Another 24 hours ago

Another twenty-four hours ago, I was drinking coffee like what I'm doing at this very moment. But last twenty-four hours ago, it was a hundred peso worth of coffee at Metrowalk with a huge crowd caught in a peculiar fortuity.

After the dehydration that the rounds of hard drinks brought us, some of us were compelled to immerse ourselves with coffee to somehow get back our sanity. In the middle of reminiscing the good old days with the not-so-good people that became part of our lives (oh well, it was a tradition for us to take turns in talking about each other's exes), the idea of having a coffee was suddenly brought up by one of the girls that eventually turned out into some sort of debate and creation of factions. For the lovers of coffee, such scene was absurd. Anyway, as more than half of the group was reluctant to spend that much for coffee, I was the most jubilant since my coupon will be showered with stickers. So although the cafe is some hundred meters away from the grill, I was so excited about the stickers that I enjoyed being insensitive with the feelings of this majority for the first time.

The cafe was unusually deserted when we entered. I was ahead of them and was looking for a good seat when I noticed that these creatures at my back was silent and some were whispering my name to get my attention. I looked up and cheered. I saw a couple of our high school friends sitting in front of the place that I was about to get. The rest of their group are not familiar to me, so I thought they were their college friends. To my surprise, one of those college friend got up, turned around to face my direction, bowed his head, almost running as he went out of the cafe, walked a little farther, and had some smoke. It was my first boyfriend. It has been five years since we graduated. It has been five years since the last time I saw him. Gosh, he looks old.

It was a benefit on that very moment that I smoke. My friends got a good reason to leave the place and sit outside instead. I was at the counter when he came back and shyly approached me. I smiled at him to show my recognition.

"Hi Joyce, kumusta?"

"Hey! Okay lang naman ako. Ikaw?"

"Okay naman. Saan ka ngayon?"

"Sa Global City work ko ngayon."

("Okay" is the most harassed word in this planet.)

He extended his hand, stroke my hair, and went down to hold my waist.

What the hell is this? In remembrance of our good old days? Correct me if I'm wrong, but we never even had the closest gesture of affection six years ago.

So as for me, I turned to the counter and ignore him.

I knew he got my message. He said bye and went back to his seat.

From the time I give the coffees to my friends, several awkward minutes of silence passed through us. They were all looking at me to get the assurance I'm alright. After all, it took me three years to recover from him. I'm cool, I told them. And in reality, I am. More than being surprised on seeing him, I was surprise to ask myself on how I fell in love with this person.

In the middle of the group's conversation, my ex's group left the cafe and passed through us for a chat. A funny yet implied group coordination occurred. All of us talked to almost everyone from their group except him. Not really to show vindication, I guess. Our issue went old and died itself a long time ago. It's just that nobody from the group find it significant to talk to him.

But as before, he has this unexplainable guts to intrude all the chats simultaneously happening just to approach me, tickle my waist, and blurt a tease:

"Ang payat mo na ngayon ah!"

"Oo nga eh."

I gave another smile, then turned my back again.

In all honesty, that's all I can say. I wondered why a "thank you" phrase did not even bother to enter my mind.

Isn't that you stopped loving me at the moment I started to love you then, just because I went a lot fatter from the first day you courted me?

Rewinding those instances leaves me laughing at this very moment. I swore to myself soon after we graduated then that the next time I'll see this guy, I will make sure that he will realize like hell that I am such a big loss for him. But yesterday night, I saw a stranger without feeling any need to let him feel it's payback time. And I guess what happened is the best way for us to encounter after all these years.

It could have been a sweeter love story for us if my fatness was not a serious issue for him.