Ina & Bryan: A false start, a happy ending - CONVERSATIONS with Ricky Lo

Two hearts beating as one.

That aptly describes Ina Raymundo and Bryan Poturnak who are oh-so in love with each other that their hearts are beating as one, a classic romance between East and West, making the twains meet — and match.

Two hearts beating as one.

That also aptly describes the little life in Ina’s womb — two little lives, actually, unless another ultrasound contradicts the earlier finding that she’s having twins (although one of the fetuses is suspected to have no heartbeat).

Now into her second month of pregnancy, Ina looks forward to exchanging "I do’s" with Bryan who, at 31, is six years her senior. Bryan is a Canadian-Ukrainian, standing 5’9" and looking like a movie actor.

When Ina learned that she was infanticipating, craving for clubhouse sandwich and — how did you know? — Bryan, she never attempted to resort to any, well, "drastic" measure nor to hide it or deny it. Right away, she went on national television and tell the whole world about it — with a big, big happy smile.

Last Friday night, Ina and Bryan sat with Conversations at Bryan’s cozy rented unit at the Oakwood Premier Condo in Glorietta 4, Makati City. No, according to Ina, "we’re not living-in." She remains in her own condo at the boundary of San Juan and Quezon City and she just drops by at Bryan’s place every now and then — and vice-versa.

As expected, Ina ordered another serving of her favorite clubhouse sandwich from Oakwood’s coffee shop, urging us to "sample" it (yummy!). After the hour-long pictorial/conversation, Ina and Bryan very casually went downstairs to catch the last full show of the Tom Hanks starrer Cast Away.

Here’s how they met — and matched.

How did you spend Valentine’s Day?

Bryan: I ordered 12 red roses to represent our love for each other and two white roses to represent our babies. It was a surprise for her. I asked one of the guards to put the flowers near the door outside of (my) unit, with a stuffed dog with a card in its mouth.

Ina: Actually, Bryan made me cry that night. He never mentioned any plan for Valentine’s Day even if I was nagging him, "Honey, it’s Valentine’s Day. How do you want to celebrate it?" He just said, "Yeah, I guess it’s Valentine’s Day." He didn’t seem interested.

Bryan: As I’ve said, it was a surprise.

Ina: So that night, I got a call from downstairs, telling me that somebody had left a parcel for me near the door. I opened the door and there it was — the bunch of flowers! It was so touching, especially what Bryan wrote in the note.

What did he write?

Ina: Well, it was our first Valentine together so he wrote, Thank you for making my life fulfilling. Happy 236th day!

Bryan: It was our 236th day anniversary! Our eighth month together.

Your pregnancy isn’t unwanted or accidental, is it?

Ina (Thinking awhile): No!

So it was planned.

Ina (Hesitating): Well, it was kind of accidental. It was an accident.

Oh, a welcome accident!

Ina (Laughing): Yeah!

Oh, you were not, uh, "protected!"

Ina (Bursting into laughter): How did you know!?! You see, I wasn’t expecting to get pregnant because I had a cyst in my ovary, the type which would disappear by itself even without surgery. The first time I went to the doctor, I was told that there was no sign of any pregnancy inside or outside the uterus. But two weeks later, the ultrasound showed that I was pregnant. I thought that I was "delayed" because of my cyst. ’Yon pala, preggy na ako.

What was the first thing that you did when you realized that you were pregnant?

Ina: The first person I called was my Mom. She said, "Ha, Really? Are you sure?" Then I called Bryan at about 5 o’clock in the morning and he reacted the same way, saying, half-asleep, "Are you sure?"

Bryan: I was initially very shocked. The thought of fatherhood really hit me, it made me feel really good — surprisingly very good! I can hardly wait for the baby, or the babies, to be born.

Didn’t you ask her, "How did it happen?"

Bryan: Oh, we knew!

Did you say that it was done in Boracay?

Ina: Oh, yes, in Boracay, on Dec. 29, 2000.

Did you spend the New Year in Boracay?

Bryan: Yes, we were with friends. I arrived on Dec. 28 from Vancouver and we flew to Boracay the next day. I visited my family in Vancouver.

Ina (Poker-faced): He raped me!

Bryan (Jokingly trying to cover the tape recorder): Did I?

You must have been a willing victim.

Ina (Breaking into laughter): Oh, yes, I was!

Bryan (Looking into Ina’s eyes): It was rape with consent.

Ina: That was what he did the day he came home. He raped me!

How long have you known each other?

Ina: Almost two years.

Bryan: I met Ina the first time in April of 1999. We didn’t say much to each other at that time.

Ina: It was because he seemed to be interested in my friend.

Bryan: Of course, that’s not true!

Ina: It was Joji (Dingcong, talent manager) who introduced us to each other. I was really a snub that night. I didn’t talk to him because I don’t really like white guys.

Why not?

Ina: Basta, I just don’t like white guys. He’s my first white boyfriend. I was nice to him naman.

Bryan: She was very polite. I thought she was very shy.

Who was your friend Bryan seemed to be interested in?

Ina: Hmmmm. Secret!

How long have you been here?

Bryan: I’ve been all over Asia for six years, for business. I lived in Indonesia, Thailand and here. I like it here. Now I have a good reason to stay.

Ina: You know what’s funny? He’d call me from Bangkok even if I had a boyfriend (Scion of a rich family engaged in broadcast communication. — RFL), the one in the States. We’d talk for hours. He said, "I really want to go out with you." But I said, "I have a boyfriend. What do you want from me?" He was persistent.

Bryan: I was persistent but I wasn’t really suave. But you know men, when they really like somebody, it’s hard for them to be suave; you just can’t pull it off. Maybe she thought I was an idiot, running after her!

Ina: It got to a point when I wouldn’t answer his calls. I liked him, all right, but I couldn’t go out with him because nga I had a boyfriend.

So Ina had a boyfriend and you didn’t have a girlfriend?

Bryan: No, I didn’t have any.

Didn’t you find any in other parts of Asia?

Ina (Answering for Bryan): Of course, he did. He just doesn’t want to talk about them.

What sort of business are you in?

Bryan: Consultancy. Trouble-shooting, basically. If a company is planning to expand, they hire me. I help the company raise money. I finished a business course in Vancouver.

What sort of family do you come from?

Bryan: A very conservative family. We lived in Coquitlam in Vancouver (That’s where Joey Albert and her family are staying. — RFL). It’s a small town. My father, who died two years ago, was a school teacher and my mother was a housewife. My grandmother is 95 and she’s still up and about, staying by herself in her own apartment. When Ina and I met in April, I was still in the grieving process, my father having died only a month earlier. I wasn’t myself then. I was very reserved. I have only one sister and she’s giving birth soon. She got married only last year.

When you met Ina the first time, did you know that she was a popular sexy actress?

Bryan: Well, I did, yeah! When I first came to the Philippines six years ago, I saw the commercial (As Sabado Girl in a San Miguel Beer commercial. — RFL) she was in. I thought she was very sexy.

So when you met, you knew that she was the girl in the commercial.

Bryan: I didn’t, but Joji told me. That was when I connected Ina to the girl in the commercial. During our first meeting, as I’ve said, I thought she was very shy.

Ina (Looking at Bryan with tender loving care): Honey, I just wasn’t interested.

Maybe she was just trying to hold back.

Bryan (Shrugging): Maybe. I don’t know.

Ina (Thinking hard): I’m trying to remember… Maybe he just wasn’t my type — at that time! (Proceeds to hug Bryan and kiss him on the lips). Sabi ko nga, hindi ko type ang white guys. Or maybe I was just sour-graping because I thought he seemed to be more interested in my friend.

Defense mechanism. How did the courtship start?

Bryan: It didn’t start yet — at that time. I talked to her a couple of times on the phone after our first meeting and then it kind of fizzled. I just didn’t call her again. And then we bumped into each other 10 months later, sometime in April of 1999.

Ina: Actually, we saw each other in Feb. 2000 in Stars. I just came back from Cebu at that time. He bought me a drink and we told each other, "Hi, how are you? It’s been a long time." You know, that type of conversation. After that, he never stopped calling me.

Bryan: After our first meeting and we spoke on the phone a few times, I got the feeling that things were not going so well, so I stopped calling — until we bumped into each other again.

Ina: We didn’t have any contact for almost a year.

Bryan: When I walked into the Stars, the first person I saw was her.

Ina: And he still remembered what I did to him — you know, kind of snubbing him and not answering his calls.

Bryan: I felt ahead. But before I did, she grabbed my hand and said, "Please, give me a call!" I thought that was very encouraging.

Ina (Blushing): Actually, I was just being nice.

Bryan: I was so thrilled — you know, wow!

So what happened after that?

Bryan: When I called her again, I was telling myself, "Don’t blow it, don’t blow it!" I was so nervous and I was telling myself, "Just be yourself, just be yourself!"

Ina: At that time, I just broke up with my boyfriend but I didn’t tell him because he might think I was minding him only on the rebound. I was the one who called him up this time. I asked him, "Are you busy tonight?" And he said, "No!" Then I said, "Why don’t I go to your place tonight?" Para bang ako ‘yung guy, nagmi-make ng first move. He asked, "Do you want my driver to pick you up?" I said, "No. I have a driver." So I went to his place, this place.

Were you stunned? You know, the mountain coming to Mohammed.

Bryan: I was really shocked! I was playing golf when she called and I kept looking at my phone… unbelieving! I was always calling her and she never called me. And then, she called. I couldn’t believe it! When she showed up in my place, I thought I was seeing a ghost!

Did that signal the start of the (delayed) courtship?

Ina: There was no formal courtship at all. After that, we started going out na. You know why I didn’t like him at all? I thought he was wearing dentures. He has such a perfect set of teeth that I thought they were dentures. I like guys with good teeth. Before, I would look at him in the dark and I would tell myself, "He’s not goodlooking." I was wrong.

When were you convinced that he’s goodlooking?

Ina: When I see him in the morning, still fast asleep.

You said that you would watch Bryan in sweet slumber...

Ina: Yes, often! Isa siya sa pInaglilihian ko. He doesn’t know that I keep looking at his face when he’s asleep. But now he knows. I just think that he’s the bestlooking man on earth.

Is Bryan an "action" man?

Ina: Oo naman! Di ba obvious? Look what he did to me. (Breaking into laughter again)

You’ve been travelling together, haven’t you?

Ina: We’ve been to Bangkok, Bali and Miami.

Bryan: We went on a week-long Caribbean cruise.

What about cultural differences? How do you bridge them?

Bryan: There aren’t so many differences, actually. Filipinos are a closely-knit families and I, too, come from a closely-knit family.

Ina: We both started from scratch; we both worked our way up. I support my family and Bryan also helps his own family.

Bryan: I’ve met her family and I blend very well into it.

Ina: I’ve met his family, too, and I’m comfortable with them.

Bryan: We’re alike in many ways.

Ina: But we argue a lot about food. I mean, what kind of food we’re going to feed our baby, or babies. Bryan doesn’t want our babies to eat pork, not even Spam or corned beef which are my favorites. Bryan hates Spam. He’s telling me that if I feed our babies with spam, he’ll get mad, very mad.

What other things do you have in common?

Bryan: Oh, competitiveness.

Against each other?

Bryan: Sometimes. Like when we’re playing video games, Ina just hates it when she loses. She just hates it! Or when we play billiards and she loses, she hates it. She just hates it! We play golf together, too.

Is Ina your first Filipino girlfriend?

Ina (Again answering for Bryan): I don’t think so.

Is marriage included in your immediate plans?

Ina: Oh, yes, it is.

Bryan: Sooner than later.

Are you Catholic?

Bryan: Oh, yes, I am. A very devout Catholic, like everybody else in my family. I go to church on Sundays. In Vancouver, I used to be a member of the church choir. I was an altar boy.

What about your career?

Ina: I don’t think I can still be a full-time actress because I really want to take care of our babies. I can’t be working everyday like I used to. I’m giving birth in September and by February next year, hopefully I’ll be back at work.

Have you seen any of Ina’s movies?

Ina (Again answering for Bryan): He has seen Burlesk Queen Ngayon (Where Ina did frontal nudity in a dance sequence. – RFL). Part of it anyway. I don’t want him to see it in full.

What about the latest one, Regal Films’ Tuhog (directed by Jeffrey Jeturian of Sana Pagibig Na and Pila-Balde fame)? It’s a good movie which will be shown (in Metro theaters starting on Wednesday, Feb. 21) and film festivals abroad. (Tuhog is a movie within a movie, about a 16-year-old barrio lass, played by Ina, raped by her own grandfather, played by Dante Rivero. The girl painfully relives her harrowing experience when her story is made into a movie, with Klaudia Koronel portraying the molested girl.)

Bryan: Friends who have seen it tell me it’s really good, so I want to see it.

Maybe you also want to see Ina’s other movie, RS Films’ Kaaway Hanggang Hukay (where she plays a military psychologist who helps Phillip Salvador, as a military colonel, neutralize the would-be assassin, played by Edu Manzano, a renegade colonel, of a visiting Prime Minister).

Bryan: I want to see that, too, I want to see as many of her movies as I can.

Don’t you think your pregnancy will affect your career?

Ina: It will do so only in the sense that maybe I won’t be doing the same sexy roles that I’ve been doing lately.

Meaning, no more bold Ina to look forward to?

(Bryan and Ina look at each other in meaningful silence, with a revealing smile on their faces. It must be a done deal, whatever it is.)