They agreed to meet in Madrid the following year. And before they went out of Via Mare, he gave her his cell phone number. She refused to give hers, and just like in the movie Serendipity, she said " if we are meant to be, there will be a way that we shall meet again."
The next day, Tom flew out of Manila into Madrid where he took the post of Assistant Consular Office in the Philippine Consulate in Spain.
That was a year ago to this day. That night at Via Mare in the Shangri La Mall Complex was a chance encounter. He was there to meet with his daughter on the eve of his departure.
Her daughter lives with his ex wife, and the trip from Pampanga to Manila took its toll on her frail health. He sent her home early, and he passed the time drinking beer and eating grilled calamari.
Then Jenny walked in and sat at the table beside him. The attraction was instant and electrifying.
He invited himself into Jenny's table, introducing himself as a Consular Officer, an introduction which he never used before. But the moment had to be seized right away as he was to leave noon of the following day.
Jenny warmed to him like a lost kitten. She soon told him about her work with the media and how she loves the music of Mozart, the work of Salinger, the art of Dali.
The glass of white wine in her hand soon changed five times, and his beer bottles piled up on the table. They wanted not to part for the evening, and if there was only another morning left, they'd surely have made love as passionately as lovers thirst on their very first encounter.
Today they were supposed to meet in a cinema in Madrid near the Gran Via. It was Jenny who wrote on a piece of napkin: One year from today we shall meet in Madrid and watch the movie showing at La Casa.
2:10 pm - He was among the last in a long queue of cinema goers. He was checking the women in front of him
and as he glanced back, a girl in a dark blue jacket walked up and joined the line. Is that her? The last time he saw Jenny, she had a green La Coste T-shirt and a shawl with pink design, black denim pants, and
grayish black sneakers. Her earrings were small hoops and she wore a watch and carried a big bag.
2:15 pm - The cinema was full and he found a second raw seat. He glanced to his left and right, checked his back and front. Every time someone walked out, he checked her out.
4:15 pm - The movie ended. He stood up before the credits showed up on screen. He stood by the railing wherein he could see the people leaving the cinema. It was near the escalator so he wouldn't miss anyone.
His eyes darted left to right. Then he saw the girl in a dark blue jacket and beige pants and flip flop step-in going down the escalator. Her dark hair seemed familiar. She looked down as she walked.
"I think it's her." He was not really sure but his heart told him so. He almost ran to the escalator and his eyes never left her as she went down another flight of escalator. He walked past other shoppers.
She took another escalator and soon reached the last floor. He followed her. The bottom floor was the Food Court, and at that hour, the tables were full of people. There were many Filipinos and other Orientals eating at that time.
But he couldn't find Jenny. She was not there. He saw the washroom sign. "Did she go in there?" So he waited awhile at the passage way. No sign of Jenny.
He stood at the elevated portion of the Food Court from which he could see the food stalls and the eating tables. Jenny was not there. He must have looked a sight because people started to look at him.
Tom started to walk down and along the food stalls pretending to choose but merely checking the women around.
He went up again and saw a Bookstore with English titles. Maybe she went here, she being a a bibliophile.
Inside the store, he walked past aisles of books and as he darted his eyes from aisle to aisle, browser to browser, he saw a clerk suspiciously eyeing him. It must be his "lover eyes" showing up.
His "lover eyes" according to his once long term lover, are mean and fierce, and they show up at the height of a sexual encounter. So his eyes must have become fierce, from stress and frustration and longing.
Then he went down again and past the other restaurants located at the opposite side of the Food Court. Then he walked to the end of the floor. " Oh wait, there's a Spanish Starbuck's here. Surely she must have gone there."
But wait I don't have cash right now. So he had to fall in line in an ATM machine and upon discovering it had no cash, he ended up changing US dollars into Euro.
So it was almost five pm when he reached Starbucks. The tables were occupied except for one. He ordered a small Latte and sipped it slowly, hoping Jenny would come in.
No one showed up. The girl whom he thought of as Jenny looked a bit tired and sleepy. If it was not her, then he missed her if she were still upstairs at the cinema. But his heart knew it was Jenny in that dark blue jacket and flip flop leather slippers and a big bag.
"But why didn't she just call me?"
Ten days have passed since Jenny arrived in Madrid. She wanted the first meeting to be accidental. A chance encounter. No strings attached. She must have thought he changed in the twelve months he'd been in Madrid.
Or she didn't want any sort of pre-arranged meeting; she wanted it random.
"What a waste, " he thought. Ten days lost when we could have been holding hands now, feeling each other's warmth, seeking endless kisses.
The other night, he dreamt of Jenny and him dancing. And him kissing Jenny at the sunken part of her throat.
"Oh, Jenny, I miss you. We should not be wasting any more day and night. We cannot rely on randomness anymore. Our first moment was a chance already. We've got to make time now. Time is running out."
Then he pressed his cellphone and checked his Contacts and his own number. "Call Jenny, call," he whispered.
As Tom stepped out of the Mall housing the cinema and into the street, he immediately felt the humid Madrid summer. Yes, summer was on its last vestiges and fall is just a few weeks away, but this evening was warm.As warm as his feelings for this woman he never met tonight.
There would be tomorrow and the next nights to think about.
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