One of Those Days

I left my desk and couldn't get out of the building quickly enough. I pushed the revolving doors with all my strength and walked determinedly away from the building.

I quickened my stride, a desperate attempt at escaping the shadow of the towering structure beneath my feet. I counted my steps until I reached where our floor would be. I looked back. A hundred and forty four paces from my office window to the pavement.

I ignored the traffic lights, at times halting almost too late for a passing bus. I stopped walking when I reached a nearby park and sat on a bench. I watched someone's dog circle around the post it was tethered to, the shortening leash straining its collar.

It grew dark and the heavy rain started to pour. I only stood up after I was drenched and cold. A pair of black wingtips splashed dirty water with each step. I tripped on myself and fell into a puddle.

I started to drown.

photo from www.asiaarts.ucla.edu

Sandcastles

We lay half naked under the splayed branches of a tree by the shore. The pale was now deeply bronzed, but we couldn't resist catching the sunshine reflected by the white sand onto our supine bodies.

As hubby slept, I took photos of our feet against the blue backdrop, our tanned toes breaking the serenity of the horizon. I would tell him later what I thought it meant, the two of us stepping into infinity.

The rustling of leaves was overpowered by the sound of a speeding boat, a parasail in tow. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty minutes. The sound of the engine stopped, and the blot of bright orange against the blue expanse floated gently onto the waiting water.

I picked up my watch, half buried in the sand, its ticking more pronounced. I quickly shoved it aside and blocked the nagging thought of counting down the days when we'll come crashing down back to reality.

Hunky Cebuanos

The first thing that I noticed about Cebu was its handsome guys. There were just so many of them around! In the resort, inside the mall, on the street, in church.

Most of us have a particular preference, and the men that I find attractive belong to a narrow profile. But here, I've been swooning over such a wide variety - moreno, chinito, and mestizo men of all ages and sizes (er, I mean body types).

And I find the women very attractive as well. Now that's a real stretch from the usual type that I fall for. 

Seated for dinner, I found the waiter who came to take our order somewhat too pale for my taste. But I still found him gorgeous. Then the reason why I found so many Cebuanos so attractive finally came to me.

As the handsome waiter took our order, I wanted to see if I could get away pretending I was local.

I smiled.

The Affair

When we checked ourselves in on our flight, I was disappointed that neither of us was assigned an aisle seat. I get claustrophobic inside airplanes and wanted to change our seats, but hubby was happy to sit by the window.

I was hoping that the seat beside mine would remain vacant for a more comfortable ride, but I was not too hopeful given the number of passengers waiting at the gate. I definitely didn't mind when this tanned chinito buckled up beside me.

He looked japanese, the 30 something fit golfing kind. He had his kids in tow and they were all crammed across the aisle. We were all flying via HK so he probably treated the kids to Disneyland. Both Wifey and wedding ring were not in sight.

I already saw him at the gate before boarding. He was looking at me. But that was probably because I was staring at him. Hubby says it's an annoying habit of mine. Not because he feels threatened but more on my being too obvious about it, me drooling and all.

As expected, hubby immediately threw a jab my way, "Your crush is here." I feigned embarrassment and pretended to protest, but the sparkle in my eyes gave me away. He started to laugh, hmph! Then the delicious daddy spoke in his dialect, which confirmed my theory that Cebu has a high concentration of handsome hunks.

He fussed over my future step children until they fell asleep. I in turn fed hubby spoonfuls of Benadryl. Joke. He was already snoring. As daddy settled in, his knee would always cross this imaginary demarcation line between our seats and touch mine. He wasn't even that tall.

He pretended to sleep and kept up with the knee thing. I badly wanted to run my hand up his tanned thigh. Now and then, both of us would check up on our dozing families. Then we'd take turns stealing glances at the other, but never allowing ourselves to look into each other's eyes.

That would have been too much. What was the point anyways, as he looked at his kids and I at my husband.

As the plane started to descend, my hubby and daddy's kids woke up. Daddy placed a bag on his lap to add more discretion. Each one of us chatted up our respective companions, our knees not ready to let the other go.

The plane landed and all the passengers busied themselves with their carry-ons before deplaning. While waiting for our bags at the luggage belt, we built up the courage to finally look at each other, our faces full of tempered sadness and regret.

"Met you on a springtime day. You were minding your life and I was minding mine too," England Dan and John Ford Coley started playing softly over the PA system. We left the airport at the same time but went our separate ways, each one of us tending to our own baggage.

Chos.

Pre-Boarding

First day of our vacay is not off to a good start. The bags under my eyes were bigger than our luggage, and we packed heavy.

So I had my sunglasses on the whole time and hubby was not too happy about it. Well it was a cloudy day, and we had thick jackets on inside the Chinese airport.

So I tried to channel a bit of Ghost Protocol with a touch of Matrix into my facial expressions to make the best of the situation.

With the Lenten season, he said that I should be more concerned of things within. Something clicked and I said that he was right. Gosh! I forgot to cut my toenails, took my right shoe off, and said I'd start snipping away right there and then.

As I saw the exasperation start to cross his face, I punched his right arm and said I was kidding. I showed him the bookmarked pages on my phone's browser. All the Churches we would visit and Easter mass schedules for each one of them.

As hubby sstarted to calm down, they broadcasted our boarding arrangements. Before we lined up with rest of the passengers, we said a short prayer for a safe flight and to give thanks and praise for this day.

Pitching In

I was too excited for our trip and couldn't sleep much. I got up early and slipped out of the house unnoticed. Our flight was in a few hours, but I desperately needed to go to the nearest mall.

I got an earful from hubby yesterday. He didn't quite understand why I had to do some last minute shopping. But he was so busy with doing all the packing himself that I had to at least pitch in with something.

So I decided to make sure that all of our photos at the beach would be pretty. And with the perfect pair sunglasses and shorts, I could take on that responsibility all by myself.

Joke.

Bored at the airport.

Beaches and Bitches

I was browsing for flight and hotel packages and asked hubby where he wanted to go this time. Everything was already expensive because he failed to deliver on his earlier promise to search the Chinese sites. And now I'm scrambling with the bookings.

I asked if Thailand was ok. We both like the beach and I wanted to shop for home stuff, but he complained that we always go to the same place. We've never been to Bali, but the package prices were already too high. I didn't even bother looking at the Maldives.

I started to panic and blamed him for the same situation that we get ourselves into year after year. I told him I didn't want to stay in China for our break. As usual, he just laughed it off and said there is always somewhere we can go to so long as we were willing to pay.

I clicked on an advert that brought me to Cebu Pacific's website. Boracay, Cebu, Palawan, Bohol came up on the screen. I told hubby that fares were already higher than usual but remained reasonable. He sensed the hesitation in my voice and asked why.

I said that given it is my home country, I would have to take care of him the whole time. I'd feel the pressure of making sure we went to the most interesting sites, ate in the best restaurants, had the best deals when we shopped, and that he always had a good time.

There was a brief pause before he said, "Now you know what I put up with every single day."

photo from tumblr.com

Damdaming Di Maisatinig

Sadya kong isinulat ito sa wikang di niya maintindihan, dahil alam kong pag nabasa niya ito, siya ay maiinis lamang... 

Isa-isa kong sinidihan ang mga kandila, habang ako'y tahimik na nag-alay ng aking pasasalamat. Unti unting kumalat ang liwanag na lalong pinatingkad ng pagsibol ng kaniyang ngiti.

Nagsimula akong umawit sa tiyempo ng magkasabay naming palakpak. At naluha ang mga kandila sa nasaksihang paglagabgab ng init sa pagitan naming dalawa.

Saglit niyang ipinikit ang kaniyang mga mata, may ibinulong sa sarili, bago ang malalim na buntong-hininga. At sabay na tinangay ng kaniyang banayad na pag-ihip ang liwanag at lihim niyang dasal.

Maingat niyang hinati ang cake na umaaso. At tulad ng kaniyang nakagawian, iniabot niya ang kabuuan nito sa aking plato, habang para sa kaniyang sarili ay nagtira lamang ng kapiraso.

Sinindihan ko ang kandilang nadagdag sa taong ito, bago ibinulong ang aking hiling dito. Ako naman ang nagtabi ng kaunti, at inabangan ang hininging pagkakataong makapagbigay ng higit pa sa inilaang pansarili.