Romance Part 2

Husbands and Poets

She was sure, as the priest read the rites; she was where she should be—right here with him whom she has loved for as long as she can remember. It wasn’t difficult saying Yes to him when he proposed. Who would say no, with all the flowers and the candles and the violins and the champagne? Who would?

But as the priest asked her, if she took this man to be her lawfully wedded husband, she took off her heels and broke into a run down the aisle away from him. She hailed a cab, her gown was caught in the cab door and when she looked back he wasn’t there calling after her.

She went back to the hotel to change into jeans, sneakers, a white turtleneck sweater, and a purple beret. She did not have time to take off her makeup. She made the call, the call her Dad assured her he would always take and he took it.

“Dad?” tears were falling on her cheeks for reasons she could not fathom.

“I’m here honey. What happened? Why did you run?” he was calm and he was obviously still in the church. It sounded like a Saturday market in there.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. I was so sure, but suddenly I wasn’t. I was scared,” she was calmer now. She put her Dad on speaker phone as she put her stuff away and packed her luggage for the beach.

“Okay. What do you want to do? Is there a place you want to go?” his calm demeanor soothed her.

“The beach, just please help me get to the beach,” she sighed. She never felt so tired in her life.

“I got you. A car will pick you up in ten minutes. Whatever you do, remember I love you,” he said. She heard his voice, her fiancé’s voice. She did not know if he still was.

She woke up to the roar of waves in her small cabana the following morning. Her father’s private plane took her to Bohol and his staff took care of everything. She did not even remember taking her wallet with her but she found a pocketbook with cash and credit cards in her luggage. Trust her Dad to condone everything she does. She should have been a brat, the way he spoiled her but she had enough sense to know how far she can push the envelope with him. And they both knew she knew what she was doing 99% of the time. This time though she wasn’t so sure.

She got a lifeguard and snorkeled across the islands in the morning. At midday, she asked someone to drive her to the Tagbilaran City for lunch at a Swiss deli. In the afternoon she slept. She wasn’t interested in bars and drinking so at night she called her friend Reena to ask about the aftermath of her walkout.
She was walking along the beach, looking at the blinking lights along the coast. She wished her life was as simple as a fisherman’s, that she wasn’t who she was and that there weren’t so many obligations to so many people.

“Hey,” she said with a catch in her voice.

“How are you? What happened? Or would you rather not talk about it?” you could tell she was afraid she’d be on the verge of a breakdown.

“I’m pretty good. I want to see him to explain. I don’t know he would though, after what I did. I didn’t mean to run. But I did, but I’m not sure. I’m sorry I did,” She wanted to cry but tears wouldn’t come. She was wishing on the lights, bring him to me, please, please God, bring him to me.

“You’re not good. Goodness, will you please let yourself feel bad, Maya? I’m sure you had a pretty good reason. No one blames you. Jim doesn’t,” Reena was a comfort.

“Thanks, but if you see him, please tell him where I am. If he could come I’d be grateful.” She said bye then and headed to her cottage. She had a heavy meal and sang videoke with the other guests on the resort. She turned in at 12 midnight. She forgot her medication.

It was Carla’s voice that woke her the following morning. Carla was her other best friend. She had Jim in tow. Maya woke up with a start, wondering if she was seeing things as she saw Jim there, like she hoped, like she dreamed.

“I know I am being nosey but you two need help. I’m your fairy godmother. Jim, Maya. Maya, Jim. Now get it on,” Carla said with a laugh as she backed out of the room.

He stood there at the foot of her bed looking every bit as handsome as she remembered. She pulled up the sheets to her chin belatedly remembering she only had her panties on.

“Could you please let me get dressed?” she said rubbing her eyes.

“Sure,” Jim said quiet and watchful. Then he went to the wardrobe and pulled out a whole ensemble of shirt and shorts and underwear. “Take a shower. I’ll wait at the dining room, let’s have breakfast together.”

He never did that before—prepare her things—and at that moment she felt more married to him than any wedding rite could make her feel.

She took her time, she even blow dried her hair and put on a little make up. She carefully chose from her sparse arsenal of accessories. She went to the dining room ready to face his wrath. Or his sorrow. But he was calm, like her running away was more expected than her going through with the whole wedding ritual.

“I know you like mushroom and cheese omelet, so I ordered that for you. But you ask for the rest of what you like,” he smiled the easy smile of someone who knew what exactly he was doing.

“I actually don’t know what I’m doing,” he said as if reading her mind. He rubbed the back of his neck like he always did. “Heck I don’t know why I am here, why I am even with you after what happened.” He closed his eyes and a tear fell on the table.

“Because,” Maya, usually loquacious, had no words.

“Should I even be trying? Obviously you can’t make that commitment to me, so tell me, what I should be doing,” he took a deep breath.

“I just want to be. I just want to be with you. I don’t want a thousand pairs of eyes watching us when I tell you I do. I want a life with you. I don’t want a show that people can judge depending on how they’re feeling that day. I want something real.”

“My God, Maya, when was I never real with you?”

“These past few months, I felt like you were moving farther and farther away from me. We got so caught up with the show, I think we lost sight of why we were getting married in the first place. And I don’t want to ever forget why I’m with you. That day at the church, it felt so wrong,” her hands were all wrung, as if she was afraid the wrong words would drive him away.

He sighed a deep sigh, as if trying to be patient with a truant child. “So what do you want?”

“Let’s try, here, what it would be like to be together. See if it is what we want, if we could stick it out despite the mundane,” she challenged him.

“Okay. Let me make a few calls, I just need to let people know where I am. I got a honeymoon leave from the office so I might as well use that,” he said.

They started their life together on that beach, with that breakfast in the resort. They retired to her cabin, they did not get a bigger one because they admitted to each other they liked being enclosed in a small space together.

They slept the whole morning, and when it was lunch time they drove in a rental to the city to eat at her favorite Swiss deli. It became their lunch place. They drove over there everyday for the rest of their lengthy stay to have lunch.

They made plans to tour the entire island the following day. Each day found them at a new destination until they exhausted the attractions of the island. It was then that they learned more about the other. He knew she was a morning person, but he never knew she wrote poetry first thing every morning.
She knew he had to shave twice a day but it was only then that she learned he uses shower cream instead of shaving cream. He liked sleeping across the bed, so they did.
And he liked spooning instead of sleeping facing each other.

She could eat eggs every day, he could eat dried fish. They both love cold chocolate milk and French toast.

When there was nothing left to do, they’d lie down on the hammocks tied to the palm trees facing the beach talking of their plans.

On the second month, he said, “Is this how life will be always?”

“No, this isn’t reality. But I am glad we had time together here. I like life with you,” Maya said with a smile.

“So what’s the next step?”

“We make it legal. But without the big production number, if you can live with that.”

“I can live with that. I just thought it was what you wanted. I’m sorry I assumed,” he seemed sheepish.

“I just want you. Not the show you can afford, not the party you can provide,” she said emphatically.

“I get it. I like life with you, too.”

She called her Dad in the evening. She was ready to get married. She promised not to run away this time.