For Your Eyes Only;

Aqua

RJ turned off the car ignition and silently prayed, Lord please give me the strength to just get through this day.

Last night, he slept with a smile because Maine had agreed to spending more time with him tomorrow but when morning came, he immediately felt that the day wasn't off to a good start. One, he woke up with a terrible case of headache. Two, his coffee maker mysteriously stopped working so he had to leave the house without his caffeine fix. Three, the building elevator was under maintenance repair so he had to go take seemingly-endless flight of stairs from the seventh floor to the ground lobby and of course, he tripped halfway somewhere between the third and second floors. Four, a massive eight-wheeler truck broke down in the middle of Edsa, causing one of the worst traffic jams in recent memory.

And now, as RJ stepped out of his car and walked across the wide expanse of the parking lot near Serendra plaza, a sudden downpour of rain came out of nowhere. RJ found himself just standing still, letting his shirt get drenched, resigned to the unbelievable misfortune of it all.

Can this day get any—

Before he could even finish the thought, an aqua-colored umbrella caught his vision. It was zooming towards his direction. It was Maine.

"Good Morning, RJ." She kissed him gently on the cheek as she sheltered him underneath her umbrella.

He smiled back at her, thinking: It's only a bad day. But it's not a bad life.

Two hours later, they were sitting next to each other on a lavish couch near the fitting room inside one of the most luxurious wedding boutiques in the country, bored out of their wits.

"Anong paborito mong number sa electric fan?"RJ whispered very carefully on Maine's ear.

"Number three," she answered with an exhausted smile.

It's time to end this madness, RJ thought, as he ruffled through the wedding portfolio collection featuring the five bridal gowns that the ex-beauty queen was selecting from. The bride-to-be had so far worn four of the five gowns and they were waiting for her to come out and see how the fifth looks like. RJ had decided to spend that day with Maine because he will be back to work in three days and he wanted to make the most out of his free time with her as possible.

When the ex-beauty queen finally came out, RJ reached for the sketch profile of gown number three.

"You look most beautiful and glamorous in this dress," he said as he pointed at the third gown, flashing her his notorious bedimpled smile.

"Really?" her eyes lit up at the compliment.

"Yeah. I'm sure your groom wouldn't be able to keep his eyes off you."

The ex-beauty queen turned silent for a moment, blushing at RJ's gaze, then gave herself one last appraising look in the mirror before she told Maine that she has decided on getting gown number three.

Maine thanked RJ by treating him at a nearby tea place where they sat down for quick snacks.

"No one is ever immune to your charm, no?"

"For the record, di ko siya binobola. She really looked beautiful and glamorous in every gown. We just picked one in random to help her out,"

"How sure were you that the groom wouldn't be able to keep his eyes off her with that gown?"

"Maine, I'm pretty sure that if a groom is truly in love with his bride, kahit ano pa isuot niya on that day, as long as she shows up on the aisle, that's all that matters,"

"But extra effort won't hurt, right? Brides only want this day to be super memorable kaya they want to look their best,"

"You always look the best and most beautiful to me, Maine."

"Sus! You say that because we've only known each other for two weeks. But these engaged couples have years and years ahead of them to stick with their choices. Years, RJ."

"I know that, and I know this too—that I would still choose you. Not because I'm picking randomly or letting fate decide for me. I would choose you because I want you. Because you're so beautiful you stand out in a crowd of tragedies like a ray of sunshine. You're so beautiful you can make the worst day of my life feel good and perfect. Maine, if anyone would ask me what hope looks like, i'll tell them it looks exactly like you."

God, have I just exposed my heart completely just now? Jesus, Faulkerson.

Maine gave him a beautiful yet bittersweet smile then looked away, somewhat afraid to meet his eyes.

"You terrify me," she told him.

You terrify me too, Maine.

"...because you speak in poetry to me like that and then you call me Pikachu and then you can make me feel the entire spectrum of human emotions from Switzerland to Syria real quick and you can be my hiding place when I feel like the world is too much. You are..."

LORD. LOOOOOOOORD, RJ felt like his heart would explode at any given moment.

Maine left the unfinished sentence hanging and stood up, holding on to RJ's arm as they walked out of the tea shop. The rain was now pouring heavily and they almost collapsed in hysterics when Maine tried to open her umbrella to find that it's half-wrecked. So they sprinted towards the parking lot, running in the rain like kids. When they finally got in RJ's car, they were soaked, breathless and happy.

After a while, RJ finally realized that Maine's cheeks were drenched with rain and something else—tears. 

"You terrify me because you make me feel brave enough to believe again, RJ, and I'm so grateful," she smiled, even though she was crying.

She was looking out of the foggy windshield and RJ followed her line of sight, understanding in an instant what's been hurting Maine all this time.

A couple was walking out under an umbrella and he recognized them as the same couple in hotel room 1613 on the night they first met. The people Maine was running away from. A familiar face he saw when he peeked at her bedroom a few nights ago. 

It was her father with another woman.