Our story doesn’t begin like a fairy tale.

No chance encounter in a fancy café, no standing across each other in a crowded room, no passing by one another in the hallways to get to each other’s classes, and no boy/girl-next-door story as we were never neighbors.

It doesn’t begin either with what you’d expect would be more common these days. No meeting up in the workplace, no friend-of-a-friend, and no online dating either.

Our story starts off pretty boring actually, like an accounting book. Although in our case, it literally does start with one. “Practical Accounting 1” written by Conrado Uberita to be exact.

You might be wondering how love could ever blossom from something as gloomy as a general accounting book. It certainly shouldn’t. But if you have an open-book exam coming up and she has a sister who happens to be an accountant, it just might.

At this point, I think it’s best if I cut to the chase and spare you all the details. I asked Alyssa’s sister if I could borrow her book for my final exam in Accounting 101. I convinced her it would be easier if she just handed the book to Alyssa so I could meet up with her instead, since she goes to the college right next to mine anyway. As a result, I got Alyssa’s number, met up with her for the book, and got the chance to bask in her presence for what seemed like an eternity (despite just being 30 seconds, probably). We ended up parting ways almost immediately that afternoon since we were both pretty busy during our respective final weeks of senior year.

It could’ve ended there, but it didn’t.

A simple “thank you for the book!” text message that same day eventually led to a “grabe hell week na naman, kamusta sa inyo?” and managed to turn into a “wanna study together for finals week?” invitation.

And before we knew it, what was once a boring old accounting book had become so many other things. A movie date. A first kiss. Countless cups of coffee. A toy poodle and a corgi. Tasting menus. Until eventually, it became an engagement ring.

Memories made since 2016, and we hope to make new ones with all of you on November 8th.

See you all then!