Page 77 of The Five Stages of Courting Dalisay Ramos

“You should pick that one! It’s so you,” Pinky says, smiling from the waiting area, and Dalisay agrees.

The color is subtle and catches the light now and again, drawing her eye to her hands. She remembers the way Evan looked so apologetic, sweeping up the pieces, the flush of embarrassment deepening the color in his cheeks. Evan was so determined to make things right.

When they stop by a candle store, drawn to it by an intense aromatic river floating through the air, Pinky holds a candle for Dalisay, thrusting it under her nose. It smells exactly like old books. Dalisay lets out a contented sigh and her shoulders relax.

“I knew you’d like it!” Pinky says, taking a whiff too.

“You should buy it then,” says Nicole, cradling a pumpkin spice candle to her own chest.

She had no intention of spending money today, but Dalisay does. It reminds her of old maps, and Evan’s lips on her skin, and towers of books threatening to topple over.

Later in the evening, they decide to see a movie at the theater. They’ve re-releasedMoulin Rouge, starring Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman, but Dalisay is just thankful she can be off her feet for a few hours. Even though she’s not one for musicals, it’s a lot better than Dalisay expected. While it’s noPride and Prejudice, Dalisay doesn’t try to hide the tears streaming down her face when the lights come back on. It was a sad story, but a good one.

She hangs back, letting Pinky and Nicole take the lead as they head back into the mall, laughing and chatting about the movie. Dalisay can’t bring herself to join them.

She misses Evan.

It’s been months, and she should have moved on by now, but she can’t. She misses the spice of his deodorant, the wayhe looked at her, kissing him. It’s an ache, deep down inside of her, that she can’t shake. Everywhere she goes, she’s reminded of him. He made her happy, and she blew it.

She almost lets out a cry as someone walks their dachshund past her. She even misses Tallulah!

Nicole must sense that Dalisay is in the thick of it and appears at her side.

“Doing okay?” she asks.

“Don’t worry about me,” Dalisay says, waving her off. “Must be allergy season or something. What were you saying?”

Pinky says, “We were talking about how Ewan McGregor looks just like someone, but we can’t really place him.”

“Oh, I know now!” Nicole says with a snap of her fingers. “He looks like Evan!”

Dalisay twists up her face. “Bit of a stretch,” she says. “They look nothing alike.”

Nicole shrugs and resumes chewing on the straw of her drink from the concession stand. “Maybe so.”

“You know what!” Pinky says, brightly. “It might just be that the movie reminded me how cute you two were together. How he was so crazy about you. Enough to start singing for you and all that.”

“Right!” Nicole says, bobbing her head. “That must be it.”

Dalisay stops walking but Pinky and Nicole go on without her. It’s almost too much of a coincidence, isn’t it? Almost like it’s stage one, the “Teasing of Friends.”

Something inside Dalisay stirs, and her heart skips a little in her chest.

It can’t be … can it?

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Evan marches up to the Ramos house before the morning sun rises. He had to get up an hour early to catch the bus to Dalisay’s neighborhood before work because Bettie refused to move this morning, the one time he needed things to work out for him. It’s almost as if the universe is actively working against him, telling him that all his efforts are for nothing, but Evan is not one to let the universe or anyone else tell him what to do.

The morning promises that the day will be warm, but a haze of fog lingers over the street and the house is dark. Evan supposes most of the family will be asleep, but he doesn’t need to disturb them.

The “Presentation of Gifts” went horribly the last time Evan went through this. This time around, he needs to make the gifts personal.

On the porch, he sets down a folded packet of paper adorned with a simple paper bow. It’s a map of Kyoto, one of the places Dalisay says is the most romantic. He remembers. He was listening. Maybe they can still go together someday, just like they’d planned.

He adjusts the bow on the paper and leaves it on the doorstep as he heads to work. Someone will find it in a few hours, including the note he left, quoting Lao Tzu:

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

---