I didn’t know what to do with Nino until we decided it’s time to move on. If you’ve known him since Songs Of Our Breakup, you’d know Nino didn’t have a good run with his last relationship. Not really spoiler alert: he messed up. He did try to win a heart back and tried a do-over, a prelude to which we see in the super short narrative of him flying to Singapore on a mission in the aptly titled That Thing Called Closure.
From there I waited, I tried, I asked him how indeed can he succeed in this do-over. And it just wasn’t rolling, because it can’t. Some things are un-fixable, and maybe the fixing has to be an inward thing and that is the lesson for today, Nino-wise.
So in his book Songs To Your Beat (unofficial/really official/some kind of canon alternative title Songs You Bang To), Nino tries again. Not to revive a dead relationship, a love he lost, but to forge on, scarred heart and lessons learned and all of that. Find love and love himself again. A single tear may trickle down when I think about this, because it wasn’t easy, and this dude, Nino, well I am proud of him.
And then there’s Santana. I see her through Nino’s flirty yet 20-20 lens, and she’s tough and exhausted and she needs a hug, even though she won’t ask for it. Even when she’ll tackle Nino to the ground to give him a clue. She’s a water plant treatment engineer, inspired by the toughest woman I know.
Songs To Your Beat is out on Amazon, only $0.99 for a few more hours as of this writing. Cover design by Tania Arpa, photography by Alexandra Urrea featuring Iking Uy.
I published this book on April 18, on Dawn Lanuza‘s birthday (lol yay Aries season!), and Japanese record release date of the album Favorite Worst Nightmare by the Arctic Monkeys.
More on the book below. And a song from the album called Old Yellow Bricks. “You’re a fugitive but you don’t know what you’re running from” heh yeah lol
“I am the drummer” — It usually works for Nino, beat master of rock band Trainman and newcomer DJ, but the usual hook fell flat on gorgeous, sleepy-eyed, water treatment plant engineer Santana. Still there’s attraction even Santana can’t deny, and despite her warning that she’s not exactly in the market for a relationship, they agree to take it one sporty date, one bacon haunt, one hot night together at a time.
Nino thinks it’s going quite well. So what does it matter that his ex is back in the country? Or that he’s weighed down with guilt he hasn’t been able to shake off for too long? With his brand new attempt at happy-finally-after, none of that matters. Right?
