Four Kisses and One Heart

I got those on Valentine's Day this year.

But first, let me tell you about one February 14 years ago.

We got caught in a three-hour traffic jam looking for a restaurant without the whole mankind in it. We finally saw one but we waited half an hour, while enduring the overworked air-conditioning units, before we got a table; waited another half hour for a waiter to attend to us; and waited for yet another half hour to have our first dish served.

I tried to shush up three wailing little boys who were too hungry and too irritable from the oppressive heat, plus other misadventures you don't want to know.

Since that year on that day, we vowed never again to eat out on Valentine's Day!

We broke our vow this year. February 14 was a Sunday, which happened to also be Chinese New Year, which we celebrate. And as a matter of tradition, the family always lunches out after the church service.

Our restaurant choice was narrowed down to: 1) a place so unromantic Valentine's celebrators will evade it; 2) a place where the Chinese don't go to for celebration.

The place: Good old Chicken Bacolod. It was not bad at all. We were the only guests. Food was like the grace that comes to us at home through Ate Vi's cooking.

And now, for the four kisses and a heart.

For dessert, the waiter handed over to Tony four freebies: Kisses chocolates for each of us. Tony gave them all to me. "Now you can't say I didn't give you a Valentine's gift," he said grinning.

Then at the small coffee shop beside the supermaket, the rock of my life ordered a heart-shaped silvana and said, "You can have my heart."

Yup, on Valentine's Day I got four Kisses and a heart. Who can ask for anything more?