Wonderful Unknown

Chapter 9

A/N: Shoutout to @medeacolchis05 on Twitter/X! Super pinasaya ako nung clip from Sims! 🫶

If hindi niyo bet si Pablo, pikit muna kayo mga bhie. 😅

***

She was definitely avoiding him.

Roxy gazed at the three bouquets that were lining up their kitchen counter, one for each day that he was gone. A little excessive, but that’s Pablo Caballero for you.

Truth be told, guilt was eating at her, after leaving his messages on read for the past three days. He tried to call her once - and when she didn’t answer, he didn’t make another attempt. But the updates continued flooding her phone. Most were photos of random touristy things in Bangkok - crowded streets, mango sticky rice, temples.

And every night, without fail, he would send her a photo of his bed - his flawlessly neat but very empty bed, and a beautiful view of the city lights through the huge glass window in his hotel room. She knew that it was his own way of reassuring her that he wasn’t seeing anyone else nor sleeping around like he was known to do.  Roxy would never admit it to anyone, but a little knot of worry at the pit of her stomach unraveled with every photo.

A small sigh of frustration broke her out of her reverie. Setting her phone on the couch, she laid down on the rubber mat, head touching her two-year-old’s.

“Nak, ang laki ng problema natin ah,” she teased while smoothing the tiny line between the toddler’s eyebrows.

“No bluksss. No more? Gone na?” 

She bit her lower lip, reigning in the laughter that was threatening to burst out. It was one of those rare days when Aiden woke up on the wrong side of the bed. He refused his milk and the sliced bananas she made him for breakfast. He quickly became irritable when she took him outside for a pandesal run. He hid his face on her shoulder every time a neighbor greeted them hello. And she ended up carrying him the rest of the way home while pushing the stroller bike that his Ninongs Tim and Poch got him last Christmas. 

“Gone na ba? Meron pa sa isang basket,” she replied excitedly, gently tickling his tummy hoping it would earn her a sweet giggle from the cranky toddler.

Instead, violent fits of cough made their way out of his tiny lips, and it immediately put Roxy on alert.

She took him in her arms and gently rubbed his back while pressing her cheek on his forehead. He didn’t seem warmer than normal, and that calmed her down a bit.

“Baby, are you not feeling well?” She asked him quietly. “Akala ko regular sumpong lang.” That must explain the loss of appetite and irritability. “Kaya ka ba cranky? Parang si Daddy mo pag may sakit,” she mumbled against the baby’s thick hair.

“Finiwee beeyooond?”

She grinned. “Syempre love ka namin to infinity and beyond.”

With a sudden boost of energy, her toddler crawled out of her lap, ran to the screen door and started yelling, “Daddeee!”

Roxy’s shoulders dropped as she watched her kid scream his lungs out for his father, only stopping because of another coughing fit. She heaved a deep sigh, knelt on the rubber mat and started gathering the toys and placing them in a basket. Her phone rang, and Aiden squealed. He rushed to the sofa and grabbed the ringing device. “Sunny choo choo!”

Amusement quashing her worries, she chuckled and took the toddler in her arms before accepting the call. 

“And what time ka naman darating, Roxy Marie?”

“Uh… 7 PM?”

“Izzz not Sunny? Mommy, not Sunny?” Roxy shook her head, and the toddler scowled. She kissed his chubby cheek and promised, “Tatawagan natin si Sunny choo choo mo after.”