44: Chasing Yes part 2

They both had busier two weeks. 14 days after no contact, Drino texted her to meet with him for their 9th date. They had a contract signed, so Ashmille couldn’t refuse. She thought of finishing it up to the 10th date and cutting their unnecessary ties. After what Drino’s manager said to her, she couldn’t shrug off this issue.

For Ashmille’s prototype date request, it is Cozy Refreshment. They went to the café and pub, which is beside the restaurant bar Drino’s group usually hangs out in college.

Ashmille arrived. “I forgot that I put no bars in our agreement.”

“We can do both. We can have a few drinks by not actually drinking. This is a gastropub that you will like.”

Ashmille indicated in their prototype dating agreement about no dating in bars or clubs.

“Wait, I also said no dating at your house or my house,” she remembers.

“Oh, yeah. You’re right. Should we cancel our previous 8th date and redo the glamping outside my house?”

Either way, it would be Drino’s advantage.

“Uh, no. That’s okay,” she refused.

She wanted to end it sooner, so better not redo it.

There was a silence for a moment when Drino decided to break it.

“Do we still match 80% like before, or have we become more distant and less than 80% compatible? Ashmille, what are we?”

“That line is usually asked by women,” she joked, because that’s the common line she hears in a romance drama.

“I didn’t invite you to those dates to buy your sweet, yes.”

“I know. And I know that you know I can’t be bought by this.”

“But I want to know what this relationship means. It was partly my fault for not letting you know I was already courting you when we met again after three years, and I convinced you to continue our prototype dates. For me, none of it was prototypes. They were all real, so were my feelings for you since college. What can you say about my confession for you?”

“I never witnessed such a thing.”

“I did. You know when… I mumbled your name instead of Marshe’s. That scene was too much for me as it consumed the role I was supposed to play. I became Drino instead of Aldrin.”

“So, you confessed to Marshe, not me.”

“Yeah, but you heard your name. It wasn’t a mistake. I was thinking about you.”

“I don’t even look like that pretty girl. We had nothing in common.”

Drino removed his work clothes. He unbuttoned his long-sleeved dark blue polo with only a white undershirt on.

“A-Alejandrino, what are you doing?”

He unfastened his black belt and pulled down his dark gray pants.

She closed her eyes. “Stop it and put your clothes back on. Or else, I’ll report you!” she threatened him.

He removed his black shiny shoes and his silver-framed eyeglasses.

“Look at me.”

She turned her back, still with her eyes closed. “I’m not looking at your naked body! I’m not a pervert.”

He didn’t respond.

“I indicated in the agreement before that there should be no PDA for the prototype date, but you’re breaching the agreement.”

“Yup, no Public Display of Affection. But not Private Display of Affection.”

Ashmille panicked. She interpreted that Drino is willing to display his private parts as an act of his affection.

“I still have my clothes on. I have my sando and shorts,” he said.

He held her right shoulder. She twitched her shoulder and was able to sneak a peek at him. She faced him slowly when she saw he was not completely naked.

“Have you lost it?!”

“This is me, the boy you’re calling Alejandrino and not Drino. I’m not playing the role of Aldrin right now, so hear me out as Alejandrino.”

He was wearing the clothes for Aldrin’s character, so he took them off to be Drino instead.

She became speechless.

“The line before I said I love you to Marshe, I wrote those lines. Those were my genuine feelings for you. That’s why I delivered that line the best. It felt natural.”

“I have been in love with you since we were in college… I already had a crush on you when we were in our third year. I got lucky to be close to you in my fourth year. I didn’t miss my opportunity to work with you, so I did my thesis individually. Not only did we become close, but I also became a better person.

And until now, you inspire me to be better than yesterday. It was just five dates, yet it felt like a lifetime. Maybe because I already saw a lifetime with you. Funny because the prototype dates we did felt so genuine that I never felt it was a pretend relationship. Or it is because my feelings for you right from the start were real.”

The atmosphere is getting heavier.

“Issues are circulating about us. I hope that you will be by my side as I deal with this, if you’ll have me. I am certainly not in my best shape yet because of my business conflicts, but I will rise again… like a dough.”

Drino had noticed her a long time before she noticed him. He was watching her on the laptop screen during their online class.

He was waiting for her response.

“There are certain roles that we play for other people. I really liked you as my individual thesis mate. And as you said, you were glad that we became partners. But after going out with you… being your girlfriend isn’t the role that fits me.”

“Have you asked me if I wanted your role to be my thesis mate or girlfriend?”

“And your answer is?”

“You were once my schoolmate, my thesis mate, and currently my character partner. I want to be more than your schoolmate, thesis mate, and workmate.” He puffed his chest. “Ashmille, I want to be yours. I want to step up and be your lover,” he said with conviction and full of emotions from his heart.

Ashmille went silent, staring at his fervent eyes. Her emotions filled her mind.

She opened her mouth slowly. “Yes, I agree.”

The romantic guy confessed his feelings to the girl he loves in the least romantic way he could have. But he did a retake of his confession, just like what he does in filming.

On the other hand, the realist girl confessed her feelings to him in the simplest yet most romantic way a cold girl could think of.

There was a moment of silence when they were both absorbing what they confessed to each other.

“Clothe yourself!” She tossed his clothes in his face.

“If you’re still unsure about my feelings for you, check your online survey form. That should answer it.”

“I read it a month ago. I visited my old email account and saw a notification that someone sent a response to a survey form that was more than three years old. I saw your initial love confession.”

Drino filled out Ashmille’s online survey form more than 3 years ago when she was working on her thesis. She forgot to disable the response. He put this on the questions or recommendations section of her survey form:

Please talk with me again. I want to continue and never put an end to what we had. I’m saying this because I like you.

“You were saying that my love confession in the restaurant bar was the third one?”

His first love confession was the filled-out survey form, the second was when he delivered the wrong name and mentioned Ashmille instead of Marshe during the shooting of Aldrin’s love confession scene. The last one was when Drino undressed himself almost naked.

“Uh-huh. As the saying goes, the third time’s the charm. You proved that right.”

Drino blushed. “Glad to make it at third attempt.”

“What if I said no by refusing to continue our dates?”

“Then that was my queue that you don’t have any feelings for me. The fact that you agreed to play the prototype dating game with me again after three years gave me the hope that I stand a chance in your heart, unlike in college.”

“College?”

“It was obvious that you held no interest in me in college. You ghosted me, remember? And you told me not to fall in love with you on our first date.”

Ashmille remembers the time he told him not to fall in love with her at the Walled City.

“When you helped me wipe my mouth with a tissue in that café, my heart skipped a beat.”

“You liked me at that time?” he clarified.

“Not yet, but I felt a butterfly in my stomach… What took you so long? You’re loud and talkative, yet you can’t blurt out the three simple words in college?!”

“Yeah, I was a jerk. I’m glad our feelings didn’t change through the years.”

“I’m so happy, my love story could end here,” she’s emotional.

“No! You’re not dying!”

“I don’t have to die to end my love story.”

“We’re just starting it.” He approached her and held her shoulders. “I wanna hear your direct love confession to me, too.”

“I'm just good at keeping my face straight and pretending to be dense. You were so obvious in college, but I didn’t want to assume. I’ve been waiting for your confirmation for more than three years.”

“Yes! I’m so happy I could die,” he shouted.

“Hey!”

In a bar, people make love to be physically intimate with someone, but what they did was talk all night, and they became emotionally intimate.