Jessica vs. The Jerk

14. Eat, pray, love

I text my mom to let her know I'll be home late, and not even thirty seconds later my phone rings. I give Jonah an apologetic smile as I take the call.

Mom doesn't beat around the bush. 'Jessie, are you really studying with a friend?'

'Um, yes?' Silence. I can feel Jonah looking at me. 'Okay, no.'

'Jessie.' Mom's voice has a note of warning.

'I'm fine, Mom.' I glance at Jonah. 'Just hanging out with a schoolmate.'

'One schoolmate?' My mom's tone of voice changes. 'Jessie, are you with a boy?'

'Oh, my god, Mom.' I lower my voice and turn away from Jonah slightly. 'It's not like that.'

'Hm.'

I cross my fingers. 'Nik and I are working on the podcast episodes coming out during the school break.' Nik and I have done this in the past, so I'm hoping she doesn't ask any more questions.

Mom makes me wait for a few agonizing seconds before she tells me to have fun. 'Do you have a way to get home?'

'Nik has a driver.' I'm not technically lying, I tell myself. There's honesty and then there's self-sabotage.

'Be home by ten, Jessie.'

As soon as I hang up, Jonah shakes his head. 'You're a terrible liar.'

'I wasn't lying!' I protest. 'I was choosing my words carefully.'

'Face it, Jessica. You can't lie for shit.' He turns to me with a wink. 'Lucky for you you're so charming.'

I'm completely charmed. 'I am?'

He gives me a look. 'As if you don't already know that.'

I tuck my hair behind my ears self-consciously. I can't meet his eyes. I just can't. 'That's-- I-- Gah.'

Jonah's grin widens.

'Oh, shut up and drive.'

Finally, he releases the handbrake. 'Where to, Princess Charming?'

I ignore his teasing despite the butterflies doing acrobatics in my stomach, and we drive through my subdivision to the neighboring parish. I get Jonah to stop a few blocks away from Santa Rosa Church. It's not as huge as Manila's famous cathedrals, and the parishioners here are a mix of middle-class locals and the working poor who live in the communities outside the gated subdivisions that make up most of what the kids at my school know about my city.

I can tell that Jonah is starting to rethink our little excursion. We're parked at a side street and the sweet smell of days-old trash hits us as he alights from the car.

'You should take off your tie.'

He cocks his head, but doesn't protest and in a few seconds he tosses his tie onto the driver's seat.

'And, uh...' I look straight ahead. 'Like, you need to look more casual.'

From the corner of my eye, I can see him untucking his shirt and undoing the first two buttons.

'Like this?'

I look at him and wince. He still looks like an international student.

'I have a spare shirt in my gym bag.'

'That might be better.'

Jonah walks around the car and pops open the trunk. I hear rustling and the swish of shirts being changed and resist the temptation to peek through the rear view mirror.