if you don't know mac, you would think of him as mayabang, maangas, or suplado. that's what i thought of him before i really knew him.

[officemate]
we worked in the same account but different teams so it didn't really give us a chance to get to know each other. i would notice him quiet, sulking in his workstation, probably listening to his raggae music. i only knew him as an sv rep and as one of ty's friends, nothing more. wasn't interested in befriending him either... who would want to be friends with an unfriendly person?

[rep-analyst relationship]
until i got to listen and evaluate his calls. surprisingly, he was polite, patient, and nice to customers... even irate ones! so i figured, there is probably more to this person than his angas (talk about being judgemental! ~ yes, that's me!).               

[acquaintance]
since his friends were my friends as well, we got to chitchat and joke around in the office. he's not a bad person after all, i figured. 
           [perfect company] 
i was still taking the shuttle home at that time. after shift, i would walk to the mall, windowshop, then go home. at one time, we got to be on the same shift and since he doesn't have anything else to do after work, he started joining me in my mall tambays before heading home. we would go to toy stores looking for toys we can play with on our boring shifts. we would eat merienda and talk about work and other stuff that didn't really make sense. we would spend the afternoon walking around the mall, aimlessly, and the night drinking in gerry's or boozestop or starbucks. 

[friend in the truest sense]
you know when you feel like opening up to a perfect stranger? i felt that with him, thing is, he's not a stranger. as soon as i got to know him more, i began to feel at ease. i didn't have to be miss prim and proper, or pretend i don't eat a lot, or be always polite, or nice. with him, i was myself. and so i started telling him about my sob story. he was nice enough to listen and i felt that he understood me. of all my friends who knew my story, he was the only one who never advised me that i should get over my ex already. he would console me and tell me that everything's going to be okay but he never pressured me into forgetting about my ex. he was simply there to listen ~ and, boy, did he listen good! 
                 [bitter friend] 
irreconcilable differences forced him and my friend to split up. i became mad at him, putting all the blame on their breakup on him. talking to both of them, i got to understand what happened all along. it was no one's fault, really. it was a matter of being not-meant-to-be.                [complications] 
needless to say, there became complications. rumors are ridiculous but i wasn't the type that can ignore them. eventually, i got over them because i knew better than them. and i realized that rumors are just that, rumors. so i let them be.

[the inevitable]
love has a funny way of showing up where it is not expected (or wanted). fate has a funny way of showing you the right direction. that no matter how you avoid it, love will find you. and no matter which turn you go, fate steers you. 

on november 2005, after all that has been said and done, we found ourselves very much in love. 

[never let him slip away] 
i, in the beginning, had a lot of fears, a lot of objections. but i soon realized that if you have found 'the one', you will never be afraid of what the future may bring. and so not long after his admission, i told him how much i love him. 
               [the next step]
sometimes, i'm still be surprised at how fate brought us together. i'm still surprised at where fate is taking us. but one thing is certain, i am not afraid, i have no regrets, and i've never been more certain in my life.

so on november 5, 2006, exactly one year after telling me that he 'had feelings' for me, we are tying the knot!