Diversions: an Asian Romance

by Samran S. Batara

A Filipino artist, Ricardo, travels from Manila to Europe to personally meet a

fiancée he has only known through an online social network. He booked his
flights to include a number of stops and connections to see various places on
the way.

On a flight from Nagasaki to Tokyo, he gets infatuated with Eiko, an

attractive Japanese stewardess. He learns that she is a graphic arts student
at Sophia University doing apprenticeship with Nippon Airways to practice
her English which she studies as a second language.

Foreseeing compatibility due to common interests, he requests her contact

numbers. Deeply struck by cupid’s ire, he decides to cut his trip.

His stay in Tokyo turns into a romantic escapade, blending beautiful

sceneries with a budding love affair which the couple nurtured when she is
not airborne.

She introduces him to her family, an anime graphics tycoon. When the father
learns that his daughter’s handy language tutor is an accomplished graphic
artist, he tours him around the studio and offers a high paying position at her
mediation. Rick accepts the offer, for the chance to know Eiko and her family
better.

Meanwhile Ricardo evades communications coming from Beatrice, the

European fiancée. He fabricates alibis for his trip delay when trapped and
forced to answer his mobile.

Troubled by hunches, the lone daughter of a well-to-do family, of a British

father and a Filipino mother, who has settled in London, enlists
telecommunications services to track down the whereabouts of Rick’s
handset. Beatrice departs from London in search for a drifting fiancé. She
catches him in one of his romantic rendezvous with the flirt. She beholds a
more endearing Ricardo in person.

Her mistake was, for the thrill of surprises at first meetings, she had not
revealed to him her full identity. He knew her as a full British Caucasian, not
a beautiful Filipino mestiza. Beatrice is not set to eat her heart out by just
watching the duo from a distance. She plots a scheme that surpasses those
of Joan of Arc’s.