For part 2 of Bryant's party we moved to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf at Greenbelt, where we shared 3 slices of cheesecake (creamier, cheesier than what we had in Saisaki) and enjoyed coffee and tea lattes (moroccan mint for me, as usual).




As in all caffeine-induced conversations, the topics were greatly profound:

1. ) Why Bien's hands were softer than mine ("Lubricant gamit ko, eh. Kayo lotion lang."-Bien);
2) Bien's wish to have his OCE over and done with so he can fly to the US, ASAP ("For good?" Claire asked. "For Love," sagot ni Bien.);
3) The movie "Wedding Date" being so different from the premise shown by its trailer ("Wala yung funny scenes na nasa trailer!" - Bryant; "Nge.. eh yun ang motivation ko to watch the movie!"- Anneski)
And of course, what conversation between friends would be complete without the invariable analysis of someone else's lovelife? Claire won the hot seat that night and received free, unsolicited (probably unwanted.. hehehe) advice. My two-cents worth's contribution as a shrink? "Cardboard Cutout Boyfriends" ("Ok ang analogy mo, ah.. I like that."-Jojo) and a discourse on The Principle of Investment ("Tapos na sa Cardboard Cutouts.. Investment naman ngayon." -Jojo ) Sorry... no details...that's all I am at liberty to share here. :)
After having our plans of watching "Wedding Date" rained on by Bryant who insisted it was no good and we're better off watching "Guess Who" instead (and it was past the Last Full Show), and after over an hour of sipping, slicing and chatting, it was time to head home.
Having obtained Mike's go-signal, I slept-over at Claire's...more like winked-over though... we stayed up for a few hours more.. daldalan pa din till about 4am. I got up at a little past 6am, planning to go home as early as possible, Claire getting up early too, kahit hindi siya sanay :)
After breakfast at McDonald's though over which we discussed prospects for my book (another output of the night before: that I will write a book on men's (irrational) fear of rejection, or something like "Tell-tale Signs a Girl Likes You: The Ultimate Guidebook for Men Who are Either Blind, Dumb or Dense," since, as Claire puts it, my long, many and varied experience makes me a guru of sorts on the subject anyway), our thoughts drifted to the cargo pants we saw the day before while shopping for materials for Bryant's scrapbook (for which we didn't have time), so Claire and I hied off to Makati for some more serious girl therapy (read: shopping).
We SMS'd Bryant and Dottie ("Guess where we are and what we're up to..") and got Bryant's "Antok pa ko...zzzzz" and Dottie's "Kagigising ko lang. You mean nagsa-shopping na naman kayo?" A few minutes before noon, fashion wanderlusts satiated, energies spent and sleeplessness beginning to gnaw at us, Claire and I parted ways under the Ayala MRT station, she off to a bus bound for Baclaran, me off to a BBL bus bound for Pacita.
After seating myself I hurriedly paid manong the P36.00 for my ticket, clutched my shopping bags close and hurried to snatch a few zzzzzs. Walang kama-kamag-anak, walang kai-kaibigan... ah basta, ngork na!