Chapter 11: The Rose Parade

Sunday morning is always special every week now. We have only been together as a combined family for three months. The first month or so was insane. Just learning a new country for one person is hard. But we added four people to our family – one of whom has had to really wing it alone most of the time. We can't be there with her as she makes her way in her little town.

Teaching Lena how to drive has been a real effort and we really don't want her driving in the Winter months this first year. Luckily, we found someone who also commutes between the two towns every weekend and Lena is carpooling for now.

Lily and Rose were just sort of unceremoniously dumped into the water and told to swim (as I was at age 11) as they entered public school. I had always gone to Catholic Schools in the Philippines, and Jake thinks that if we were living in Mindanao, I would have graduated from such a school, but here in the USA he wants his girls to attend public school and that is what we do. I had found the Middle School here to be a nice and welcoming place. Lily started it at age 13, two years later than me. As an eighth grader she is finding it a bit more difficult to make lots of friends, but our family takes up the slack in that way. Rose is in tenth grade in High School. I include her with my circle of 'Senior' friends, so she's ok and protected. They are doing fine in school. Just like Gel, Lena had kept them in good Catholic Schools in Davao, so they were in good shape educationally when they got to the USA.

Nic2's education as far as learning about her new country has been Gel's responsibility. Nic2 and Gel do everything together from morning to night: Cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping, running errands, showering and socializing. Except on the weekends, if you see one, you see the other.

Jake commented one day that he is the only man in the world who fantasizes about having sex with just one woman alone. With a goofy look on his face he says that in our home, the minimum number of pussies in any one bed seems to be two.

Sunday mornings means we have all spent better than a whole day reconstituted as a complete family and we are about to sense that loss again. Though Lena was the "have-to" add-on, Gel, Jake and I have come to greatly appreciate her.

Sunday mornings are also the one and only 'family breakfast' day. We all come to the table, showered and dressed at what Jake calls a respectably late hour for our Sunday morning gathering. The food is a combination of Filipina and American cuisines. Jake makes his "Rye-Idea Sweet Buttermilk" pancakes with real maple syrup and butter on the side. There will be some meat on the table, either bacon, or tocino, or ham, or longanisa. Gel and Nic2 will cook up a large pan of Filipina-style scrambled eggs. There will be fruit, depending on what we can find. To drink, will be water, Sprite, Filipino-style fruit shakes and coffee. And there will be rice. There is always rice.

Seating somewhat reflects the previous sleeping patterns and so will change on occasion.

There are seven people at the table, with Jake always at one end. Gel always sits to Jake's immediate left and normally Nic2 next to Gel's left. I am on Jake's immediate right with either Rose or Lily on my immediate right. Lena often sits at the other end, in stark contrast to the rest of our sitting pattern. But in a way she is the head of the 'other' family at our table and as such, Nic2 is on her right and Rose or Lily is on her left.

Today is different. Gel is on the other end with Lily to her immediate right and Rose to her immediate left. Lena is sitting on Jake's immediate left. I remain on his right but Nic2 is next to me. And we are blended in a way we have not been before. There is laughter and happiness this morning ... that is no different from other mornings ... but that happiness with the arrangement of the seating does seal our family as one family. This is a good morning and tonight will be a special night.

Before this morning, it did not occur to me that Lena needed to be here for the Cherry-popping. Now I am concerned. I will speak with Lena.

After breakfast, we are in the kitchen together cleaning up. Ate ("ah-Teh" older sister), I would like to speak with you about Rose.

[pause] I see. [pause] Does Jake know this?

No, he doesn't. Will you tell him you give your permission?

You know this is crazy abnormal, right? You know that a sweet fifteen is not supposed to be having sex by permission with her mother's older lover – who is also married to someone else? Right?

Yes Ate.

[pause] OK I will get Gel and we will tell him.

Jake pulls me aside later in the day. He is trying to act angry but I'm not buying it for a minute.

[long pause]

If you divorce Gel, so she can marry Nic2, then I want to be your bride, not Lena and I will fight for that Jake.

Maybe I should marry Rose!

I want to hit him! How can he do that? But he is right ... everything is in play. Everything is in play.

As Lena and I prepare Rose for the big event tonight I have mixed feelings. I love Rose and I know Rose cares for me. She is lovely even with her pango (snub/flat) nose and her dark skin. She is prettier and younger than I am. Why wouldn't Jake prefer her over me? I know she wants to feel cock inside of her and has been pushing me for this day for some time now. I don't think she has even thought about what happens later. About her feelings for the man who takes her cherry, and will likely be inside her later, at her request many times. Maybe it will all be OK. Maybe she won't abandon me for Jake. I am scared. I fought Jake to get this done and I might have fought against my own interest. Only time will tell.

I'm a very different girl from the one eight years ago in Mindanao who argued that I should be the #1 GF. I am now a real live functional wife to Jake. I have been lying with him for four years. I know everything about him. I have seen him through fever and am committed to him for life. If something should happen to Gel, I can and will do everything for him that she has always done. I know how and I do these things today. Is he committed to me?