In Love With Ms. Manoban

Part 22

It is their third day on vacation and the young couple is sitting under an umbrella on the beach, enjoying the view of the beautiful ocean.

"Jerry, look at my belly," Lisa said as she faced the water.

"Is the baby moving?" Jeremiah asked excitedly. He placed his right hand on her stomach and wrapped the other around her as far as he could.

"No," the teacher said while shaking her head. She leaned closer into his embrace for a bit of comfort.

"Wow, your bump has grown so much Lili. I just want to cuddle you." The young man moved his hand further along the round surface.

"Yeah. I've realized. Don't you think my belly looks a bit too big?" Lisa looked up at her boyfriend and asked him.

"What are you talking about?" The young man caressed the teacher's face with an adoring smile.

"Look." The woman pointed to her stomach. "I think it's really growing a lot. And it's only the fourteenth week. It is supposed to be smaller than this." She whined

"Lili..." Honestly, Jeremiah didn't know what to do in this type of situation.

"I have searched it up, and read many books, and the women I saw there don't look as big as I am." The teacher's eyes got glossy as she looked down.

"Everyone is different, Lili. Not everyone is going to look the same." Jeremiah thought this was a way to calm her down. But it was not.

"Then you agree that I'm a fatty?" She was already crying at this point. She was not happy with the results she was getting during her pregnancy.

"Of course not. You're not fat, Lili. You're pregnant." Jeremiah comforted his girlfriend as he rubbed soothing circles on her back. He cupped the woman's cheek to make her look at him.

"But it's going to get much bigger and I don't want you to start looking at me like I'm a disgusting piece of meat." The teacher looked so scared and vulnerable that it broke the man's heart.

"I'm not him." Jeremiah reasoned. Lisa looked at him in with large eyes in surprise. She now realized that she was basically just thinking of Jeremiah as 'Him'. The years she spent with that man and only for him to never love her took a great toll on the teacher. And it could be seen clearly through her actions.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't mean it like that," she cried.

"I love you, Lisa. And I'm not planning to go anywhere."

"Promise me, Jeremiah." Lisa said with pleading eyes.

"Look, Lili. Things happen, and you never know what may happen in the future. I don't want to make any promises to you that I may not even be able to keep because-" Jeremiah was cut off when he tried to explain.

"So you already know that you might not want to be with me in the future? Is that what you are trying to say right now?" She leaned away from him in anger.

"Honey, of course not. That's not what I'm saying. I just-"

"Then promise me, Jeremiah." She looked him deep in the eyes which made it hard for him to refuse.

"I promise."

"Hook my pinky to finalize it." She held out her pinky finger and this caused Jeremiah to laugh at her cuteness. "I'm not joking."

"Okay, Lili." Jeremiah hooked her outstretched finger with his.

"Good. You can't go back on your word now." The teacher finally smiled then she leaned closer to the young man beside her and gave him a long passionate kiss.

"We should go back to the hotel now. It's getting really cold." Jeremiah said as they broke off the kiss. Lisa nodded because she herself was starting to tremble. Even though the sun was out, it was still quite windy.

The two held hands as they walked, having their own silly conversation.

"....so someone, apparently, was using the purple cup that was on the counter to drink water. And that person made water throw away and my Aunt's phone got wet in the process." Jeremiah laughed at the memory before continuing. "And Rain got panicked so she took a blow dryer and dried the phone with it when no one was around."

"So, who used the cup?" Lisa asked curiously as she laughed along.

"That's the thing. No one knows to this day!" The young man exclaimed as they continued to laugh until they reached their room. Lisa immediately walked over to the couch, sat down, and braced her back.

"I'm so tired, and hungry."

"You want to get room service or?"

"Room service. I don't want to go back downstairs right now." Lisa went to pick up the hotel's menu.

"What do you want, Lili?" Jeremiah asked as Lisa stood beside him.

"I'll just have a salad," she said after a skimming through the menu.

"Is that all?" Jeremiah questioned curiously with furrowed eyebrows as he stared at the woman's face.

"Yeah. I mean, I should probably start eating lighter foods." The teacher hesitantly answered as she pretended to further observe the menu in her hands, which she had seen countless times before.

"Lisa." That's when she knew Jeremiah was being serious. "We talked about this already."

"What are you talking about, Jeremiah?" Lisa pretended to be oblivious.

"Lisa!" He groaned.

"What?" She looked at him. Jeremiah lead her to sit on the bed.

"Lisa, it's okay for you to eat. Don't starve yourself," Jeremiah told Lisa softly as he kneeled in front of her, holding her hands. "You need to eat properly so that you can have a healthy baby and I know that salad won't do. They barely put anything on the plate at this hotel. I love you, Lisa, and I love Baby Lisa too. Get what you want, okay?" Jeremiah put the woman's hair behind her ear as he stared into her eyes.

"Okay." Lisa replied in a weak voice. She was already feeling so insecure and she had barely just started the second trimester of her pregnancy, much less later on. This is what years of emotional and psychological abuse can do to a person.

"Good." Jeremiah smiled warmly as he gave his woman a peck. "Now what do you want?" He asked when he dialled the number and the person on the other line waited.

"A vegetable sandwich and a side of chips (fries). Oh! And a marshmallow sundae too." Lisa would have probably added more if it weren't for her insecurities but she figured that she really shouldn't be eating too much because it is not healthy.

That night, as the two laid on their individual beds, Jeremiah continued speaking to Lisa.

"I want to share a verse with you, Lili," he said.

"Sure. What is it?" The woman asked as she laid on her side.

"Isaiah 54:10. 'Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,' says the Lord, who has compassion on you." Jeremiah looked at her gently. "Lili, you shouldn't put anyone in the first place in your heart. People leave and people change, that's just how mankind is. If you put someone as the first priority in your heart, you're just setting yourself up for heartbreak. Give your heart to God, he'll take care of it."

"How do I know he was telling the truth when he said that?" Lisa asked as tears ran out of her eyes.

"Because 'God is not a man, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?' Numbers 23:19."