MISMATCH

Chapter 9 - Nicole: Twist of Fate

I could never see Matteo again.

It all happened a week before Tony's birthday. Our anniversary was two weeks after and I wanted to make it special. I guess it was pride that made me want to do so at first because I was jealous of the fact that Frances took charge in making Tony's 27th birthday memorable. Since I couldn't even compete with that, I decided to make our anniversary celebration extra special.

How?

By finally being a girlfriend to him. By actually making our relationship work. Maybe even learning to fall in love with him. We had been together for almost four years but I never gave us a chance. And I figured this was what was lacking in our relationship.

So I sought the help of my sister Miranda. I know I couldn't compete with Frances, but landing a table at Hype would be a plus. Hype was the current restaurant fad - it was not only always fully booked, but getting reservations were also difficult. Ate had several connections so getting that hard to get reservation became a piece of cake. At first she was hesitant to help. She wasn't actually Tony's number one fan plus I had always confided in her about our problems - Frances being one of them.

"You sure you want me to help you? The effort won't make a difference. He'll always be a playboy."

I sighed. "But I want to make it work this time. Maybe if I did things would change."

"Are you doing this for Ma again?"

I shook my head. "No. Well, she'd benefit from it since she always wanted us to be together."

She groaned. "Whatever." She lit a cigarette - her usual reaction when she was displeased with what I came up with - which usually involved Tony. "Fine. You'll get that reservation. You will owe me though."

I clapped my hands excitedly. "Thanks, Ate!"

Unfortunately, as happy as I was, I didn't know that I'd soon be changing my mind about wanting to make things work a week later.

One of them was when I had received another message from one of Tony's 'flirt friends'. For the years we'd been together, I'd often receive text messages from random women claiming I didn't deserve Tony and that I should break up with him because I wasn't right for him. How they got my number I wouldn't know. I don't even know why these girls bother hooking up with a guy who was already taken. But whenever I confronted Tony about it, he would just shrug the issue off and tell me not to bother with it. His explanation was that he would never leave me and I should know better.

Another incident that annoyed me was that Tony 'failed' to attend mass with me when he had promised to do so. I knew he wouldn't be able to make it, but I stupidly thought he would actually try. I didn't want to ruin my day and my surprise so I agreed to have lunch with him.

It would've eased my mind if he'd at least be remorseful about missing the mass with me, but when I got to our usual restaurant, he didn't seem too fazed about it. So we ended up arguing as usual. Then I decided to drop the issue and told him about the reservations at Hype. I was hoping he'd at least be thrilled about it, but he was more concerned with checking his phone. Then he mentioned Matteo...

And that was when I got really mad. I could tell he was not pleased with the idea that Matteo brought me home after the party. It was an argument about to begin, but thankfully didn't push through because our food finally arrived.

Was my sister right? Was my wanting to make my relationship with Tony work pointless? I guess it was.

***

I also realized that two weeks later, on the day of our anniversary itself, my sister was right. My relationship with Tony would never work out.

Because on our anniversary, he didn't show up.