I have just finished reading another novel, and I think I can go for another round. While I’ve been comparing my would-be husband to Christian Grey from the Fifty Shades trilogy by E.L. James, I think measuring Miggy up to Travis Maddox from Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire sounds more realistic. He has tattoos; he gets into a brawl every now and then; goes to clubs, get drunk, and parties all night long. He has this back-off-or-I’ll-hit you vibe that makes him untouchable in their campus. Well, I don’t really intend to recount the entire story in this post, but I just would like to point out on things that really affected me in this book.

Miggy and I have known each other for 12 years now. We were classmates in second year high school. He belonged to a group of friends who were considered notorious in our batch. I won’t enumerate on the things he’s done in the past, but allow me to sum it all up with this: Miggy has lived his teenage years to the fullest. Until I came into his life, that’s when his everything changed to a complete turnaround. At least that’s what he said. We are different in so many ways. He’s like Travis Maddox, and I Abigail Abernathy. As I flipped through the pages of the book, I couldn’t help but think that we’re playing the main characters. Of course, not everything about them in the book measure up to what we are in real life.

I sort of able to relate to the fact that everyone around them knew how Travis felt about Abby, but she remained oblivious to the idea because she’s too busy convincing herself that she’s not good enough for him and otherwise. He’s practically changed all his bad habits for her to make her believe that she’s special—nowhere close to the women he had been with before. Abby, on the other hand, tried to stay away from someone who reminded her of the life she deliberately walked away from.

Below is an excerpt from the book—one of my favorites—that hit me:

He gripped my shoulders. “The way I feel about you…it’s crazy.”

“You got the crazy part right,” I snapped, pulling away from him.

“I practiced this in my head the whole time we were on the bike, so just hear me out,” he said.

“Travis—,”

“I know we’re fucked up, all right? I’m impulsive, and hot-tempered, and you get under my skin like no one else. You act like you hate me one minute, and then you need me the next. I never get anything right, and I don’t deserve you…but I fucking love you, Abby. I love you more than I’ve loved anyone or anything, ever. When you’re around, I don’t need booze, or money, or the fighting, or the one-night stands…all I need is you. You’re all I think about You’re all I dream about. You’re all I want.”

Travis and Abby’s love story takes me back to our own. They’ve been through hell and back—a rollercoaster ride—and so have we. They fight, they make up, and then fight again, but they put up with each other because their love for each other was bigger than all their demons. While they believed it’s better to stay away from each other, the more they realize that it just won’t do it. Perhaps this is why I’d been drawn to this story more than that of Fifty Shades. This one appears more realistic to my taste.

I can’t say Miggy and I are a perfect couple. We do argue occasionally despite the distance. It amazes me how we managed to get through all the ugly things that came between us, but we continue to strive to be perfect enough for each other in our own ways. We are getting married in a couple of months from now, and the past may have shaken us, but we’re holding on to what we both believe in. I guess it’s not about the ups and downs of a rollercoaster ride; it’s about who you ride it with that makes the (mis)adventure worthwhile.