SIX
When Datu last saw Marilen Pascua, she was sitting alone at a coffee shop in Katipunan, quietly typing away on her keyboard with an unlit cigarette dangling from her lips. He had planned to just grab his coffee at the counter and go, but he caught her eye, and the next thing he knew, she was waving him over. He hadn’t been able to turn down a casual invitation.
The truth was, he didn’t want to.
At the time, Datu and Kalila had been broken up almost a year. He’d buried himself deeper in his work to cope, but also to keep himself from checking in on her every time he felt compelled to. Fear held him back. What if she didn’t pick up? What if she’d already changed her number? Not knowing the answer brought a certain sense of comfort. False comfort, but comfort nonetheless.
Seeing Kalil
