I had an OK V-Day. At least much better than last year. As I am on the late shift, I went to the gym in the morning. After gym, I got cupcakes for the boys — ahem, men — at work. For Vernon, I got chocnut for that unique Pinoy taste. For Kevin, banana walnut for diet pretensions. For Karlo, smores to mess up his rabbit food diet. For Vic, red velvet for an extra helping of calories. I know, I am very nice.
Vernon was already in “getting drunk” mode by 8pm so he told us to just clock out early (I have the coolest boss, I know). It was Dencio’s as usual, as the beer is cheap there and we love their sisig. Southborder was also in Venice Piazza for an outdoor concert so it was nice to have live music that isn’t too noisy.
Later, at 2am (I know!), Teta picked me up from the office for dinner or breakfast or whatever it’s called. A meal, there. Everywhere else is closed except for IHOP, which is OK because I was actually thinking of pancakes and waffles and brewed coffee all day. There were several people there, mostly in groups. Some looked like they just got off work, some just finished clubbing. We stayed there for over 3 hours, mostly just chatting and planning our trip in May. We’ve been friends for a long time but it will be my first real trip with her. She is the adventurous type, like me. Always willing to try something new. Never scared to go someplace new. And definitely not afraid of roughing it up! An overseas trip is also in the works and I am sure she will not say no to backpacking trips and hostel stays. Do I smell Bolivia and Peru?! It’s great — I look forward to going on lots of trips with her!
All in all, a great day. I don’t even remember what happened last year but obviously, I had lots of fun this year in the company of great people.
Anyway, the real reason for this post is that I wanted to tell some stories about some real women. But first, let me give you a Japanese word. A very ugly Japanese word. 浮気 Uwaki.
浮 uwa – floating
気 ki – mind or spirit
A floating spirit? A wandering mind. Infidelity. Unfaithfulness. This is the theme of my rant today. I apologize in advance because I might ruin the romantic mood for some. But I feel that I needed to write about this.
Case 1: Anna, who was in a long term relationship with a guy we will call Patrick. Anna and Patrick dated for a long time, got engaged and got married. It was such a stable relationship that a lot of their friends consider them the perfect couple. But shit happened. A woman, Camille, happened. She is his secretary, a part time college student who regularly attends a Christian community. I know, right? I can put here what community that is but that might be a little low. At first, Patrick was able to hide the affair behind problems his company was facing. But when the company finally closed down, he had to find another screen to hide behind. He conveniently cooked up a story about a woman from another company that he admitted to seeing regularly, but said that they already broke up. Anna wasn’t buying any of the shit and was able to dig up photographic evidence of Patrick and Camille’s affair. But even with all the shit out in the open, Patrick still vehemently denied any wrongdoing. He said he had a crush on Camille and that is all. I guess I’ve been living in the Stone Age. I didn’t know that you can send nude pictures to your “crush”. That escalated rather quickly, didn’t it? Patrick eventually left the marital home, but not after spending Anna’s money for Camille. Today, Patrick lives the carefree life of a single guy with no care in the world — no apologies, thank you very much.
Case 2: Karen, in a relatively stable relationship with James, though they have not been together for a very long time. They were introduced by his cousin. Things developed pretty fast between them and soon, they were buying a car together and going for groceries together and taking trips and all. Sadly, they were mostly spending HER money. His job at a call center doesn’t pay much, though he says he is a manager there. Then one day, Karen accidentally sees a message sent to his phone by a girl (let’s call her Rochelle). This girl called him “babe” and asked him to buy stuff for her child. This girl turned out to be his subordinate at work — she is a single mom of 2 kids (from 2 different fathers). Once Karen found out, people from his office started talking — the affair started well over a year ago. James was pretty confident that he wouldn’t get caught. Rochelle didn’t care that James had a girlfriend. As long as nobody blabs to Karen, they will be fine and so the affair carried on for a long time. After Karen dumped James, she found out more about the kind of person James is. To put it simply, the guy she dated was probably fictional.
Case 3: Nina, also in a long term relationship with Will. They were going into their 5th year together and started talking about settling down. Things were looking pretty rosy until one day, Will told Nina he wanted to break up. He said there was no major reason for the breakup. He just wanted to be single again. Nina agreed reluctantly but did a bit of digging then found out about Will’s relationship with a girl named Jinky, who happened to be half his age. They met online. Jinky, in all her teenage naivete, believed that Will was single. But through common friends online, Jinky learned about Will and Nina. The couple eventually got back together, with Will having to apologize to both girls. Alas, the relationship was not meant to last. Will was sent overseas for work and spent a lot of his time with a colleague named Mara. Soon, he and Mara got together and he broke up with Nina again. Will never admitted the relationship with Mara. But friends and colleagues found out and eventually reached out to Nina. There was no getting back together.
These women are smart, outgoing, caring, thoughtful, and generous. Yet, the men they showered their love on betrayed them. What did they do to deserve infidelity? Can they have prevented cheating? Is monogamy really that hard?
There you have it, three women, three cases of infidelity. I am sure there are more like them. There will be more like them. Very unfortunate. But I am positive, things will turn around for these women. Who knows, in my next story telling session in 2015, I might have some nice updates on the girls. I am keeping my fingers crossed for them!
