HAZEL EYES, LACEY

When I saw this girl, everything went still, as if the whole place was frozen. How do poets address it?

Is it When Cupid strikes his arrow straight into your heart?

I think I might have felt that, for in my eyes she was the most beautiful thing on earth. And at that moment everything seemed to fade away and it was just her and me.

A friend of mine told me her name, he knew her through the brochure, and when I looked into it he was quite right. She's one of those excellent employees who were given recognition due to their superb performances. And it wasn't the first time, it was the second time now and everyone, based on the article is expecting her to be promoted one of those days. Lacey Sandoval, that's her name, and I smiled. She's a petite woman who have light brown hair, and hazel eyes, her hair dark as ebony with an ivory fair skin.

I was hoping to get to know her personally, and when that opportunity has been given, I messed up.

She was walking in the corridor that time, heading to the conference hall, we're all supposed to be there, but I let my colleagues go first because of this chance I was given. I was about to say hi, when accidentally my hand twisted for whatever reason, and the juice in my hand suddenly spilled over to Lacey's shirt! (yeah I'm a total dork.)

I panicked seeing what I did. I tried to wipe the juice in her shirt, but I guessed it's not the smartest idea, because she slapped my hands away. I saw her eyes squinted. It's just obvious that she's mad, and seeing that look, I remembered Bianca, although Lacey is way way much better than Bianca.

I tried to apologize but she was so mad and at the same time scurrying, I can't blame her, the seminar will start in 5 minutes and she will be late.

With a spilled juice in her shirt she decided to go back to her room and as the prime suspect of her muddle, I couldn't leave her like that. I followed her, but when she realized I was following her, she tried to send me away. I argued back, telling her it's my fault and I will explain to the manager what happened, and that I will own the blame. I think she realized it's useless to fight since there's more important things to do, example for her to change. She looked at me for a split second, and told me to wait outside.

I was happy for some reasons, after she changed, we went directly to the hall. She's not talking to me, we were both squinting and walking.

And when the large door opened, all eyes were on us. And we looked at each other like "oh no"

But the pressure flew away when the speaker welcomed us and joked about how we, as couple decided to have a finale entrance. We found out that the emcee just took the mic seconds before we came in, I think something happened that's why the meeting started a little late. Which loan us some time. Which apparently means we're not late.

Lacey blushed and I thought my heart melt.

After the seminar, I gathered a lot of courage and thanks to the cheering of my colleagues, I finally got to talk to her. I believed then that whatever happened in the corridor was some sort of "heaven's made".

At first I thought she'd brought up my clumsiness due to the spilled juice, but she said it was fine, she was just shocked at that moment. That gave me relief. We were having a good talk that we didn't realized it was already past 11 o'clock, though it was late, I didn't felt tired or sleepy, rather I felt more alive.

Then after talking about everything, actually anything that we could think of, all of a sudden she said,

"My grandmother once said, that you'll know if that person is the one you truly love if you hear the birds singing, if in instance your dark world would light up like the moon in shining over the night, if the air would swiftly touch your face, and if a sudden thump in your heart would make you smile. If that time would come, then surely you'll know that you are, in love."

When she told me that, there's only one thing in my mind. 'It got me'

The seminar ended well and in some point I was able to know Lacey . I never knew that, a week could feel like forever at the same time could feel like seconds. I asked her number, took me a while to man up and ask her that. But I realized I couldn't just let go of the chance.

Going back to Manila, my colleagues told me how I changed in a good way, Some teases me of having a special someone and they knew who it was. Lacey and I became regular text mates. We were updating each other nonstop, we would talk about anything under the sun, she'd even tell me about how Betty her boss's secretary would sneak in the refrigerator and eat her ham rolls secretly since everyone knows she's on diet. Lacey would laugh at it and point out that, "Women should stop dieting, what good does it gives you to stop yourself from enjoying simple pleasures? At the end of the day, you would crave for food you so promised not to eat? And the goal to be slim would vanish to waste. At least if you eat, you're happy"

She was actually more concern of Betty whose trying to please her boyfriend of being sexy, she believes that women should not deprive themselves from things they like.

Talking everyday we got to know one another personally, we even share the tiniest bit of information with each other. Her hobbies, my hobbies, her dreams, my dreams, it felt so good to talk to her.

One night I decided to ask her in a date, I was hesitant and nervous that she might reject my invitation, but as I asked her out, she gave me a delightful answer. Yes!

We've been friends for so long now, I think we're special friends, and everyday I'm falling for her, so I decided to bring the relationship into the next level.

I started to plan the whole thing with the help of our friends.

Lacey love places with cozy atmosphere and that's when Tagaytay popped in my head. One of our friends, Bea suggested putting the whole set up in the twin lakes hotel garden. And when I heard it, I knew it would just be perfect!