Oh, just another love story in the works.

Basically an excerpt from what I have so far. It saddens me but I feel that it will not have the predictable Jeahan happy ending I wish it would have.Still, here’s to hoping for happier inspiration in the next few days. Maybe, just maybe, I’d have a change of mind. Or heart. Haha.

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“Now tell me. What are you doing here?” he asked. “Let me guess. Stella’s being too much for you again and you are so annoyed with all her constant bickering about her hair that you just needed to go far, far away?” He grinned. She giggled. Oh, don’t give me that. I will not fall for your charm again.

They were now seated across from each other at a cozy bistro for lunch. They had an amazing view of the ocean and Nicola Conte was playing in the background. She was still guarded but at least she has finally gazed at him properly for the first time since he called out her name earlier at the poolside. She was now faintly taking in all the details of the face she has never really forgotten. His long eyelashes, his quirky eyebrows, the little mole above his lip.

“Believe it or not, we’re getting along really well now.” Jenna said. “Ever since last March when I gave her the ‘wedding of her dreams’ with her millionaire boyfriend, she had surprisingly been the best sister to me, maybe even better than Elsa sometimes.” She paused. “I guess people really do change positively after they get married. I’ve been a witness to that all throughout the years. All those bridezillas all of a sudden turn to sweet homemakers when I chance upon them a few months after their wedding day.

“It’s still such a mystery to me,” Jenna finally said, shaking her head.

“Everything’s a mystery to you, Jenna.”

Yeah, and that’s probably why I fell so passionately and stupidly in love with you. Jenna thought. You are the ultimate poster guy for mysteriousness.

A waiter approaches their table to give them their orders. They started eating and were silent again for a while, only talking to praise the food that was before them. Jenna noticed that he became more refined compared to the last time she saw him—not that she hated his former rowdy ways. Jenna decided that she appreciated both ways. She decided she still appreciated him.

She was taking in the moment and before she could snap away from her thoughts she realized they were already locked in each other’s eyes. Her memories spreading like wildfire: their first kiss behind the cafeteria of her school, their afternoon escapades anywhere her Civic would bring them, dancing to Radiohead in his most beautiful rendition with the guitar she bought for him as a birthday gift, that night in November when he asked her to marry him by the time she turned eighteen. Jenna could almost feel sickness coming. She broke away from the stare.

“So. You and your dream weddings, huh?” He said, reducing the tension.

She laughed. How have we ever become such great pretenders.

“And what about you? Why are you here?” Jenna hesitated to ask for a moment but asked anyway. “Who are you with?”

“I’m here for the same reason. I’m giving myself a break while I wait for the judge’s decision on the case I’ve been handling for months.” He left out on the answer that she really wanted to know. But his eyes shifted as if he wanted to say something more. It’s that look again, Jenna thought. How could she forget? That was the look he had when he left.

Jenna glanced at a group of teenage girls seated at a table near them. She suddenly remembers her own high school friends. Remarkably, she has remained in touch with them. If they knew who the same man (albeit more beautiful) sitting across from her is they will quite predictably freak out. Throughout the years, conversations in the circle always included the Big Mysterious Disappearance of the Long-Haired Love of Jenna’s Life. It had become a joke eventually. Jenna just didn’t want to admit that after fourteen years, it still stung her.

“So you made it. You got your dream. You’re a lawyer now.”

“Yeah.” He blushed.

“I guess we both got what we wanted,” Jenna said. She wanted to tell him that more than playing “godmother” to former young girls by giving them their dream weddings, what she really wanted was him. That all throughout her last months in high school, to her college years, up to the time when she started becoming a sought-after wedding planner in the country, all she ever did was wait for him. He said he would come back, but he never showed up.

Time made Jenna stop hoping. Yet it never stopped her from loving him.