All About You

Thirty Five

I didn’t think that the most romantic night of my life would end with Marlon and I, wrapped in towels, sitting across from my parents in our living room.

Mum’s eyes dart between us, her lips parted in shock. She isn’t angry though, I don’t think. Thank goodness.

“So all this time, you were both faking it?” she asks. Her voice heightens a little.

Marlon and I glance at each other. He’s fighting a smirk, I can tell.

“Um, yes, Mum we were,” I say.

Once my parents had ushered Marlon and I into the house, she demanded we both take turns standing under hot water in the shower for at least five minutes, to fight off any impending cold. Then, after we were settled into more comfortable clothes, Marlon and I decided to come clean to them about what had been going on for the last couple months. Our way of starting afresh. Which leads us to now.

“Why,” she shrieks. I wince, and Marlon places a hand atop my leg.

“Tita, with all due respect, we both thought faking our relationship and faking a breakup would stop you and my Mum from…well…”

“We wanted you both to stop trying to set us up so much,” I interject, and the words flow easier than I ever thought that they would.

I try to summarise years and years of the built up anxiousness, frustration in words the best I can.

“You, and everyone else in our families were always being too much.”

“Jaslene used to hate me, you know,” Marlon adds, and I slap him.

“That doesn’t help.”

Mum turns to me, brow quirked.

“You know, you always complained about Marlon, always took his toys too, but I always sensed that chemistry there,” she tells us, wiggling her fingers between us. “See, I was right.”

I groan, “That isn’t the point Mum.”

She sighs. “I’m sorry honey, that your Tita Regina and I have been bothering you both. I just wish you didn’t feel like you had to lie to us just for us to stop. You could’ve always told me.”

“I did try to tell you Mum. Many times, in fact,” I interrupt. “I just don’t think you ever listened to me properly, or took me seriously.”

That’s when Mum bows her head. Dad reaches forward to take her hand, patting it.

“Your Mum just got enthusiastic, a little too much,” he says, “But she had all the best intentions at heart.”

“I know that, and I love it. But I want you to listen to me, from now on. To take me seriously. I don’t - I don’t want to be scared to tell you both how I feel anymore. I want to be open with you.”

Mum meets my eyes then, her eyes glimmering. I didn’t think she’d get this emotional. A tear strikes my cheeks, and I wipe it away. I didn’t think I’d also get emotional. She holds out her arms, and I steadily take them, melting in them immediately. All the frustration strips away.

“I’m sorry about that darling, I never realised how much it bothered you. I promise I- I’ll do better. You can always tell me everything, and I want you to be able to tell me anything. I’m sorry you felt like you couldn’t do that before. But I promise you that you can. And I’ll make sure you remember that. Especially now that you’re an adult.”

She pulls back, taking my face in between her palms. “But you’ll always be my baby girl though, you know?”

I grin, and everything feels warm.

“I know Mum. And I’m sorry about snapping at you-”

She shakes her head. “Don’t be, I understand.”

Mum and Dad reach forward to embrace me. Mum even pulls Marlon into the embrace, and the moment is so terribly cheesy I can’t help but laugh.

“Ugh, this is so dramatic,” Ria’s voice cuts through all the unexpected emotion, until Dad pulls her in, and we’re all tangled in a giant hug.

Marlon decides to have dinner with us until the rain stops, and it’s surreal that even though this isn’t the first dinner Marlon has had with my family, it’s the first time he’s having dinner as my boyfriend.

Once the sky is cleared I walk him to the front door.

Dad offers to drive him home since the sky is already well dark, and I’d much rather he not be murdered in these late hours of the night. Hand in hand, I lead him to the door.

“Can you believe? That was your first dinner with my parents, as my boyfriend. So that’s one big thing already checked off your list,” I say as we step outside. Marlon pulls on my arm so I’m halted in my steps, halfway down the footpath. I turn to him, confused. He’s grinning.

“So, we’re boyfriend and girlfriend now, I see?”

Even in the dark, I can see the dance of mischief in his eyes.

“Shut up,” I say, swinging him with my free hand so as to slap his arm, but he catches it before it makes contact.

“Remember when you said that you’d have no trouble not falling for me, Garcia?” he asks, his voice hoarse.

“God, you piss me off,” I smile, reaching up, my fingers tracing his cheek, “In the best ways.”

Then, as if they were made for it and nothing more, our lips find each other. I can feel his smile against my lips, and I want to bottle this moment forever.

We kiss as if we still cannot believe that after all this time, our parents were right. Mum already predicted the love I’d eventually have for Marlon long before I would realise myself.

“Come on you two lovebirds, I don’t want to see that” Dad calls out from his car, honking at the wheel, but he’s smiling.

As I watch Marlon go, the disbelief still courses through my veins. From how everything fell together.

It turns out, I did end up finding the love of my life at 18. In fact, he’d been there since the day I was born.

Marlon Salvador, the bane of my existence.

My person.

I’d spent my whole life dissecting books and movies to concoct the perfect man in my head, the one that would uphold my dream of a perfect romance, just like the one my parents have.

I’d been convinced that Marlon Salvador is far from it. He still is. With his devilish dimpled smile, tousled hair and eyes that spell trouble, he’s far from any perfection I’d imagined.

He isn’t made to be written, to equate to fiction.

He’s made to be real. And that’s my favourite part about him.

He’s real and better yet, he’s mine.