The Inner Slut

I can't stop laughing. I've just been on the phone with my Dale who left last Friday, the 21st, for New York on a business trip. Yep, he was calling from his hotel room in New York. I was still in Baguio with Carl when I received his text message saying he was waiting to get on the plane for the city that never sleeps. I felt so bad that he had to leave without our seeing each other, and that I was with another man without his knowing. Guilt? No, just regret.

I was with a girlfriend, Irene, on Tuesday evening, crying with her over this selfish and fickle guy who she describes as the one guy she'd marry at the drop of a hat. Well, my Dale is that guy for me. Not the selfish and fickle, but the one I'd marry at the drop of the hat. Hell, I'd marry him even before that hat touched the floor. Unfortunately, it's not meant to be.

I'd sent him email pouring out my heart at my frustration borne out of dealing with the stupid office accountant and her equally stupid, if not more, idiot clerk. I'd chided him, teasingly, for leaving without seeing me, and signed it, "Your virtual friend, Emyn."

We've a running joke about how our relationship has evolved onto the virtual plane (read: I don't see you anymore) and that I should put up a website as an altar to such an intellectual tandem. That always gets his goat. It was that that compelled him to pick up the phone and ring me.

Dale: Yes, but how many girls have their boyfriend fly off to New York on business?

Me: That doesn't change the fact that what we have is a virtual relationship.

Dale: (scoffing) Virtual relationship...You have a jetsetter boyfriend!

Me: (singing) That don't impress me much! You're my phone pal.

Dale: (lauhging) I am not! I'm your jetsetter playboy!

Me: Mmmm. My jetsetter playboy virtual phone pal.

I love to hear him laugh. I just love his laugh: something halfway between a sneeze and a chuckle. He has a guffaw, though. I love that more.

What do I do with this guy? As I was saying to Irene, these are the men you never forget, those who make you feel so special like there was no one else for them. Men who get inside of you, in more ways than one, and lift you up, hold you up and revere you for everything that you are and are not.

When we agreed to meet, we never expected to find anything like what we have now, Dale and me. And, yes, I have to agree with him, it has become a problem. Nothing that needs immediate attention, no. It's not an urgent matter that needs resolution right now. In fact, the longer delayed the resolution, the better for both of us. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.