Cherry - part 26

Cherry

Flying

He can make me laugh – that's what she has been thinking all night. Sometimes, when she watch TV, there's some single girls who are asked 'What is the most important quality in a man?' and usually, if it's a bad TV show, they say 'I want my guy to be sooooo hot and looking like a fucking model, otherwise I'm not touching him.' and sometimes, if it's a slightly better TV show, they say 'I want a funny, sensitive guy who can make me laugh when I least expect it.' and that's how she feels now – laughing when she doesn't expect it. Percival can do that to her, and that makes her happy. She's long gone in her thoughts, and they walk around the restaurant and around the town, slowly, of course.

“It's nice here.” She says, and realizes how stupid she sounded. She also think about how Percival have been a little off this evening – maybe he's not feeling well.

“This is nice.” He says, and they are quiet again. She doesn't know what to say.

“So Zia's back home from Paris. That must be nice.” She looks at him, waiting. Maybe he doesn't want to talk about his sister. She could imagine if it's always about her.

“It is.” He says, in a flat voice. She wonders if it's a bad idea to mention his sister, but she didn't know what else to say.

“I'm not mad at her. I just realized I sounded like that.” He was mumbling and she wasn't convinced, yet she nodded and smiled at him.

“It's weird she never introduced us when she was my babysitter.”

“Yeah, I've wondered the same as well.” And then they were quiet again. The sound of their footsteps turned into a tune in her head. They had walked quite a while now, and even though she hung on every word he said, she couldn't help but be amazed by the flickering lights. The sun was going down and the sky was a beautiful mix of red, orange, yellow and blue. No cloud to be seen for miles. She could see the moon.

“How do you think it would have been if we were friends back then?” He said, forcing her to concentrate once again. She heard it in her head, 'friends'. Were they friends now?

“Are we friends now?” She asked, before she could think too much about it. He looked at bit shocked at her.

“Well, don't you think we get along nicely?”

“Why, yes, I do. But does that make us friends?” She heard her own accusing voice, and was saddened by that. Yet she couldn't help it. As if she couldn't control her own mouth.

“I don't know. I guess I just assumed...” His voice trailed off, and suddenly she remembered what Cathy had said about confidence, when they met the first time. She had ruined his confidence, and she immediately felt bad. He was walking beside her. They were alone. The butterflies in her stomach fluttered suddenly, and she realized she had been ignoring them for long time. Her shoulders were tense and she could feel how she hadn't relaxed since they left the restaurant. Was she nervous? That would be logical, and judging by the butterflies, she was nervous. Then he looked at him again and realized she was afraid. What if she had been let down – like he had? By her. She walked in front of him and stopped.

“I'm sorry; I didn't mean to be like that.” She said. His head crooked to the left side and looked behind her, raising an eyebrow. She looked at his hand and wondered if she should take it to empathize her point. She trembled – where was she even going with this?

“I really want to be your friend, but a friendship is built upon shared trust, and...” she paused, but realized she didn't know what to say if he answered now. She had to keep going. “Well, we're merely acquaintances now. I want us to be friends. Maybe even...”

“I want to be your friend as well.” He smiled. She noticed how his voice suddenly sparkled with confidence. Just a bit more. He took a small step closer. The next few seconds seemed like an eternity. She flew out of her body, watching them standing face to face from above. In the most surreal way – almost slow-motion, she watched him lean closer to her body, slower and slower as he approached. He's going to kiss me now, she thought, and she felt how she moved back and forth in the air. Her body on the ground didn't move at all. What am I going to do? Why is he kissing me? You cannot kiss anyone you don't know? Isn't a kiss supposed to mean something? Something special? What the hell is he doing?

She watched her body move backwards and he stopped leaning forward, looking ashamed at her.

“I'm sorry.” He said. And she was back in her body, looking right into his eyes.

“I don't know why I did that.” He said, and started to walk back again. She stared at him.

“I don't know why I did that either.” She answered, and he smiled. It was in the air that no other words had to be spoken. They understood each other, and she felt closer to him now.

They were back to the restaurant before she knew it. They went separate ways.

And they didn't hug.