"My life is divided in two- before and after you."
Sam and Eric's idyllic life is shattered because of an accident. But where everything is a choice, will they choose to find their way or lose themselves?
Lights flash from the camera in the cavernous hall that is filled with activity. Cameras are lined beside each other while people from the press prepare for the conference. Today, Harlequin is launching a book written by a local author and the press is just delighted to be present.
It does not take long for the writer to arrive and for ruckus to start. She is led to the principal table where the mic is adjusted for optimal volume several times due to the request of the reporters who wanted the latest scoop, not wanting to get caught behind another column's drift.
The microphones are tested and the questions begin.
"What made you write this?"
"How did you manage teaching and writing?"
But one question caught her attention: Is there someone who inspired this?
She smiled because there is indeed. And it's the person who drove her that morning and who will pick her up later after the event is through.
"Ms Sam, What Lies in the After is intriguing because it explores the existence of love in the proximity of uncontrolled circumstances. For you, what does it mean to love?"
The crowd falls silent.
Sam thinks the answer is simple. "Some would say love is a choice. Others would argue that it is not. I think that it is both. We do not get to choose who we love, but we get to choose how we love. But see, there is no one definition of this word, it is intangible as much as it is tangible. So I guess, it's difficult to define something that is ineffable. But to keep the discussion going, I think ultimately it is making a choice to love someone through hardships and difficulties because it is never going to be easy. It is a choice to stay, a choice to come back, and a choice to leave. One will have to choose eventually and only then will they realize if they truly love because if they do, they wouldn't consciously choose to keep their hearts away from the ones who hold them."
Applause follows.
The book signing is the portion which her readers have been waiting for the entire day. To her humble surprise, she did not expect the queue to be long but she's just grateful to have this chance. She's always wanted to be a writer, now she gets to be one and she couldn't complain.
"What would you like me to write?" she asks the next person on the line while changing pens since the one she's been previously using has a busted tip that leaks ink.
She hears someone clear their throat but she doesn't look up... until she hears a familiar voice saying, "to the love of my life."
She couldn't have raised her eyes faster then and upon seeing who it was, she grins and breaks out into laughter that has everyone looking at her direction. "Oh my god!" she exclaims, "what are you doing here?!"
The sheepish grin of the man in front of her remains plastered on his face as he pushes the book towards her. "Magpapa sign po sana libro sa favourite ko na writer. Tatanungin ko rin sana siya kung gusto niya ba mag dinner?"
She winces playfully and teases, "Pass po, sorry. My husband will get jealous. He might not buy my book anymore."
"But if said husband agrees?"
She shakes her head and opens the book before saying, "then I'll go out to dinner with you." She signs the book and gives it back to the man who looked like he won the lottery.
"Then see you tonight," he says before leaving his spot with her eyes trailing after him.
"Who was that, Ms Sam?" the next person asks curiously, their eyes also fixated on the retreating figure.
Sam chuckles. "That silly man?" The person nods and she continues with an unmistakable smile, "that's my husband."
In the book no one else will see, is the neat script of her handwriting that says: to the love of my life indeed, I've never known love like yours. Yours for always, Sam.
Oops! Ang larawang ito ay hindi sumusunod sa aming mga alituntunin sa nilalaman. Upang magpatuloy sa pag-publish, subukan itong alisin o mag-upload ng bago.
*manip courtesy of aadya the amazing
Every moment is measured by a beginning and an end. The sunrise is always accompanied by the sunset, and the dawn is hand in hand with the twilight. The moon is never without the waves which it constantly pulls. Clocks always commence with a tick and cease with silence. Love is the same, it is divided in two. There is life before it happens and there is the aftermath when it does.
Sam and Eric know this demarcation very well.
Sam was fine until she met Eric and he made her realize just how life could be so much better when they are together.
Eric was surviving until he met Sam who showed him they could be thriving.
Together, there was a life before and a life after. It will always be divided in two but when love happens, before is altered forever that no one could get back to it, neither will they want to. And so comes the after, where everything that follows treads through the lines of before.
For Sam and Eric, there was a before, but really, they'd choose to be in the after for there isn't much joy in living for one without the other. It is fate which evermore divides life. It is them which chooses to remain in the aftermath. Every day that follows is the fate they write, and it'll be together, with her erasing the walls that confine him, and him showing her that there was a world and a love she ought to know..
