It had been such a long day for Kim. She had shooting earlier in the day. It was particularly hard for her to finish her scenes since she had been distraught by her break-up with Jake the day before. It had been such a horrible day, save for the latter part of it.

Her thoughts came back to the special night she had at the Vanilla Bean cafe. Gerald, the chef, was really as yummy as his pies. As the warm water hit her face, Kim was imagining him, shirtless and sweaty, kneading dough on a clean, metallic surface. That was her fantasy of him. She had to temporarily shut off her imagination since it was starting to stray in a naughty direction. But, seeing him work the way he did added to the aura of mystery surrounding him. He seemed very precise whenever he was cooking that Kim wanted to know more if there were other intricacies in his character. He seems obsessive-compulsive when it comes cleanliness, that she noted. Was he always that neat? She happily recalled about his habit of putting his hands in his pocket if he had a bout of shyness. And his shoes! They were squeaky clean, that means he is very organized and into details. She began to wonder what size he was wearing. Maybe 12 or 14. Kim was so surprised with herself about the kind of details she wanted to know about him. To her, he was very, very interesting.

Kim stepped out of the shower feeling refreshed and energized. She put on her fluffy robe and walked downstairs to the kitchen. It’s a good thing she had a rest day tomorrow. They had pre-taped ASAP (local variety show) the day before, hence she had time for herself the following day. She was actually planning to go back to Vanilla Bean.

As she was about to place the pie into the fridge, curiosity bit her. The box was practically begging for her to open it. She couldn’t decide whether or not to taste the pie or to wait the next morning. But, knowing her mom and sister, if they found the pie sitting in the fridge, more likely than not, she wouldn’t have any more pie to taste the next morning.

She took the box out once more. She untied the bow and instantly the pie was revealed. It looked so delicious! Kim hastily grabbed a fork and a knife and began slicing through the pie.

“Kimmy, just a slice...” Kim told herself.

She slowly lifted the slice away from the box and into her plate. Kim daintily forked a portion. The moment the warm, moist pie touched , it sparked a thousand and one sensations all throughout her body. She felt every nerve ending’s heightened response. This must be what Gerald was referring to as the first-bite thrill.

“Holy crap!” Kim found herself saying. “Hmmm...this is so...darn good!”

She immediately thought of Jake’s quip the other day. Maybe Gerald’s pies were indeed ically good.

This particular pie was immensely superb. Kim had never tasted anything so delightfully good in her entire life. The way the crust crumbled into ... it was the most wonderful sensation had ever tasted. And the filling! IT was the most delicious concoction of fruit and spices. She couldn’t even begin to think what was in it. There was just enough sweetness and tanginess going around, it was like a wondrous interplay of pastry yin and yang. Having tasted this pie was truly a gift, a gift of the culinary Gods to ordinary hapless humans. And Gerald was the rightful messenger.

“If there was really such a thing as a food for the gods, this pie must be it, “Kim thought.

Before she knew it, she had finished her slice. It was the single most thrilling experience Kim had ever felt about food. Even the pie she ate the other day, though very good, didn’t even come close to this one.

Kim looked at the remaining pie. Maybe, it wouldn’t hurt to eat another bite. She instantly remembered what Gerald said about the one-slice-per-person rule. She just shrugged the thought aside. It was rather silly of him to suggest that there is a max dose for his pies. Something that good needs to be indulged upon. So, Kim took another slice. Then, another. By the time she was all done, she had finished everything.

She let out a thick belch afterwards, happy and contented. She sat by the table and surveyed her mess. It was like a hurricane had hit the kitchen table. It was truly one hell of a pie.

After a few minutes, Kim felt something different happening to her. She felt light and warm despite having finished one whole pie. Maybe, this was the hormone buzz Gerald wasn’t too convinced about. She was in fact, strangely very happy. She felt...invincible too. It was like a false sense of security starting to envelope her. Kim felt she had something that she needed to do --- right away! And that something was in connection with what was making her sad in the first place. In her mind, a serious thought started to form.

Like most things overindulged...something has got to give. Kim just didn’t know that having ONE HAPPY PIE too many, like almost anything that is sinfully good, has its tragic consequences.

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“You’ll never guess, pare, who came in last night!” Gerald boasted as his friend, Carlo, came into his office. Gerald was on his desk, doing his paperwork and next week’s supply orders.

“Who?!! Somebody famous?!” Carlo exclaimed.
Gerald flipped the magazine he was reading earlier to Carlo.

“Who? Pokwang?!”

Gerald looked at the page. “Sorry, man! Wrong page...”

Gerald flipped the magazine once more to reveal the cover. It was the glorious picture of Kim on a magazine shoot.

“Holy mother freakin’ !” Carlo said, wide-eyed in shock. “Her?! “

“Yeah, man! Just after you left...” Gerald excitedly accounted.

“Wait, are you pulling my leg?” asked Carlo, eyeing him carefully.

“Why the heck would I do that?! She came back, pare! She really was here! This is her lipstick mark on this wine glass!”

Gerald hastily produced the evidence. Carlo snatched it from his hands the moment he saw it.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaa,” Carlo screamed while holding the tainted champagne glass in his hands. “I can’t believe I missed her! Darn luck!”

“It was one of the amazing nights of my life my friend!”

“Do tell! Please do tell!!!” begged Carlo, grabbing him by his shirt collars.

“Okay, okay....calm down!” said Gerald.

Gerald then began recounting to Carlo what had happened the previous evening. He told him every little detail of it. He started his story when Kim came in after Carlo left, and by the time Gerald finished his story, he had heard every cuss word ever invented from the English and Filipino dictionary coming from Carlo’s mouth. By the time he was done too, Carlo was already speechless.

“Man, promise me. Don’t tell anybody what happened last night, okay? It’s our little secret. I promised her that I won’t tell anybody,” Gerald begged.

“My friend, I am now officially so jealous of you! I could just die now! Imagine, the girl of my dreams, I lost to a good friend. I was this close to getting her!”

“Ahhh...the agony of unrequited love!” chuckled Gerald.

“Don’t rub it in...please!” said Carlo, clutching his chest. “Why you?! Of all people, why you?!”

Gerald must confess, he too had never seen Carlo this animated. He knew he was over-the-top 75% of the time, but he never had seen him behave this way. He was kneeling on his knees, seemed like he was crying too.

“Can you stop doing that, pare? Please...it’s embarrassing!” Gerald begged, picking him up by the armpits.

“Sorry man! I was just carried away!” Carlo said, switching back to his usual self.

“You call that carried away?” Gerald said disbelievingly.

“Hell, yeah! I’m just practicing for my drama class tomorrow. We have this remake of Macbeth as our presentation... Man, it was such a good internalization what I did just now...was I convincing?”

Gerald can only shake his head. It was so typical of Carlo. That is why, he likes his company. You’ll never know what you going to get each time when you’re with him. Gerald began to seriously think he might have Multiple Personality Disorder.

“Promise me first you’re not going to tell anyone about my little date with Kimmy last night...” reiterated Gerald.

“Of course, I won’t, boss!” Carlo said with a wink.

“Good, now go back to work!” Gerald playfully ordered him.

“By the way,” Carlo continued. “How come you didn’t tell her who you are?”

“I didn’t think it was the right time yet...” Gerald reasoned. “I saw right away that she wasn’t ready for that. She was still very emotional about the whole Jake thing, I just didn’t have the heart to tell her. But, all in due time, my friend...all in due time...”

“What were you waiting, man? Last night was the most perfect timing. She’s in a very vulnerable state. You know, one thing could have led to another...”

“Is that how you treat your girlfriends? No wonder you change girlfriends as often as you change your clothes...”

“I’m just saying...” Carlo said, a bit dismayed. “Geez, man, you’re too uptight!”

“How many times do I have to tell people I am not uptight!” Gerald protested, also thinking about how many times Kim called him that.

Carlo just walked away, laughing his out.
Gerald went back to his swivel chair, still thinking of last night’s date. It was the singularly most honest date he had ever been to. He had been to many, but this one was the best of them all.

He pulled out his lucky pendant. He played around with it, reminiscing their happy times before.
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xoxoxoxox
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Gerald was instantly taken back to their pre-school years.

“Who are you supposed to be?” Gerald asked Kim.

“I’m Sleeping Beauty,” Kim said as she pulled a blanket out and tied it around her neck like a cape.

“Cinderella doesn’t have a cape!” Gerald rebutted.

“Of course, she did! Remember when she went back to the castle after living in the woods, she had this cape on.”

“That wasn’t a cape! It was a cloak!” asserted Gerald.

“They’re the same thing!” Kim insisted, folding her arms on her chest.

“No, they’re not!” he said adamantly.

“Yes they are!” Kim said. “Who are you supposed to be?!”

“Donatello!” Gerald said, holding a curtain rod as a prop.

“You don’t look at all like a Ninja turtle!” Kim said, obviously not impressed. “You look more like a marshmallow.”

Gerald had a pillow stuck to his back, tied in place by a belt on his stomach.

“Someday, I will grow my muscles.” Gerald said proudly as he flexed his flabby arms. “And someday, when you will need my help I won’t help you...because you called me a marshmallow!”

Little Gerald, stomped his way out of their playroom.

“Hey wait, it was just a joke!” Kim said, running after him.

Kim finally caught up to him. He was at the foot of the stairs, looking very despondent.

“What’s wrong?” Kim asked. “Why, don’t you like marshmallows? Marshmallows are sweet and delicious!”

“Marshmallows are soft!” he grumbled.

“Okay, I’m sorry! Friends?” Kim said as she held out her hand to him. “All right, maybe someday I may need to be saved by you!”

Gerald said, his face lighting up, “I promise to save you from every dark witch in the world!”

“Really?” Kim said.

“Yeah, with my karate moves! Cowabungga! “ Gerald screamed
as he came into a fighting stance.

Gerald however noticed Kim drifting away...

“Kim, what is it?” he asked, dropping his weapon.

“It’s just that I don’t want to be saved by a turtle...”

“What’s wrong with turtles? They’re cool?!”

“I want my white knight rescuing me...he will come with his white horse, take me down from the tower, fight off the evil witch with his sword...then, we will ride away together into the sunset...happily ever after!”

“Eeewww!” Gerald teased.

“Someday, you’ll see!” Kim replied with a hint of dismay.

“I can be your knight in shining armor!” volunteered Gerald, showing off his fancy sword-fighting footwork.

“You can be the horse!” Kim said wickedly as she walked away.

Gerald followed her with his gaze. She was very much regal in her paper crown and blanket cape. Whereas him, he was left with no catty remark of his own. He just sulked there, with his fake shell and fake fighting stick.
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Xoxoxoxox
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Gerald was totally out of focus the rest of the day. As the baptismal party outside started to die down, Gerald’s good mood never faded one bit, despite the stress of the day’s event. All he needed to do was to picture Kim’s face in his mind and he instantly gets a boost of energy.

“Hey boss, somebody outside wants to speak to you...” Carlo announced as he entered his office.

“Who is it?” Gerald asked. “I’m busy (thinking of Kim, that is!)...”

“I think it would be better if you talk to the person yourself...” said Carlo, whose face was somewhat stoic.

Gerald shook his head and let out a sigh. Gerald immediately wondered who it was Carlo referred to. At first he thought it was Kim, but noting the lack of enthusiasm in Carlo’s face, it probably wasn’t her. The moment Carlo starts calling people “the person.” That means he’s serious.
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Who Gerald saw outside was the person he least wanted to see. It was Jake...the Snake.

Jake Cuengco stood up as Gerald approached him. His grin was as wide as his mouth could stretch. He offered him a hand even before Gerald could say anything. He was left with no choice but to take it. In his mind though, he wanted to smash his teeth. He wanted to wipe off that stupid grin off his face with a bone-crushing punch. He was almost too tempted to act on his imaginations.
Instead, Gerald gripped Jake’s hand with more force than he actually intended. Jake’s face somewhat twitched from the pain.

“Hi, chef, my name is Jake...Jake Cuengco!”

“Gerald, Gerald Alejandro...”

Jake was almost glad that Gerald let go of his hand. His well-manicured hand throbbed like crazy from Gerald’s stone-like grip.

“Sit down, how could I be of service to you?” Gerald commanded.

Jake followed suit. They sat on the corner table where Kim and Jake had their spat the other day.

“I wanted to thank you for what you did to Kim last night...” Jake started.

“Huh?” That was all he could say. Gerald was a bit confused. He wondered what he was referring to. Was it their date together?

“Well, Kim asked me to come here and personally thank you for giving her that wonderful pie yesterday.”

“Oh, that!” Gerald said, obviously relieved. “It was the least I could do...”

“Yeah, she called me up early this morning, bragging how delicious it tasted!” Jake happily recounted.

“She did that?” Gerald’s eyes glowed with pride.

“I don’t know what’s with the pie man, but it really made her happy! She kept saying it was the best pie she ever tasted!”

“I’m glad she liked it!” Gerald said, leaning back on the chair.

“Do you guys put dope on your pies? Or, steroids perhaps?”

Gerald, at that moment, really wanted to pick him up and rub his face on the window. Maybe that will shake some nonsense off his mind. Gerald, however, decided against it.

“Nope, sir. We only use natural ingredients!” Gerald said, annoyingly.

“Sorry, man. I just wanted to get that off my mind. It just seemed unnatural of her to act that way!”

“In our patisserie, we pride ourselves with the kind of reactions our pies and desserts bring out in people...” Gerald responded calmly.

“Well, I might as well go straight to my business of coming here...” Jake cut him off.

“Okay...”Gerald said, steaming from disgust.

“Kim wanted me to do specifically the following things. First, I’d like to apologize to that little incident we had here on Friday!”

“Little?” Gerald answered sarcastically.

“Okay, maybe we were a bit overboard!” Jake said.

“We had to practically ban all the reporters from entering the restaurant and harassing our patrons!”

“If there is anything financially that we could do for the damage we caused you, just contact my agency and they will take care of it.”

IF Gerald was his usual self, this guy would have gotten two black eyes and two less teeth by now. He chided
himself, in hopes that his even temperament will somehow be looked upon nicely by Kim.

“My second purpose here is to let you know how Kim was so grateful of the pie you gave her! But I guess that you already know...”

Gerald nodded impatiently. The sooner this guy is done with his business, the sooner he will leave. Gerald wanted it to be over and done with.

“And lastly, because of that pie, Kim is now back to her usual self. Like I said, she called me up early this morning. She apologized for all that she had said to me. And...we agreed to get back together!”

At that moment, Gerald’s world started to crumble.

“Not only that, she said our time apart got her thinking. She has finally agreed to MARRY me! Next, next week, ten days from now!” Jake yakked incessantly.

You know the feeling of a ton of brick falling on you? Probably not, but that was what Gerald was feeling at the moment.

“And she specifically wanted you to be our cake maker. She said no one else will fit the role except you. She wanted me to convince you to do us a cake of mini-pies! Can you imagine that? Mini-pies as wedding cake? I don’t know how you’re going to do it, man, but I trust you. She ordered me not to leave here until you agreed!”

Gerald was shocked. For the first time, he never felt so disgusted with himself. More than he despised Jake, he realized he despised himself even more.

“So, what do you say, man?” Jake excitedly asked.

“I... really don’t know, I’ll have to look into my schedule...” Gerald fibbed. “It’s such a short notice!’

“Come on, man!” Jake whined. “This means so much to my girl. I will pay anything just to get you to do it. Name the price, man!”

Gerald could not believe the arrogance of the guy. He was seriously thinking of turning him down. But, he thought of Kim. Maybe she was really happy with this guy. Though, he could not bear to see her married to some other guy, but he could not bear it more to see her not happy. If she so chooses this guy, he will not be in the way of her happiness.

“Only, if get the liberty as to the choice of the cake.” Gerald finally conceded.

“Yes! Of course, chef! Kim will be very happy!”

Jake stood up and shook his hand. The moment he stood up, he pulled Gerald closer for a man hug. He tapped Gerald’s back several times.

Gerald thought things could never go more south than when Jake announced his engagement to Kim. But things went an all time low for Gerald when Jake started hugging him. Maybe, Carlo’s bad luck was indeed rubbing off on him.

All Gerald could do is to smile wryly at his wretched luck. One night is all it took to lose the girl he once loved. And all that because of his very own pie. His own masterpiece, in the end, became his own undoing.

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hang on, guys...couple more chaps to go....