My Kind of Perfect (29 page)

“You have no idea. Young people nowadays,” she muttered
disbelievingly. Then she tucked herself in and closed her eyes.

“Dorothy, wait. You can't sleep on me here,” I told her,
lightly shaking her shoulders.

“Don't forget to invite me to your real wedding. I think I
will be all better by that time. And practice calling me Grandma from now on,”
she said before weakly raising her arms and bidding me to go.

“Can you explain it some more. How can there be a real
wedding?”

“Go away, dear. Your old lady wants to have some good sleep,”
she said to me, calling Nate inside and letting him drag me out again.

Two months later, like she said, John did come around. It
took him some time, a lot of time, just like Dorothy had predicted. But setting
all of that aside, I was glad that he was finally here.

“So...” he tried saying.

“Yeah?” I muttered, lightly pushing the swing. I was
suddenly feeling a bit shy about all this. Another senseless minute passed and
no one still said a word. So this was what you get after those indirect
confessions.

“Kayla...”

“John...”

We both said each other's name at the same time, making the
situation even more uncomfortable. I shook my head, starting to get furious how
awkward things were. So by using my better judgment, I directly asked him, “We
are together now, right?”

He stood up and knelt down in front of me, holding my hands
in his. I faintly smiled, realizing my answer—my long-awaited answer. Then he
broke the silence as he said, “I love you, Kaye. All this while, I really do. I
am one of those people who never really gotten over with their first love. I hope
you don't mind.”

“I don't,” I said, happy enough to get the corner of my eyes
wet.

He smiled, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
Opening them again, it was the most beautiful set of gray eyes I had ever seen.
“Kaye, I'm really glad that I met you. You changed my life. You made Grandma
notice me before. In countless ways, you made a difference. I probably wouldn't
be this way now if it wasn't for you. And I'm sorry if it took so long for me
to say all this...”

“I understand,” I cut him off.

“You really like interrupting me, don't you? Let me finish
first, okay?” he asked me.

I simply nodded. So my opinion was not yet needed.

He exhaled again. Was he that nervous? Then he continued,
“All this while, I’m in love with you. I’ve done everything to forget you. But
as you can see, I haven't succeeded.”

“I kind of heard about that,” I blurted. He eyed me, and I
immediately added, “I'm shutting up now.”

“I thought of making a comeback to your life. But every time
I went to see you, you were with someone. I never got the chance. So after
doing it for about five or more times, I finally gave in to the arranged
marriage that my grandmother had offered to me,” he said.

“You could have told me that you were coming. I think there
was this one time when I wasn't in a relationship for about four months,” I
informed him, just so he would know.

“Is there anything else you want to say? You sure do love to
disrupt me,” he said and I was about to open my mouth but he held a hand in
front of me. Then he added, “But before you say anything else, I just want you
to know that I can't imagine my life without you. You are my everything and I
want things to stay this way forever.”

“Really?”

He disbelievingly shook his head. “What? You don't believe
me?”

“I do,” I immediately corrected his thoughts. “I’m just...
lost for words about everything. You made me feel that I had done no wrong
before when, clearly, I did enough damage for you to hate me all your life. I'm
overwhelmed. You have no idea how my mind is spinning in happiness right now.”

He pulled my hand to his lips and planted a soft kiss.

I bit my own lips, trying to hide the bliss that I was
feeling. Catching my breath, I said to him, “I'm also sorry for everything,
especially for acting like a jerk to you before. You already know how much you
mean to me at that time and I think you already figured out why I did all that.
I had been through a lot of things. And though I have no idea why, I was dumped
by a lot of guys and—”

I was taken back when he suddenly stood up on his feet and
let my hands go. He pushed me back together with the swing until I was standing
on my feet. And then he held the chains of the swing, leaning closer to me. In
one sudden and enchanting moment, his lips briefly brushed on mine.

Then he whispered, “I'm happy with everything and I don't
want to hear about your exes...”

I held his face and moved him back a little. “But you need
to know everything including—”

The corner of his lips pulled into a grin as he held me
gently on the face and pushed his face forward. I held my feet firmly on the
ground, putting my arms around his neck and waiting for the perfect moment that
was about to come. Locking me into a sweet kiss, he interrupted what I was
trying to say.

But surely, I didn't mind at all.

“Aaaahh!” I screamed, taking fast steps back and utterly
avoiding wherever that sound may had come from. The sound itself was creepy and
being alone in this wood in the middle of the night hadn't done anything to
help the situation.

What exactly was I doing here? I didn’t know.

I was walking backwards until a root found its way to get into
my path. Stumbling down, I readied my mind for something painful. Feeling the
impact of the blow, I grimaced and bit my lip so as not to make any other
unnecessary sound. But as much as I wanted for this moment to turn out with me
not distracting anything that might be lurking around this pitch-black forest,
my hand unexpectedly landed on something. It was not just something that could
be regarded as one mediocre thing. It was something that involved a great deal
of being slippery, sleek, and moist.

“Whaa!” I exclaimed, pushing my feet against the ground and
moving to the other side. Grabbing the flashlight that was tied around my right
wrist, I lighted up whatever that was.

“Ribbit,” croaked the greenish, mucky, eww thing.

“Oh, gross,” I disdainfully muttered.

I scrubbed my hand furiously on my pants, trying to get the
slimy feeling off my hand. Then suddenly something brushed my back. Frozen in
place, I prayed that it would not be anything dangerous or deadly. I was really
frustrated why I even came here. If it was not for that message that came a
little after dinner tonight, I wouldn't be here in the first place.

It was something like this:
Meet me
tomorrow morning at the tree where we made our previous contract. Remember it?
I have a surprise for you there. And grandma will also be there in the resort
tomorrow.

The other day, I asked John to take me to Dorothy and let me
visit her. He agreed although he had that vague smile on his face. It felt
weird and I had this eerie feeling that he was keeping something from me. But
even though I had pressed him hard on telling me what it was, he refused to say
a word and just shoved off the conversation to somewhere else.

The plan was that he was supposed to pick me up in my
apartment this morning and we would drive together up to their mountain resort
where we had our fake honeymoon before. However, the weird thing was, he didn't
appear this morning saying that he had a sudden, important meeting.

It was an abrupt meeting that popped out of nowhere. Who
would ever find that not suspicious? Certainly not me.

And so I came here alone this afternoon, almost nearing
nighttime using one of Dorothy’s cars and drove by one of her men-in-black.  I
was already calm and told myself not to over-think the situation. However, I accidentally
saw John here. Believe it or not, he looked as if he was already here even
before I came. But what had caught my attention was the fact that he looked
preoccupied, perplexed, and completely worried.

What could be going on?

Of course, confronting him was the first thing that came
into my mind. But I resolved to stay put and see what would happen. Following
him around for several minutes, all I had seen was that he was carrying white
linens while having that awkward look on his face. But after he turned around a
certain corner, I lost track of him altogether.

I asked around if John had arrived but everyone denied it
and said that he called the resort and said that he would be coming tomorrow.
He lied, alright. I tried calling his phone but it was turned off. And a little
hour after dinner, he sent me that message. Of course, the first thing that
came into my mind was that he was planning something. And whatever that
something was, I wanted to find out. I tried calling him back but his phone was
off once more.

So grabbing a flashlight, a map, and a lengthy stick that I
hoped would get me to that place safely, I ventured on a journey to find out
what he was planning. Surely, if he was planning something, he would already
set it up this afternoon. And seeing him carrying all those stuff sort of said
it all. And his sudden missing in action thingy was definitely questionable. I
was in for surprises but knowing things beforehand sounded even better.

And that led me here—here in the middle of the woods and
halfway through to the location of that tree. I was no better in directions
than the worst voyager alive. But asking for a map from the reception area of
the hotel made me the most capable person on earth. Although the darkness that
enveloped the night still held that dangerous threat towards me.

It was the adrenaline pumping and the surging curiosity that
made me walk that several distance from the resort. And now it was still the
adrenaline pumping and goosebumps creeping on my skin that made me feel like I
wanted to run away from here this instant. I knew I should have had waited for
the surprise tomorrow instead of making myself walk all the way here.

Another brushing of something soft tickled the skin of my
arms. The sound it made had the same heaviness of footfalls from before. But
really, the touch of which was ticklish. Looking back and lightening the area
behind me, I saw that one charming rabbit who stared back at me with those cute
red eyes before running away.

Adorable.

I played with the flashlight in my hand as I was looking at
the hopping bunny. Picking myself up, I dusted off my clothes. Determined to go
back instead of walking into the depths of the forest, I turned around and
started walking to no particular direction in mind. Turning the flashlight
round and round in my hand, a thought suddenly occurred to mind.

I lost it.

Looking at my empty left hand, the map that was there a
moment ago suddenly disappeared. It was the map, the freaking map which told me
what the yellow and blue arrows were for. That was the map which indicated
which place to go and which place to avoid. The map that had led me here in one
piece all of a sudden disappeared and I had no idea where it was. Not to
mention how to get back without it.

I looked around the area. But to no avail, there was no map
that had magically appeared. I walked back and forth and continued looking for
that missing map until I got tired from walking. Leaning against a tree, I
tried resting a bit and wiped away the sweat on my face.

The tree where I was leaning felt kind of weird. It was
unusual in a way that the roughness of it was uneven. Inclining back some more
and slightly rubbing my back on the tree, I was certain that the texture of the
tree was really strange.

Then I decided to look back and see what was wrong with the
tree. With the assistance of the very helpful flashlight, my mouth dropped in
complete amazement of what I had seen. It turned out that my getting lost in
the middle of the wood actually brought me to the place where I was supposed to
go.

Although I still didn’t know how to go back.

In front of me was the tree where we carved the contract
several months ago. It was the tree where he wanted to meet me tomorrow morn.
And it was that same tree where I supposed he had prepared something for his
surprise tomorrow.

Looking intently, I found nothing new except for the same
old tree that held the agreement and our name. Aside from it, there was nothing
else in here. Looking around, I circled the tree four times before I realized
that my coming here was only for nothing.

Letting out a sigh, I shook my head and told myself to stop
being so foolish. Maybe there wasn't really anything like a grand surprise and
that the white linen that he was holding a while ago was for nothing. Maybe he
was changing bed sheets or something. But why would a General Manager do those
kind of things?

Beats me, I hadn't got a clue why.

Walking around, I suddenly stepped on something. A snap was
echoed across the stilled woods and I became alarmed of what it was. I kind of
expected a boom. The switch I stepped on felt like one. But instead of the
whole place blowing up, trickles of small lights started lightening the area.
One by one, the small bulbs of different colors lighted up and the place
suddenly became filled with dancing colors of different hue.

In complete surprise, I looked around and tried figuring out
what was going on. My eyes went everywhere—surprised, shocked, and entirely
dumbfounded. Catching my gaze was the words that were deeply traced at the bottom
of the tree. I hadn't noticed it before. Who would have thought that something
would be written in there?

You make me smile in a way that nobody else can. I miss you
each moment, love you all the while, and want to be with you for every single
second. From this day on, until who knows when, I only want to stay by your
side.

I instantly realized that this had something to do with
John. No one else would do this kind of thing and to say that. And this was our
tree to start with. But why the sudden display of lights? If he wanted me to
come here tomorrow morning, then surely the lights would be sort of out of
place.