Work's been busy as always. The months were approaching December, and this was the busiest time. Flowers weren't availale to plant, so more orders were put into floral shops. And everyone loved a winter wonderland theme anything, hence even more orders into the floral shop. Her weekends were booked solid, and she barely made time for anything.

Her secret meetings with Gerald turned into occasional visits to the shop, and possibly  him dropping off dinner. Today was one of those days.

She drove home, in a terrible mood, and not wanting to talk to anyone. It was one of those days at work where she got complaints about the smallest things. The roses weren't red enough, bouquets not big enough, 'I ended up adding a couple of more tables, so I need seven more centrepieces by tomorrow' type problems. No one knew the troubles a florist went through.

Sure, you spend everyday in an abundance with flowers; cheery, colourful flowers, but that meant nothing when you have those pain-in-the- customers. Kim scratched herself, tore skin off off her hands, broke countless nails and endured many beatings because being a florist wasn't a "big-time job", you just worked with innocent, painless flowers. Everyone was wrong.

Kim opened a bottle of cab, toed off her shoes, swirled her glass and took a long sip. "I need something stronger," she concluded, searching through her fridge and found a bottle of vodka. "Oh yeah, that'll work," she muttered.

She put the cab away and poured herself a shot of vodka, throwing in the back of . "Oh yeah," she exhaled hard.

A knock on the door interrupted her pity party. "No one's home!" She called out, pouring herself another shot, her third in seven minutes.

"I guess the Chinese will have to wait." His sweet voice already lifted her spirits THIS much.

Kim walked to the door and opened it, immediately slipped an arm around his waist and pulling him inside.

Gerald dropped the bag on the little table by the door and enclosed her within his arms. "Oh honey, what's wrong?" He storked down her long locks.  

She let go and took his hand, leading him to the living room where the fireplace was lit and the bottle of vodka rested on the table. "Terrible day. The ones where all you want to is close down the business and just run away."

Instead of sitting down on the couch, he grabbed a couple of pillows, placed them at a safe distance from the fire and took a seat, pulling her down with him, so she sat between his legs and he was supporting all her weight. "You want to talk about it?" He kissed her temple and moved her hair all to one side so he could nibble on her earlobe.

She let out a moan. "No, I just want to stay here with you. They should bottle you up and send you to depressed patients," she joked.

He chuckled, her skin vibrating. "I only comfort particular people, you being my number one customer."

Kim sighed and they stayed like that for a few moments, in total silence. It's what Kim liked about him even more, they were comfortable enough to just sit in silence, not do anything. Their relationship wasn't just based on talking about each other's feelings, or . It went more complex than that. It had to do with just being there, either sitting across from each other at the dinner table, or sitting like this in a tight embrace. They didn't need to fill the silence, they just let it be.

"Have you spoken to the girls?" He said, breaking the peaceful lull after a good ten minutes.

"They left messages tonight, but I didn't answer them. We have a rule. If we don't call each other back, it means we don't want to talk, which means family dinner tomorrow. Are you gonna be there?"

Even though they've been keeping each other a secret for the past few months, it didn't mean anything less. Most of them knew, it was just Enchong. And they all agreed they liked Gerald alive than six feet under.

"No other place I'd rather be."

They arrived at Erich's place separately for their dinner. Gerald arrived late and when he saw Enchong wasn't home, he gave Kim a lingering kiss on the cheek as a greeting.

After their night together, all of Kim's horrid feelings dissipitated into something untangible.
 
"Where's 'Chong?" Maja asked, bringing to salad bowl to the table.

"He has a late night ahead of him. Being the CEO makes him come home a few minutes before midnight," she winked over at Kim.

They took their seats, Kim beside Gerald. It was a new arrangement, but it didn't seem new. They began passing the salad around. "So what happened last night, Kim?"

She sighed. A fourteen hour work day, and all throughout out it, complaints that made me wants to bash my fist through a wall," she explained. Just thinking about her want to hurl. "Oh, and this one customer, she's lucky I was able to keep myself calm through the consult, or else she'd be wearing her ruined bouquet."

Maja's eyes widened, "I've never heard you talk like this before. Makes me afraid to ask what happened."

"A week ago, this soon-to-be-bride came into my workshop explaining how her and her fiance are new to the city, and she thought my sign outside was adorable so she walked in. Then on her third consult, she came and brought me four pictures of the bouquet she wanted, explaining that whatever I chose didn't mater, as long as it was one of those four. So after talking about her wedding and the theme, I chose this wonderful fairy tale-like bouquet. It was amazing," Kim smiled. "It was a bunch of these white Dendrobliu orchids, with these long stems that just added tasteful elegance.Anyways, today was her final consult, being a week until her wedding, and she wanted twenty four of these centrepieces. When she comes in, she's about to burst into tears, saying that one of her friend's centrepiece pictures got mixed in with her choices, and I chose that particular one. And she got the nerve to blame it all on me, saying that my eyes chose the most unoriginal centrepiece just because one of her bridesmaids chose it a year ago. And she began rambling about how it was her biggest regret that she didn't go with a more professional florist and she followed a damn sign in the newspaper that pretty much indicated I was an amateur."

Everyone in the room gasped. "Amateur? Me? She couldn't even name any of the flowers in my shop. Four weeks ago, she was praising me on how my shop was third beautiful on her ranking list, saying that the first two were Tokyo and Austrailia. I mean, who does she think she is?!"

Erich topped off her glass. "So what are you going to do?"

"Well, her father is actually a friend of the mayor's, so I need to get it right. I changed the designs, but still keeping the dendroblium orchids. I'm adding cream roses, white lillies, white aster monte casino and other white filler flowers. Some of the leaves come out purple in the lighting, so it'll be a nice touch. It'll all be wrapped up in a glass vase. Which only leaves me with six and a half days to finish twenty-one arrangements. And all the stripping and hand-tying are going to be making this one very labour intensive. Plus," she held up both her hands sporting new nicks and scratches. "Ouch."

"You wouldn't think being a florist a dangerous career." Gerald took her hand in his and studied it. "But you've got the battle scars for it." He brought her knuckles to his lips. Kim stared at smiled.

There was a long beat of silence, speculative stares.

"Stop," Gerald ordered, half-laughing.

Still watching them, Maja laughed. "You've got to expect it. For months, you've gone tip-toeing around each other; not making actual physical contact."

"Yeah, and now you're kissing her knuckles? This is the first up close and personal view we've got here," Matt added.

"We're still making adjustments here. I think you should lay one on her, right here, so we don't leave it up to our imaginations on what's going to happen once you leave this place." Shaina joked.

"Can you please pass the lasagna?" Gerald eyed Ejay carefully.

Beauty who sat beside him snatched it up. "For all we know, you're just having a joke at our expense. Pretending to be involved and laughing about it behind out backs."

Erich laughed, "You're good. Putting on ing underwear, kidding around that you're nervous."

Rayver nodded, "She is. And plus, you two aren't exactly the shy type. Certainly not too shy for one little PDA session among friends."

"Kiss or no lasagna!" Empress joined in.

"Kiss...Kiss...kiss, kiss, kiss!" They chanted banging on the table.

Giving up, Gerald turned to Kim who was laughing, and puller her over to a kiss that brought cheers and applause from the table. Even the children in the living room were laughing and clapping at the not-so-private display of affection.

"Looks like somebody's having a party and forgot to invite me."

The noise died when everyone stared at Enchong who was standing at the doorway. He stared at Gerald, lifting his palm to stop Erich from getting up. "What the hell's going on?"

"Dinner," Maja smiled widely, elbowing Rayver on her right.

He choked, "Right," cleared his throat. "Uhm....just enjoying some good old lasagna. I'll go get you a place setting."

"No thanks. Obviously, I feel like I walked into a stranger's house. All of you continue on what you're doing that's apparently none of my business."

"'Chong --"

"You and I," he interrupted his wife and gave Gerald a death stare. "We'll deal later."

When he walked out, the tension was raised to a height taller than the Empire State building. "You still didn't tell him?" Erich looked to Gerald.

"I was still trying to figure it out...No. No, I didn't tell him." Gerald was defeated. "Look, I'm going to try and get back on his good side. See you all later." He slapped hands with all the men, pushed his seat back, kissed Kim, kissed the rest of the girls and walked out.

Gerald knew where he'd be. Instead of poker every week, they started a new ritual. Going to an indoor batting cage. And there he was.

Enchong looked up. If Gerald squinted, he could see steam blowing out of his ears. "You swing at me, I'll swing back. We'll both get bloody, and nothing will get resolved."

Enchong took a swing at the flying baseball. " you, Ge."

"Fine. me. But you, too, 'Chong for being such an ab--"

He took the punch to the face because he hadn't seen it coming, and then swung back. Both their noses were bleeding.

"Are we done with the hitting?" Gerald asked, spitting out blood and swiped his nose.

"I want to know what the hell you were doing with your hands on Kim."

Gerald raised his hands, "I'm not talking to you when you have that weapon in your hands."

Enchong dropped the bat. "How long have you been moving in on her?"

"I didn't move in on her. If anything, we moved in on each other. Come on, 'Chong, she's a grown woman. She makes her own decisions. It's not like I twirled my moustache and stole her ity."

Enchong's eyes flared with temper. It guaranteed death if he was pushed far enough. "Watch it," he warned. "You slept with her."

Obviously this wasn't going good. "Let's just rewind a little bit."

"Yes or no, dammit."

"Yes, I slept with her. She slept with me; we slept with each other."

Sirens were going off in Enchong's brain. Another punch to the face, and Gerald fell backwards. Enchong fanned his hand, "Damn it."

Gerald touched his sensitive jaw. "I'm still going to sleep with her," he said. "It doesn't matter if you keep punching. I'm going to keep going back to her." Something equally deadly flared in Gerald's eyes. "It's none of your ing business!" He got back up and took a step back. This time if he went for another punch, Gerald was ready.

"The hell it isn't!"

"You're right. Given the circumstances, it is your business. But you can't tell either of us who to be with."

"How long," Enchong said between clenched teeth.

He took a deep breath. "Two months."

"Two months?!" His voice raised. "And you didn't tell me?"

"Mostly to try to avoid getting punched in the face. I knew you wouldn't like it, and I hadn't figured out how to explain."

Enchong scoffed. "You didn't have any trouble explaining it to everyone else."

"Everyone else wasn't going to smash their bare fists into my face because I'm sleeping with a beautiful, interesting, WILLING woman."

"She's not just any woman, Ge. This is Kim. She's not the type you just sleep with until something better just comes along. To my knowledge, there is no one better. She's the kind you make promises ti, make plans with."

Gerald never made plans with anyone. Plans change, promises get broken. Keeping it loose was keeping it honest. "We're both still new at this, getting to know each other. Look, I've never treated the women I've been with anything but respect."

He did have that, Enchong agreed.

"I've always cared about Kim," Gerald whispered. "About all of them. You know that."

"Then you should've told me you were thinking about Kim that way." He voice calmed down.

"Oh yeah, I can see that. 'Hey, 'Chong, I'm thinking about kissing Kim, touching Kim, having with Kim. What do you think?'" Gerald took a deep breath. That wasn't fair. "Look, I know I ed it up. I should've told you. But every way I look at it, we end here - being punching bags with each other. Enchong, you're my oldest friend. They're YOUR oldest friends, I know. They're your family. I know what they all mean to you, especially Kim and Erich, they're the original two. They're your family," he repeated.

"Remember that. And remember, if you hurt her, I hurt you."

"That's fair. So, are we okay on this?"

"Not yet."

"Let me know when we are." Gerald turned around and left.

The next day came by fast with Gerald walking inside. Kim was up front today doing cash. She was dealing with a customer when she saw Gerald and his purple jaw.

"Thanks. Congratulations on your engagement," Kim smiled, handing the woman a receipt.

When the customer left, and Gerald was in front of her, she shook her head. "For God's sake. Why is it that men think beating on each other fixes anything?"

"Why do women think eating chocolates does? It's the nature of the beast."

He followed her to the back, handing him a cold diet coke, and settling on his still tingling jaw. "Chocolate feels good. A fist in the face doesn't. And did it fix things?"

"Not completely, but it's a start."

"Is he okay? Erich called, said he came home at about one thirty with a bruised cheek. And now he has to go to work."

"He hit me first." Gerald smiled and tapped his swollen lip.

With a roll of her eyes, she gave him a very light kiss. "I'm sorry, but I don't have time to feel sorry for you right now. But I promise to make time tonight." She went into her purse and handed him her keys. "You could hang around my place. My mom dropped off a casserole and some fetuccini this morning. I'll be home in two hours."

"I'll stop by." He leaned in and pursed his lips.

She laughed and went in for it. He pulled her hips closer to his, risking the pain for a more serious kiss that would last him those two hours. He groaned and pulled away. "I'll see you later," he brought the cool can to his lip again.

She chuckled and waved him goodbye.

The two hours turned into four, and by the time she got home, it was dark outside. She opened her door and saw him sprawled out on her couch reading one of her books.

He sat up so she could sit beside her. "I finished six arrangements tongiht. twelve more to go by friday," she announced, kissing him on the cheek. She toed off her shoes and curled her aching toes. "But I get Monica and Vanessa tomorrow, so it should cut my work load by half." Kim yawned. "Sorry about today."

"No apologies necessary. Reading this book gave me a good plan for my next project, and an idea for our next date. We could out Monday, if you're up for it."

"Out? Like outside?" She pointed outside her window. "Where people bring you food and possibly entertainment?"

Her description made him feel bad for not taking her out on a real date sooner. "Dinner and a movie sound good? And when I say movie, I mean drive in so we could catch up on a real good necking," he leaned over and brushed his lips over her exposed neck.

She chuckled, "Sounds like whole buckets of good."

"Then I'll bring you a bucket and pick you up....six?"

"Six thirty?" She adjusted.

He nodded. "Well, I should let you get some sleep." He stood up, still holding onto her hand.

"Got a question," she said. He stopped and looked at her. "You stuck around here until after eleven, and now you're leaving so I could get some sleep?"

"You must be tired," he answered.

"Not that tired," she grabbed the bottom of his shirt, and pulled him down on top of her, enclosing his lips around his. This is was exactly what she was waiting for all day.

I know that all of you are upset because ABS-CBN has decided to break up our couple on showbiz, but no one can take away couple off camera. This day was coming and we knew it, we just thought we'd be able to watch them about a million more times before it'd happen, but life is funny that way. One thing for sure, they left with a bang, The Buzz, Juicy, TV Patrol doing exclusives on TV, fans all over the world making their opinion known. Let's just keep one thing in mind, just because they're not considered a loveteam anymore, doesn't make them any less of a couple. We've seen the way they stare at each other, we've seen the way he touches her, we've seen how comfortable they are, we've seen and heard them both say they are in love with each other. We've witnessed their journey for four years, and we will continue to see it as they grow into independent, amazing stars. This is not the end, this is just a beginning of a new journey. And we both know that in a few years from now, they're going to come back for a reunion teleserye or a reunion movie. Until then, immerse yourself into these fanfics and stay true to them. Also, keep in mind that they brought all of us together, connected us over seas, no age limits, no race limits; they brought us together, The least we could do is support them until they are brought together again. Nothing could stop the Kimerald fire!!! KIMERALD FOREVER AND ALWAYS!!!