“I will never fall in love again”, that’s what I tell myself everyday. After having so many broken relationships, how can I say that being in love is the most wonderful thing that can happen in someone’s life? People often say that when you love, you’ll learn, and I did. I have learned that love only makes us fools, consumes our whole being until we end up with nothing. They say love will always prevail, that just a small amount of love can be the most powerful thing on earth, for me, it doesn’t. These are what I strongly believe. My motto? “Don’t love for love is only misery”. I live with these ideas, but there was a time I stopped believing them…

It was like one romantic movie scene when  met Rick. I was in a bookstore looking for a book entitled. “A Tragic Joke: Love”. It was written by I.N. Esquivias. I really had a hard time looking for it. It was nowhere to be found in the non-fiction area. Luckily, I saw one copy lying on the floor, beside a magazine shelf. I was so delighted so I ran towards it. While I was heading for the book, I saw a guy also running towards it. We might have hit each other if we didn’t notice and stop. I stared at him, I was curious because it’s quite unusual to see a tough-looking guy and yes, handsome, to be interested in a book against love. I was wondering what his reasons are for wanting to buy that book when he started chuckling. I stared at him meanly this time and asked why he was giggling. He said, “we look stupid”. I realized he was right because some people were also staring at us then a saleslady handed another copy of the book. She said they did not display all the copies of this limited edition book yet. I guess we should have asked first before running towards the book we saw as if we are in some kind of race. To get away from the humiliation, I headed to the cashier as fast as I could. I was about to pay the book when Rick told the cashier lady,  ”make it two copies” then he handed his money and another copy of the book. To my surprise, I didn’t move or even stop him. I got more speechless when he handed the paid book to me. The next thing I remember, we were sitting together inside a restaurant, laughing and eating our favorite desserts.

He was different from other guys; he was nicer, funnier, and we have the same view about love. We talked about how we hate love and found out we have the same story. All our relationships failed simply because we were betrayed and left by our lovers without even saying goodbye. Imagine how cruel love was to the both of us. We really clicked as friends and I didn’t hesitate to give my number to him that day.

To be continued…