Chivalry is dead, they say! Blasphemy my mind shouts back.

I was on Facebook yesterday and was talking to a friend. We were casually talking about how we are growing up and getting jobs and that it’s all surreal. What was comforting about the talk was that we didn’t pretend that we haven’t talked in weeks and despite the fact that we didn’t mention the longing for the old days where everything simple, it was felt without it being a huge elephant in the room.

After the long talk about going through half of Asia in a boat full of men who will no doubt make your life a living hell by asking you to do this and that without guilt showing on their faces, I was thrown a question a that left me speechless.

“What’s the most romantic scene for you?” My friend asked and I immediately replied with, “From a movie?” He said no. He said he was riding a jeepney on his way home when the thought suddenly struck him and that I was the first person whom he threw the question at. I was flabbergasted, speechless even because really, what was the most romantic scene one could play out for you?

I told him I couldn’t answer it. I told him I could simply pluck a famous scene from any 80′s movies or from a Disney film that’s captured the hearts of million but doing so would only leave me with the feeling like I cheated because a part of me knows that I only want that because of how it made me feel when I watched it. So I told him I couldn’t give him an answer, that it was impossible for me–the girl who thought the Rose and Jack dying scene was stupid after the fifth time she cried over it couldn’t give a straightforward answer.

So instead he changes his question. He asks me what’s the most romantic yet convenient gesture a person can do to you. And someone who knows me well would know I won’t ask for flowers (because they’re boring and they wilt and die and it’s a waste) or for chocolates or handwritten letters that are forcefully written. I won’t even ask for a playlist cause one song that reminds me of you can remind you of someone else too. Instead, I will ask for a book.

I told my friend one person can give me one book that has been wholeheartedly read and that every page of the said book reminds them of me. I said this exact words to him, my friend: “Books are so powerful. Every song can remind you of someone but with a book, you only really understand it if you read between the lines and you read the lines.”

He thanked me for my answer, for my honesty and he told me his answer. But I’m not sharing that because it’s not mine to share.

And in the midst of a snow storm named, Nemo, I leave you the same question–what is the most convenient romantic gesture can a person do for you, to you?

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