A Far-fetched Love ✓

AFL 27 ✓

If everything was moving at a slow pace when Kael proposed to me days ago, everything now was moving in fast forward. And it was just now that I remembered about our tenth rule. 

"Tenth, if and only if, you made me fall for you, that will beckon the end of this theatric, for us to begin an undramatized story of you and me."

Before I entered this contract, I had no other reason to accept it other than I was in desperate need for a living. But when I saw Kael, I knew right on that very day that it would turn out to be not just a mere contract, for I was so sure to my weak-hearted self that I would fall for him. 

I even had the thoughts of me, diving into a one-sided love because I never once thought that a homosexual man like him would fall for me. But he did. And we've come as far as what we've dealt with before. 

"Ok. To quote one of your father's rules again, if you fall, you will have to marry me. Is that rule also—"

"Yes. I'm twenty-five, no longer at the age of playing in the field. 'Pag nagustuhan kita expect me to wed you and of course expect me to bed you, too."

Maybe it wasn't fast paced at all, maybe it was rather pacing in a normal state, for the contract came to terms in accordance to where it was supposed to end. 

I may have said yes to him and told him that I do have a life full of dreams to fulfill, but, I know, deep inside me, I could end up marrying him any time he wants to. 

Nonetheless, I don't want to wed him as a mere damsel in distress who's waiting for a loaded man to give her a ticket to a luxurious life. Don't want either to continue living my life being mistreated by those people who once shattered my selfhood and degraded me, for numerous times, like my parents, my parents' children, and Kael's sister.

By the time I would marry him, I'd make sure I have with me a handful of redeeming attainments that he and I would be proud of. I know I would take much of his time, but he told me I was worth the wait. And that was enough for me to keep going and to feel secure of the love he has to offer though I don't believe in the waiting games of love. But with him, I'd be taking the risk to gamble my belief. 

So now, we're back to our normal lives. What didn't go back to normal was us, for the relationship that we have wasn't the same as before. No longer platonic, no longer as Shimon, the paid woman to make him fall. No longer Kael, the son of my employer, it's now the Shimon of Kael and Kael of Shimon.

I've been sleeping in his room for days since his untold proposal. And he'd changed a lot from day one to now. 

"You're cooking?" tanong ko sa kanya nang makita ko siyang nakasuot ng pink na apron na madalas ako ang nagsusuot. 

He turned around holding a spatula on his left hand and a recipe book on his right. "Good morning, Mrs. Salazar," he greeted, smiling. He looked dashing even with his disheveled hair and sweating face. "We've been eating commercial products for days, so I decided to learn how to cook. Don't want you to get tired with household chores, gusto ko sa 'kin ka lang napapagod." Tumalikod na siya sa 'kin matapos niyang sumagot at kumindat na parang tanga. Bigla tuloy namula ang pisngi ko sa huling sinabi niya.

Noong mga nagdaang araw ayaw niya akong pakilusin, kahit na paglutuin man lang kaya puro kami pa-deliver ng pagkain. I've been insisting on cooking, because other than it's less expensive, it's healthier than the ordered foods which consist of many preservatives.

"Magkakape ka ba, Kael?" If he's cooking, then I'd rather be the one to prepare him something to warm his empty stomach. 

Umikot ulit siya para matignan ako, pero laking gulat ko nang makitang nakakunot ang noo niya at nakanguso. "Who the fuck is Kael?"