Absinthe novel Chapter 54

The whole place was a maze of tables and benches, people carrying trays of food while dodging each other as they find their seats, random kiosks spaced unevenly across the wide hall, buss personnel pushing their trays of used plates and utensils, and...

"Wait a minute," I said after making sure I scanned the whole area for at least three times. "What happened to the drinking fountains? There used to be drinking stations for the customers, right?"

"Oh that?" Jiwoo answered. "Gone. Years ago. They now sell ZM Mall branded bottled water."

"Capitalism." I joked. "Never mind that. What are we eating?"

Jiwoo scratched his head with his left hand, his right still holding mine. "What do you feel like eating? There's all sorts of food here: Sizzling Plate, Pao Tsin for Chinese snacks, you name it, they have everything here."

"Where do you want to take your boyfriend for a date?" I asked Jiwoo teasingly.

Jiwoo let go of my hand and started scratching his head faster and harder this time around.

"Fuck! I swear I wanted to take you somewhere better. But I don't really have a lot of cash on me right now. I thought I could cook you something special for lunch, but I screwed up that plan because –"

"You were screwing me," I finished his sentence for him, laughing.

It was Jiwoo's turn to blush, and slowly, he returned my smile.

"I'm really sorry, BJ. You deserve better."

"Oh, shut up." I said, taking back Jiwoo's hand and dragging him towards the Sizzling Plate corner. "Stop worrying about that stuff, alright?"

To be honest, I got scared for a second there. I was really just teasing Jiwoo when I asked him which fast food he'd like for us to eat. I wasn't expecting him to be all sensitive about getting me fancy stuff.

I guess that's something we should work on for this relationship to work.

I fell in line to order food with Jiwoo right beside me. A dozen other gay guys and ladies suddenly changed their store choices and started lining up after Jiwoo.

And as usual, Jiwoo seemed oblivious about it and I'm not sure whether I'm okay with that.

"Hello sir, what would you like to order?" the lady at the counter asked.

Right in front of her was an array of fake sizzling plates with amazingly realistic models of the different dishes they sell. I gave it a quick scan and immediately chose that one thing I've been meaning to eat ever since I came back home.

"Pork Sisig, please." I ordered, pointing at the replica to the far left. "And a tall glass of pineapple juice, please."

"Two hundred five pesos, sir. You can get a free banana from the central counter if you present this receipt."

"I'll pay for that," Jiwoo told the lady at the counter as she gave me a spoon and a fork wrapped in tissue paper. Jiwoo slid a brown tray towards me and motioned for me to follow the person to my left.

I could hear Jiwoo ordering a pork chop set and a tall glass of root beer. I heard the lady telling Jiwoo the total amount as well as her spiel about the free bananas.

"Here's your meal, sir," said another lady as she carefully placed the sizzling and smoking plate of Sisig with the most amazing half-cooked egg on top. "And here's your tall glass of pineapple juice."

"Thank you." I greeted her as I lifted my tray and moved to the side to wait for Jiwoo.

Jiwoo got his meal right after. But I guess it was more than a meal.

"Here's your meal, sir, the same lady said. "And here's our special beef broth soup, on the house!"

"Gee, thanks!" I heard Jiwoo saying.

"And here's a special brownie, courtesy of yours truly."

I was waiting for this to happen, actually. I kind of expected it. But I think I'll just allow Jiwoo to handle it and decided to go ahead and look for a free table.

But everything's occupied and there's basically no place for us to seat. We should have grabbed a seat first and let one of us order while the other waited.

"BJ!" I heard Jiwoo calling. He must have successfully wiggled his way out of those ladies at the counter. I turned and saw him already sitting in one of the tables near the central counter. And of course, he had already claimed our free bananas and was shameless waving them at me. "Over here!"

I moved towards him and bowed just a little bit to the elderly couple sitting side by side across Jiwoo.

"There are no tables left." Jiwoo whispered as soon as I made it beside him. "They agreed to let us share this table with them, and they'll be finishing soon."

I nodded and thanked the couple in front of us before starting on my lovely and fragrant sisig, diving first into the runny yolk to let it mix with the meat.

I was about to take in my first bite when I felt Jiwoo's arm wrapping around my shoulders again.

"IG post," he explained, grinning.

I rolled my eyes and complained, "I'm starving. And what's the big deal with you and your IG posts, anyway? Gossip Gay's minions would have probably taken a dozen shots of us already."

"Yeah but..." Jiwoo said, giving me the world's most annoying set of puppy eyes. "Am I not allowed to brag about being your boyfriend?"

Props to this guy for always saying the right things, and now I'm pretty sure my cheeks were burning red.

"You're just doing that for the money from your followers," I said, grateful that I was able to think of a bitchy comeback.

Jiwoo's pale lips turned into the world's sluttiest pout. "I need that extra money so I can buy good things for you, take you out to better places... not here."

Whoa. It looks like this issue of me wanting fancy stuff every time is way bigger than I expected.

"You're making me feel like I'm demanding all these things from you," I started, not taking my eyes off his. "I don't need them, okay?"