My husband and I met online. After sometime, we progressed from writing emails to phonecalls. About nine months after our first email, we were on the phone and I was sick. My Just-Another-Caller was worried that I was sick and had not eaten yet. Even if he was then in Buffalo, NY and I was in Manila, he looked in the internet for a Manila fastfood so that he could order and have some food delivered to me. I was so impressed with his gesture. I thought that he was so thoughtful. Of course, by then, I was falling in love with him and was quite getting impatient about where we were going. I was already almost in my mid-thirties and I could not afford any wasted time. If the calls and emails were going somewhere, I needed to know. If they meant nothing, I needed to know as well so that I could move on and not waste any more time (and money too!) on my phone pal.
So, while I was talking to him, my mind was going like this: What have I to lose? He is too far away, in fact, he has not even seen me in person, to make me utterly foolish if my action would not produce the desired result. Besides, if he acts ungentlemanly towards me afterwards, then he is not the right one for me in the first place. But, on the other hand, if things go well after my action, then all the better of us. Either way, I will be in a winning situation. One result will, yes, bring disappointment and sadness, but those will only be temporary. Life will go one for me.
So, a few minutes later in our conversation, and from out of the blue (according to my ex-phone pal ;-) ), I said "I love You". The line went dead quiet. He now claims (I just asked him again as I was writing this post how he felt after my declaration) that he was nonplussed.
But that wager brought us to where we are now - 8 years of marriage, 4 children, and the life I've always dreamed of.
