Manila Marriage App Read Free Page B

onto the dusty lane and drove slowly up the almost vertical hill, steering with care around the deepest ruts. At the summit stood the seminary back gate. Danilo pushed in a code on a keypad, and the door swung open. To the right sat three parked cars on a cement pad with one space left in the middle. The sign on a high, metal fence behind the empty parking place read “Dr. T. Flynn.” Danilo maneuvered the car into the gap with barely enough room to open the car door. I dragged in a deep breath, and slid out.
    “Miss Callahan, I’m going to leave your luggage in the car, if that’s all right. The guest house is occupied so Dr. Flynn is working on where to put you.”
    “No problem.” I patted his shoulder. He really was a nice young man.
    “Bayani will watch over it.”
    A man as big as an offensive lineman, swaggered out of a nearby guardhouse. With his muscular frame and crisp, white uniform decorated with gold buttons, he radiated intimidation. Without a doubt, I’d be safe with him escorting me down any dark alley. He closed the gate (also complete with sharp spikes on top) and wrote something down on a clipboard. The grounds of the campus stretched out beneath us.
    Danilo motioned for me to follow, spun, and bounded down the first steep flight of steps. I was preparing to sprint after him when my gaze fell to my feet. Oh yeah. Flip-flops. Carefully, I placed one foot after the other, scurrying behind, the foreign trees and flowers a blur as I tried to keep up. When we neared the bottom of what had to have been over a hundred steps, the campus leveled out. Good thing. All the speed walking I’d done at shopping malls should have made me more fit.
    Now I understood question number eighteen on the marriage application. Was I able to climb plenty of stairs? In retrospect, I suppose that should have been a warning. And sometime soon, we’d be going back up. Scary thought.
    Danilo was still on the move, and I rushed after him. He disappeared into the Faculty and Student Center, a newish stone and glass building. Inside, the décor was modern and comfortable and much appreciated puffs of cool air circled around us. The race down the stairs in the steaming heat had left me winded. It surely couldn’t be nerves that had my heart pounding in my ears.
    A sofa and chairs in the lobby called to me, but I soldiered on and did my best to keep up. We trekked down a long hallway lined with offices until we arrived at a large corner office on the left. Before entering, I took a moment to compose myself and smooth my flyaway hair. My fingernail scraped on a patch of dried peas behind my left ear. What was the point in primping?
    Taking a deep, cleansing breath, I strolled into the room. Behind a massive teak desk sat the man I’d come to meet. The photo he’d e-mailed me didn’t do him justice. Not by a long shot. If I’d been the obvious sort, my jaw would have dropped to the floor. And there’d be plenty of drool.
    He stood as I entered the room, cool gray eyes raking over me. His bio had told me he was a tall man, but the head shot hadn’t captured the aura of authority he projected. Mister-too-important-to-pick-me-up didn’t say a word, although that intense stare roamed my face with apparent disbelief. Perhaps he was confused as to my shabby state, but he didn’t have to be rude.
    We glared at each other. In fact, he examined me as if he were judging a heifer at the county fair. If he were testing my mettle, I was not going to be the first one to blink. With a heavy sigh, he shook his head, loosened his lips, and said the words I least expected. “Miss Callahan, you’re blonde .”
    Words spilled out of my own mouth before I could filter them. “Whoa, nothing gets past you does it, Dr. Flynn?”
    “In the picture you sent me, you were a brunette .”
    Well, he had me there. Before last Tuesday, I had been a brunette. Light brown, but still brown. I straightened my spine. “Hey, I didn’t go platinum or