Why I Bought a Copy of “Love Duets”

It all began with Jaejay’s “evil” plan to record a video of Sam Milby for Mel’s birthday last July 9. Initial efforts were futile as the expected contact (an officemate of allegedly Sam’s friend) failed to secure us a moment with the so-called acoustic heartthrob. It actually ended up having Jaejay take a momentous pose with Anne Curtis instead (which, sorry to say, is a been-there, done-that for me).

On Mel’s birthday last Thursday, we were empty-handed. To somewhat appease with the defeat, I just greeted Mel on Facebook with:

“Happy birthday! Ako na lang ang magre-represent kay Sam Milby. Hahaha.”

Mel replied with:

“:)) manny, gawan mo ng paraan para magka-picture kami ni sam!!! :D”

As an obedient friend as I am, I started annoying my contacts again. That didn’t take long, to my surprise. A contact that happens to be Sam Milby’s relative (no less!) just surfaced out of the blue. Let’s just call him/her “Good Sam-aritan”. He/She mentioned that he’ll/she’ll try his/her best to reach Mr. Milby. This good news was related to Mel through YM. The idea, of course, was just to know Sam’s whereabouts and steal a minute or two for picture taking.

Minutes later, Good Sam-aritan then asked for Mel’s office number and he/she said that he’ll/she’ll share it with Sam. Good Sam-aritan himself/herself wasn’t sure that the SMS would reach Sam. What happened next was something unimaginable. A text reply from Mr. Milby was relayed to me (by Good Sam-aritan) that he’s been calling Mel for a couple of times now and nobody’s answering. I checked Mel’s table and true indeed, she wasn’t on her cube! There were four missed calls registered on her Cisco. I took the liberty to check for the birthday girl and true to my hint, she was at the pantry upstairs having a cake party with her batchmates. I told Mel that she had four missed calls and just maybe, she had an idea where the calls came from. In a jiffy, Mel was already rushing down to her table only to find out that the chance was already gone. Mr. Milby informed Good Sam-aritan that dubbing had started.

Oh well, Samuel. Take the supposedly birthday treat as an epic fail but I contest that it’s the thought that really counts. I promise myself not to remind Mel again that those are the four missed calls she won’t forget for the rest of her life. The deal to have a picture taken with Sam is still on, yes, and Mel can always have her birthday next year. On that note, I decided to buy Sam Milby and Toni Gonzaga’s all-duet album called “Love Duets”, just a simple appreciation of that dreamy afternoon.

Lessons learned:

1. This world is such a small, small world;
2. Samuel Lloyd Milby is a kind soul;
3. Mel is a big time wisher; and
4. Sam and Toni’s version of my videoke piece “I’ve Had the Time of My Life” from “Dirty Dancing” is awesome.

POSTSCRIPT: After the incident, some girl friends started having their birthday wish. Au said, "Manny, si Piolo sa akin ha!". And Jam, "Manny, si Richard Gutierrez ha. Sa Sunday na ang birthday ko!". On which I blurted out with, "Teka, para lang kayong nagpapa-load sa 7-11 ah!".