I didn't know why I suddenly had a change of heart. Maybe I was escaping from the big crazy that my life had turned into by moving towards the source of its craziness. Maybe I was bored because, for the life of me, I haven't had fun for a long, long time. Or maybe I was curious about Castor; maybe his trickeries finally worked on me and I had turned into a moth flying perilously close to the flame...
"What is it?" the subject of my idle thoughts asked as he glanced my way. "Kanina ka pa nakatingin sa akin, ano 'yun?"
"Wala naman, just me wondering why I am suddenly friendly towards you. I must be bored."
He chuckled. "Or you have finally realized that I am not an enemy, Ayn."
"But, I still think you're shallow, though. You're no unicorn."
"Grabe naman, bakit naman mababaw ang tingin mo sa akin?"
"Because the first thing you noticed about me was my face. Then maybe my boobs or maybe my legs...because I was wearing a rather skimpy pair of shorts when we first met."
"It is natural for men to get attracted to a woman's physical beauty. Hindi ko 'yan i-de-deny. I am not going to say that the first thing we notice in a woman is her IQ, her inner beauty, her values, and all that crap that women's magazines continuously harp about. We're visual beings, Ayn. Parang kayo rin."
"Women are not shallow."
"Oh, come on, magbobolahan pa rin ba tayo rito? Pareho na tayong nasa tamang edad and since you are very vocal about what you do not like about me, I am not going to pretend to be someone I am not. From this hour henceforth, ako na 'to. What you see is what you get. Nasa sa'yo na kung gusto mo hindi."
I huffed. "Is that supposed to make my ovaries twitch with longing?"
He laughed out loud. "I love how bitingly sarcastic you are."
"You have weird taste."
"Hindi naman, I just find it a breath of fresh air na 'yung isang babae ay kayang sabihin 'yung gusto n'ya talagang iparating. Most of the time, puro parinig ang lahi n'yo sending us men codes that we have to decrypt as if we were born with some special powers to understand the hidden meanings behind your words. The older I got, the more I craved direct-to-the-point type of conversations. Nakakapagod magpaliguy-ligoy."
"Wow, twenty-eight and tired."
"I'll be twenty-nine in a few months."
"Oh, my, you're old," I kidded and he smile. "I'll be turning twenty-seven in a few weeks."
"I know..."
"Enough about our birthdays because you might suddenly burst into a litany about horoscopes and I don't believe in that bullshit. Paano mo nasabi na visual din ang mga babae when in fact, if you ask a woman, the first thing on her list of ideal men is a man with a sense of humor. Or someone she can talk to every day about anything."
"Bakit, nakausap mo na ba lahat ng babae?"
"Ikaw ba, nakausap mo na?"
"Hindi pa but I am observant. Kung totoo 'yang sinabi mo, eh, 'di sana lahat ng heroes sa pelikula, nobela, even stage plays ay komedyante. Pero, hindi, Ayn, even one of the most popular love stories of all, Romeo and Juliet—"
"Oh, God, I don't want to talk about Romeo and Juliet, those kids are stupid."
Castor laughed.
"And Romeo is a fickle-minded bastard. Imagine, he was heartbroken over Rosaline and then the moment he clapped his eyes on Juliet, he asked for her name, introduced himself, then stole a kiss twice? What kind of an asshole does that? And then there's Juliet, who, by the way, is just fourteen, letting a guy kiss her and calling it love. What? I mean, Girl, are you serious?"
