A Very Long Engagement

July 30 Saturday. It was a busy day, my whole family (all 18 of us) were meeting at Alba's in T. Morato for some celebration. I was the designated driver of my Nani (grandmother), I was to drive her from Marikina to New Manila to T. Morato to New Manila and finally back to Marikina. Ruy was invited to the celebration as well which was nice. I normally see Ruy only once a week, so every chance like this makes me feel like I'm getting a bonus.

My entire family was already in Alba's and they were already eating. I on the other hand was still on the phone with Ruy. "Hey honey where are you?" "I'm still in Quezon Ave sorry there was unexpected traffic near our house."....so I waited. I eventually saw Ruy walking into Alba's I ran to meet him outside so I can give him a hug before he comes in....we don't usually show affection in front of the family so I needed to meet him outside. I was really so happy at that time. It was rare for our family to be all together like this, and it was just as rare to have Ruy join us. Mixing the two which I love so much (okay three if you include the conchinillo) really made me almost giddy that day.

While eating Ruy told me that he'll be driving me home okay? And I said, oh no I took my car and I drove Nani here. If you want you can drive both Nani and myself home to Marikina. He then said, okay let's talk about it later. Meanwhile he told me he had something for me. I love surprises, I love gifts and I love them more from Ruy so I was almost jumping up and down and saying "What? What?". He took out a cd of the movie A Very Long Engagement with Audrey Toutou and showed it to me. I was thanking him profusely and decided to open it later. Now it is important to note that I've been whining about not being able to watch this movie 6 days ago. At the same time my bestfriend Carmi and Ruy's bestfriend Cyril said to him "Speaking of engagement, ano na ba nangyari sa proposal?"...That talk didn't end well, it ended with me sighing and Ruy telling Cyril to shut up...This is why when I saw the cd then I was thrilled and I thought to myself...wow at least he remembered something we talked about that day. I then forgot all about it and focused on the yummy dessert.

It was then agreed that Ruy will drive me to New Manila and Nani will ride with my mom. On the way to my house, Ruy took a wrong turn. Actually it's not really a wrong way but it's a longer route to our house. HE said "can we go this way I need to smoke" I agreed cause of course who am I to say no to an extra 5 minutes with Ruy right? He then gave me the cd again. I opened the cd, with a lot of difficulty. Those plastic wrappers around cds are really tight. I finally succeeded in removing he plastic. When I opened the case, there was a ring in place of the second cd!

I see the ring, I see a letter on top of it with the words "Will you marry me?"...but I didn't get it. 1..2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 seconds, it took me at least that long before what had just happened registered to me! I then said "Oh my God, Oh my God..." i said this repeatedly for a couple of minutes before I finally was able to remember that Ruy was beside me and needed a response....