APRIL

Sora stopped advocating for Hana in April. Not simply because Ravi asked her to let him make up his own mind, but because she no longer believed that wishing her friend and her sister back together was the best thing for them. Hana hasn't changed. Ravi has. He needs more than she can provide and what she wants he can't give her. Ravi had grokked their incompatibility right off whereas Hana still clung to the belief that their love affair could be salvaged. Sora had every intention of keeping her distance from the monsoon sure to begin swirling between her sister and former brother-in-law. I'm out of the matchmaking game.

On one hand, she wasn't emotionally in a place where she could send them off together. Not that Ravi would go if I told him. He'd quit taking my phone calls. A very real vindictive part of her burned at the idea of aiding Hana in attaining her happily ever after Hana had had a vital part in the breakdown of Sora's.

At the same time, Sora was forced to admit she no longer trusted her own motives. She had felt a shift in her and Ravi's friendship in recent weeks. His remark about destiny had served as the turning point. "There's destiny and then there's what you choose." How was she supposed to take that?

Ravi couldn't be developing feelings for me. We're friends. I've been his sister-in-law since I was a girl. It would be...it wouldn't be us.

Sora had put the words out of her mind countless times; over and over, they'd come springing back, demanding clarification. What did he mean? Do I want him to mean..? She was preoccupied with the wherefores of this gradual transformation. Ravi hadn't made a move to change their relationship beyond the intimate conversation and soulful embraces that had defined it since the New Year had arisen. He cares about me, he chose me. No further answers appeared to be forthcoming. For the time being that knowledge would have to be knowledge enough.

...

...

"Trouble in paradise?" asked Ravi as Sora glared at her phone. Another passive-aggressive text from Hana who was supposed to be developing a new cologne in the labs at House of Misra. She was asking after Ravi since apparently Sora was his keeper these days. Sora grit her teeth and stabbed the power button to black out the screen.

"Trouble in general," she answered his gentle inquiry. "I don't have time to deal with everything and that. I've got the company to keep afloat while Tony does whatever it is he's doing at the moment and Tommy is teething at home and crying all night. Hana's...moping, for lack of a better word." She shot Ravi such a look of scorn for making Hana's moodiness her problem. "Aiko's pining at obscene volume. Yelena is confused again about a boy. Everybody wants me to sit and listen to them and nobody is listening to me. Same as always." She massaged her temples.

Ravi closed the sketchbook he'd toted along on his lunch break-which he'd decided to take in her office because all the other public space in Los Angeles County was occupied, she guessed. "I'm listening."

"You could take Hana off my hands and simplify my life twice."

"Why twice?"

Sora looked unsure. "I can't confirm this. It's just this feeling I've been having for a few weeks now. I don't think she and Tony have ended their affair. They're just being subtler this time. I don't think it's over."

Ravi propped his whiskered chin on his hands.

"Let me find out. I'll put your mind at ease."

"You think Hana's over him?"

"She wants you and me to believe that. That's your first sign she's lying."

"Tony isn't even trying to pretend."

"Have I mentioned he's an idiot yet?"

"Not in the last twenty minutes."

"Sora Isabella Yoshida Gallegos!" shouted a voice that would put the fear of death or torture in a seasoned soldier. Sora froze like she'd been caught with a boy in her bedroom after curfew. She'd never been in this position in her life. Aiko and Hana had rarely been caught any other way. But then they'd rarely been caught at all. Much too sneaky, her sisters.

Shit!

Ravi's dark eyes were wide. He knew her mother, too, and had no idea how she felt about him after the last stunt he'd pulled jilting Hana at their wedding two years ago. Sora didn't have any reassurances for him; her mother could hold a grudge.

She jumped up from her desk to open the door before her mother stormed right in. She almost made it, just dodging the swinging door before the door handle collided with her navel.

The two women hugged more to avoid an embarrassing fall than intention. They were of a height and looked somewhat similar though her mother was slightly shorter with greyer hair and fairer skin. She was huffing in annoyance even as she greeted Sora with a great big hug. Nobody was more capable than her mother of experiencing multiple conflicting emotions at once.

"Mama, when did you get in town? You didn't call!"

Taina Amoroso Yoshida switched to Taglish almost faster than Sora could follow, never a good sign.

"Your sister is furious. What is happening? Pwedeng i-explain mo sa akin?"

"I don't know what Hana told you, but there's nothing going on."

Ravi silently signalled his intention to leave and she could only let him. Far be it for Sora to make them both suffer her mother's wrath, and it was clear Taina hadn't come to harangue him today.

It could be worse, she supposed. Her mother could have switched to Japanese or Chavacano. Sora could barely order water in her mother's native languages most of the time, but she could understand them just fine. Tony used to tease her for not understanding what his aunts said when she came over for family dinners. Hana had gotten the head for languages while Sora had mastered English, to her parents' (and his aunts') intermittent delight.

"What have you done, Soso?"

"Nothing!"

Her mother pinched her cheek. "Don't try that with me. Hana is upset."

"She's always upset. It's like tool number 18 in her emotional manipulation toolkit."

Her mother swatted her shoulder, not liking her tone. She didn't need to voice it for Sora to apologize.

"Hana is upsetting your aunts again and your cousins are waiting for you to make it better. Nahihiya sila na mag-ask ng favor from you, kasi hindi mo na trabaho ito."

"They're right it's not my job anymore. Ma, I don't have time to do this as well. Can't Aiko handle it?"

Unimpressed, her mother began fanning herself and it was only then that Sora noticed how warm her mother looked.

"Are you okay? You're all red. Come sit down." She called out for her assistant. "Cristina, bring my mother a glass of water, please, with ice." She clasped her mother's wrists when the older woman started to sway. Her tank full of outrage was running on empty.

"Paki-buksan yung aircon." Her mother rarely complained about the heat. Home was hotter and even more humid.

"The A/C is working already." Sora rifled through her memory for what she could remember of her mother's first language and came up short. "Sit down, Nanay. Do you want to lie down?"

Her mother shook her head, as stubborn as all of Sora's aunts put together. "I don't want to sit. I want you to and your sister to make up."

"We will, don't worry. 'Nay, I promise to fix it. Don't I always fix it?" Sora was the responsible sister. She always fixed it. Fixing was her job. Hana broke; Sora fixed. They were two halves of a dysfunctional whole that way.

Her mother patted her cheek, her face sad and proud of Sora for doing what she'd asked. "You're a good girl."

"I try to be." Sora squeezed her mother's hand. "Come rest. Cristina," she called out. "Pakitawag ang driver for my mother. She can stay at my house tonight." Her mother scoffed and shook her head. Her independent streak ran deep.

Cristina returned with the requested water. "Already done, boss."

She rubbed her brow, trying to remember what else was on the agenda for the day. She had a backlog of earnings reports due from her department heads that would need a thorough review. She wasn't sure she could split her attention between work and her mother, but she was determined to give a try.

"Na-print mo na ba ang report?" She realized with a sigh she'd slid into Taglish again and made to apologize, but Cristina didn't miss a step.

"Check your inbox and your email. I sent it electronically in case you wanted to make direct edits and in hard copy since I know you prefer to make your notes by hand."

"Remind me how I managed to get the queen of all L.A. assistants?"

"I think it was by being the queen of all L.A. bosses."

"I like that title."

"It's a good title." They shared a smile. Her mother laughed. "Shall I order in for lunch?"

"Please do. My mother will be staying, so order something for us both. You know what we like."

"I'm not staying."

Sora frowned. "What, why?"

"I need to go shopping before I go home." It was rare her mother made the trip from Long Beach outside the holidays, so she made the most of Madison Avenue when she did.

"What do you need? I can have someone send for it."

Her mother waved away the offer. "No need, Soso. Magsho-shopping ako sa mall mamaya."

"Nana, I can get somebody to bring it or I'll even go get it for you." Busy as she was, she really did miss her mother being close at hand. They hadn't spent significant time together since Sora left for college.

"You need your space, you and Hana's guwapo."

Sora's face burned. Cristina snorted from the outer office. Taina was as loud as Hana could be.

"Nanang!"

Her mother watched her, a shrewd look in her eye. "You like him. You've never liked him."

Sora wrung her hands, and then hid them under her legs when she realized what she was doing. "He's changed. We're friends."

"Friends and what else?"

Sora shrugged. "Hindi ko alam." Her mother tapped her shoulders in censure. She wanted an answer, not rudeness. "Sorry, Nanay. I don't know," she repeated.

"You'd better figure it out before Hana decides for you."

They both knew Hana. Hana made decisions; other people lived with them.

"I will."

Taina petted Sora's hair and kissed her head. "It will work out, if you fight." She nodded, her business all done. Her mother was a whirlwhind. Hana and Aiko had learned it from her. Sora had learned from their father how to be a quiet storm instead. "I can't stay. Your father's home from Davao tonight." He often travelled for work with the benefit being he got to visit their extended family more often than any of them. Sora envied him for a moment.

She smiled and asked, "How are my cousins?"

"Married," Taina deadpanned.

Sora's eyes rolled of their own volition. "I've been married. It didn't work out. But I'm not dead," she reminded her mother, meaningfully.

"Don't be funny."

"I'm not being funny. I'm being happy. Isn't that enough? Can't you lecture Hana instead of me?"

"I'm going to see her next," declared Taina ominously.

Sora did not envy her big sister. She had some explaining to do and their mother wasn't as liable as their father to let her smile stand for an explanation. Better her than me.