Page 30 of The Odds of Happily Ever After
“As long as you don’t get on my bad side.” Laughing, she stood and walked to the fridge. “You want Moscato?”
“You’re underage.”
Luna paused with one hand on the fridge door. “You’ve seen me drink with Ate. Also, eighteen is the legal drinking age in the Philippines. I’m nineteen, in case you didn’t know.”
“We’re in America,” I said, earning an eye roll from her.
“Ugh. Fine.” She grabbed a pitcher of water instead and closed the fridge. “That doesn’t mean I’m not drinking that wine later,” she told me as she sat in her chair.
So long as it wasn’t under my watch.
Suddenly, she jolted back up. “Be right back,” she called out as she hurried inside her room.
I caught a glimpse of the same lights she’d strewn all over the living area, but this time, they were hanging from her ceiling. For a brief moment, I wondered what her bedroom looked like, and as soon as the thought formed in my mind, I squashed it.
Talk about inappropriate.
This was why I couldn’t drink alcohol with Luna. We were alone in her apartment, and she was nine years younger than me, creating a power dynamic that my job only added to. To some extent, she trusted me because of my friendship with Tala. Even though I didn’t have the slightest inclination to attempt anything with her, I couldn’t risk destroying that trust—both hers and Tala’s.
Was I likely to get drunk and lose control from one bottle of sweet wine? No. But I would rather avoid any possibility of it happening.
Luna returned to the kitchen carrying a square white box. “Sorry this isn’t wrapped. I was supposed to give it to you after my trip, but since you annoyed me . . .” Her sentence ended with a shrug. “Anyway, I just remembered it and thought I should give it to you while you’re here.”
Sitting down, she passed the box to me across the table, and I stared at it for a second before taking it.
“I remembered you telling Ate what you were drinking last Christmas. Cachaça, right?” she said, pronouncing it askuh-sha-kahinstead ofkuh-sha-sah.
I’d mentioned it in passing to Tala when we exchanged gifts. I didn’t even realize Luna had been paying attention.
“Cachaça,” I corrected her automatically.
She tried again and got it right. “I looked it up and saw you can drink it as a cocktail or neat. I guessed you don’t really do mixed drinks.”
“You’re right.”
“Called it! I tried to find one that I thought you would like. I mean, we don’t really know each other, so I based it off your vibe. I asked Ate, too, and she agreed with my pick.”
I turned the box over in my hands.
“This is the part where you open it.”
Looking up at her, I noted the nervous twist of her mouth. It mattered to her that I liked her gift.
There was a strange thickness in my voice as I spoke. “Thank you.”
She tsked. “That’s not how it works. First, you open the gift.Thenyou say thank you.”
“I’m grateful no matter what it is.” It was the thought that counted. The rest were simply details.
I peeled off the sticker sealing the box and lifted the flap. The item inside was wrapped in packing paper, but I could already tell what it was.
Feeling her eyes on me, I carefully removed the wrapping and found what I expected.
A rocks glass.
Unlike the set I owned, it didn’t have fancy edges. Instead, it was etched with a series of numbers. “A pi theorem rocks glass?”
Her grin came fast and bright. “Yes! I know it’s not directly related to finance, but it was the closest I could find.”
