"Wake up, Sleepyhead!" I said as I shook the bed. "You and I are going to start our adventure here in this lovely country of the Filipinos, Philippines, right now! The sky is blue. The sun is bright. I have our whole day plan, so I bought some breakfast take-outs. I made sure that everything will go right this time. And we have this whole day to ourselves."

He grunted in reply at all the things I have just said. Figures. I should have known that this would be harder than I have expected. Looking at his relaxed body on the bed, I did the only thing that will surely wake him up. I climbed on the bed, and started to jump up and down, Shaking the head even more.

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" I yelled while jumping, not really caring if I jump on him. "We don't have time for your late reacting jetlag or for you to be lazy today! We have so much activities to do, and places to go to!" I said, not relenting on my incessant jumping. In a split second, I feel like a child doing this. But well, whatever!

Suddenly, a hand caught my feet, swooping me off my balance, and effectively stopping my ridiculous jumping. And in a second, I found myself underneath a glaring Nathaniel Westwood. His sleepy green eyes pointedly staring down at me as if trying to glare. Both of his hands are on either side of my head, pinning and instantly trapping me but careful enough to hold his own weight on his arms as to not crush me.

When I mirrored my fierce green eyes to his own, he closed his, and placed his forehead on mine.

"Give me five more minutes of silence alone in my bed, first," he hissed.

I glared at him, and then rolled my eyes at myself because his eyes are currently closed. So instead, I pushed him off of me, which I successfully did, and with not much effort at that. "We don't have five minutes for you to self-reflect!"

"A minute then." I heard him say.

I groaned and exhaled through my nose, and decided to give in. Fine, I thought. I guess a minute wouldn't hurt. I got off the bed and stared at his form. His face looked so serene and peaceful with his eyes closed, and his jaw relaxed like that. Lying on his back, I didn't realize that he is actually shirtless.

Way to go!

Studying him carefully and appreciatively, he could immediately pass on as a professional model, can actually be mistaken as a Calvin Klein model. With his amazing look, the way he's lying, and the way that the blanket only covered his lower torso, revealing his eight-packed abs makes him look really sexy, and quite frankly, ready to be devoured. The last statement, by the way, will never be said out loud. When my eyes travelled back to his chiseled jaw and high cheekbones to his glinting green eyes, I felt my cheeks heat up. He was already smirking, obviously caught me at my shameless ogling.

He wiggled his eyebrows, "see something you like?" he had said.

Unsure on how to respond, and a bit shocked and flustered at getting caught, I managed to only blink which I realized must have been a really bad idea after his second comment.

"Take a picture. It will last longer."

Instantaneously, I was pulled out of my trance upon hearing that last statement of his. I snorted, grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. "You wish!" He managed to dodge the first pillow so I grabbed another one and threw it at him again. This time, he was smacked right on the face.

I smiled triumphantly before he finally moved out of the bed. Now, standing upright with all those naked chest, abs and body that was only clad in pants, I got view of his perfectly sculpted body. Although it was more than a second, I already got an eyeful so I immediately averted my eyes, not wanting to be caught ogling him again.

"Just wait here. I'll be back after a quick shower."

I know I still have a blush tinge on my cheeks so I just nodded in return. After that, he was off to the bathroom, to my great relief. I fanned myself. Pull yourself together, idiot!

When I finally cooled down, I went to the dining table and carefully laid out the food that I bought.

While I was placing the food from its boxes to the plates, my nose managed to sniff off a whiff of the aroma of freshly cooked pancakes. The hot chocolate that filled the air didn't help my condition, either. So instead of finishing setting up the breakfast table, I decided to just ditch the plates and sit in one of the chairs, and just eat in a box. By the time Nate was finished, I was already halfway through my portion of the meal.

"Really?" he said with a raised eyebrow, slightly amused. He looked great right after shower, wearing a simple white and blue flannel shirt and a pair of khaki pants.

Again, I simply stared at being caught off guard by being caught eating breakfast without him (possibly eating his portion of the meal as well) and, by his good looks and sexiness (again that statement will never be said out loud). When his eyes seemed to look for an answer to his rhetorical question, I gulped and smiled sheepishly and guiltily too.

"Sorry. I just couldn't help it." He chuckled at this. It smells so good. I just couldn't resist."

"No. No. Don't let my presence stop you from devouring those delicious pancakes," he said and joined me at the table. After complementing the food, we ate in silence. Although, my focus is solely on the food in front of me, I can feel him watching me.

"So, are you going to ask me something or are you just going to stare at me the whole time?" I asked, trying to hide my mirth as I watched him flush and cleared his throat.

"You said you already have everything planned?"

"I did."

"So you know the exact location of the National Museum and what route to go to?"

"Not exactly."

He frowned at this. "What do you mean?"

"I know the exact location, and how to get there."

"You mean to say, we still need to be on the road for you to tell me the direction we're going to?"

I looked at him and gave him one of my best smiles. "Firstly, we're going to ditch the rental car."

"Are we going on foot?"

"Can you let me finish first?"

He nodded and continued eating his food.

"We are going to ditch the car, but that doesn't mean, we're going to go there on foot. Nope! We are going to go there, Filipino style. We are going to go there by riding in one of those jeepneys."

The shocked look on his face says it all. "How would you even know their destination? They are everywhere if I remember correctly."

I rolled my eyes at that. "Exactly the point. They are everywhere, but that doesn't mean they have no destinations, no! According to the staff I talked to this morning, each set of jeepneys have certain destinations. On their windshield, placed the name of the location they are headed as well as the stops they may pass on the way. All we have to do is to remember the landmark to our destination and read carefully the signboards placed on the windshield of every jeepney."

"Isn't that a waste of time?"

I drew my eyebrows together at that question. "What do you mean?"

"We have to look at every jeepney signboards! It might take forever for that certain jeepney to come to us."

I stared at him blankly before standing up and slapping him upside the head. (That is not something I would recommend you doing to your boss)

"Are you an idiot? Of course, we have to be on the right street first before we come across the right jeepney!"

"Ohhh..."

I huffed indignantly.

Men!

*****

Fifteen minutes later, I found myself in a bus, tolerating that smug look on Nate's face.

Apparently, there is an easier way to get to the National Museum. All we have to do is ride the bus that will pass by just outside the hotel, and that bus can drop as off across the street from our destination.

I was slightly disappointed on not being able to ride one of the jeepneys, but if this bus will take us there faster, then I have no problem with it.

As of this moment, Nate is having a conversation with what Filipinos call kundoktor. I can see that he was trying really hard to speak in English for our sake. He is failing though, because I can see that Nate didn't even understand anything he said. Although, I really appreciate the way he tries to entertain us and how he seemed to be genuinely happy on what he's doing. He seemed to be giving out advise because I got some clipped words and phrases like "don't" "phones" and "roads."

The bus driver seemed to agree to this so I relayed the message to Nate. "Don't use phones when we're on the road or when we're outside."

He nodded. After so many minutes and seemed like hours, the bus driver and the kundoktor announced our stop.

Thanking them for their kindness and hospitality, receiving "Good lucks" and "Enjoys" in the process, we let ourselves out.

Together, our adventure began in the capital of the Philippines. Manila