I was very surprised when I saw her approaching the
fountain. I almost hid the blue rose behind me, but she still spotted it and approached
me nevertheless.
“Well, well, fancy meeting you here.” She said
cheekily.
“I… er…” I did not know what to say.
“Hahaha… relax!
I know this is really awkward for you.
In fact, I feel the same too.” She maintained her wide, charming smile.
Her eyes seemed to sparkle against the flowing waters of the stone fountain
beside us. She was wearing a turquoise
dress with black gold studded belt, and a matching pearl necklace with cream
pair of flats. Her shining black shoulder length hair swayed slightly with the
passing breeze.
I woke up.
“Oh, does your boyfriend…”
“He knew about this all along and did not mind, but
he dumped me for someone else a month ago.” I could faintly spot a tinge of
sadness in her eyes, but she went back to her smile just as quickly.
“I see…”
We looked at each other in that moment of silence,
enveloped by the slight chillness of the windy afternoon, before she burst out
laughing. “Seriously, are you always
this tense when meeting someone of the opposite gender? No wonder you haven’t
saw anyone else ever since…”
“Shut up!” We laughed and I gave her an evil eye to
stop her from continuing. But she always
knew how to relieve the tension around her.
Indeed, I was feeling a little more relaxed after that moment of awkwardness.
“Oh, before I forget,” I reached into my pocket, but
she stopped me. “It’s okay, we can settle it at the end. I trust that a decent fellow such as you
won’t run away right?” She giggled.
“And how much time do we have?” Then I realised the
redundancy of the question when she laughed again. “Three hours. Unless we
count the amount of time lost since… twelve minutes ago. Hah, I am joking. I
won’t be so strict.”
“So I should be glad about it?” I replied
half-jokingly, though she probably didn’t find it funny from her
half-condescending expression she put on right after that. “You should really
work on your jokes.” I gave an awkward smile before she giggled again and squeezed
my shoulder gently. I felt an overwhelming sense of assurance by that action.
“I am hungry, I haven’t had my lunch yet. I know of a nice restaurant nearby that shouldn’t
be too crowded at this hour. So shall we?” I nodded and she took my arm.
***
The restaurant wasn’t too far away from the
fountain. It sat quietly on one side of the alley of eateries, away from the
main road. It was quite a large place, but the crowd was thinning since it was
right after lunch time. We sat near the window which faced a large green plaza
with plenty of human traffic. There was a busker playing her guitar and singing
a song near the middle of the plaza. We could barely hear what she was singing
although she did have a mini speaker to amplify her voice. We ordered a simple lunch set meal each, mine
being fish and chips with cream of mushroom while she had her vegetarian
risotto with sautéed onions and carrots. We also shared a small bottle of
sake.
“How’s work for you?” She started the ball rolling.
“Nothing special, I suppose. I’ve been doing the same old for the past few
years. Interesting events do happen every now and then, otherwise it’s been
pretty plain. I don’t dislike my job, but I do not have any particular passion
for it too. Probably the nice bonus I get every year is what kept me going.”
We burst out laughing.
“Are you busy in school?” I passed the ball back.
“Not too bad. My projects are mostly done, exams are coming up but I am not too
worried about it.”
“Confident, as usual.”
“Definitely!” She grinned. I blushed a little.
The food
didn’t take long to arrive to our table. Her risotto came first, before my fish and
chips shortly after, so we did not have to wait for each other. She smiled at me again, but I maintained eye
contact with the fish fillet instead.
She giggled. And for the next several minutes or so, we dug in without
saying anything else. Sometimes I will
look up to her for a while, accompanied by the busker’s faint song. She is very
attractive after all. But I will look at
my soup whenever she caught me glancing at her.
She would grin at me cheekily.
“So…” I stuttered a little.
“I know what you want to ask,” she scooped a corner
of her risotto and dipped it into the gravy, “it has been quite a while now,
ever since my dad…” A fleeting moment of sorrow revealed itself in her eyes,
but she regained her cheery composure at the next instant. “Then comes the
operations, and then the bills… you can figure out the rest of the story.”
“I understand. How is he now?”
“Much better than when he was first admitted, but
still needs to go back for follow up. He
is getting better at least.”
“I see… I am glad.”
“Yes, me too definitely… thanks for your concern. I
really appreciate it.” She placed the risotto into her mouth, and beamed.
I smiled too.
“And you…?”
“I also know what you want to ask.” I tried to sound
a little more confident, but it probably came out all wrong. “You could
probably guess too.”
“So it really is that, since she… that was seven
years already.”
Seven years.
I looked out of the window, seeing how the passers-by
walk past the busker without being willing to notice her presence. A few did stop for a while and listened, but…
I put down my fork.
“Maybe I am looking in all the wrong places. Or
maybe I haven’t forgiven myself for all the stupid things that I have done when
she was around. Heck, I probably don’t deserve to be forgiven, and hence now…”
I realised that I have said too much.
But I didn’t stop. “I know I have let go for her. But does that mean
that I deserve not to have someone else walking into my life?” I reached for
the cup of sake. “Maybe I am using my social ineptness as an excuse not to get
hurt anymore.” The sake was ice cold.
She nodded, and reached over to squeeze my arm
gently.
I gave a bitter laugh. “And last night, probably had
too much of a drink, I went to the website, and called the number. And
tadah, here I am right now, in the strangest of situation. I almost wanted to
throw away the blue rose a few times while waiting at the fountain. And I’ve
never expected that you…”
“I know right, I know… I saw you trying to hide that
rose, but it was too late for me to not see it too.”
We burst out in laughter. She squeezed my arm again.
“How is she now?” I found myself asking this most
unexpected question.
“Well, I happened to have skyped her last week. Her
second kid just turned a month old, and she showed her to me. She is so chubby
and cute that I wished I could squeeze her cheeks over the internet. But too bad she is many thousand miles away.”
I found myself smiling a little after hearing that,
with a strange sense of relief.
And then, we moved our conversation to other things
like the best teahouse in town, the worst strategy to use in Munchkins and the
politics between school professors, till we polished our plates and cups clean.
We never liked to waste food.
“Well, it’s about time, isn’t it?” She teased.
“Haha… Er… indeed… er… wait… Oh no, I forgot to…” I
slapped my forehead.
“You mean you didn’t book any… My, oh my, you are
still such a scatterbrain. How did you get promoted so quickly at work in the first
place?”
I could only grin sheepishly.
“I tell you what. Since you are driving… there is a
cosy place that I know we can go to. Shall we?”
***
I pulled over a few buildings away from her school. I reached into my pocket for the brown
envelope and passed it to her. She
opened it, worked her fingers through the contents, and took out two blue
notes. “This is for being such a great
company today,” and stuffed them into my pocket before I could say anything. I
scratched my head embarrassingly. We looked at each other for a moment, and she
reached over and gave me a light hug.
“Thanks for being here today with me,” I shifted eye
contact away to the windscreen.
She laughed and gave me a pat at my shoulder, “the
pleasure was mine too. I hope you had a good time. ”
“Yeah, I did, very much.” I still didn’t look at
her.
“All right, I shall be going now.”
“Actually…” I blurted, “actually…” I could feel the
full flush on my face.
“Hmmmm?”
“Will it be possible for us to meet up again under a
different circumstance?” I tried to maintain eye contact, but I couldn’t.
She pondered a little, and giggled. “We shall see,”
and then knocked on my forehead gently with her finger before opening the door.
***
I stared out of the car window, not knowing what to
expect from the sunset that was right in front. It was time for
dinner. So I restarted the engine,
released the handbrake, and drove back home to cook myself a decent dinner.
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