Playing For Keeps (Book 2 & 3)

3. Chapter 10.

"Only those who are willing to see the magic will find the magic..."

“Because that’s what women want…” Alex heard his best friend say and he sighed in his agreement.

The both of them have work tomorrow yet here they are with a bottle of beer on a Tuesday night at a bar in The Fort. But tonight, Alex needed this drink and Johan was the right guy to talk to.

It was ironic how he suddenly felt ignorant on the subject of women. Women were his forte, it was his expertise. Heck, he even taught his best friends – Pao, Mickey and Johan – the moves when they were just dating their wives a long time ago.

Making a move and dating were easy for Alex but when it comes to the subject of commitment, he was no longer an expert. Serious relationships and commitments weren’t his department and here he was no longer Alexander the Great, he was simply an average joe, just like every guy out there.

“Teka nga, magkaliwanagan nga tayong dalawa…” he said, sitting up straight and facing Alex. “What’s the score, ‘Lex? Yung totoo, yung seryoso, because last week, nung birthday ni Matty, you were all cryptic sa harap naming tatlo nila Pao at Mickey. So bro, this is me, your best friend since we were in diapers, I guess I need to know what’s really going on before I can really tell you what to do… so again, what’s the score?”

Alex had to remind himself again that this was Johan and he could tell him just about every single thing without being judged. After all, he wasn’t his best friend for no reason. Johan was his best friend for all the right and wrong reasons.

“I don’t know exactly what I’m feeling for her, bro…” Alex admitted. “I-I’m…”

Just when he thought that things between him and Drei were already going smoothly, her response to Matty last week shattered him. It had slapped him in the face and for one moment there he felt as if the whole world was caving in on him.

Drei’s words were still stuck inside his head. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like they weren’t going to disappear in a snap. In those thirty days, they were something and Alex knew they both felt it. To him, they already had a mutual understanding because he wasn’t good with words. But to Drei, it was the total opposite.  And he was bracing himself with a myriad of lectures and sermons from his best friend.

“You have to know that Drei is not the kind of girl who just wants to have fun…” he paused and sipped his beer. “She wants the whole commitment-relationship thing, the happy ending, the whole nine yards, the white picket fences, and all the shit that comes along with that… you get what I mean?” Alex nodded. “And what you guys have been doing isn’t enough, ‘Lex…”

Drei wasn’t the type who actually sleeps around with guys she dates. He knew it since day one that she was that girl who’s been waiting for her fairy tale to happen. And Alex knew that someone with a big heart like her deserved it.

“Women like her, they need assurance. They need to know how serious you are… especially when you told her that you wanted to give this another shot…” he continued. “Words like that, it’s huge, bro…”

“Sigurado ka?” he eyed him quizzically.

“Of course, dummy!” Johan, who had four serious girlfriends before he met Jeannie while they were in a concert back in 2005, answered him. “They’re like that… they want you to assure them, bro,” he added and then took a sip of his beer.