Heart Rallies

Vingt et Sept: Aphasia

Maybe it was a joke or a test to see how he would react, Seff thought. Maybe she wanted to see what a man would feel if a woman leaves her man at the altar.

"Was that some sort of a joke?" he asked her.

Bea shook her head. "I had my gown fitted. I had a bachelorette's party. I went thru food tasting. Everything has been paid. We were just waiting for the day to come. It came. He came. Everyone was there. But I didn't."

Seff was shocked with her answer. He knows how cold Bea can be and he knows how tough she is but he never thought that Bea can simply be as cruel as that.

Who runs away from weddings that she wanted in the first place?

Did he underestimate what Bea can do?

She, on the other hand, was carefully studying his reactions. Though he remained silent, she wanted to hear what he will say eventually.

"What happened?" he asked. He was starting to feel confused and irritated at the same time. If it was that ready and if she loved him too much like what she said, why did she ran away? Was she that too much of undecided to do it?

"Seff, you do not know a lot of things about me. You kept on asking me why I closed my doors and why I tried hard on keeping you out. You can't just walk up to me, tell me you love me because I'm one brave soul who can badly hurt your ego that the other girls can't. The scar isn't a scar, Seff. It is a stab. It's too deep that you couldn't heal it."

"Tell me everything about it," he said. He needs to know now. He needs to know what he's trying to get into.

Bea took a deep breath. They were still mingling with the dancing crowd.

"Five years ago. Fresh from graduation. James Del Carmen proposed to Beatrice Victoria Sanchez Sy, daughter of Ramon Valdez Sy, then the Chief Justice of this poor country," she told him without any emotion. "She said yes and she was the happiest woman alive. They set the date two months after graduation. July 25th five years ago. And she didn't appear on the actual wedding date. It was all over the newspapers and TV. Front page. Any form of media existing at that time knew it.  Did it ring a bell?"

Seff remained silent. He does not know Bea and he wasn't in the country that time. He might have heard it but he was never interested with such controversies. He had his own issues before.

"I took care of everything. I didn't have any wedding planner. I only have contacts. I was very happy and excited. Everything was ready and I was just waiting for the date to come. I had my bachelorette's party and I brought all my friends out of town. God, I am rich and he is the son of a business mogul. We have the money," she laughed but it sounded empty. "I went back here as a surprise and I wanted to spend the night with him and sleep with him. But I was the one who got surprised. He was sleeping with someone else."

His mind was running wildly and they were dancing. He was seeing Bea in front of him but it felt as if he was speaking with someone else. If he thought the Bea he knew is a pained one, the Bea he was seeing that time was someone worse. She was someone who was numbed from pain.

Someone who stopped feeling anything.

"I was young and I wanted to rebel. I was also trying to set up some revenge to my father. But do you know what I found inside the room where I was thinking of giving up my virginity to my soon to be wedded guy?" she asked him. "I found him having sex with someone else. When I saw who was at the bottom, it was another man."

Did he just hear a bomb explode? It wasn't the nicest story to hear after a joyous celebration and Bea was narrating it to him without any feeling.