She's The One

By Pao Flores

Wacky delos Reyes (Dingdong Dantes), a morning TV show host, charms his way through life and swing through women’s hearts. The only constant female presence in his life is his best friend for more than a decade, Cat Aguinaldo (Bea Alonzo). The responsible and independent Cat would be the perfect match for Wacky... if only Wacky would reciprocate Cat’s romantic feelings for him.

Their friendship is tested when a college student, David (Enrique Gil), goes online to search for his mystery dream girl. When David’s video post becomes viral, Wacky decides to help him find the girl to boost his show’s ratings. Serendipitously, David’s dream girl turns out to be Cat. Despite Cat’s reluctance to date a younger guy, Wacky begs her to meet and date David. Cat relents, much to Wacky’s surprise. Cat’s growing affection for David then forces Wacky to re-examine his own feelings for her.

Mapagtanto kaya ni Wacky na si Cat ang para sa kanya? Makapag-move on na kaya si Cat at maging masaya kay David? Will Cat and Wacky finally be brave enough to take the leap of faith for love?

• Language: Tagalog
• Publisher: ABS-CBN Books
• Release date: Jul 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005462505

Book preview

PROLOGUE

First Dance

Some people find silence to be overwhelming, cruel even. But not Cat Aguinaldo. Cat is a creature of silence—she welcomes it, lives in it, thrives in it.

The last few days, however, Cat had been so grateful for the seemingly endless stream of sound from the people who have come in and out their front door. They brought with them an abundance of stories about her father—some of them she’s already heard before and committed to memory as significant milestones in his personal myth, but still she listened to them, allowing the voices of her father’s friends and peers to fill her ears and tune out her own. All of the activity and noise and chaos was an escape from an unwanted silence that she knows will soon settle in their house.

And now, that all that noise is gone, that the house is now empty of guests, the awful silence has descended. Now, it is just Cat and her father’s coffin. Cat hears the sound of her heart whimper in despair, struggling to free itself from the clutches of the unexpressed.

Her mother is taking this loss the hardest. In a span of nine days, she lost a third of her weight and gained thrice as more lines on her face. For a brief moment on the third night of the wake, Cat was afraid she was going to lose both parents at once when her mother had suddenly fainted out of fatigue. When her mother came to, Cat took command of the household and never let her mother go through another vigil without almost a half-day’s worth of sleep.

The twins, Coby and Carrie, are too young to be cognizant of what is going on, and Cat wonders if they will ever feel the loss of their father the way she does. But even they, too, seem to sense the absence of their father.

And that leaves Charlie, whose inborn innocence, Cat hopes, would make her oblivious to the magnitude of this loss. Charlie is ten years younger than Cat and born with Down Syndrome. But the joy of having Charlie in the family far outweighs the sacrifice of taking care of her: she has been and continues to be a lesson in patience and the personification of unconditional love that she so generously expresses.

Death by itself is a thief in the night. A death as sudden as a heart attack must be a band of thieves intruding into the life you share with those you hold dear. Cat’s dad was her hero, her first love, the one man she leaned on to her entire life. Her father was the center of her universe, her heart of hearts. When he died, a part of Cat’s heart died along with him.

This is the last night; the last night of her world as she knows it. But the world stops for no one. Life goes on. And her family needs her. Cat has no time to relish the past. Cat has no time to stay the child that she used to be.

So, Cat makes a decision. Unlike others, her rite of passage to maturity is a storm that tore through her life, dismantling the fairytale that her heart steadfastly held onto. This tragedy becomes her coming of age.

• • • • • • • •

It is Cat’s first day back at the university and she walks the same halls a different person. Loss does that to a person. The pain of loss is exacerbated by the unfairness of a world that goes about its normal business, even though your grief is screaming for attention. She finds herself torn between wanting to shut the world out, and rebelling in anger of wanting to call attention to her despair.

She endured the weight of sorry, sympathetic eyes on her for most of the day. There were awkward silences as she felt their eyes follow her around. There were conversations in hushed tones, and people giving her space. She tried her mightiest to keep her head up, feeling as though she was walking on water.

She is hanging by a thread by the time her tired feet manage to bring her to the gym for the last class of the day: Philippine Folk Dance for her Physical Education class. The façade that she is holding the whole day feels like it’s ready to fall apart.

To say that she’s exhausted is an understatement. Luckily for her, Sir Tony, the PE instructor, has already pre-selected the pairs. No more going through sympathetic stares from classmates who are unsure how to approach her.

Every pair will work together for the entire semester, Sir Tony announces. And for Cat, he chose Wacky.

Cat sees her instructor’s inquisitive eyes lock with hers. They are caring eyes that spoke of two questions: Are you okay? and Is he a good enough partner for you? Her lips turn up into a half smile that do not quite reach her eyes, hoping that is approval enough.

She knows this Wacky. The boy is a friend of a friend of a friend. He has quite a reputation in campus. A tall mestizo with big, expressive brown eyes that speak of mischief, his heartthrob status is easily justifiable. The ‘heartthrob’ part of his reputation is obvious; the ‘heartbreaker’ part, even more blatantly so.

As Wacky makes his way towards her, what Cat notices first is his height, how it makes sense that he’s being partnered with her. Cat is an unusually tall girl, which both her guy and girl friends say make her even more intimidating. Add to that her fiercely independent nature and her bias against stupidity (she likes the fact that she’s quite smart, thank you!), and Cat, they say, is practically a blow-to-a-man’s-fragile-ego come to life. She always finds this image of her amusing because she has no intentions of becoming a spinster nor a ball-busting shrew. But she does want to find a man she could fall in love with, and that’s probably a man who could stand toe-to-toe with her, someone who might find her challenging, but would not back down from it, someone who could see that underneath the armor of intelligence and willfulness is a person carrying her own universe of hurt and insecurities.

Wacky finally stands in front of her and moves his brows to acknowledge her. Cat tries her best to hide her discomfort at the fact that his height would allow him to look—really look—into her eyes. But she thinks he wouldn’t dare. Would he?

The first dance of the semester is a Spanish courtship dance. Its only point of contact is in the eyes. Crap.

They take their places. She evades his eyes. The music begins, the sound of a rondalla recording. He finally finds her eyes and holds her gaze before his lips curls into a slight smile. Cat unknowingly returns that smile, one that doesn’t reach her eyes, but it is a smile nonetheless.

Patay na isang kuko ko sa paa, ha. ’Wag mo nang dagdagan, he tells her with a smirk.

Cat lets out a chortle—and that surprises her. For once, she does not feel guilty about allowing herself a taste of happiness after such a devastating loss. Wacky is not treating her like a fragile being, looked upon with pity. He is meeting her where she is, relating to her as normally as he would relate to anyone else.

It’s almost as if the sun is shining for the first time after weeks of gloom. She decides it is going to be a good semester.

Baka nga ikaw ang magbigay sa akin ng patay na kuko, ’no, Cat retorts with a grin.

Wacky exhales in apparent relief. She catches a ghost of a smirk on his lips, indicating that her smile is believable, and that the boy is satisfied with his efforts to make this easier on her. It is a gesture Cat does not miss and is incredibly grateful for.

Wacky takes her hand in his, palm to palm, skin to skin. Cat suddenly becomes hyper-aware of the simple physical contact, and feels the electricity travel through her skin. Her eyes find their hands clasped tightly, and she is struck by the simplicity and strength of it. It is almost like praying, like he is praying and willing her back to life.

They go through the entire routine over and over again, dancing in circles around each other, never taking their eyes off each other, committing to the thrill of the dance’s chase. They are always in close proximity, never looking away from each other, letting their feet and hands do all the graceful work, while through their eyes, they meet each other’s souls. Wacky is seeing through her, gazing at her bruised spirit; Cat is breaking through his façade of carelessness, making friends with his equally vulnerable core. This is a courtship dance, after all—and this is what courtship ought to be: broken, battered, and lost souls finding that they are kindred spirits.

Cat’s heart quakes. The slumbering butterflies in her stomach are awakened. She is taken aback by the sudden intensity of her feelings for this boy.

They keep on until they are both lost, him in the dance, her in him. Cat couldn’t remember the exact moment she let go and just allowed herself to be led. The only thing she knows and feels is his hand still in hers and his eyes fixed on hers, seeing her deepest pains, and building her back up, step by step.

He continues to hold her gaze, now glassy with the tears threatening to fall. He smiles sympathetically and holds on even tighter, his fingers now entwined in hers. He pulls her into a tight embrace, way past the point when the music ends.

Cat’s breath hitches but she does not protest. Her arms are around his shoulders now, not as a matter of form, but in a tight embrace. He feels the dampness on his shoulder from her tears. He tightens the embrace and just lets her cry, without saying a word. The routine is long done, the class has ended, but no one has said a word. Everyone knows Cat needed this—so let her and Wacky be.

To be unapologetically open, to hand your battered heart over to another soul, takes trust. Trust is another form of love. And for Cat, this is beginning to feel a lot like love, and not just some form of fleeting childish giddiness. Her tired heart that matured over the past few weeks has no time for youthful folly. This is Cat recognizing the face of the person who helped bring her back to life. She is not about to let go.

Loss, if anything, has taught her to hold on tighter. This is Cat holding on to him, fearlessly, not minding the future she would not dare foresee.

And from that day on, that moment was, is, and will always be the one.

CHAPTER ONE

Birthday Boy

The weeks turned into months, the months turned into years, and the years turned into a decade. Cat is now a woman made wiser by the passage of time. Her life right now is a flurry of caretaker duties and business errands. She’s got the early morning routine down to a T—a perfectly rehearsed dance set to the tune of alarm clocks, a busy kitchen filled with breakfast and snacks, and the children’s laughter, culminating with an overtly cheerful voice greeting everyone Gandang Gising Pilipinas!

But not today. And Charlie is the first to notice the absence of this voice. Wala Kuya Wacky?

Cat looks at the screen disapprovingly and proceeds to call Wacky, who’s assigned to her speed dial as Tarzan.

Cat is Wacky’s human alarm clock. For a full-grown, supposedly dependable adult, Wacky is still a big kid. She expects the same old story: a wild, late night with another nameless girl in his bed. Wacky picks up just as he is pulling up to the driveway of the studio.

Sorry, I can’t talk, nasa studio na ’ko. Nagsisimula na—

Tungak! Nagsimula na nga! Ikaw kahit ang aga-aga kitang ginising, late ka pa rin. Bilisan mo, hinihintay ka na ni Charlie, baka ’di na naman pumasok ’to sa school!

Yeah, yeah. Bye, boss!

He hurriedly makes his way on set. He is greeted by his angry producer and co-hosts, while the staff rushes to make him camera ready. There is no time to be reprimanded, and Wacky gets away with it yet again.

The next thing she knows, Cat sees her best friend on her TV screen. Charlie lights up the moment she recognizes the man on TV. Kuya Wacky!

Wacky opens the next gap. Welcome back! Bago ang lahat, gusto kong batiin ang aking number one fan. Gandang gising, Charlie! Remember, school time is—

—cool time! The children at the breakfast table join Wacky as he completes his greeting. This little shared ritual between the children and their Kuya Wacky is completed with a hand gesture that spells out ‘cool.’

Cat is silently grateful for everything Wacky has done for her siblings. His presence in their lives is worth the occasional headaches. Wacky may be a big kid, but he is the superhero of their household, both to the kids, and—although Cat won’t admit it out loud—to her.

Cat fixes her eyes on the man on the TV for a while longer. For a moment, the rest of the world falls away. And in this moment, she finds comfort and calm, a short moment of silence that always centers her.

She then snaps out of her trance to look at her phone. Shit, alas sais na pala! Cat is reminded that she is tied to the concept of time and the gruelling demands of her responsibilities.

She makes it just in time to the laundry shop once owned by her parents. She is greeted by smiling faces of women who have worked with her family for as long as she can remember.

Cat spends the rest of the day with these ladies, running the laundry shop. They load up washing machines, wash, dry, fold, press—rinse and repeat. Such is Cat’s life. Not that she is complaining. She has embraced her life, and has found comfort in her routine.

Today, however, Cat’s plate is fuller than other ordinary days. Today is Wacky’s birthday—the one man she cannot say no to, the one man she will do everything for. She has a party to plan. And for the past ten years, Cat has been the designated party planner by default. His birthday is the one occasion she looks forward to the most every year.

Cat could convince herself that she is doing this out of the goodness of her heart, but the truth that she has admitted to herself on that fateful day a decade ago, is she