Page 40 of The Five Stages of Courting Dalisay Ramos

Can you call me?it says.

Evan’s heart pounds. That’s never a good sign. Usually if everything is okay, it can just be in a text. If Daniel wants to call, this is serious.

He doesn’t text back. He calls Daniel right away.

“Is everything okay? Is anyone hurt?” Evan asks the moment Daniel picks up. Immediately, he wonders if Little Luis might be in the hospital.

“Oh yeah, no, everyone’s fine,” Daniel says. Evan can hear the TV going in the background, and distant conversation growing more muffled as Daniel gets up and leaves the room. “Sorry, I should have just texted you what it was.”

Tallulah looks up from her pillow, head tilted to the side, curiously listening to Evan’s conversation. He scratches her behind the ears as his heart settles back down from his throat. “Okay, good. I’m still a little shaken up after what happened.”

“It’s just aparol, dude,” says Daniel, laughing. “Seriously, everything’s good.”

“Really? Your mom’s not mad?”

“She’s not mad, seriously, she’s the whole reason I’m calling. She has officially invited you to Simbang Gabi.”

“Invited me?”

“She asked about you specifically, and I quote: ‘Will Evan be joining us?’ ”

“Oh!” Evan blinks a few times, processing. He knows, objectively, that Mrs. Ramos knows his name, but he never expected that she would actually use it in conversation without him present. He realizes he truly cares if she approves of him.

“Is this part of Servitude?” Evan asks.

“Not officially, no. Unless you want it to be.”

Evan closes his book, using his finger as a bookmark. “Not particularly.”

“Figured as much. So is that a yes?”

“Yes! Yeah! I’m so thankful she thought of me.” He licks his lips. “Does Dalisay know?”

“As a matter of fact, she does.”

Evan doesn’t know what to do with this information, but his heart upticks a bit.

He can practically hear Daniel smile. “So I’m guessing you have no idea what Simbang Gabi is.”

“Uh, no.”

Daniel laughs again. “Don’t worry. It’s a series of nine Masses held each day leading up to Christmas. The church we go to holds them at six in the morning.”

“That early?” Evan repeats, balking.

“You’re lucky we’re not going to the ones at midnight.”

The only time Evan’s ever gotten up that early was to catch a flight. It’s not part of the Five Stages, and he couldstill say no, but he realizes he doesn’t want to. “No sweat. I look forward to it.”

St. Mary’s church, a Spanish revival-style cathedral in the Marina District on the north side of the city, is already bustling with parishioners making their way through the front doors by the time Evan arrives ten minutes before Mass starts.

He stands on the sidewalk, looking up at the bell wall lit up with Christmas lights and an illuminatedparolten times larger than the one he shattered. He’s never been to a Catholic Mass before and he’s not sure what to expect. When he told JM and Pinky what was happening, they reminded him to follow what everyone else did and he’d be golden. He needs to make it up to Dalisay’s mom somehow, even if she kept telling him theparolwasn’t an issue. Going to Simbang Gabi is the least he can do.

Near a giant church bell with a plaque on it, the Ramos family stands chatting in a small group, except Little Luis and Melinda. Probably being a toddler and a heavily pregnant woman gets them a free pass to stay home. Dalisay stands apart from the rest, craning her neck, seemingly searching for something.

Or someone, Evan thinks.

She’s wearing a modestly cut floral dress and black tights with a long-sleeved white cardigan, and her hair is pinned up behind her ear with a clip decorated with jasmine flowers. When she spots him, she smiles and Evan’s stomach flops with nerves.

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