My Kind of Perfect (18 page)

He had no idea that for me, everything was going wrong.

Later, after a long hour clearing of my head, Dorothy was,
as she had been from the moment the contract had been finalized, right behind
me again. Talking. Endlessly blabbering nonsense.

“Slow down, don't forget your manners,” Dorothy reminded for
the nth time already.

“I am,” I hissed and flashed a smile to one of the staff who
seemed to be preoccupied with watching us.

“Keep that smile,” Dorothy whispered to me before putting
the piece of steak in her mouth. She never failed to make my life more
miserable as it could possibly be. Everything about the so called norms of this
society, which she stated that I failed to have, she lectured it to me one by
one. And well, as for John, he found it yet again amusing that I was having a
hard time with all this.

At the end of the night, after a few more lectures, John and
I were finally led to our room. And to my relief, in that place secured from
peering eyes, I could be myself once more. I instantly collapsed on the bed as
soon as we got in.

“Are you that tired?” John asked, as he placed his suit on
the rack.

“Hmm...” I said as I burrowed my face on the pillow.

He had no idea how hard it was to listen to Dorothy all day
long. And right now, it felt like her words were still being echoed
continuously in my head. Trust me, it wasn't pleasant at all.

Kayla, your walk.

“And it’s just starting,” said John.

Kayla, keep your mouth shut.

“There’s still...” he paused.

Kayla, don’t roll your eyes.

“A lot... a whole lot...”

Kayla! Kayla! Kayla!

“...for you to learn after all,” he uttered.

I pulled myself up. Even when I closed my eyes, I could
still hear Dorothy loud and clear, exactly like the way she was going on all
day. I looked at John and threw him a disdain look. He replied with a shrug.

I said, “I've got nothing to learn. I'm perfect.”

“Yeah, right,” he said, grabbing some clothes.

“I do,” I argued as I pulled myself up.

“If you say so,” he answered before disappearing to the
bathroom.

What was with him and not believing me all the time? I
looked around and saw his laptop left open. I opened my email to see if there was
some kind of good news coming along now that I had my luck back. And as soon as
I opened it, a load of new mails met me.

Where did all these come from?

I scanned through everything. Most of it came from Facebook
so I opened my account and saw a hundred notifications. I had been away for
only a week and it had been this many. And to my dismay, every single one of
them contained the word 'marriage'. And they were from people I know to other whom
I hadn't known existed but were listed on my friends list.

From the looks of it, most of them were sending their best
wishes to me. I mean, to us. Who got married by themselves anyway? But there
were also some who were not so pleased and said some not so nice things so I
just stopped reading them and opened my private messages instead.

And of course, there was a really pissed off message from
Sandy.

The last thing I know was that I was trying to call you
all day only to be cut off after several hours. And after that, I haven't heard
a word from you. And what was even more surprising was that when I opened my
television to watch some news, I saw you there. You were getting married to
John Brooks?

What happened, Kaye? Did some cosmic event happen that
you had decided to get married with him. What about Aaron? The last time I
checked, you were still in a relationship with him. I mean until now, in your
Facebook account. You're in a relationship with someone else other than your
husband. Does that make any sense? Well, nothing makes sense. John Brooks? I
thought you hate him? And really, why did you just leave Aaron to marry someone
else.

And after reading this ranting, please change your
relationship status or just remove it completely. You're already flooded with
tons of hate mails. And also, call me as soon as you can. And should I say best
wishes? What in the world happened? Talk to me now!!!!!

I found Sandy's number in her profile and wrote it in a
piece of paper. I would try to give her a call later when I got my hands a
brand new phone since Dorothy cracked my last one into two. I scanned the rest
of the posts in my profile.

I saw that aside from the ones who hadn't seen my in a
relationship status with Aaron, everyone greeted me with best wishes. The rest
were pissed off with me. They cursed me with every single curse word there was.
I mean, who were they to judge? They hadn't got a clue on what had happened and
why I got ‘married’.

“That’s not very nice.” I was alarmed when a voice came from
my side. I looked to my right and saw that John was reading the posts on my
profile.

“Why are you peering?” I said, trying to hide the
hate-filled posts on the screen with my hands.

“I already saw everything, what was there to hide?” he
asked, removing my hands.

Without any kind of resistance, I let him see it. As much as
I denied it to myself, I felt weak just by reading all those hate mails. I was
just human and had emotions, too. And they didn't have the slightest clue on
what had been going on with my life.

“You have a boyfriend?” he asked me, surprised.

“Ex-boyfriend,” I corrected with all bitterness.

“But you're still in a relationship with him in here,” he
told me.

“He broke up with me a day before I saw you. Sorry for not
being able to update my life online. Apparently, some people kept me busy these
days,” I sarcastically replied.

“So then, let's change it,” he suggested and I threw him an
inquisitive look.

“What—” I said as he tried to scrutinize my account by
adding him as my friend.

“Don't you think they will find it kind of funny that I'm
not listed in my wife's friend list?”

“But—“

Then he changed my status to being single, pressed the log
out button, and accepted my request using his account. And he wasn't satisfied
with just that. ‘Cause the next moment, he changed his single status to
‘married to’. And to my horror, he wrote my name in the box.

“What do you think you're doing?” I exclaimed to him.

“I’m just making everything right. You don't want the media
to see you being in a relationship with somebody else, right?” he said to me.

“Well, don't you think people will find it kind of funny
that I went on from being in a relationship and then single and then married
all at the same day?”

“Well, in case you haven't noticed, we we’re one of the
trending news for the past few days. It would be even unusual if they see you
being in a relationship with someone else,” he said. He paused for a while
before he added, “Or being single when the rest of the world saw our marriage.”

“Oh, yes, that's right. Originally, no one should know about
all this. Why are you forcing me to be in a marriage status with you?” I
argued.

“That was supposed to be the case. But sadly, you know
everything else that had happened after,” he said, letting out a long sigh.

“This is your entire fault,” I told him.

“Alright, I'm sorry for dragging you into all this. But
since everything was already done and signed, can't you just let the three
months pass by quietly? Without even uttering a word about the earlier mishaps
and just take it professionally?”

“No,” I said, looking intently at him. Then I saw the
disagreement in his eyes. Having a good will of my own, which they had all
failed to see, I muttered, “Alright, I'll be as quiet as the moon.”

“The moon?”

“Yes, I'm using the moon now so that the birds and the cows
can rest,” I said back to him.

He found my earlier statement amusing. And so for the
following minutes, he laughed again and again. Then he left me with his laptop
so I browsed some moral boosting horoscope for the night.

Speak your mind and let your thoughts be known even if you
have to go a little crazy. If you're willing to push it, things can be better
for you. Nothing will change if you're just rooted on that same ground and
hiding your thoughts away. Go on and let it be known.

Taking a deep breath before clicking on the address bar and
typing facebook.com again, I prepared myself for the worst. Opening my account,
the red notification indicated that I have another request. And this time
around, I only got one and I accepted it.

Kayla Wilson

married to John E. Brooks

“Hey!” I said, lightly tapping John on the shoulders.

He groaned and moved to the other side. Pulling the blanket
over him, he crumpled on one side and disregarded my call altogether. I grabbed
the blanket from him and called him again, “John, wake up!”

“Just a little more,” he said to me, still knocked down on
the sofa. Seriously, he needed to be up and we have to get ready. Dorothy had
done something ‘evil’ again. She continued the torture of my peaceful existence
when she invited some people from the media up here in their resort. And down
there, right now, there were about twenty ‘evil’ minions of hers who were
waiting to devour us both.

“No, you need to get up now.”

“Five more minutes, Grandma,” he muttered under his breath
and put his pillow over his ears.

“Grandma!” I exclaimed. “I'm not your grandma! I’m not
related to you!”

He was startled with my voice and I saw him slowly opened
his eyes. And then he realized that it was I who was calling him all along. A
bit flustered, he slowly got up, eyes lazily wondering around the room. Seemed
like he was trying to figure out where he was. I slowly tapped my feet as I
watched him stretched out his arms. It was as if he was mocking me by acting
all peaceful and composed. He had no idea what he was up to or rather what we
were about to face.

‘Wife, Kayla. You're the wifey. Don't
forget that or you'll get sued by your evil enemy,’
I reminded myself.

Then I heard him say after a moment of sudden realization,
“Oh, sorry Kaye. I thought you were Grandma.”

I narrowed my eyes in dismay. “For real? Did I sound that
old to you?”

He yawned and rubbed his eyes. “I was half-awake.”

“Oh?” I scornfully said, still annoyed that he had mistaken
me for Dorothy. That was the most unreasonable comparison he could ever do in
his lifetime.

“What are you saying again?” he asked.

I pointed outside. “Find out for yourself.”

“What’s with the noise?”

I grabbed a towel and headed off towards the bathroom. I had
to make a good impression as being a notable person's wife, so as Dorothy
called it. I said to him before I locked the door, “Don't forget to thank your
grandmother for it. Better prepare your story, too.”

I counted to twenty and then I heard a knock on the door. He
must now be fully aware of the situation. “Kayla, about our story...”

“Think of anything. I'll go along with it,” I replied,
filling the tub with hot water.

I was not in the mood to create a love story of ours in my
head. I was still having a hard time figuring out why I was feeling flushed at
times when I saw him. Creating a love story might aggravate the first symptom
of insanity that I was having.

Dipping into the hot water, I told myself that my exhaustion
from the previous days might have triggered my unusual reaction with him
before. After having a good night sleep and a few days of rest, I was certain
that it was the reason. Well, it had to be the reason. For right now, I was not
feeling anything for him. My heart was acting normal again and there was no
sign of blushing at the sight of him from the past two days whatsoever.

John continued telling me about the story that he was trying
to compose and finalize. He sounded like a novelist stating the perfect story
of the century. I listened attentively. Okay, so maybe not. But I tried to
listen to everything, bearing in mind the necessary things like when we first
met and our first date.

You know, the usual questions.

As he was near finished, which actually took him a long
time, I emptied the tub and felt refreshed. I replayed ‘our’ story in mind. And
at the same time, I figured out why I had been acting like that with John a few
days ago.

I opened the door and was about to call him. But to my
surprise, he was waiting outside for me, leaning against the wall a little from
where I was. As soon as he saw me coming out, he straightened his stance and
well, awkwardly ended up stumbling in front of me. The bathroom floor was quite
elevated and from where I was standing, we were on the same level.

So putting it simply, he was on my face. Well, almost.

At first, we just stared at each other, no one knowing what
to do next. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I felt my heart throbbing
unevenly, forcing my mind to think of some rational explanation why my heart
was acting like this. This was Johnny from long long ago. But it hadn’t done
any good. I was really feeling funny around him. And after some inexplicable
seconds, due to lack of other reasons, I convinced myself that I must have had
acquired some form of disease.

“I think... I need to see a doctor.”

He blinked twice and then moved back a little. Oh goodness,
at last he finally reckoned to be a few inches away from me. Hugging the white
robe closer to me, I continued on pondering the reason for all of this, well,
the unusual throbbing of my heart, that is.

“Doctor?” he asked me, still comprehending what I just said.

“No... don’t mind that,” I uttered, trying to come up with
some intelligent words to cover up what I had foolish said a while ago.

“Are you sick?” John asked once more, putting his hands over
my forehead.