Lost in Translation

I have the most unusual friendship with a former client from my previous office. I was still single (im still am i know) when I started to work on his account, mainly involving the registration of a landholding company to own a beachfront property in Batangas. I hardly did any other work for the account after that, but he still set up these meetings with me whenever he and his Pinay girlfriend visited the country around Christmas. He always brought me chocolates and wine, too, and toys for Clara even, after I gave birth. To justify these meetings in the office, he'd usually have some non-urgent legal request like for me to draft his will (which he never executed) or help him with further land acquisition in the south (which never materialized).

He kept in touch even after I left the  office. He'd take me out to dinner in places like Paseo Uno and Spices. The lobby of the Manila Pen is his favorite. He says it's his kind of place, quiet and not too crowded, not too cold and with live music besides. To keep up the pretext of an accountant-client relationship, he'd have a checklist of little legal matters for me to handle, like check up on his bank accounts, advise him on the requirements for a lending company that he plans to set up here. I never bill him for these things and he's never offered to pay. Altho, I must admit, I was kind of hoping he would already after I drafted this agreement where I will act as trustee for the beachfront thing (which agreement he has approved but hasn't signed by the way). Sigh. Well, there's still Christmas. And he did hint about inviting me and Clara to Spain someday. Hope springs eternal.

He's really more of a friend to me than a client. He fascinates me bcoz he's the only one of his kind among my friends. He's truly ancient, at 66, a full 10 years older than my own parents. He was born in Ireland, raised in London and now based in Spain. He was married first to a Brit then to an American and then he had the Pinay girlfriend. He has an estate in Malaga portions of which he sold to friends who are like British royalty or something. He gossips about Lord Smith who's having an affair with Lady something-or-the-other. What I love about him is he talks about these things like they're all a matter of fact, no hint of bragging, like he just happened to be extremely wealthy and these people just happened to be his neighbors. I also love that he's so well-read and well-traveled. So I can talk to him about inane stuff like Da Vinci Code and Maeve Binchy. And he tells me amazing stuff like this tribe in Namibia that's still a hunter-gatherer society, or his lawyer-nephew who developed an allergy to gluten. He has a sense of humor, too. Last time we were having beef mignon in the lobby of the Pen, and the band played The Music of the Night, and I just had to touch his arm to tell him this is one of my favorite songs of all time, and he promptly stopped chewing and solemnly asked, "Should we stop eating?" Oh, of course in the middle of his story about buying this 300-year old building in Dublin I almost snap and stand and point a finger at him and yell, if you're so rich why don't you write me a check for all these crazy little legal things you ask me to handle. If only this were a movie. Sigh.

But my heart goes out to him, too. His Pinay girlfriend has broken up with him, so now he just comes here to visit their two kids, and take his elder daughter to Disneyland or for a vacation with him in Spain or something. I told Malk, this guy must be an immensely lonely person if he has the time to email me regularly and take me out on these long dinners whenever he's here. I mean, if he had a better life, why would he waste his time being friends with a nobody like me? I don't think it's to avail of my free legal services, bcoz he never really needs it anyway. Rommel has a theory tho. According to him, this guy must have the hots for me. Rommel has an amazing and endless supply of crazy ideas, I swear. How can a man as old as Abraham even feel any hots for anyone? It's not allowed.

No matter. My friendship with him makes me feel like we're  Lost in Translation, and if this is the only way I can get to play Scarlett Johansson, I'm happy.