ASYMPTOTES

Chapter 3.2

The telephone receiver was pressed tightly into his ear, a huge grin plastered on his face.

It's 7 in the morning and he is listening to her sing Mandy Moore's CRY with such feelings he is almost convinced she was singing it for him-well, he doesn't even know who SHE is but, still.

He was in the middle of preparing his things for the Candy Fair event in a few hours. He is one of the featured Candy Cuties and he is quite awkward about it. To psych himself up, he decided to call her: the girl with the dark, husky, sensual voice.

Once again, he dialed from memory.

She picked up on the third ring. Or was it the fourth? He lost count because his heart was beating so loud and fast he might have passed out at any given time.

When he heard her say hello, he could swear his world stopped for a moment. He was so nervous and so excited at the same time. How could one voice bring out such feelings from him?

The girl from the other line was repeatedly saying hello but he could not bring himself to utter even just one word.

He was mentally cursing himself but stopped when he heard her say, "Ayaw mo talaga magsalita? Sige kantahan na lang kita, wait lang. Eherm," and then she cleared her throat.

Her voice was like pouring rain on dry, parched ground; it was the kind of sound the stars would have made if they sang in unison. It was sweet, and enticing, and magical he could lie in bed and listen to it forever.

Then all of a sudden, she stopped singing as abruptly as she started it felt like he had a head-on collision with reality. He was reeling.

The next thing he knew, she was asking him, "Happy ka?"

He was still recovering from the huge impact her singing has done to him that by the time he was ready to finally answer that one question, she had already disconnected the call.

He looked down at the phone receiver in his hand and whispered his answer into it.

"Oo. Happy ako."