Fairy Tale Fail

Chapter 7 - Folk tales

The following week marked the sixteenth month after Don broke up with me.  (But who's counting?) That was a long time for my fairy tale to get back in gear. Why hadn't Don come back to me yet? How long before the Hero and her True Love would be reunited?
   Let me back up a bit. According to the morphology of the folk tale (Vladimir Propp), there were only seven basic characters in all of these stories. Sure, Mr. Propp was Russian and studied Russian tales, but this was the template I used in my paper for Film class and it seemed to work for movies like Star Wars.
   First, there's the Hero. A regular person, victimized in some way, and in a struggle to win back her True Love. Because in fairy tales, the Hero only gets the True Love after being tested greatly, maybe even three times.
   The Hero gets some help from the Messenger, the Friend, and the Donor, people who are in unique positions to provide support and special guidance throughout the testing phase. The Fairy Godmothers, magical animals, helpful townspeople. In my world, that would be Charisse, and former boss Tara, and more people than I could name at the moment. 
   Despite all that magic being on the Hero's side, though, it won't be that easy, because of the Villain. There was also the False Hero character, who would try and steal the True Love away. The Hero may not even see these traitors until the very end, but that's what the struggle is all about.
   So, obviously, I was the Hero here. I just wish I knew who the Villain was, though. Don's issues had been with me. It might have been easier if I had been competing with someone else.
   I may have decided to stay away from Don but I didn't change my mind about him. I knew I wanted a good guy, I knew I wanted him, and… our breakup? First test. Ignoring me after I told him I still loved him? Second test. I was probably going to be tested three times, or as many times as necessary, but if I loved him as I said I did, I wasn't going to waver. He would come around, eventually. 
  
***

The company-wide weather report, sent via text message, was not as optimistic: Signal number 3 storm headed for Manila today. Classes on all levels have been suspended. Please make appropriate travel arrangements.
   "Boo," I said, as I prepared for work.
   To everyone else, my life was going on as usual. I had my family, my job, my trips, and (most of) my friends… I really didn't lack anything. I wasn't sitting in my room pining for my ex all day.
   But the little things still hurt sometimes.
   Like when Charisse said that she would stop telling me news about Don, even if I asked. I said it was all right, I could handle it. But she said no, she wasn't going to allow me to keep tabs on him. So if he started seeing anyone again since that party at Ricky's house, I wasn't sure.
   And then, at six-fifteen AM, I saw someone's online photo album and knew for sure.
   What did I see? Photos from last weekend's barkada beach trip to Laiya, Batangas. Which I never even heard about. I clicked through the album and checked out the people there – Charisse, Don, pretty much everybody, including some new faces I didn't recognize. Don had his arm around a girl, the photo catching him in the split second after he had planted a happy kiss on her cheek. I didn't know her at all. She didn't work in the office, or at least I had never run into her.
   Ah, shit. My Prince Charming had moved on without me, and he had taken all of our friends with him. Some Hero I turned out to be.
  
***

My mood was as gloomy as the sky outside. I decided not to drive to work, because my car was an automatic and I didn't feel like getting stuck on the Skyway or worse, flooded side streets taken to avoid traffic. I loved living in the south Metro Manila area but we knew what these storms were like. I personally had been stranded on the highway three times in my life already, didn't want to make it four.
   The storm wasn't on my mind anyway. The only thing I wanted to do was get Charisse to have lunch with me so I could demand an explanation.
   "What?" Charisse said, pausing in the middle of slicing her salad greens into smaller chunks.
   "I can't believe you didn't tell me."
   "That we were going to Batangas, or that Don has a new girlfriend?"
   "Shit. Both."
   Charisse shook her head. She didn't seem sorry. Not that I was expecting her to be, but maybe just a little.
   "Look, I told you, Ellie," she said, "I think you're so okay right now. You're doing everything you want to do. And you don't have Don baggage hanging around messing you up. This is best for you, really."
   "It's not fair," I said, like a child. "I think I should get to decide what I find out."
   "What would you have done? You would have shown up in Batangas, right? And then what?"
   "You guys are my friends too," I insisted.
   Charisse raised an eyebrow at me. "Ellie, we're all still here. Fine, you don't hang out with us everyday anymore, but that doesn't mean we're not friends. If you showed up for Don, and not us, then you're not going for the right reasons."
   I knew that, objectively. But I couldn't make myself get it, and I felt like I couldn't make Charisse understand either. She had never been dumped. I even knew firsthand that she had at least two guys still in love with her at that moment, and if she saw them on the street she would hide. She wouldn't have understood me even if I used charts and graphs.
  
***

After lunch the storm really came at the city, and hard. I could barely see out the windows, and it was like the rain was hitting the glass office windows horizontally.  The office called off work at four PM, but that wasn't going to help me any. Even if I found a shuttle that would take me south, I'd be stuck in it for hours.
   So I stayed at work and did web research for my next trip. I was thinking Vietnam. Hanoi? Ho Chi Minh? Did it have to be one or the other? Or maybe Bali next time?
   This started out, by the way, as research for someone else's business trip. My role in the team was really just to coordinate, and on a whim my boss asked me to arrange his travel because he was visiting a client's branch office in Thailand.
   I went back into his office with an entire folder full of stuff for him to read. Did he want a hotel near the train system? Near the office (but it was a bit out of the way) or in the business district? I noticed that he had an extra day after the meeting, did he want to be booked somewhere with interesting sights within walking distance?
   These were things I always asked myself when I prepared my travel plans, so I couldn't just book him in some random hotel without finding this out, right? He was floored by all my questions, and pleasantly surprised. He answered all of them and I found him a nice place, within budget, and he was able to spend his extra day walking around buying souvenirs for his wife.
   "You're doing all our travel from now on," he said when he got back.
   So, Vietnam. I figured that I could only afford Ho Chi Minh City, because Hanoi required a connecting flight…
   "You're still here?" Lucas said, showing up by my desk at six o'clock.
   The rain hadn't stopped, but I didn't even notice the time. I was sucked into a time warp when I planned for trips. So many reviews to read, pictures to look at…
   "I'm stuck," I said. "The shuttles are probably all gone. Or stranded on the highway already. Best thing for me is to stay. Why are you still here?"
   He looked around and I thought I saw a flash of guilt in his eyes, but it was gone when I blinked.
   "I had work to do," he replied. "But you can't stay here all night. You see that rain? The electricity might go out."
   The thought of walking twenty-two flights of stairs made me cringe, visibly.
   Lucas smiled. "Join me for dinner?"
   Sure, travel planning could wait. I shut down my desktop and grabbed my jacket.

===

This kind of happened to me, being stuck somewhere too long while a storm was happening. It was an awesome several hours, because I was with a friend. The next chapter is how I *wish* it had turned out, because in reality you are more likely to be stuck in a storm with people who are not really a Lucas.