My brow was furrowed in concentration while I made my first quality incident analysis report when suddenly, Christian Bautista crooned, “I don’t have nerves of steel, I have a heart that feels. I may have cried a million tears but I won’t drown…” It was my cellphone. I glanced at it and saw the picture of a guy flashing across its screen. I picked up the call.
“Hi Rey,” I greeted.
“O, ang tagal mo nang di nagpaparamdam! Ano nang balita?” he responded, his tone accusatory.
We spent the first minute on the usual “Heto, okay lang” idle chit-chat.
The next minute he spent on getting my office’s exact address so he could come pick me up, now na. Huwat?
It was kinda hard to give instructions to lost boy over here, who, amazingly enough, has been driving since high school and has been living in Metro Manila since College but still manages to get lost while driving in it.
After putting down the phone I immediately shot a message to our common friend Jerome through YM. “Jer, Rey is coming over to pick us up. What time can you get out?”
Another amazing thing is that Jerome is only two buildings away and yet we hadn’t seen each other since maybe last year.
Minutes later, Rey was standing in our 19th floor elevator area. I parked him in our pantry then called my barkada over so I can introduce them to him. When they had to leave I left my phone with him so he could chat with Jerome while I finished what I had to do relating to work.
At 7pm we were meeting up with Jerome in the Gloria Jeans Cafe in our building. Together we rode Rey’s car and made our way to Greenbelt. We parked in Greenbelt but ate in Glorietta.
After scrutinizing all the restaurants we decided to eat in Gerry’s Grill. We had some grilled squid, manggang ensalada and sisig. I had a glass of my favorite dalandan juice, too, but it tasted nothing like dalandan.
After dinner, Rey still wanted to have dessert, so we walked over to Icebergs. He wanted to have the Godzilla slammer but it was good for three people and Jer and I were too full to eat. So he settled on a parfait while Jer and I had milkshakes. I tried the choco banana peanut butter flavor and didn’t like it.
We sat outside so Jer could smoke. It’s kinda unnerving to see someone you still think of as a high school guy smoking – the same feeling I got when I found out my baby brother had a girlfriend. Talk about a rude wake up call.
Rey made us both try a stick, too. Curiosity killed the cat, and someday it will probably kill us too. But one stick won’t turn me into a full blown chain smoker. I didn’t even like the taste, so don’t expect me to be trying it again anytime soon.
After we walked out of Icebergs, Jerome took a cab to his home in Cavite.
Rey and I walked all over Greenbelt because our tummies were so heavy. We stopped by Timezone and played a bit. I challenged him to my favorite — freethrow hoops. Then he made me try a few other games I hadn’t played before.
Then when we were set to leave, he couldn’t remember where he parked his car so we ended up walking all over the parking lot as well. Finally, though, he brought me home.
I then gave him specific instructions how to get out of our place and end up on the main road.
Minutes later, he texted, saying that he had gotten lost and had ended up in Greenbelt where we’d started. 😅
It’s a bit refreshing, though, to note that some things never change. And that some people will be high school boys forever.