The Perceived Inadequacies of a Besotted Woman

 

     I couldn’t help it, I was looking out the window into the street last night, it was around one AM, when a motorcycle with a man (in his 30s) stopped in front of our house and confronted two women (both in their 30s) who were walking—so I eavesdropped and watched them. The man, while still straddling the motorbike, grabbed one of the women by her shoulder and acted like he would angrily punch her in the face—and she reacted by screaming, “Sige, sapakin mo `ko, baka makita ko kung ano ang pagkukulang ko! Sige sapakin mo `ko! Ano pa ba kulang ko? Ginagawa ko na lahat para sa `yo! Pero may kulang pa yata!”

    From those lines alone and the way the woman’s voice broke in anger and frustration and disappointment as she yelled at him, I assumed that the man, despite all the girl's sacrifices for him, still cheated on her.

     The other woman tried to pacify them, and the man eventually took his hand off the woman, and spoke to her. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear what he was saying as he was almost whispering to her, his lips seductively brushing the lobe of her ear, but after a while, the girl looked appeased. And then she rode on the motorcycle pillion, wrapping her arms around the man, and sweetly kissing his back as he, grinning (which she couldn’t see as he had his back turned on her), drove away, leaving the other woman, who seemed perplexed at what just transpired.

     I moved away from the window, went back to my seat in front of the TV (I was rewatching an episode of 24 (yes, Jack Bauer’s 24) on Disney+ and thought before pressing the Play button, “Ano pa nga kaya ang kulang?”

     Whatever it is, the grin on the man’s face told me he was going to ask her for more.