Finally,
because of the weather there weren’t much people here, lots of parking spaces
available. However, Mr. Charming here decided to park somehow a block away from
our destination, when there’s like a whole empty row of parking lots in front
of the restaurant.
“You
must be the type to actually love
walking under the rain.” I mocked in an exaggerated gasped, surely he noticed
that the rain isn’t going to stop any time soon. It’s a steady sideway drizzle
just shy of a real downpour now, but no signs of stopping for real yet. But he
shrugged off my comment and turned off the engine anyway. Still wearing the
smile I’d seen. Ooh I noticed his dimples, almost-not-there dimples, if only he
could wear that smile a little bit wider.
He
turned to me and gave me his boyish grin a second before turning to the
back, rummaging through his belongings before reappearing again with his dark
navy blue umbrella. He handed me the umbrella and before I could even give a
reply, he was gone, not like gone gone,
but he was out of the car, already heading toward the restaurant. Uh-huh, give me the umbrella, leave me in the car while he makes a dash
towards the building, such a gentleman he is, NOT.
I
jumped out of the car, trying to keep up with him, I tried sharing the umbrella
as well, straining to do so, I mean with his height and pace, he was too fast! Hello? Darling dear? We’re on our
way for ice cream and burgers, we’re not running late to catch any train or
what so ever. It suddenly hit me that he might’ve been trying to avoid me, or
was it something else? Fingers crossed it was
something else, say like he has a phobia bout umbrellas or stuff like that.
So
by the time we reached the block, he’s not soaked but still, wet is wet. He
brushed the rain off himself, pfft not my fault, I tried. Just as I
stepped beside him, I finally noticed our height difference, standing by his
side, my eyes are actually leveled with his chest, I had to practically tilt my
head straight upward if we were to talk this close. He held me by my elbow and
ushered me in, it’s so cold right now that his sudden touch startled me because
his hands were surprisingly warm.
We
gave our orders, and guess what, my goofy retarded side of me decided to pop
out, because the moment our orders are placed, I pulled out my purse like yeah
you know me I don’t go on dates often (I don’t really know dating taboos) and I
don’t really like people buying me food and stuff like that. So when I saw him
doing the same. “Oh, you’re buying?” I asked, and when he’s actually paying.
“You sure?” was the only thing I could muster next. Err no duh, he has a job,
of course he will pay for the food, my heart did this little flutter kick of
happiness, but then I mentally face palmed myself for giving such an
embarrassing remark, why is it embarrassing you ask? Because I delivered my
comment in a “You’re kidding right? You’re going to split it at our table later
right?” way. Him smirking at me made me flushed red. Instead of just saying
something simple and neat like “Thanks for the treat”, no-o-o I went for “I
CANNOT believe you are buying me food, are you trying to make me owe you or
something??” Double mental face palm, note to self if ever a guy is buying,
he’s buying.
Alright
so where were we, right to the second floor, sitting in the far corner, quite
isolated, but not really much of a crowd to start with. I decided it was hard
to sit face to face on our first date, so I sat diagonally with him. He didn’t
seem to mind, on contraire he seems to enjoy the closeness as he shifted closer
till our knees were actually touching. We chomped down our meal in silence and
I was wondering what to say when Richard asked, “So how’s work at the store?”
“Boring
but I’m glad I’m helping out,” I said without making eye contact.
“Uh-huh
of course it is, so how about your studies? Applied anywhere?”
“Um
the results aren’t out till August, there are some other places I applied, but
haven’t heard any news yet.” I finished half my fist-sized burger, catching
Richard who’s already on his last, he eats food with gusto, just my type of
guy. I applied myself to my sundae. “So how’s work at your place?”
“Lots
of projects coming up. Well you know the stuff, hell work for the next few
months.” He held up his maraschino cherry from his sundae, “Want mine?”
I
nodded and he put it on top of my sundae and smiled. I smiled back. “Why is it
hell work?”
He
made a face. “I’m going to meet lots more of clients, foreign clients as well.
I’d be lucky if they’re like not picky or something, then there are the
meetings, I might need to go overseas for the meetings, and basically I don’t
think I would have the time to even sleep at all.”
I
winced in sympathy.
“Well
there you see how tiresome having a job is, you should be grateful that you can
relax and laze off for now.” He shrugged. I like the way his nose crinkled when
he takes another big chomp on his last burger, how a strand of his pale blonde
hair sort of fell over his broad forehead, and he had nice eyes, smiling eyes.
And I caught those smiling eyes looking back at me, his eyebrows arched in
questioning, I laughed an awkward laugh and he just grinned back at me.
“I
like how you’re eating a whole burger and sundae to yourself.” He said, still
eyeing me. “Some girls would be like, Oh, just a small fat-free-portion of ice
cream in a cup, no burgers coz it’s fattening yada yada. But you’re all over
that thing”
I
laughed, startled and wondering if I should feel embarrassed. “I don’t really
worry about what I eat when I’m hungry.”
“I
like that.” Richard said, grinning. I don’t see it but I can practically feel his gaze lock on me, it made me
fidgeted nervously throughout our meal, but honestly I don’t hate it.
So
after our meal we made our way to a park (his choice of venue). But it was
quiet there with empty cars parked around ours. But instead of taking a stroll
which the starting heavy downpour forbids us to, it obviously cannot make up
its mind whether to give us humans a slow drizzle or a heavy downpour, it kept
shifting in between. Nevertheless we stayed inside. More talking, bout his job,
bout my days at the store, bout our families. Time seems to fly at a much
faster rate when you’re enjoying the moment, and soon enough it was almost
five, my wonderful dream date is about
to come to an end. Cinderella has her curfew, I have mine too.
“It’s
almost five” I sighed and he nodded. “Guess I’ll have to drop you back at the store” he said making a dramatically
exaggerated long sigh.
“Awh,
we can stay a little bit longer,” I
smiled at him, something in me melted seeing him doing that. I’m missing him
already. His smile, his pout, his dimples, but most of all his smiling eyes,
I’m not sure when I’d have the chance to see him again. I can feel my stomach
climbing its way into my throat as he flashed his sly sideway grin,
He
chuckled abruptly and I averted my gaze again, it was getting a little
embarrassing to be caught staring, again. Suddenly I felt his warm hands
clasped my wrist, and I felt his calloused fingers, softly grazed through the
back of my head to my cheeks, and before I knew it, I was pulled in his
embrace, drawn to his lips. I managed a muffled disagreeing noise before he
silenced me with his kiss. It was filled with hunger, full of lust, as if
claiming what’s his, his hands snake its way from my back to my waist, to my
shoulders, to my neck, pulling me closer, my heart somersaulted painfully in
pleasurable way (bitter sweet thing), and I was out of breath as we finally
broke free (I think I held my breath the entire kiss, pardon me for not being
an expert on kissing), the kiss startled me, leaving lingering tingles on my
lips and instantly when his lips left mine I buried myself in his chest (you
know in case one kiss is not enough for him), I could practically feel my face heat flushed, my fingers traced my lips where Richard’s had just been. Then I felt
it, his soft warm lips on top of my head, a soft chuckle followed, I could feel he
breathe through my hair, his arms made its way around at the small of my back, pulling
me in tighter. His arms were strong, and I surprisingly felt safe in the circle
of them.
I willed my reckless pulse to slow down and when it wasn't beating at
an abnormal sonic pace any longer I tried pulling back, only to find his
fingers on my chin when I was caught off guard and in seconds his mouth found
mine again. But this time, it was much, much softer, slower, passionately,
making our kisses linger (I figured he realized that I am not used to this
kissing thing). He angled his head further, giving a long, extended kiss,
holding me at the base of my jaw, this time I could feel his warm lips, I can
breathe in his cologne, smelt of spice and a woodsy scent, I can taste his
breath, peppermint and sugary sweet. Everything about the kiss was so surreal. And
this time, I didn’t pull back (I surprised myself doing so), because everything
about him is welcomingly warm, that I let everything else fall away, and let my
heart whim over.
And
damn it for the bad timing, my phone rang so suddenly, it startled the crap out
of both of us, I practically jumped on my seat, moment gone. Hastily I punched
the call button, it was Aunt Isle, demanding that I returned to the store ASAP,
it was five minutes after five, talk about punctuality in getting off work. I slid a sideway glance his
way and gave him an apologetic smile. He was looking right at me. Grinning, a
big, stupid, self satisfied grin.
“What?”
I asked noticing the tips of his mouth twitching, pulling the grin wider, his dimples
sank deeper.
“What?” I challenged again when he just
laughed, now realizing I myself had a crook smile on my face, his laugh was
contagious and pretty soon I started cracking up as well, we both just laughed,
easing the firing, passion building, make out session we just had. When we
finally held our laughing mode at bay, he finally pulled his car out of the
park.
“Now
that should satisfy your wanderlust,” he said in between his lingering laughs
as we made our way back to the store.
“What
do you mean, wanderlust?”
He
chuckled, “We won’t be meeting again for another lengthy period of time, I told
you I’d have a lot of work piling up, and I can’t fly back and fro all the
time.” He paused before adding, “So don’t you go find yourself another man.” He
warned half jokingly.
“Oh,
that. Yeah, that would be enough – for
the time being.” I joked. He laughed aloud and pulled my hand closer as he
laced our fingers together, is it just me or this holding hand thing felt
really good, I gave his arm a little pinch (which he returned with a sideway
glance), okay not a dream, we just met, dated, and kissed. OMG we just kissed.
This is not a dream, definitely not a dream.
“You
are really the sweetest thing, you know that?” He said.
I
shrugged, “Yeah I know, you were ‘sweet’ too back then”, and I shoved him
playfully at his shoulder. He laughed and found my hands again, stroking his
thumbs at the back of my hand.
“I
meant you, you tasted sweet but you
are also sweet in person,” He said in a matter-of-factly manner it left me
speechless, was that a compliment? “I thought differently of you before, but now
that I know you’re just that sweet little innocent girl, it made me – ” he
paused, seeming to find the right words, “made me want you more, made me want to
protect you, to be by your side, day in day out, all the time.”
I
gaped at him, surprised that he was capable of forming such, such cheesy
romantic pickup line, my heart fluttered endlessly and I couldn’t even managed a
reply. Should I reply to that? How do
I actually reply to that? So in the spur of the moment, I chose silence. He
shot me a sideway grin and drove on, silence.
As
he pulled up in front of my store, my steps suddenly became heavy, I couldn’t
willed myself to step out of the car, in a moment we would be apart for another
lengthy period, I gave his face one last look, taking all of his features in,
trying to make an imprint of him in my mind and heart, he did the same, always
with the smiling eyes, we just sat there in silence, the charged silence
between us speak volumes.
“You
should go,” he finally broke the silence spell.
I
shrugged, “Yeah” I said heavily. I gave him a quick hug, “You take care of
yourself ‘kay?”
He
pulled me closer to his embrace and planted a kiss on my forehead, “You too
honey.”
Then
I heard his soft murmurs, lips still on my forehead. “I love you.”
My
eyes started becoming misty and I actually stifled back a tear when I heard
what he said, it sounded truly sincere, making the whole date experience much,
much more surreal. I nodded and then swiftly opened the door, got out, and
waved him goodbye as he drove off.
Aunt
Isle was already waiting at the store front, bag in hand ready to leave. And
just as she took sight of me she trotted off towards the old block with the
many rows of shops. But I’m too happy at the moment to even complain about
that. And to be honest, everything around me practically danced in vibrant
colors despite the rain, everything just seems to shine. I was all smiles until
the next day. Talk about love drunk, ha-ha. Do I like him? Uh-huh no doubt, but
do I love him? No the real question should’ve be will I come to love him? Only time will tell.
So
there, that was my first and probably the last date I ever will have with
him. Because just after that date, everything between us became distant, calls
and text were getting rare, yeah I know at first I thought that it was his job
and everything and I tried to be understanding. But bit by bit, his absence
turned from hours to days, from days to weeks. And now he actually stopped
wholly (had been two months since we last had an actual talk), no more calls
and texts, no more news, it was as if he had disappeared from my life
completely. I didn't want to move, didn’t want to do anything, but he was not
there anymore. Tomorrow morning, even when I wake up, he would still be gone. He
left me. I swear everything would hurt ten times worse if I’d actually loved
him deep enough. And this boyfriend-left-me thing is becoming a pattern. *sighs*
What
saddens me is that I actually hadn't had the chance to compliment him that he
was a great kisser (I wasn't ready then but he just knew his way).
Ha-ha, joke. I won’t ever give him the pleasure. Sayonara is sayonara.
