“WHAT happened to the two girls you took home when we were in Pampanga?” Mateo asked Benjamin after he served his coffee.
“I didn’t take them home, bro,” Benjamin said as he takes his seat in front of him. “I just helped them to get home.”
Mateo laughed. “I’m just kidding,” he said and took a sip of his coffee. “Ah, I really love freshly brewed coffee in the Philippines. Is it the ones from Batangas?”
“Yeah, we have a direct supplier in Tanauan, Batangas, that has her own coffee farm. And she provides Demitasse a good quality of green coffee beans for almost eight years,” Benjamin said and watched his friend’s reactions.
Mateo nods his head as he slowly stirs his cup of coffee. “I can’t control myself to get curious every time I hear the word ‘she’,” he said and chuckled. “By the way, did you get the names of those girls in Pampanga? And contact numbers? Are they single and ready to mingle?”
Benjamin shook his head. “Did you pay me a visit all the way from Canada just to ask those details?”
“Let’s just say it’s also part of my reasons,” he said and laughed. “Come on, I know you knew why I’m here, Benjamin.”
Benjamin heaved a sigh. Yes, he knew. Mateo wanted to buy his café. “Well, I will give you the same answers—”
Mateo waved his hand. “Ah, just as expected,” he grunted. “But, I’m still giving you more time to think about it, Benjamin.” He put down his coffee glass and leaned back in his chair. “You know that it’s for the better.”
Benjamin rested his hands on the table. Demitasse Café was on the brink of bankruptcy, and the only option to save it is to sell it to Mateo. But, Benjamin never considered selling the café as part of the choices. There are other ways to keep the coffee shop, he believed in that.
Mateo looked around the café. “Mediterranean style interior, yellow and white lights, cozy and quiet spot, perfect business in a perfect location,” he commented. “You have a lot of employees, huh? The café’s shouldering big expenses to pay all of them.”
Benjamin heaved another sigh. He regretted asking Mateo a favor to lend him cash to cover the Demitasse short funds. Because of that, Mateo offered to buy the café and cover all the coffee shop’s expenses and bank loans. Benjamin must admit that it was a tempting offer. A better and easiest way that will free him from all his financial problems due to debts, but Demitasse was his family’s brainchild. He and his children couldn’t just let go of Demitasse Café, of the only business that he and his wife once dreamed of having.
“Okay, I know you can’t give me answers right now, Benjamin,” Mateo said in surrender. “But, I know that you can give the details of those girls now, right?”
Benjamin knotted his forehead. “I thought you are not serious about that.”
“Come on, bro. I caught a glimpse of the babe’s luscious body when you ushered her outside the Rotten Roses that night. I’m certain that that kind of body has a gorgeous face,” he said and waggled his brows. “Just like the girl in your Café’s counter,” he added and motion head to the direction of the counter.
“Leave my employees alone, Mateo,” Benjamin muttered. The girl that he’s pertaining to is Amy, she’s a single mom with a fragile heart. He won’t let this bastard broke his employee’s heart. “Why don’t you get yourself a real girlfriend?”
“I will if you give me the babe’s contact details,” he countered and took out his phone as if preparing to type in the numbers.
“I don’t have her number,” he said, and it’s true. Caroline became distant to him as the event ends that night. He tried to talk to her, but she seemed to be avoiding him. Just like how she shut herself from him fourteen years ago. “I didn’t get a chance to get their numbers.”
Mateo snorted and tapped his hand on the table. “You’re still my loyal friend, Benjamin. But how long will you be like that? It’s been four years since—”
“Dad!” Benjamin’s twin daughters dashed inside the café. “Guess what I found?”
Benjamin kissed her daughters in the cheeks when they approached them. They were in their school uniform, and both wearing their hair loose in the shoulders, if not by Anastacia’s bright eyes and Antonette’s bored look, Benjamin wouldn’t know which is which among them.
“So, these are your daughters…” Mateo studied his daughters’ faces. “And, they’re twins?”
“Identical twins,” Antonette replied. “He’s your womanizer friend, Dad, isn’t he?”
Benjamin covered his daughter’s mouth. “She’s just really an observant,” he said to Mateo. “I guess she accidentally passed by your posts on social media.”
Mateo childishly narrowed his eyes at Antonette, who just rolled her eyes in return. Antonette shoved his hand on her mouth and marched towards the Demitasse’ kitchen. Anastacia was left in his side, swiping on her cell phone.
“What is it again, Anastacia?” Benjamin asked his daughter, hoping that Mateo would leave their conversation a while ago.
Anastacia looked up to him and smile. “I found Tita Caroline’s I.G. profile!” she said and showed him her cell phone screen.
“Caroline? As in Caroline Valdez?” his friend Mateo asked, eyebrows furrowed.
Anastacia nodded, and before Benjamin could stop her, she showed him already Caroline’s photo on the screen. “She’s beautiful, right?”
“Yes… but,” Mateo looked at him. “How did you know her?”
“She’s an old friend…” Benjamin said and shrugged his shoulders. “It just happened that she’s also attending the event in Clark Field. That’s how we met—again.”
Mateo’s eyes darted from his daughter to him. “And…?”
The lines in Benjamin’s forehead deepened. “And what?”
“And, she joined us with our picnic while watching the amazing Hot Air Balloon Festival,” Anastacia said and showed Mateo again a photo of Caroline. But this time he was also in the picture, beside Caroline. “I missed her already. Dad, can we see her again?”
Benjamin caressed his daughter’s hair. “Soon, Anastacia. Tita Caroline is a bit busy in her work.”
“Or, busy with her new prospect,” Mateo muttered. “Benjamin—” he stopped and glanced at Anastacia. “Ah, baby, I think your sister needs a company. Look, she’s alone in her table.”
When his daughter left them, Mateo motioned him to sit down again. “Bro, it’s better if you stop seeing that woman.”
Benjamin frowned. He has a feeling that he doesn’t like what his friend was going to say. “Why would I do that?”
Mateo leaned forward in the table. “Caroline Valdez is known in the bachelor’s club as a serial heartbreaker.”
***