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It was so nice meeting you, William. Thank you so much, it’s been a great night.
And I also remember laughing at her and her smiling back at me, her cheeks slightly flushed, eyes sparkling under the dimming lights of the diner – as if I was the highlight of her day, just as she was mine. She somehow, completely unknowingly, made me feel happy to be around her. Whether it was because of how warm and sincere she was, or something else, I had no idea.
There had been a different kind of connection. One that I hadn’t come across before her.
I pushed my hands into my pockets and followed her to stand near the door. I also stopped staring at her face so intently to try to read her thoughts.
‘Looks like you were right. Only the cleaning crew is left behind,’ I commented after glancing around the office space.
Still holding onto the door, she looked over her shoulder before glancing back at me.
‘Looks like it,’ she agreed. There was another quick glance around, then she released a long sigh. ‘Okay then. It was nice seeing you again, William. And I’m excited that we’ll be working together. Welcome, again. Did I say that before? Welcome, I mean.’
I nodded and had to work on holding my smile back. ‘I think so. I think at the lunch meeting you said it twice and then once before that.’
‘Oh well. Since we’ll never mention the lunch meeting again…’ She moved her hand – the one that wasn’t hugging the laptop, the papers and the phone – in a wide arc, I believe to give the gesture there you go, but hit the back of her hand against the glass instead, rattling the thin walls.
I winced and took a step forward. ‘You okay?’
‘Oh, I’m fine.’ She held the laptop and the rest of her stuff tighter to her body with both hands and kept the door open with her hip instead, allowing her to speak through just the small opening.
The smile she gave me showed a lot of teeth and maybe a little bit of forced cheer as well. ‘Goodnight then.’
‘Goodnight, Charlie.’
When she heard her name, the smile softened and she let go of the door, sending me one last quick wave.
I was still watching her as she took a few steps towards her office – which could be seen from mine – then hesitated for a moment or two before she squared her shoulders and came right back to my door with determination on her face, pushing it open with her body.
‘Hi. Hey. Me again,’ she started. The only part of her body that was in my room was her head.
‘Hi, Charlie. I can see that,’ I replied as I waited.
‘So… I want to… no it’s more like I need to say something, but before that, I’m actually very surprised that you remember me.’
‘You seem to remember me just fine. And in detail, too. Why shouldn’t I remember you?’
‘You know why. But that’s not what I wanted to say. I was a little bit more…’ she paused and winced, looking anywhere but me.
I frowned at her. ‘A little bit more, what?’
‘Never mind.’
She hesitated and started to turn. I thought she was leaving, so I took a step forward and grabbed the doorknob, planning on following her out there.
‘No, no, no,’ she protested when I started to open the door and closed it shut. ‘I’ll tell you. You can just stand there.’
I was both amused and intrigued at the same time, so I let it go and waited for her to go on.
After taking a deep breath she finally started to speak through the glass door.
‘Okay. I’m gonna ramble for just a little bit. I’m doing this thing for myself… there is a list. I didn’t finish writing it yet, but I’m writing a list, rules to live a good life… or just rules – I’m not one hundred percent happy with the title yet, but anyway that’s not important. I have this newly developed thing about being honest. At least trying to be honest as much as I can instead of keeping things in and driving myself insane and basically hurting myself in the process.
‘I had this huge crush on you back then, which I’m pretty sure you were aware of, so that in itself is not that important. But I just want you to know, I don’t right now. Have a crush on you, that is. You still look great – don’t get me wrong, anyone would be happy to have a crush on you and if I looked too closely you probably look even better now. We, women I mean, almost all women like more mature guys, but I’m better now. And just to add that stubble does look great on you. I’m only mentioning it because it didn’t look this good on you back then.’
