As they are on the side of the road, Samantha briefly looks at him and then to the ground.

“What is love, Cesar?”

Cesar looks at him and smiles.

“Love is not a feeling but faith.”

She looks at him flabbergasted.

“How did you know that? Ms. Berido just said that to me.”

“Well, she said that to me too today.”

“When did she say that to you?”

“When she asked for me to go outside with her. That is one of the things she said to me.”

“What are the others?”

“Well, I won’t disclose them to you. But let’s just say it’s something that I have to do to maintain our dignity for the future.”

“Huh, interesting.”

When they arrive at Samantha’s house, they stop and look at each other. They are all smiling at each other and some passersby look at them amused.

Samantha grabs the arm of Cesar and says, “See you tomorrow, love.”

Cesar chuckles and says, “I can’t wait to see you, my love.”

Samantha lets go of his arm and walks to her door. When she reaches the door, she turns back to him and waves. He waves back then Samantha turns, opens the door, and goes in. As she is about to close the door, she gives out a flying kiss to him. Cesar catches the flying kiss and puts it on his cheek. Samantha giggles and closes the door.

She leans on the door, lets in a deep breath, and gives out a huge sigh.

“So, this is love.” Then with a confused face, she says, “But it is also a double-edged sword.”

She pushed herself from the door and walked towards the staircase. She climbed the stairs with a hand on the railing, humming as she went along. When she reached the second floor, she walked towards another staircase and climbed it. With a hand on a railing, she hums and worded occasionally the melody in her heart.

“My honey hm hmmm. With the dawwwn hm hmmm will be gooone. But tonight, you beloong hm hmm.”

When she reached the third floor, she walked into the corridor. She walked towards her room with bliss in her heart. And as she reached the door, her little brother came out of his room opposite hers. When he saw her, he hugged her.

“Hello, big sister.”

“Oh, it’s you, Manny.”

He lets go of her then she turns around to see him. She leans over to him and rains upon him kisses.

She giggles and says, “Stop it, big sister.”

She then hugs him tight and says, “How’s your day?”

“Yaya made me an omelette with cheese for lunch this afternoon, it’s delicious.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Oh, that’s awesome. Did you do what I want you to do?”

“Yeah, I flushed the toilet after I had a butt clenching wet chunky, don’t-let-it-in-your-mouth-or-it’ll-taste-funky, stew, don’t-let-it-brew, horrifying poo poo.”

Samantha let him go, laughed out loud, and said, “Manny! That’s not what I meant!”

“Oh, “ he responds while looking up. “Oh yeah, I’m being a good boy, my queen!”

She smiles and boops his nose but he shakes his head from this disgraceful gesture. She giggles, then she stands up, gets her bag off of her, and opens the zipper of the main compartment. And she grabs something and pulls it out.

“Wow, thanks big sister, I really really want banana barbeque today.”

She gives him a shush gesture with her index finger standing erect against her lips.

“Shhh, don’t tell yaya I gave you banana barbeque before you eat your dinner.”

“Not to worry, big sister, I already ate her.”

He lets out a wheezing laugh while she bursts out laughing her butt off. When they’re done laughing, she puts her hand on his head.

“Gotta go.”

“Go where?”

Samantha leans over to him and says, “To my room, you dummy.”

“Oh. Thank you for the gift, by the way, big sister.”

She smiles at him then removes her hand from his head and postures herself up. She turns from him, opens the zipper of the front pocket, reaches in, and grabs something. She grabs out of her bag her key to her door and uses it to unlock it. As she opens her door, she enters her room. She turns to shut her door but she waves first to her brother before shutting it. He waves back and then she closes the door.

She pulls a chair by the table and puts her bag on it. She takes off her shoes and changes to her clothes fitting for the home; homely yet modest fitting for a Christian.

She goes over to her bag and opens the main compartment and pulls out her phone. She turns on the phone and sees that her phone is about fifteen percent.

‘I need to charge this.’

She gets her charger and inserts it into her phone, then she plugs it into the outlet by the head of her bed. As she is holding her phone, she throws herself unto her bed and starts to open her messenger.

She messages Ruth with, “Bes, Mark is kinda lost today 🤣”

She then waits for Ruth to reply, putting her phone beside her and staring at the ceiling.

‘What if Mark likes me? Nah, that guy is too smart for me. He has high standards for a woman. Besides, I already have Cesar. When I saw Mark, he was a nice guy. I have a suspicion that he likes me, but Cesar took the bait first and I can’t help but pity Cesar if I reject him or even break up with him.’

Pop-ding

‘Oh, it’s Ruth.’

She gets her phone and reads, “Yeah, he’s sometimes out of reality. But he is who he is, you can’t change him. He’s my type of guy. Hehe.”

“I think you have a chance with him.”

“What? Me? Nah, he likes you. And besides, he’s focused on God now. I can’t be happier for him than that.”

“Come on, have some hope. You too believe in Jesus, you two have that in common.”

“Well, yes. But not as dedicated as him. I may be a Jew, doesn’t mean I’m that special.”

“Well, all I could say is that you’re special. You are a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, etc. You Jews are heirs of the promises of God. What makes you think you’re not as valuable as who God thinks you people are?”

“I suppose what you say is true. But what if he doesn’t like me because I’m a Jew?”

“Well, that’s stupidity. Just because you’re a Jew doesn’t mean that you’re disqualified from having a love life. In Jesus, Jew and Gentile no longer matter. It’s now Believers of Jesus.”

“You speaketh the truth.”

“So, do you have hope that you can have Mark as your husband? 🤣🤣”

“I would say I have hope, but a reserved hope so that I will not get disappointed if he doesn’t like me back. I mean you’re prettier than me, he would prefer you more than me if you ask him.”

“That would be true, but pray to Adonai if you really want him.”

“I will.”

“By the way, why were you absent today?”

“I just messaged you about it.”

Samantha is confused so she scrolled up her phone only to see that Ruth had already messaged her about why she couldn’t go to school.

“Oh, sorry about that. I forgot that you have a fever today.”

“A dengue fever.”

“Dengue fever?! What!? That means you wouldn’t be in school for a couple of weeks.”

“Yep, I got admitted to the hospital, in Cebu City, and now I’m in a private room just watching clean tiktoks and memes. 🤣🤣.”

“🤣🤣🤣 Well, girl, you have to be dedicated to God more now that you got a trial. Maybe that will help you have Mark.”

“I suppose so, I watch occasionally some Christian videos, especially TB Joshua videos which are awesome.”

“Well, that’s awesome. He’s a true prophet, I tell you that. His healings are genuine and his prophecies are precise.”

A voice emanated outside her door saying, “Sam, go eat your dinner, it’s ready.”

Samantha replied, “Yes, yaya, I’ll be there in a sec.”

She messaged Ruth typing, “Gotta eat, we’ll chat later maybe. Or tomorrow, we’ll just chat nonetheless.”

“Same. Later.”