When I Met You

He Said, She Said

“Correction, s’ya ang umiwan sa akin. Her friends came to our house and literally dragged her out for some girl bonding daw,” Fred said.

“Malamang pag-uusapan nila ang honeymoon n’yo. Ha… ha… ha!” Ali kidded.

“Kaya tayo naman male bonding naman. Atsaka para mapag-usapan natin ang love problem mo bro,” Enchong said.

“Love problem? May lovelife ka ba?” Jalal asked.

“This conversation should be good,” Ken added.

“Napakadaldal mo talaga!” Gerald told Enchong.

“Alam mo bro there is no use in keeping it all to yourself. Mas maganda if you share it with all of us, malay mo matulungan ka pa namin. Alam mo minsan may sense naman kaming kausap eh,” Fred said.

Gerald sat down and stared down at the floor.

“Mukhang malaking problema nga ‘yan ah,” said Ali.

“Bro tell them already,” Enchong pushed.

“Remember that time when Fred, Enchong and I went to Camiguin with Kim and her friends?” Everyone nodded. “I swapped shifts with Sam then so I can go to that trip. On that day there was an ER patient that he attended to. Si Sarah ang anak ng pasyente na ‘yun.”

“Sarah? Our wedding coordinator Sarah?” Fred asked.

Gerald nodded. “Nakausap ko na s’ya before your wedding. Kay Chris pa lang nakausap ko na s’ya but I wasn’t able to personally meet her. When she called me up to remind me about your wedding, ewan ko pero parang her voice was stamped on my head. That time pa lang I wanted to meet her na.”

“That’s why sa hotel pa lang eh hinahanap mo na s’ya,” Fred said.

Gerald nodded again. “I finally met her at the reception but not after she introduced herself to Sam. Apparently having doctor clients has triggered her brain to think about the kind doctor at the ER 2 years ago.”

“Sam?”Jalal asked.

“And according to her coordinator friends and her mom, Sam is her destiny.”

“Kuya, who’s to say who your destiny is?”

“The thing is Sam likes her, too. And since they saw each other 2 years ago pa, technically Sarah is off limits na.”

“Off limits because?” Ali asked.

“Di ba we cannot go after the same girl? Anyway, I have decided to give way to Sam but I think I’m being played. Sam wants me to help him get to know Sarah while he’s gone. And this is after I have promised myself that I will not have anything to do with them. Lalayo na ako habang wala pang nangyayari. At ito pa ang nagpagulo sa lahat.” Everybody was looking at him waiting for the next part of the story. “We saw each other kanina. Actually, she saw me then she called me. So we started talking. I was trying to find out about her favorites as Sam has requested. I told her also that Sam likes her. So the conversation went on hanggang dumating sa point that she dared me.”

“Dared you to do what?” Fred asked.

“Dared me to court her.”

“What?!” all the guys said in unison.

“How did that happen?” Enchong asked.

“Napunta kasi ‘yung usapan sa panliligaw. She asked me kung paano ako manligaw. I told her it’s not something that you say just like that. So para daw malaman n’ya eh gawin ko daw sa kanya. She said to pretend court her for 2 weeks.”

“Man you’ve made everything so complicated,” Jalal said.

“I know. Pero I’ve made up my mind. I’m gonna do the dare for 2 weeks and after that walk away.”

“I hope you can walk away,” Ken said.

“Kung ano mang feelings ang madevelop sa akin while I’m doing the dare, I have to let it go. This is for my friendship with Sam. I don’t wanna make him think na inahas ko si Sarah.”

“Why did you accept the dare in the first place,” Ali asked.

“I guess it’s because the 2 weeks of pretend courtship will be the closest thing that I can ever have with her. Sam is a great guy and no girl would be crazy enough not to fall for him. I’ll pretend that I’m pretending. This will be my only chance to make her feel that she’s special to me. Never mind that she thinks it’s all pretend.”

“Kuya, don’t you think you’re just going to hurt yourself in the end?”

“Isa pa bro, paano kung si Sarah naman ang madevelop sa ‘yo? Eh di ganun pa rin ang iisipin ni Sam,” Jalal added.

“Sarah and I talked about the conditions of this pretend courtship. It will really be just for 2 weeks and after that it’s gonna be Sam’s turn. She needs to give Sam a chance.”

“Alam ko bro I pushed you to pursue Sarah pero hindi ko sinabing ganito. Sasaktan mo lang ang sarili mo eh at baka pati si Sam in the end,” Enchong said.

“Don’t worry about me. I can handle it. But none of you should ever mention this to Sam. Di bale na ako ang masaktan. You guys have to promise to shut your mouths. Nobody should ever talk about this after tonight.”

All the guys nodded. Suddenly his phone received a message. He got it out from his pocket and checked. It was a message from Sarah: Hi Ge! I hope you got home safe. Good night!

He smiled and then typed a reply to her: Yup, I just got home. Thanks for checking on me. Good night. I hope to see you tomorrow.

After hitting the send button, he placed his phone on the center table then rested his back on the backrest of the couch. He noticed his brother and friends looking at him in a weird way.

“Great Kuya! Now you have that silly grin on your face,” Ken said.