Ninety - Six

"So... tayo na ba?", he asked.

I fidgeted, although a smile was creeping up my lips. "Ikaw..."

"Anniv na natin ngayon, para di na maraming tatandaan na dates", he said, grinning.

"Tanungin mo muna ako..." I was trying to be hard-to-get! I wanted him to ask me if I wanted to be his girlfriend -- a long time cheesy romantic fantasy of mine.

He hesitated a bit. "Mahal mo ba ako?"

Although I became mildly disoriented by the question, I didn't hesitate and answered, "Oo".

And it got sealed by a kiss.

Although I was asking myself, "Mahal ko na nga ba sya?"

And as we held each other tighter, and the kiss deepened, and my heart beat faster and faster, I threw caution to the wind, and thought with a resolve, "Mahal ko na nga sya".

---

Ahhh... young, clumsy, foolish love, ninety months ago. If you can really call it love at that time -- it was more of the other L word that brought us together.

But what made us stay together? I still have no idea.

We had a lot to go through, well, he did, because my mom was the strictest and bitchiest mom he had ever encountered. She was the only mom who didn't succumb to his charms. She even made us break up after she learned I dropped out of a class because she thought he was the reason for my dropping-out. [Which was not, because I've already dropped that subject even before we started hanging out.]

He didn't let it get to him. We still stayed together.

And then I got pregnant. And we stayed together.

And then he had an affair. And we stayed together.

And we had arguments, shouting matches, and all-out wars. And yet, we still stayed together.

We even got married six months ago.

And we're still together.

I still can't freaking believe that it was ninety months ago that I blindedly said "Yes".


And six months ago I decidedly said "I do".

Whew.