Uno didn't expect his date's stunning profile to punch such a vivid impression to his eyes any more than it did when he saw his picture on g-mail.
The man had that chocolate brown skin with smooth-like-a-new-born texture as it looked blemish-free, bright almond eyes that could keep a hold of one's enthrallment, smoker's lips with a piercing on the lower lip's left corner, pair of sardonically arched ebony brows that emphasizes his dare-devilish look, and mountain lean built that towers above Uno.

All there was with the man was well. An epitome of Adonis, Uno must say. He technically came in tie to his extravagantly inflated calibers for a man, more so when he heard him speak though realized on the side that he'd probably go cadaverous in complexion in an hour or so of a table talk.

"Magandang gabi, Uno. Ikinagagalak kong makadaupang palad ka ngayong gabi," said Uno's date that tarnished not, rather highlighted every positive impression the guy had carved in both his eyes and mind. "Ako nga pala si Sixto. Ikaw si Uno, hindi ba?"

The way Uno tucked non-existent strands of hair behind his ear unveiled a shred of the woman in him as he stared unblinking at his gentleman, courteous in the speech of a second date who had even pulled a chair for him. He had Uno preoccupied after being paraded with a ladies' man looks and language fluency.

Melchizedek, your days are numbered, he angrily thought, right hand tightly gripping on the coffee stirrer he had been holding for a while. Am I getting swooned? What the actual fuck, he added, taking a clandestine rubberneck on his date's mien. I doubt it.

"Narinig mo ba ako?" Sixto snapped him out of his thoughts. Though he'd been a receiver of silence and a gaze, there was still patience registered in his voice.

Uno nodded to affirm meanwhile after being injected with sanity. "O-oo naman. Oo naman...Oo..." His voice trailed off, retracting in his mind the question Sixto had asked before he was thrown amused. "Y-yes...I'm Uno..."

"Mamarapatin mo ba kung hihilingin kong mag-usap tayo gamit ang sarili nating lenggwahe? Isa kasi akong guro sa Panitikan, at mungkahi kong balang araw, ang bawat tao sa bansa ay hindi na gumamit kailanman ng wikang dayuhan."

Uno gaped. Holy shit? Seryoso ba 'to?

How he wished he was briefed or was at least given a heads up of the kind of date to have so that he could've instead stood him up. He was not oppressing the country's native language nor a fellow who could unquestionably be marked with an A in Filipino class. It was plainly because of his graded F Filipino comprehension.

Not wanting to ruin another date, he said, "Mamarapatin ko," forcing a thin smile that was close to the grimace of someone losing their bowel.

"Kung gano'n, nais kong pormal na ipakilalang muli ang aking sarili sa iyo." Sixto stood on his feet and extended his right hand towards Uno. "Ako si Sixto, edad dalawampu't-siyam, at gaya ng sinabi ko kanina, isa akong guro sa Panitikan. Ikinagagalak kong makilala ka."

Is he twenty-nine? Kind of old compared to the twenty-two-year-old me.

Uno took his hand in his. "Ako si--"

"Wari ko'y nasakop na ng impluwensya ng mga dayuhan ang iyong pagpapakatao," Sixto surprisingly uttered with heightened sarcasm while lurking his demeaning gaze on Uno. "Nakalimutan mo na yatang dapat ay tumatayo sa tuwing nakipagkikilala o ipinakikilala mo ang iyong sarili. Gan'yan ka ba pinalaki?" He smirked.

The freak?! I'd admit Dos has so many beliefs and principles far from mine, but this guy's uncommonness just literally cut a nerve in me. I cannot.

Uno's widened eyes and partially ajar mouth expressed both astonishment and aggravation that tickled the pottiness in him. "Excuse you? Is that your subtle way of saying that my etiquette is more likely breaching?"

Sixto laughed, pinning a disgraced look on Uno. "Bakit, hindi ba?" He jerked a brow as well.

His companion greatly bullseye a nerve in him that he lined him with remarks he was sure would cut a nerve in him. "And you, speaking beyond sarcastic and having the guts to question how my parents reared me, weren't any close to a person with a seriously damaged etiquette? Wow"-He palmed his hand to his chest-"Just wow. What did I even do to you aside from failing to get on my feet to exchange names with you merely? Could it be because you're highly respecting yourself, and I failed to do the same shit? Or I drove you insecure for whatever perfection etched on my features since you couldn't take your eyes off me?" He bragged.

He noticed how his date crumpled the table dress.

Sixto lifted his lips a fraction surely to speak, but Uno cut him off when he said, "Oh, shut it." He pressed his pointing finger on his lips. "I honestly thought of waiting for you to spare me a response, but your veiny hand right there," he pointed his forefinger on his balled fist, "made me conclude that whatever you'd say would be nothing but complete and utter poop sourcing from your insecurity on the perfect me. So, I'm afraid I have to leave now, Sir. Thanks for your time, though."

With that, he left, feeling upset for another ruined date.

"I'm down to my last date tomorrow, yet here I am, walking out from my second date," he mumbled while allowing his car's engine to preheat for a few minutes before he'd drive home. "But I was enthralled by his looks, was I not?" He knew he'd been raining Sixto's profile with all the most admirable adjectives when the guy's depleted values didn't yet turn him off. "But I have always been appreciative of one's beauty. I even signed on Dos' palm before when we saw a striking man at the mall. Anyway, tomorrow, last date, I should not walk out."

Before going home, he went to McDonald's to buy Dos some take-outs.

An expanse of repose of the quiet evening welcomed him home. The disturbed him suddenly lapsed into a tranquilized, empty head one.

"Dos?" He knocked on her door to give the snacks he bought from McDo. A full minute had gone by. No Dos came out.

Slowly, he tilted the knob. He was surprised when it was unlocked, even more when he saw no one on the bed. "Where is she? As far as I know, she has no evening classes," he said, tilting his head from here to there after groping for the switch.

Worried, he fished out his phone from his pocket to dial her number.

"Cannot be reached? Where would she even go at this hour? Who's she with? Why didn't she ask permission from me? Can't I have the right to know her whereab--"

The distant humming, the clinking of glasses, plates, and cutleries echoed inside his flat, hushing his babbling.

In the kitchen area, he saw Dos setting the dining table.

Her icy blonde hair was tied into a messy bun, causing some of its strands to dangle on her cheeks. The overused black apron she was wearing suddenly fought a beauty with brand new ones. The concavities appearing on her cheeks as she continued humming kind of played the role of inertia that his feet dragged him towards her without his intervention. And the curve on her lips when she saw him standing a few feet apart from her caused something inside him to whirl rapidly as if a windstorm, but it wasn't violently destructive, perhaps restorative.

He then thought to himself, why am I wasting so much of my precious time dating men just to weigh things out re my sexual orientation, when this woman could handily knock me off my feet and had me wanting not to walk out no matter how eccentric of a human being she is?

"Y-you're here...I didn't know you already arrived...How was...." Hesitation was written on her face and unsettling eyes. "How was...your date...? Did--"

Her words were left unsaid when Uno claimed her lips, which she parted from his right away.

"One last date, Uno.....One last date...." She cried. Her forehead pressed on his chin as she caressed his cheeks lightly with her thumbs. "One last date...just...just please..."

"Anything for you," he whispered.

It was a calm conversation that turned horror the night Sylvester walked Uno to their unit, and Dos saw the former bidding his goodbye by planting a kiss on the latter's lips.

"It's not what you think it is, Dos," he pleaded with her when she started walking away. Her hands were hastily wiping her incessantly falling tears. "Dosmer, I swear, I fucking swear I didn't see it coming! He just-"

She stopped on her track to face him and slapped his hand off her arm. "He just what? He just kissed you, then you let him, and that didn't make you less of a participant? What do you think of me, stupid?" Full of sarcasm and bitterness, she said.

"That was nothing! I didn't even want him to walk me to our unit, much as I didn't want to do all these shits you brought off had you not wanted me to prove myself to you! My date with him went well, yes! If that was what you'd been itching to hear! But that was purely a friendly date because before that, although I may be in denial most of the time, you got me! You already did!"

The veins on his neck were visibly protruding, so were the tears blurring his eyes as well as the strong emphasis on his words as he tried to knock some sense in her. Yet Dos seemed to have a heart like a stone; she rather didn't believe him and didn't see through his moanings.

"Fuck all your words of assurances, Uno."

Uno's reflexes were too swift to pause here on her track and jail her with his arms. And he whispered words he wished would instantly weaken her knees and soften the hard-heartedness in her.

"Ayoko na ng habulan, Dos," he sobbed. "Itigil na natin 'to. Enough is enough. We've got nothing more to prove in love.....Samara.....If you'd been in crisis and I ain't straight and ain't that of a manly man, but we're falling.....just fucking catch me....'cause I swear to the Heavens I wouldn't mind catching you....."