to Andres and our business partners.

"No Andres. I still haven't. But I'm almost done. I'm sorry." I replied. As he heard the word no, he looked at me as if I killed someone.

"Pancho!" He said and he stomped the table. I was startled.

"I sent the contracts to you days ago! We need to present it this afternoon." He snapped. I rarely see him get mad at me except for the time when we're young that I broke his sailboat in a bottle that I was playing with. It was given to him by abuelito before he died.

"You can't be an irresponsible man here Pancho. You don't have a swarm of assistants that will do the work for you. Don't work as if you're still in Madrid." He added.

"Just grow up and finish your job. You have until lunch. Sit me in before I do the presentation." He said.

"Wow, where does that come from Mr. Bigshot Architect? You think that I only asked my assistants to wait on me the whole time I was there? I handled espionage diplomatic crises, war crimes where some Germans hid in Spain. You think that's easy? Spanish Jewish families were asking me not to deport them to Germany and try them in an international court or in Israel. You think that's easy?" I snapped back and raised my voice a little.

"Pancho, you left me alone in this. You just thought of yourself. Papa was always proud on how a son of his became an ambassador! He can't stop talking about you. Dios mio! Ambassador! Pancho! You were not even a diplomat first. How did you do it? By marrying the right girl?"He said then paused waiting for me to answer. I cannot tell him yet how and why I got the job.

"He forgot about me. No matter I built this building and became the youngest architect to build the tallest building in Makati post war era, he still saw you!" He said. So that's how he felt about me all this time. That's why he's a little indifferent to me when I arrived.

"Oh, so you're jealous, Andres? You want to talk about that, huh?" I asked. As I pushed him lightly on his shoulders as if I'm asking for a fight. He wanted to punch me in the face.

"All my life Andres, I have been living behind your shadow. You're the captain of the polo team, the one who always gets the attention of people around us, and you always get the girls to admire you. I never aimed to beat you in racing, or in getting awards in school or in sports because I am used to being always second best to you and I idolize you in everything you do. Don't you know that?" I said, as I approached him and looked into his eyes. I paused and tried to wait for his reply, but he doesn't say anything. His hands became at ease and it doesn't seem like he's going to punch me anytime soon.

"Taking that job brought me out to the light for the first time and people started noticing me, and most especially Pápa saw me as a man just like you and not like a little boy that always hides in his big brother's shadows. I am not just Pancho, the second son of Carlos Fàbregas and the younger brother of polo champion, Andres Fàbregas. Now I made a name for myself. I hope you would be happy for that. If not, then I am disappointed in you Andres." I added. Andres' eyebrows still met and was flashing me a serious look.

He didn't reply and just left my office and slammed the door. I re-read it again and again. My head starts to hurt, maybe my eyeglasses don't fit me anymore. I made sure that Andres won't be conned by conmen businessmen or be conned by the government.

At lunch, I talked about the contract, on how long and how much liabilities are we getting in to. The contract indicated that the profits will be shared fair and square which was fine. He sat in front of me with his lunch. He got me a cup of coffee. He made it the way I like it, two creams one sugar. Maybe that's just how he apologizes. I never heard him say that word since we were kids.

"Thanks for the coffee anyway." I added. He just nodded his head and messed up my hair like he always did when we were kids. Then he diverted our conversation back to our business again.

I talked about the contract on how I understood it and saw a better way on how we can make more out of it.

"That's right. That's a good suggestion Pancho." He replied. Then we both started eating our lunch.

"The government have almost twenty hectares of land and gave it to us for development. They wanted a middle class community beside the new branch of a State University." He started talking about the new project.

"So how's Camila? When is she due?" He asked.

"Camila's due next week. I can't wait. Everything's ready now." I replied.

"That's great! Maybe we can go to our Beach House in Batangas soon or just hang out by my new home bar if you're in." He said.

"That's a good idea Andres. What about Friday after work?" I replied. Andres and I never chatted like we used to when I was in Madrid. We just wrote to each other every once in a while and I didn't notice that we already have a gap.

That afternoon we talked about the said project and raised our concern. At first, the government representative wasn't in favor of Andres' suggestion. But I talked them out of it, and used the words I always use when doing a diplomatic task. Before the meeting ends, Andres and our investors shook hands with them. Andres tapped my shoulder and told me I did a good job.

On that same week. Camila gave birth to our son. We named our son Eduardo Francisco Carlos Fàbregas named after Camila's Papa, mine, and my Papa's name. My parents call him Charlito Bonito or handsome little Carlos or Charles in English. Camila and I agreed to nickname him Charlie as a modern English approach.

Everyone was excited when they saw our little Charlito for the first time. Everyone says that he got his mother's brown eyes, got my face shape and seems like he's going to be tall as well. Pápa was thrilled to add a new member on the Fabregas family book. I am sure that our boy will be given a lot of things by their abuelitos. He's going to be just like my friend Enrique a first born grandson.