Ryan never fails to surprise me. Last weekend, we went to MOA solely for the 31st Manila International Book Fair (later did I find out that MOA is on sale too!). I've been begging him for months to accompany me because I know he would get bored knowing I would spend most of the day rummaging the books, and I couldn't seem to stop talking about it the whole week because I've been really looking forward to it. You see, he has no interest in books, while me, I have this kind of book addiction. Whenever we go out, I always make it a point to drop by all the bookstores we could find, where he patiently looks for books especially authors that I like. One time, I told him to just go look for something else if he's getting bored, but then he told me, "Why would I do that? I can see how happy you are when you are out here searching for your books, and it's just too cute a moment to let it pass by, because what I see in you is pure, genuine smile whenever you found something that you like, and that makes me happy too." But wait, there's more!
So back to the book fair, we walked back and forth, bought these and that, and I know he's getting tired already but he stayed with me. But then, he was really exhausted that when he finally saw an empty chair inside National BS, he told me to go around and just let him sleep for a while. I didn't ask why he seemed so tired and I am not so tired, so I left him there to sleep (he's the MASA kind - masandal tulog) , after about a few minutes, National was getting fully occupied because VP Binay was there and the Pupil too. So I got back to him after I've paid for my books, (wow am I so glad with the books I've got!).
After endless hours of bookfairing, we hurried back to the mall to get some shopping done since they're on sale. I didn't want to buy any clothes because I've bought a lot of books already and I didn't feel like fitting any of them as there were lots of people and my feet were starting to ache, but Ryan was able to find one and I bought it as an exchange gift for accompanying me to the book fair. Afterwards, we decided to eat since our stomach were already rumbling. We ended up eating at Tempura after waiting for about 15 minutes. It was a good thing they gave us a nice seat. I enjoyed my meal but Ryan didn't. His tempura was not the way he wanted it to be (lasang cheese popcorn daw), so he shared my food, which I forgot the name, but the california maki was great, and so was I full but I still managed to have some Picole ice cream, yum yum!
It's getting late so we decided to go home since it would be a long drive, a really long drive, because at 10 p.m. it was still traffic!! When we were nearing C5, he asked me to have some coffee first at Starbucks Silver City because he needed some fix since he was kinda sleepy and wanted a booster, so I said OK. And here's where the sweet part is....
Since it's a weekend, we parked quite far away from Starbucks. When we finally settled, (I opted to stay inside because it was hot that night and I've had enough second-hand smokes throughout my life), he said he was going back to the car because he left his phone. While waiting for him to get back, I started to read some of the magazines there and since I was sitting with my back facing the door, I didn't notice when he came back. And when I looked up, what did I see? Ryan holding up more than two dozens of white and red roses! With all the people staring at us, a whole 30 seconds passed before I finally recovered and accepted the bouquet and kissed him shyly in front of everyone. I knew the girls out there were green with envy.
Now why did I say it's when you least expect it? Because THERE WAS NO OCCASION, and to think I was the one who should be doing those things because I was the one who asked him a favor. And there he was, with his bouquet of roses, and what's even more surprising was there was a letter, you see, the only letter he gave me was about a decade ago and it was written in a notebook paper, but what he gave me was a love letter written in a stationery - he even sprayed his perfume on the paper. That made the night again memorable. :)
While driving home, he told me that was the reason he was tired, because he wasn't able to get enough sleep. He has been running all day getting things done. He has to be awake to wait for the flower shop to open and pick up his order and then go to Merriam to get the stationery. So I asked him why did he do that. He just told me, "I want everyone to see how much I love you. Nakikiita na yan ng mga kakilala natin, so kahit di natin kilala gusto ko pa din ipakita." As simple as that, and my heart melted again for the nth time. I went home feeling so in-love and the night ended beautifully..
