Love in All the Right Places (Chick Lit bundle) Read Free Page A

a lot more vacationers in sunglasses and maxi dresses. In this light, Gio doubted that their photos were going to be spectacular.
    He didn’t want to grow cynical about the island. He had loved coming here when he was younger. Boracay was one of the country’s foremost tourist spots, but to him it was always there —the default location for family reunions and high school adventures, always intricately linked to his best memories growing up. But when he started working here, the island just sort of faded into the background. Now he barely looked at the blue strip of water beckoning just beyond the powdery beach. He shied away from the pub crawls and the parties. There’d be days when a pretty tourist would walk into the museum and he’d rub his sweaty palms against his regulation shorts to try to look cool, but he had outgrown the need to impress them with his knowledge of Malay trading routes. From his experience, they rarely were anyway.
    The dispatcher made another gesture towards the Sweet Baby , but Gio had another ride. Instead he jogged a few boats down, to where the familiar white-and-green pump boat named Marina I was preparing to push off.
    “Headed home, sir?” one of the men balancing the boat asked him.
    “Yeah,” Gio replied, crossing the narrow wooden plank from the dock to the boat in two large strides. It swayed a bit under his weight, but he was used to the rocking of the water. He had to be; he crossed over from the island to the mainland five days a week. There were some empty seats in the front but Gio headed to the back. Marina I was the private transportation that the Aqua Resort used for their guests, and Aqua Resort was owned by the Torres family—the same Torres family that owned the museum. Gio preferred sitting with the rest of the hotel staff who headed back to the Aklan mainland at end of day, instead of up front with the rest of the tourists. He was grateful enough for the free ride.
    As the small pump boat pushed away from dock, Gio turned his attention to the water, away from the pockets of conversation around him. His mouth felt dry at the thought of small talk. Technically, he was an Aqua employee too, same as the receptionists and housekeepers that the resort hired. But he was also a Torres, and no amount of telling the others that he was from one of the lesser branches of the family changed how they saw him. So he always held himself apart, unsure whether his presence made the other staff members uncomfortable.
    At the Caticlan Jetty Port, Gio waited until all the guests had departed the boat before getting off himself. With a polite nod to the boatmen, he exited the port through a wire-link gate and headed for the first van he saw. The vans and shuttle buses plied the long and twisting road to Kalibo, the province’s capital municipality, where he lived. Around this time of the night, people streamed out of the island so it didn’t take long for the 14-seater van to fill up with passengers and depart.
    Gio’s phone buzzed. He fished it out to read a text message from his mother: Did you get me some muffins? The only people who texted him these days were his mother, his sister Toni, and Sir Frank. Not exactly the most thrilling bunch. He thought about old friends in college, his colleagues at the art gallery where he had his first job, even Arianne of the greasy hands and the kindest smile. His world had gotten so claustrophobic since he had left the city.
    On my way home. Tomorrow, I promise, he replied.
    Some falls from grace happened overnight. Gio’s took almost a year and counting.
     
    * * * *
     
    If he were honest with himself, he would have to admit that he had grown used to this. The only thing variable about his life now was the time he came home. Everything else just locked into place and refused to budge.
    He hadn’t meant to stay late today. Often, he would close up at five and go straight home. By the time the sun would set on Boracay’s White Beach, he would