This whole month of what is a cheap and sad excuse for a summer break, I've been cramped up inside my house pretty much doing nothing. So investing on my spare time, I finally had the time to write a short story narrative. Just to reiterate, this is just fiction. This isn't a true story account. But it IS loosely based on a girl I once met a long time ago. Please let me know what you think of it. Here goes..
"Hurricanes in coffee cups"
by Wowie Go
Men, there’s a reason why we call dream girls “dream girls.” It’s because they can be whoever we want them to be. It didn’t matter if she worked at the cosmetics section of a department store, at a law firm as a paralegal or even in the adult video industry as a top “talent.” We all have our concepts of our ultimate girl. We yearn for them, dream about them, admire them and even to some extent stalk them for their personal information. Unbeknownst to all of us who are love struck, this is only half of our battle. Our infatuation can only go so far. There’s the added mystery of who she really is once you get to know her. And more often than not, we were better off not knowing them. And that’s exactly what I’m about to tell you.
My perfect girl would strike me a different way. She’d be timeless and unconditional; almost infallible to me. My perfect girl could do no wrong in my eyes and would never be weathered by any other girl that would come along. It didn’t take a single glance at her for me to picture the curvature of her face. That in my life is Tina Tan my friends.
It was the morning of the 11th of July 2007. The rain was pouring so heavy all morning that the back roads of the university I went to was starting to flood. It was a Wednesday and so I had brought my car to school. I usually park behind the campus which was also notorious for heavy and very deep floods at the time. Unfortunately, it was only 11:20 and my class doesn’t end for another ten to fifteen minutes. Nonetheless, our professor had given us permission to roam around the room and the hall provided we stay within the vicinity. I was peeking through the small square window of the door when I saw her.
There she stood, all five foot two of her. You could’ve sworn she looked pure Filipina with her nice golden brown complexion but her facial features gave her away. She had these deep brown Chinese eyes. To add to that, she had a smile that would light up a room. To me, she was a girl filled with promise. I could’ve sworn her face looked so familiar; almost as if I had seen her before. And the truth was I already did. I had even been introduced to her once. How could I forget the name of a girl as beautiful as her? I felt reluctant to approach her knowing deep inside that I more than wanted to. To spare me the embarrassment, I refused. But just as I was about to look away in self-disgust, she saw me in the corner of her eye. She looked at me with her chinky eyes and her wide irresistible smile and waved to say hi. I was taken by surprise. Reaching for my hand I waved back to acknowledge her and mustering all my strength I slowly walked up to her from across the hallway.
I was thinking of a million things on the way to her. What was I going to say? Should I just come clean about not knowing her name? How would she react? Would she still talk to me? These all ran through my mind in a matter of seconds. As I got within an arm’s length from her, I gathered all my composure and let out a small and squeaky “Hi.” She responded with a smile and responded with an even louder “Hi.” Caught in a deadlock, I could only think of two things to ask her: her name and her forgiveness. I thought that for her to be my dream girl I had to remember her name and once it did come back to me, I swore to keep it for good. And just when I was about to come clean with her, I heard a loud “Hey!” It was Francisco, a common friend of ours.
I had remembered a few weeks back that he was the one who introduced me to her. Francisco and her used to go out but ended just as fast as it began –amicably, of course. They remained good friends but swore off of each other. A little relieved, I instead turned to Francisco to end the awkward silence. “Oh! So I see you’ve met Tina!” Francisco said. Like a light-bulb flashing in my head, it all came back to me that very instant. Filled with relief deep inside but in fear of blowing my cover, I non-chalantly nodded in agreement. “Yes of course! You’ve introduced us to one another two weeks ago!” Tina replied. Once again, I nodded my head in agreement. Francisco continued on with his regular small-talk chit-chatting all the while I was poised to do something I had never done before: Ask my dream girl out.
I’ve always thought of it as a venture into the unknown. I always had the notion that dream girls were only supposed to be confined to one’s own imagination. How many men could actually say they’ve talked to their dream girl let alone ask her out? What have I got to lose? Loosely said, I’m already in a position to do so. Either crap or get off the pot, right?
Listening intently for my cue, I started thinking of how I was going to ask her. “Hey, are you busy later?”, “Do you want to grab a cup of coffee after class?” , ”Are you free later? I know this great pastry shop across the street.” I wanted it to sound perfectly smooth and casual. But it’s not really the most comfortable situation when you’re talking to a girl you dream about bathing by the side of the lake in all her glory. I was quickly running out of time. Just when I was about to shoot my foot with whatever cheesy line I was about to mutter, she said “Hey, do you have a class after this?” Taken aback and forgetting about my half flooded car, I immediately shook my head to say no; now was my chance.
I asked her out to coffee after class and to my excitement, she agreed. I took her to a corner coffee shop in front of the university where the flood had not reached. There I sat with her sipping hot mocha lattes in a brightly lit room with lounge music playing faintly in the background overlooking a damp and gloomy urban landscape. It felt like a haven for the time being. There we decided to get to know each other better. Piece by delicate piece the mystery that shrouded my dream girl was coming full-circle. She was an only child. Her seclusion during her years in high school made her want to be a free spirit. She loved the beach and loved to drink.
It wasn’t long before she asked about me as well. I told her that I lived in Mindanao as a child and that I had a sister who in a way shared the same passions as her. I told her about past loves and past times. Stories from when I used to cross cities, towns even islands all alone when I was seven. How when I wanted to graduate I wanted to become a writer at an advertising agency but not before I had traveled the world.
It had been two hours and most of the flooding had already receded to ankle level when I finally ran out of stories. Concerned but not alarmed about my water-logged car, I finally bid my farewell to Tina. She smiled and said “This was great. We should do this again sometime” with all sincerity. She reached for my phone on the other end of the coffee table and typed in her number. “This is my number. Let me know if you’re free, okay?” She said. I smiled and stood up just as she was about to. I reached out to her and hugged her tightly. “Have a safe trip home.” I whispered to her ear. I slightly pulled away and kissed her in the forehead. Looking up at me, she smiled. And just like that we finally went our separate ways.
