When we arrived, Phoenix hadn’t said anything as he entered his room and closed it.
I also took a rest in my room and I woke up to see Lola Nanding appeared with some paper bags in her hands.
“Oh, you went to the market alone, Lola Nanding?”
She nodded but put her fingers on her lips to silence me. "Shh, keep quiet. I bought a present for Phoenix." She said, glancing at Phoenix’s room.
I wrinkled my nose and blinked, "Gift? For what?"
She gasped, “Oh, I forgot to mention it last time. His birthday is tomorrow."
My mouth fell open.
"Have you bought him a gift yet?" She asked and shook my head in answer.
Sighing, Lola Nanding motioned me to dress up as she’ll accompany me to the market.
When we arrived there, I opted for the easiest choice, a wristwatch. We immediately went home so that Phoenix would not notice. Lola Nanding even told me to hide the gifts and pretend that I didn't know about his birthday.
The next day, I was ready to go to his room and greet him when he beat me to it and knocked on my door.
"Sereia?" I heard his voice.
"Yes?" I answered, hiding the small box before opening the door.
“I’m going somewhere. You want to come?” He asked, his hair still disheveled and still shirtless with only a towel on his waist. I somehow got used to this every morning.
I blinked, “Where is it?”
“It’s a surprise.” That was all he replied. “C’mon. Dress up now. We’re going to be late.”
When we arrived, that's when I found out the surprise he was saying.
"Kuya Phoenix!"
A small child called to him and ran to hug Phoenix’s knee as he couldn’t reach him. Phoenix just laughed and picked up the child. "How are you, Rain?"
“I’m good, Kuya Phoenix.”
The other children seemed to hear Phoenix’s name, they all ran and hugged him. I just stood beside him awkwardly, not knowing what to do. When he was finished catching up with them, he approached an old woman wearing her eyeglasses and greeted her.
"Good morning, Miss Montenegro!"
The woman blinked at him, then as if not believing it, she raised her eyeglasses, "Phoenix? Is that you?”
Phoenix beamed at her and the woman smiled warm-heartedly. They started to talk about something and Phoenix asked me to help him get the packed lunches from his car.
I did as he told and he ordered the children to line up, giving them the packed lunches one by one.
“Welcome to Angel’s orphanage.” He said to me, grinning happily.
I stopped and stared at him, feeling amazed. It’s his birthday and he’s feeding the little children. My heart warmed at the sight.
"My grandfather, Lola Nanding’s husband, built this when he was alive. He would always feed the little children here, and it kind of passed down to me.” He continued as he gave the children some candies too.
“Everyone, this is Sereia.” He started to introduce me to the little children and they all looked at me in wonder.
“Oh, is she your girlfriend? She’s beautiful.” A little boy said.
Phoenix glanced at me with a smirk like he just won something, “Yes. She will be soon.”
I laughed nervously, lightly hitting his arm. “Gosh, what are you telling the children, Phoenix?”
He just shrugged and when he finished giving everyone the food, he then played with them. He invited me to play too and I joined in.
I just looked at Phoenix. He looked very happy and the children seemed to have fallen in love with him.
We spent an hour there with Phoenix catching up to the children and when we were about to go home, the children were sad, another cried and Phoenix came to comfort them. He promised to come back with some toys and they lightened up a bit.
"All right we're leaving, bye-bye!" He said one last time and waved at them and they waved back.
I sighed, sinking in the passenger seat. "Wow. That was ..."
He glanced at me, finishing my sentence for me. "Fun?”
"Yes. The kids are cute." I commented and he released a sigh.
"Thank goodness. I thought you wouldn’t enjoy it.”
“Oh, I did. I like children. Since I don’t have siblings, I never had experienced playing so much when I was little so I could play with my classmates.” I said and he nodded, looking at me with pity in his eyes.
“That’s sad.”
I chuckled at that, “Yeah it is.”
Grabbing the small box from my bag, I handed it to him. "Here."
He looked at it, "What is that?"
"My gift for you. It’s your birthday, right?"
He gasped. "Oh, did Lola Nanding tell you about it?”
I smiled sheepishly at that and he seemed to get it.
He reached out and ruffled my hair, “Thank you, princess.”
Suddenly, the rain started to fall. The large droplets of water came hitting the window and the windshield couldn't handle it.
Phoenix stopped driving and I looked at him. “Why did you stop driving?”
“The engine turned off.” He answered, now trying to turn his car on but it wouldn’t budge.
“What?” Damn. Why now? Trying for some more attempts, he gave up. We watched in silence as the rain continued.
It was getting colder in the car, and Phoenix spoke up. “This won’t do. We need to find a place to stay and wait for the rain to stop before we can look for someone to fix the car.”
He grabbed an umbrella from the dashboard and motioned for me to go out of the car, now giving me the only umbrella we have.
“Then what about you?” I asked.
“I’ll be fine.”
Nodding my head, I did as told me and we both got out of the car at the same time. I came to his side and shared the umbrella with him.
He held the handle for me and made sure I wasn’t wet.
I looked at his wet clothes. “You’ll get sick, Phoenix.”
“I don’t care. As long as you’re okay.” He said like the gentleman he is.
I looked around us and spotted a small nipa hut just from a distance. I pointed at it and motioned for Phoenix to come with me.
He then nodded and we made our way to the nipa hut, despite the rain still gushing so hard from the sky.
When we managed to step foot in the nipa hut the inside was empty. Phoenix said it was built for the farmers to stay whenever they take a break from the heat of the sun.
I looked around inside. It was just a little nipa hut and cobwebs were on the ceiling. It’s obvious that it was not taken care of that much as the floors were a bit dirty and some cow grass was put beside us.
I don’t care about that right now, as long as it offers us shade from the rain, I’m good.
Looking ahead, Phoenix and I sat side by side as we watched the rainfall, the loud pitter pattering of the water.
I sneezed, feeling my clothes a bit wet.
“Oh, you’ll get sick, Sereia,” Phoenix commented, seeing me sneezing.
Instantly, he stood up and put his hands on the hem of his shirt before pulling it up. I watched in horror, gulping at what he’s doing.
His bare chest was now visible, and I saw how the water droplets trail from his sharp jaw to his chest and down to his abs.
“What are you looking at, princess?”