Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Yes, I know you're rolling your eyes right now... so I'll try to avoid all the mush. But I just HAVE to talk about MY JAX. I promise it won't be too cheesy. :)

FIRST IMPRESSION. 15th of July, 2003. My first day in my first job. First time I laid my eyes on this man. Al Jeffrey Lacambra y Obusan. AJ. Tall, skinny guy with curly black hair. Jericho Rosales look-alike minus the glasses. I couldn't exactly remember the polo he was wearing but I'm sure it was a solid color. Funny, smart, and witty. Not bad. Nothing special either. Typical fresh grad like me trying to make it to the corporate ladder. Ok ok so he was an ME grad from Mapua, 11th in his batch and placed 9th in the recent board exam. So what? Must be a nerd. I wondered where he gets those (corny) jokes.

PLAYING THE HERO. Back then, I was just starting to drive and Cavite to Makati wasn't exactly my idea of a "practice route". The first Friday that I had to go home to my rents (read: drive alone), I was in doom-land - what's the girl with no sense of direction and beginner's driving skills to do? So here comes my bayani. The next thing I know, there he was with his props (2 other co-leadtechs, Kuya Dennis and Berto) taking me home. Mental note: he lives in San Pedro, Laguna, not anywhere near the Makati area but there he was in my passenger seat, making kwento, and paying my toll fee. Weehee.. That was the start of our bonding sessions. Every Friday thereafter, he was the "guy who took me home" and I was "the girl who needed a companion to make sure she wouldn't add to the horrible list of accidents in the south express way".

GETTING-TO-KNOW STAGE. As days passed, I knew more and more about him. I learned that he's such a basketball freak, that his favorite color is pink, how a lot of girls has been in his little black book... things like that. He constantly made me laugh and his smirk started to look cute to me. We would go to Tagaytay with him driving at a 40-kph speed so we could have longer conversations. He became my wake-up call during boring trainings. We started to look after each other. It was inexplicable.

THINGS HAPPENED SO FAST. By the middle of September, the Almay-AJ "tandem" was in full swing. We were spending so much time with each other and people were starting to notice. We started to call each other Pearl and Jax (short for Perla and Ajax - yep, the laundry soaps). I was between being naive and scared. Naive because I wasn't sure if he looked at what we had then as special and scared because I wasn't ready (regardless of what he thought). But nevertheless, I played the part of the numb lady who was just enjoying the ride and going with the flow. Until October 16th. Can't remember vivid details of how it happened. It just did.


THE MAN I LOVE NOW. Jax is the only person in this world who is capable of lifting my spirits up when I'm in my lowest of lows. He is my friend, my personal adviser, my father, my coach. He has influenced me in a lot of things. The very same person who treats me like a princess is also my worst critic. This is his way of teaching me to be strong. He's one of the reasons I wake up with a smile on my face. He's my big baby. :) In a nutshell, I could say we compliment each other - what the other one lacks, the other fills up. That's why I love this man so much. I know with him I will never be empty.


Your eyes are the windows to heaven. Your smile could heal a million souls. Your love completes my existence. You're the other half that makes me whole. You're the only other half that makes me whole.