Tuesday – February 13th - 7:11 pm

"What's cooking?"

"Oh. You're home," said Pie, turning to her mom who's standing by the door. "Ummm, it's nothing. I bought a roasted chicken for dinner. Would you like to eat now?"

"Maybe a little later after I change," said her mom. The older lady stretched her neck out in attempt to see what's keeping her daughter busy. "What are you preparing?"

"Just umm... a little something for my team..."

"Homemade chocolates?" her mom asked after getting a glimpse of the ingredients. "For your team, you said?"

Pie nodded. "Yeah."

"Valentine's present?"

"Yeah, something like that." Pie grabbed a bowl and started stirring a mixture into it. "I want to give them something special."

"I don't buy that, Pie..."

"You don't buy what?"

"You're preparing something for the team? I'm surprised that this is the first time you did that."

"It's for a change, mom. I need to treat them once in a while."

The older lady leaned on the door frame and folded her arms across her chest. "Seriously, Pie, just tell me who the lucky guy is."

"Mom!" Pie made a face immediately. "There's no guy, okay?" She turned around right away because she felt she's starting to blush.

"Whatever." Her mom chuckled. "I just hope your team will love that," she said before leaving the area to go to her room.

Pie just smiled to herself. I seriously hope she will.

---

Wednesday – February 14th

There were flowers on the table already waiting for her when Pie came in the office. Some of them were from unknown admirers while some have names on it. Of course, she always feels flattered receiving those but it's not enough to win her. Truth is she's starting to wonder herself on what could even win her.

Not too long the interns came in with May holding a bouquet in her hands. Pie met eyes with Dang and made a face to discretely ask him whom the flowers came from. He answered her with a coy smile.

Okay, I get it, Dang.

Puey came in shortly and handed all the females in their team a long-stemmed red rose. He cringed in disgust when Pie joked that he's the one she's been waiting for. It was a fun day because everyone was in the mood to give love. However, Pie can't keep her eyes away from graphics department area from time to time.

Phew, just one more day to go, one more day. Everything will be okay again tomorrow.

---

1:07 pm

Pie is currently reading an article when the reception guard placed a box on her table. "What's that?" she asked, looking up at him.

"For you..." the guard said, tapping a hand on top of the box.

"For me? From who?"

"I don't know..." He shrugged while looking at the papers in his hands. "A man delivered it just now and it says here... 'from honey'..."

Pie's eyes widened. Honey?

"Honey?" Puey stood up from his chair to look over. "Who's Honey, Pie?"

Pie shook her head slowly. "I... I don't know..."

Before anyone could react further, the guard tapped the box one last time and said, "I'll leave it here, alright?" Pie nodded and said her thanks before he left. That's when the confusion started to fill her face as she stared at the mysterious box in front of her.

From honey... from honey... from honey...

Pie kept on repeating the words in her mind like a mantra. Although it's true that she doesn't know who the sender is, it will be a lie if she would say she has no idea at all. So far, she had used that endearment to one person only.

Could it be?

"Aren't you going to open it?" Puey, who's still looking over, motioned to the box.

Pie shook her head no. She doesn't want to open it yet, not until she's alone. If her suspicion is correct then she'd want to see that present all by herself only.

However, the box made quite a scandal which surely had intrigue her colleagues. "Let's take a look!" May stood up and slightly shook the box. "Wow. It's light."

Jane went over to inspect the box too. "Honey? Just as I thought, you were hiding something from me, Pie."

"I didn't know that Ms. Pie has a boyfriend..." said May.

"I didn't know that too, May, considering that I'm her best friend," said Jane, folding her arms on her chest.

Puey walked over to them and eyed Pie skeptically. "Yeah. You knew all the things about us but you're keeping yours secret from us, your friends?" He placed a hand on his chest and yowled, "Agh, it hurts!"

Feeling pressured by the three people standing in front of her, Pie brought her arms mid-air and reasoned, "Guys, I don't have a boyfriend, okay? You all know me. I don't even know who sent that."

Puey and Jane looked at each other quick. Jane shrugged and Puey turned to Pie and said, "If you're saying that you don't know who the sender is then why don't we take a look what's inside?"

"I second that motion," Jane agreed right away.

Pie still doesn't want to. She looked up at the people in front of her, trying to see if her glare would work. It did not. Their glares are much more powerful than hers.

Her eyes finally softened in defeat. Ugh. Fine.

Pie blew air from before standing up from her chair. She's not feeling excited about this, rather nervous, afraid that the box might contain any clue of the sender's identity. She brought a hand to the top of the box and sighed.

Here goes nothing.

She opened the box nonetheless, with the audience at her back, and inside it saw a green stuffed toy looking up at them. Everyone gasped in awe while Pie couldn't believe what she's seeing.

"It's so cute!" said May.

"Totally," said Puey. He looked back at the stuffed toy and noticed something. "Wait a minute, is it just me or it looks like Mrs. Lee?"

"Yeah, it looks like the same exact stuffed toy, Pie," said Jane.

"No." Pie can't help but smile at the sight of the toy she's been looking to find for a long time now. "I think this is Mr. Lee." She picked up the toy and read the note attached to it:

I guess he got a little lost on his way back to his wife. The long wait is over. He's finally home.

- Honey

"Kyaaaaaa!" Jane squirmed with glee while shaking Pie's shoulder. "Who's Honey, Pie? Tell me, who?"

"I told you, I have no idea..." Pie denied once again even though she can't take the smile off her face. She flipped the turtle stuffed toy that looks exactly like Mrs. Lee except for the missing eyelashes. "This is indeed Mr. Lee."

May picked up the Mrs. Lee and raised it in to congratulate it. "Weee, even Mrs. Lee has a date today!"

Pie couldn't believe it. She doesn't know how Honey did it but she's definitely surprised and delighted to receive this gift today. All the flowers and chocolates she got this morning didn't matter anymore. She hugged and kissed the turtle to welcome it.

"Whoever that guy is, I already like him," said Puey, nudging Pie.

"Why?" Pie asked, still not taking her eyes off the turtle.

"Because this is the first I've seen you smile like that after receiving a present."

"Hmm? Why? Was I not smiling before?"

"Let's just say that your smile is different today."

"How so?"

Puey waved his hand. "Forget it. It's too hard to explain. But could you do me a favor? If this guy would reveal himself and will ask you for a date, could you please go out with him?"

Pie raised the turtle again and stared at its cute big round eyes. "Don't worry, I surely will."

---

5:37 pm

Pie was on her way home when she heard her phone ringing inside her bag. She smiled after seeing the caller ID and answered it right away.

"Hey, honey, how's it?"

"Honey your face..." said Pie, laughing softly.

"Is that the proper way to greet the finder of your long-lost pet?"

"Crazy..." Pie was trying to hold off her smile because she doesn't want to attract the attention of her fellow passengers on that subway. But she can't help it, hearing Kim's voice just makes her heart flutters. "Thanks for the gift, Kim."

"You're welcome. I hope I surprised you with that."

"Yeah, you did. In fact, you surprised everyone. They were bugging me for that mysterious sender."

"Haha! I knew the delivery would attract some attention so I had to be more discreet."

"Even so, the 'honey' still got a LOT of attention. The girls went crazy about it." Pie rolled her eyes remembering how she was ganged up.

"I had no choice. I had to use it so you would know it came from me. What did they say to you?"

"Well, Jane and Puey were accusing me of keeping a relationship secret from them."

"Hahaha! Guess I put you in trouble with that, huh?"

"A bit," Pie sighed. "I was just glad that their attention was diverted immediately to the meet up of Mr. and Mrs. Lee."

"Ah really? Tell me about it."

"Puey and Jane played them, took pictures and created a drama story," said Pie, smiling at the memory of Jane and Puey voicing the conversation of the two turtles. "By the way how did you find it?"

"Dad and I were strolling around the mall looking for a place to eat when we passed by a toy store on sale. That's when I saw that turtle. Problem is, it was the last stock they have, and it was trouble getting it because I had to bribe a kid to not buy it."

"What? You had to pay a kid to get it?"

"Yeah, a few bucks. The kid won't let it go at first."

"Wow. How did you manage to deliver it to the office without the courier's label on it?"

"I got help from Zee, haha. I had it delivered to her place and asked her to buy a fancy box for it. She was the one who brought it to the office earlier, without Jane's knowledge of course."

Pie remembered the guard told her that it was delivered by a man. She just smiled at the idea that the guard mistook Zee for a guy.

It's not a new thing for Pie to receive gifts during this time of the year, however, this is the first time she felt so happy about receiving something. She loves the turtle so much that she couldn't take her eyes off it the entire afternoon.

It just makes her wonder, was she happy because of the gift or was it because of the sender?

"So, how are you?" asked Pie instead, trying to erase the little confusion building up in her mind.

"I'm good, I'm good. Never been better."

"Enjoying yourself over there?"

"Yeah. Dad's been busy so I just toured around here and took some pictures. We're currently here in Bali."

"What time is your flight? You're supposed to be here by tomorrow, right?"

"Uh, well, there's a little problem. All flights had been canceled for now due to the storm signal warning."

What? No!

Pie remember the news this morning about the strong typhoon that will be hitting Indonesia. "Oh. You can't go home yet?"

"I'm afraid not yet. And if this continues until Friday, I might go back there by Sunday instead. I just found it now that's why I called you."

Pie's energy and excitement for tomorrow were totally drained because of the bad news. Her week has been hella boring and now she needs to endure additional boring days before she could see Kim again.

"Calling me just to tell me the bad news?" said Pie, sighing.

"Partly, yes... but I also want to hear your voice..."

"Stop with the sweet-talking, Kim."

"Hey, I'm not kidding. It's gonna take few more days before I could see you again so hearing your voice could somehow cure me from missing you."

Nothing is more comforting than to know that the person you're missing most is missing you at the same time. Pie was about to give in and smile however the idea of not seeing Kim for the entire week took away her excitement again. She let out a displeased sigh instead. She knows there is a big possibility that flights are still unavailable even tomorrow.

"Hey, are you okay? You're not talking."

"I'm okay."

"Well, you don't sound like it. What's the matter?"

"I don't know. I guess I just got stressed in the office."

"Too many flowers to carry?" Kim's voice sounded like she was smiling.

Pie shook her head no even though Kim can't see it. "I left them all at my table."

"Wowowow, so you really got flowers?"

"Few."

"Wow. Just wow."

"Hey, don't wow me yet. I bet you have more presents waiting for you at your table. Apparently, two of those were from my teammates."

"We'll find out once I come back there. By the way, where are you now?"

"On the subway, heading home."

"Is that the reason you sound grumpy? No date on Valentine's night?"

"I have a date, excuse me..."

"Whoa! With whom?"

"With my mom," said Pie, chuckling.

"Oh, nice. So... there's no dinner date, like a romantic date with someone, right?"

Pie giggled, enjoying hearing Kim's somewhat-jealous-tone. "How could I? My date is too busy looking for a turtle stuffed toy in Indonesia."

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

"And what's so funny about it?"

"Your date's crazy, leaving you alone like that."

"I know. Should I find someone else to date instead?"

"No, of course not. Let me make it up to you when I come back, okay?"

"IF you're still coming back. Unfortunately, you're stuck in there, Kim..."

"Oh, c'mon. If I could swim there now I would, you know. Wait a minute, does that mean you're missing me too?"

Pie smiled. "Shhhh, not a chance, Kim, not a chance..."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously what?"

"You're not missing me? Not at all?"

"Are you really asking me that? You should know the answer yourself, Kim."

"But I want to hear it..."

"Want to hear what?"

"Your answer..."

"Ugh, you're not making any sense."

"C'mon, c'mon, just let me hear it, please?"

Pie doesn't know what kind of sorcery Kim has but it just weakens her, making her give in. She rolled her eyes and said, "Fine. I miss you. Happy now?"

"Weeee! Of course!"

"You're such a kid, Kim."

"Just a kid at heart. But you know what, honestly, I think I'm missing you more than you're missing me."

Pie’s eyebrows rose. "Mmm? How so?"

"Because I'm missing you so badly now that I already regret going here in the first place."

That surely made Pie smile again. "Hey, don't say that. It's your dad's birthday, right?"

"I know. It's just that it feels like something has been missing. My only consolation of going here is seeing my dad, aside from that everything doesn't make sense. And sadly, all I could do now is to send you that fluffy turtle..."

Getting drowned by flattery, Pie's emotion took over. "You have no idea how badly I'm missing you now, Kim."

"Really? You do?"

"Yeah, you don't want to believe me?"

"It's just too good to be true. If you only knew how badly I want to go back to what happened last Saturday, going out with you and just having fun."

It took Pie a great deal of effort to repress a smile because she doesn't want her fellow passengers to think that she's like a teenager who's completely twitterpated with the person on the other line. Her eyes were darting quickly around the subway and through the windows but none of the images she's seeing are registering on her mind. All she could see now is Kim.

There's no point in denying it. She knows she's missing Kim more than she should. It's something she cannot control any longer.

"Oh, I can't wait to see you..."

"I can't wait to see you too. By the way, Pie…"

"Yes?"

"Umm, can we talk when I get back?"

"Of course, we can, you still owe me a date, right?"

Kim chuckled at that. "Yeah, right. But what I meant is can we talk about something?"

"About what?"

"Maybe... umm... talk about... us...?"

Pie brought a hand to her chest after feeling nervous all of a sudden. "A-about us?"

"Yeah... Don't you think we need to talk about 'this'...?"

Pie was lost for words for a moment there, unsure of what to say. Although undefined yet, it is evident now that something is going on between the two of them. Pie knows herself that it's not one of her ordinary flings, it's more special than that, and it's getting deeper each day.

Since the day they met, Kim has been giving her all these roller-coaster feelings that are all new to her. They may be hard to explain but she loves having those feelings, at the same time she hates them, especially now because they are giving her a hard time for missing Kim so badly.

But above all that a big part of her surely wants to know Kim's side of the story. Is she feeling the same thing or is this all part of her sweetness that she does to everyone?

Despite the dilemma and doubt, Pie finally made her decision. "You're right, we really need to talk."