Sixty-Two

THE next few days were the most surreal of all the days of Arianna’s life that it even surpassed that night she first went to Eric’s private house in the back of the hacienda, to give him her body in his bed.
Eric used his influence to get an expedited marriage license for both of them within a week and the wedding itself was performed by a judge in the garden of the house they were staying in the next day.
It was private, attended only by their immediate family (minus his mother, of course) and her awe-struck childhood friends driven from the province to witness.
There weren’t adults, but she was informed the Señor had the staff in the hacienda invite tenants for a catered celebration of the day, unofficially confirming the news about his only son marrying his girlfriend and shutting down any dirty gossip regarding how they met.
At most, it was just a malicious charge thrown at her by Eric’s mother, accusing her of seducing her son with her feminine wiles.
The fact was, most believed it was the señorito who had seduced the late Ramon’s beautiful, good, and young daughter, her friends assured her.
“My parents believed you are too young to marry, Yna, but they knew the Quirrozes will take good care of your future. You’re finally going to be able to go back to school. It’s just… we can’t be with you. There’s no way your husband will let you study in our state college,” Giselle said rather sadly.
“That’s okay. She will not be in the same year, anyway, so we’ll not be with her in our classes,” Chin-chin amended. “The best thing is she’s going back to school. I’ve always felt guilty about it, you know? You are the most studious and smartest in class. It just isn’t right that you’re not in college,” she was saying as she shook her head.
“I still can’t believe you’re really married. And to the señorito,” Zoren was saying in a low voice. “It’s not that I don’t think he’s a good man, Yna. He’s one of the men I admire. Just that… I’ve always thought he is really on the adult side of us.”
Chin-chin was nodding. “He’s just a few years older but… he’s so sophisticated and he’s got a lot of responsibilities and accomplishments already. And we’re all still in school!”
Giselle was wide-eyed as she nodded. “How can you be married when I haven’t even met my first boyfriend yet?” she complained.
Chin-chin rolled her eyes. “Open your eyes a little bit wider, my friend. Doesn’t our friend here look super spiffy today?” she asked as she hooked her arm to Zoren’s shoulders. Their guy friend’s face was suddenly beet-red as Giselle turned to observe him.
“Oh, yes, you are. You look so nice.”
Zoren was on a new light blue shirt and a black jacket, and he did look dapper.
“You should wear this on your date with that girl you said you liked in school. Daphne… was that her name?” Giselle scrunched her nose, trying to remember the name.
“Whatever gave you that idea?” Zoren asked, looking as if he was both amused and annoyed.
Giselle frowned. “Wasn’t that her? You were talking about this cute student that you’ve really liked for a long time and she was the cutest girl in there at that time so I thought you were talking about her.”
“You dared talk about someone cute while in Giselle’s presence?” Chin-chin asked in mocked shock at Zoren, who was looking so exasperated at Giselle.
Yna was trying not to snicker. Very hard. “Are you sure she was the only cute female there?” she asked their very oblivious friend.
“Well, there’s…” And she looked more wide-eyed.
Zoren was shaking his head, his eyes closed. He heaved a long-suffering sigh.
“No, Giselle. You know I’m not gay. How could you not know this? You’re one of my closest friends.”
She looked guilty and ashamed. “Well, one would wonder since you never showed any interest in any girl,” she reasoned.
Yna started giggling.
Chin-chin was outright laughing.
Zoren looked like he wanted to kiss Giselle’s pouting lips as punishment for her ignorance.
Oh, yes. Yna knew how to recognize the signs now.
It was because she always knew on Eric’s face whenever he wanted to kiss her, too.
“So you’re going on your honeymoon?” Giselle segued, still naïve about what was going on but excited about her newly married friend’s life. “Where is it going to be?”
Before she could answer that, Tommy and Eric had stridden over and the conversation became stilted as her friends still hadn’t felt confident as her brother was in her groom’s presence.
He tried chatting them up and was able to make them smile. But the conversation was still stilted as both Giselle and Chin-chin remained starstruck by Eric.
The day seemed to pass very quickly, and then her friends were leaving with her mother and Tommy to go back to the hacienda.
She was going to be left here with Eric, and they were supposedly going on their honeymoon.
She went back to feeling dazed about her wedding day.
That this was going to be it, and that she was now a different person… or definitely holding a different legal name.
She was worried about her mother, of course. She still ended up leaving her at their home.
But to her surprise, her mother looked serene. Happy. And she realized that she worried about her reputation more than she cared to admit.
And not that it was taken care of, her mother looked calmer, her face and smile light.
“Oh, don’t worry about me. Our house is surrounded by our friends’ houses. I have many people to gossip with every day. I will learn to use the phone your husband gave me so I can talk to you on video call every day. It will be like you’re in front of me,” she assured her as she waited for the servants to finish loading the back of the van with whatever gifts were accumulated, plus food, in the ten days her mother and Tommy stayed with her here.
It’s still not going to be the same, she thought, and her mother seemed to read that on her face.
“Oh, Hija. This is just as if you went here to Manila for college, just like your father had planned when he was still alive. How can you forget that? Just think about this like that. You are going to college anyway. When it’s Tommy’s turn, you know I’ll be coming with him.”
Then she turned serious. Since her mother had pulled her a little bit away from the others, she expected this.
“You are already married. This is how it’s going to be. You’re going to have to learn your damn best to be the kind of wife your husband will need you to be. And I feel so… so incompetent about what to advise you. I know nothing of this life.”
“Ma… don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”
Her mother looked sideways, in the direction where she knew Eric was, talking to her brother. He was probably giving him his different set of instructions.
They had formed a brotherhood bond, Tommy and her husband, and she felt it had more to do with protecting the women in the family than anything else.
It didn’t mean she wholly approved of it, but she could tolerate it, really.
The relationship that formed, more than anything else, was what she was most grateful for because it was something her brother desperately needed, and something she and their mother couldn’t provide.
“It’s a good thing he is determined to take care of you and to meet you halfway. Make sure you work with him all the way, Hija.” She was frowning a little. “He has been a lonely child. We watched him grow up alone because his father’s money couldn’t provide him what he needed badly.” She smiled at me now. “And I can understand how precious he regards you, or how he found himself caring for us like family. I just don’t know…”
“What, Mama?” Yna asked, worried suddenly that she wasn’t seeing something in the future someone like her mother would see.
“It is going to be difficult because his world is a different world than ours.”
She sighed. “I already expect it to be,” she reminded her. “Don’t worry, Mama.”
“If it ever gets too much, you can always come home.”
“Of course, I will,” she replied.
“I already told your husband that when you visit the hacienda. The two of you will be staying in our house, in your room.”
She smiled at that. Her mother might have forgotten she was there when she required this of them and was happy when Eric complied without hesitation.
Her mother was nodding her head slowly. “I feel comforted that he was ready to absorb your world as you will need to absorb his.”