This is the story of how my life changed forever. The moon set and the sun rose on a hot, humid
day in Quezon City. I was in the
Philippines on vacation with my friends.
After breakfast, I decided to hang out at the driveway in front of my
friend’s house where we were staying and watch the cars, jeeps, and tricycles
pass by. Without expectation, my cell
phone began to ring. It was a text message from my cousin Kat back in the
states. She said that there was a girl
that she wanted to introduce me to and that she emailed me some pictures just
in case I was interested. Unfortunately,
my friend did not have internet access in his house so I could not check my
email right away. So I had to wait a few days until I could find an internet
café.
The first night
when we're in Boracay I found a place where there was internet access. I was excited to check the email my cousin
sent me. As I opened her email
attachments I was in awe to see the most beautiful woman I ever saw in my
life. I thought to myself that there was
no way that this woman would ever give me a chance. She was way to pretty for me and thought that
she would want someone who was as attractive as her. I felt that if she saw how I really looked
like she would be disappointed because I was no Brad Pitt.
So I gave up
instantly but she would run through my mind from time to time. I always wondered what could have been. I would think if I would be so lucky for her
to give me a chance. That’s all I really
wanted, was a chance for her to get to know me then maybe she could fall in
love with me.
A couple months
passed since I graduated from college, I had to look for a job. It was around the end of March 2008 when I
finally got a call for an interview for the place I currently work at. Now that I finally had a job, I can finally
have something to show for myself because I didn’t want the woman that I am
going to pursue to think that I was a bum.
It was on a
Friday after my first week of work that I finally decided to make a move. I was browsing through Kat’s Friendster page
and I saw pictures of Kat with her two friends laughing and having fun. I texted my cousin and asked her who that
girl was sitting next to her. I couldn’t
resist her smile and her anklet. She
told me that it was the same girl who she wanted to hook me up with. So she gave me her phone number and YM and
told me to call her. Being the cool guy
that I was, I wanted to wait to call her so that I wouldn’t appear too anxious
even though I couldn’t think of anything else than picking up that phone and
giving her a call.
I decided to go
to the city on Saturday and hang out with my friends. I was driving and
couldn’t wait any longer. So I turned on
the YM program on my phone and sent Gwen an instant message. It said, “Hi Gwen, this is Mark, Kat’s
cousin. I just wanted to say
Hello.” So I continued driving for 15
more minutes and still no response.
Being bummed out that she didn’t respond, I turned my car around after I
passed the Caldecott tunnel and decided to go back home. All I could think in my mind was that she
didn’t want anything to do with me. When
I got home my parents asked me what I was doing back so early. I told them that I didn’t feel like going out
anymore with my friends and went straight to my room.
The next day,
after coming back home from church, I decided that I had nothing to lose so I
dialed her number this time and skip the whole YM thing. To my surprise she picked up the phone and I
introduced myself. I found out that she
was at home too, hanging out with her family after coming back from church
also. We talked for a few hours, mostly
about nothing. I remember she kept on
asking me what province I was from and I kept on telling her I was from
Mindanao and I was Abu Sayaff. I had a
lot of fun playing around with her and not taking any of her questions
seriously. After I hung up the phone, I
had a big smile on my face. I had one of
the most fun and interesting conversations in my life.
I went to work
the next day and was taking my first break when I got a text from my
cousin. She texted me that she didn’t
know I was from Mindanao and that naiinis raw si Gwen s'akin. I started laughing in my head. I felt that she had a genuine curiosity about
me because she was texting my cousin about me.
So that evening I decided to call her again and not surprisingly I had
another fun time. We talked until the
early morning hours, finally hanging up around 3am.
So this went on
for weeks, and boy did it make me so cranky at work. You see I love my sleep. I love getting 7-8 hours of sleep so I can be
well rested. But since I could not stop
talking to Gwen, I chose her over my sleep.
We would talk until 3 or 4 in the morning sometimes being on the phone
for 6 straight hours. I had to wake up
every day at 6:30 so I can make it to work by 9. I would even talk to her during my breaks at
work. I admit I was hooked.
One day while I
was sitting on the bench where I take my breaks, I decided enough was enough
and that I had to see this girl. Gwen
had told me that her friends kindly bought her tickets to see me in a couple
weeks but I couldn’t wait that long. I
wanted to see her ASAP. So I called Kat
and told her that I wanted to surprise Gwen by going there the following
weekend. After I got off the phone, I
booked my plane ticket online and gave Kat my flight info. We decided that Kat was going to ask Gwen to
accompany her to pick up our cousin and her husband from LAX but instead it was
going to be me that they were picking up.
That whole week
was filled with so much anticipation. I
knew that I was finally going to meet this woman I was falling in love
with. Every conversation I had with her,
I slowly fell in love with her until I finally gave into the feeling. A few years before I decided that if I ever
find the one person that I was truly in love with, I would call her moon. Even before I met her I began calling her
moon. I also told her that if she ever
kisses me that she would be my girlfriend because I do not kiss anyone unless
they were my girlfriend.
Throughout the
whole week, me and Kat had a few scares because we thought that she figured out
my surprise. Finally, when Saturday
came, I got on the plane having a rose in my hand and waited eagerly. That was the longest 1hr flight of my life. When I arrived in LAX, I called Kat to see
where they were. To my dismay, they were
still at Kat’s house. So I waited at LAX
for another hour and Kat called me to tell me that she was there already and
was looking for me. My heart was beating
really fast because it was full of excitement.
Unfortunately, they stopped way down the curb from where I was so I had
to tell them to come closer. When they
finally stopped where I was, I put my duffle bag in Kat’s trunk and opened the
door to see the woman of my dreams. She
was more beautiful than I pictured her.
Right then and there I knew that my life would never be the same. She couldn’t stop saying oh my god and began
to cry. I gave her the rose and we gave
each other a big hug. She couldn’t stop
crying or shaking so I held her hand. I never wanted to hold her hand so
much. After we left LAX I put my arm
around her and after she stopped crying she started to approach me and both our
lips met. It was the best kiss I ever
had in my life.
We then had
dinner at Bubba Gump’s in Long Beach.
She kept saying how Kat and I pulled a fast one on her. Me and my cousin were proud of the hard work
trying to put together and to keep the secret the surprise I had planned for
her. We took a picture of us sitting at
our booth in Bubba Gumps and that picture has been the wallpaper for my phone
ever since.
Later on that
night the sun set and the moon rose and we headed to V2O. We held each other hand, we would put our
arms around each other, or we would dance for a bit. But most of the time we would just sit on the
bench and kiss each other. All these
feelings I had for her was let out in kiss form. I knew that what we have is real. Something I love so much, I can finally hold
in my hand. I have never seen the moon
shine so bright until that night.
- Mark Roel Cruz Sabino -
