Men Say the Darnedest Things

I was walking to my car the other day, when a car pulled up in front of me. There were two guys inside, and the one in the passenger side rolled down his window and asked if I could give him directions. I told him I will if I can. He smiled at me and said, “Can you give me directions to your heart?”.

I’m a romantic at heart. I cheer happy endings in chick flicks, I lament my friends’ sorrows over their heartbreaks, and I swoon at declarations of love. That is… simple but meaningful declarations.

Cheesy lines and flowery declarations? Now, that’s a different story.

When I was in high school, I received a love letter from a guy who seriously annoys me. He constantly followed me around, won’t take No for an answer and would endlessly declare his love. If I was just slightly annoyed at him before, that letter sealed the deal. He wrote of how his heart is bursting with so much love for me and that I must be an angel sent from heaven, then mailed it in an envelope that’s literally ‘sealed with a kiss’. It goes without saying that love letter ended up in a garbage can.

Fast forward to several years. I went on vacation to my hometown when a guy I went out with (once) in the city, sent me a text message that goes like this. ‘Is the sun shining in Tarlac (my hometown)? I bet it is. You took it with you when you left me. Come back soon so the sun will shine on me again.’ It also goes without saying that there was no second date.

Fast forward to several more years. My Ex, who came from a culture famous for men wooing women with amorous words, gave me a butterfly necklace with a note that says ‘a butterfly for my beautiful flower (he always call me flower).’ A couple of days later, I made a comment on how pretty the woman was walking towards us, of which he brushed off and said, ‘Why would I notice silver, when I have gold by my side?’

I don’t have a problem with expressive men. But there’s a fine line between expressing how you feel with genuine, heartfelt words, and expressing it with flowery, metaphoric sentences. The latter comes out almost like bu**s**t. Mr Ex. and I’s break-up wasn’t because of his flowery words, but I swear, if he didn’t back those words with proofs of how much he loved me, I would have dropped him faster than a hot potato!

Suffice it to say that I’m glad to have finally found the guy who knows the right buttons to push and the right words to say. Now I can swoon when BA tells me ‘I’m so glad I met you’, ‘I’ve never been this happy with anyone before.’, ‘I love you so much’. Simple but sweet. Genuine and heartfelt. At least, there are still some men who say the sweetest lines.