I'm a Baby!

He likes her. He’s always liked her. Who wouldn’t? She’s hot. But the months that passed into years have only proven his fears that she is way beyond his reach. She’s smart, sexy, athletic, gorgeous. He has a nice bod, mild-mannered, handsome. But somehow he never sees himself good enough for her. So he just satisfied himself with being a good pal, always there at the sides, but never taking central spot in her attention. Then after yet another wild drinking session with the team, he found himself alone with her, the last two standing. He helped her clean her party place of an apartment, picking up bottles, washing glasses, putting things in order. It was almost 4am when they finished. She thanked him and insisted that he stay like the other drunks. He just said he had to go home, but as soon as he stepped out of the gate he started cursing himself. He walked down the street and then allowed whatever left of the alcohol in his bloodstream to wash away all his fears and apprehensions. He walked back, knocked on the door. She thought he left something, but that solid expression on his face told her he came back for something far more important. “Alam mo naman ‘di bang…” She could not remember how he finished that sentence, but she still remembers that they kissed that morning.

He is much older than her. And married. And he has a kid. OK, separated. He’s a good guy but somehow her friends, even his friends, think she’s better off in a less complicated relationship. After so many years he finally got an annulment. They’re getting married soon. Everyone’s happy for them, after all, despite his baggage, nobody doubted that he’s a good guy, not the perfect guy, but good. And good might be all that we need anyway. “There were far bigger problems about the relationship so we never sweat the small stuff,” she explains about how she managed to stay by her man despite everything. “Ang dami-dami na nga nga naming concerns para lang maging together, magagalit pa ba ako kapag na-late siya?”

A coward soul asks: Do we win love if we are brave? Or we become brave because we are in love?