The Right One

Our story begins one summer night when a couple ties the knot.

As the newlyweds inflicted everyone with their undying love for one another and greeted guests with warm smiles and tight embrace, the sky was the darkest shade of blue and the stars as quiet and enchanting as the moon.

Then he saw her in the garden.

At that exact moment, without the slightest drop of doubt, he knew he fell in love.

He was the best man at his best friend's wedding. She, on the other hand, was the bride's maid-of-honor. She was slim, elegant in her yellow dress, and her long, black hair flowed like silk behind her back he lost count how many times he was tempted to touch it. Her eyes were bright, direct and honest, and there was a mark of beauty on her lips (very small) that you'll only see up close. Everyone could see except the bride that she was the most beautiful girl in the party that evening. None compares to her except perhaps the goddess Venus in the high heavens.

He followed her in clandestine like there was another shadow lurking behind her. And he discovered that like him, she adored the night sky whenever she's alone; she tilts her head to the side if something confused her; and she has never touched a single glass on the table except the glass of water offered by the waiter. She was nice, friendly, amazingly graceful in manners, and everyone was drawn to her because of these qualities. She was talking to a man (who like him he suspects was also in love with her) when she accidentally saw him standing not so far from her.

He caught her eyes and time stopped. And in three, two, one, she smiled to him like she knew him somewhere, somehow.

His life would never be the same again.

He would never be same again.

They were introduced to each other:
He just got his degree in civil engineering and still hunting for that very first job. She was an accounting major to graduate next year. He was an only child raised by a single mother. She was the eldest daughter of a businessman required to join her father's empire right after college. He was still waiting for that call from his last job interview. She wished him good luck.

When she left him to join the bridesmaids, he did not expect he would feel so little, reality hit him so hard the pain goes right through his heart. Because compared to her and of everything about her, he was nothing. Nothing! He clenched his fist in disgust.

But meeting her and to even had the chance to talk to her was more than enough, more than a coincidence, and were signs enough for him to eventually see the light and not lose hope. He believed they crossed paths because it was written in the stars; that they were two souls destined to be together; and their circumstances in life, just a mere detail in their love story. It would not be the reason for him to be separated from her. He would not let it. He figured fast.

The wedding singer began to serenade the guests with a Luis Miguel song 'Sabor A Mi'. The lyrics he could not figure out but the melody oh so romantic so he asked her to dance.

She smiled and she gave him her hand.

Holding her close to him, their breaths intertwining, was like a dream coming true, and he said, "I'm just an ordinary man. At the moment, I have nothing to offer you but starting tonight I think... I could no longer live without you."

Her mouth slightly opened. She was flabbergasted. But not long, a thin smile drew on her lips. "No one's said that to me before. I'm really moved by the depth of your feelings for me."

"Can you tell me, what must I do to win your heart?" he asked.

She thinks for a moment. Then she looked at him, her eyes straight to his, and she said, "If you can wait, for one hundred days and one hundred nights outside my house. On the last night, I will be your girlfriend."

And so he did what he was told.

On the first day, he stood outside her house, enthused and full of hope, positive she'd fall for him.

On the second day, he was there again. And the thought only ninety-eight days were left made him smile.

On the third day, he remembered a line from a Nick Joaquin book he read before he met her. Love should have no alternatives; love should be the sole reason for loving; love should spring of itself.

Came the tenth, twentieth, the thirtieth day, he remained standing outside her house. Each evening she looked at him.

Rain fell hard and thunder roared on the fiftieth day but he did not budge. He was as still as a stick.

Mosquitoes bit him, bats flew above him, and dogs barked furiously at him yet he stood on the same spot where he knew she would see him. And she's got to see him there for her to not forget he was always sincere, always patient, and always a man of his words.

But at the end of the ninetieth day, he had become all dry, all white. Tears streamed down from his eyes. He couldn't do anything to hold them back. He didn't even have the strength to sleep.

And all this time, she just watched him outside her window.

At long last, it was the ninety-ninth day. He stood up, took his chair, and left.

He did not return.