Interim Goddess of Love Read Online Free PDF

because Martha did. She didn't even apply to the school he wanted to go to, thinking she wouldn't pass anyway.
    So he braved the anger of his dad, the confusion of his mom, and the mocking of his older sister. Risked his future entirely on the idea of being with her every day just like in high school -- and then she broke up with him. Because he changed.
    When he said that word again, I saw it.
    Carson and Martha didn't have the same major, so they had different schedules. Even though he tried to find PE classes and English lit that would match hers, things just didn't work out. They spent their entire freshman year waiting for one another, mostly Carson waiting for Martha. She opted for a lot of afternoon classes, and joined Ford River's pet society, which liked to meet after class and into the early evening. He was frustrated but he had already given up a lot to be with her, and didn't want to waste what was left.
    And then, a few months ago, he realized he didn't mind the wait.
    Three people made the waiting not so bad. Jim, quirky Math major from Bacolod. Anna, once a sparring partner in PE 105 (Taekwondo). And Kathy, also a film buff. He introduced them all to each other, and they were always up for something. And Kathy always had a movie worth watching in her laptop (or a disc in her bag).
    It annoyed Martha that he had begun settling into her school.

    Twenty-five minutes. That was the entire amount of time we spent together, from my approaching him at the running track, watching him pack up, walking to his car, and actually being driven home. But that split-second memory was enough for me to conclude that while he may like Kathy, it wasn't in that way.
    " I'm really sorry," Carson said once we had reached my aunt's house. "I normally don't go on and on about her like this. Really sorry. I just felt like I should say it."
    " It's no problem."
    " Thank you for listening."
    " That's what I do."
    Knowing her well enough wasn 't it. He had to have spent some time thinking about a meaningful gift, and how to give it without Kathy finding out it was from him. That required at least two brain cells not occupied with thoughts of Martha, and he probably didn't have those to spare.
     

    I barely knew my mother's sister.
    Tita Carmen, known in my family as the Unmarried One, lived about fifteen minutes from our house in Manila for years but we never saw her. It wasn't because she and Mom had a fight, or anything like that. Apparently they still talked and saw each other, but Tita Carmen just never showed up when the entire family was around.
    A few years ago she purchased a house very near the school my mom was intending to send me to. Could she take me in for four years, and save us the dorm costs? It would make up for the eighteen years of not visiting.
    We were all right, though. One time, she was getting ready for a Friday night dinner with a guy, and almost started to tell me about him. But he arrived and interrupted our conversation, and the next time I saw her, she didn't mention him.
    I called Quin from my cellphone as I walked from the curb up to my aunt 's front door.
    " It's not him," I said. "But the poor thing needs help too. Can I have more than one project at a time?"
    " Hold on," he said instead, and I knew what that meant.
    I ended the call and waited there, still on the sidewalk. A minute later, a car turned the corner into our street. It was a Toyota that had to be at least ten years old, and in the past year it seemed to have developed the engine equivalent of a cough.
    " Get your car fixed," I told Quin when he joined me on the driveway.
    " It's still running," he said. I was hoping he would be amused at my constant bringing up of that, but he looked like he cared more for that thing currently in his hand. The red blob of clay was round now, a sphere the size of a tennis ball.
    " Are you revealing to the class that you're a cherry?"
    He held it up for a second just on the tip of his index finger. "I'll just