Overview

My dating life is a series of short but passionate infatuations, like a good book it’ll have me well indulged but eventually it will come to a conclusion and all that is left is a collection of scintillating words that were once exchanged, then I’ll pick up the next good read. This particular one involves an old flame, one that has stood the test of time and remains smouldering.

It was one of those really hot days in the city. I was meeting up an old friend, Jenny, who I hadn’t seen in a while for brunch at a recently-opened local café. I had never been to the place but everyone I knew who had been there before couldn’t stop talking about it. If Jenny was still the same girl she was when I last saw her I knew she would run a few minutes late, fashionably.

I walked into the cosy coffee shop at 12:45 p.m., fifteen minutes before the time we had agreed on text the previous night. I wanted to have a feel of the place before Jenny came in. The interior had the personality of a bohemian. I loved it. The Ankara finishes and adorable paintings lining its walls created such a fun and casual ambience that had me wishing I was ten years old again.

I sat by the wall facing the door, a sign of anxiety and within reason. The thing about Jenny and I is that we had never been involved romantically but we got along well enough to get by. On other days there was a thick tension, thick enough to slice through with a knife. But the tension remained unspoken, well up until the day she drunk texted me. Her text said that if we get to a certain age and we weren’t married yet to other people, she and I should. She was the kind of girl who had all her life planned out to the colour of the baby carrier she would get for her child. I didn’t reply the text as I didn’t want to commit to it and neither did I want to break her heart. A few weeks later we lost touch till a few days back when she asked to catch up over a drink. So here I was, putting myself in precarious situations. 

The waiter approached shortly, I ordered the pineapple mint juice to keep away the heat and to keep me company in the few minutes I still had to myself. 

Being in a coffee shop it was only cultural to pull out a good read and get lost in the space. I opened my Kindle and got on to the remaining chapters. Occasionally I would look up from my screen to think about how well written some lines were, I would sip my juice as if to water down the wordings. “…Oh, I wouldn’t mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you…” Gus, the hopeless romantic says to Hazel when she tries to convince him that their story is just another ticking time bomb.

So simple yet so much identity, like this coffee shop. I thought to myself. Almost instinctively Jenny walked in, a few minutes past 1:00 p.m. She looked amazing in her striped down black and white chiffon top, blue jeans and yellow heels. I got up, “You are still doing this fashionably late thing after all these years?” I asked. “Good things come to those who wait,” she giggled as I moved closer to hug her. She smelled nice so I held on a little longer than the conventional hug period. Long enough to catch an extra whiff of her scent. “Nice place…” she said as we took our seats. “I heard they have amazing Paninis, can we order some?” She asked as her eyes darted across the room in awe. The waiter came across to our table and took our order.

“What are you reading,” she asked pointing at my phone that was still on my Kindle. “The Faults in Our Stars,” I said pre-empting all the thoughts I had about the book to catch her reaction first.

“I didn’t take it to be your kind of read but I guess we all have a romantic side, don’t we?” She said without breaking eye contact.

I smirked from one corner of my mouth, “I guess.” There was the tension again. The conversation flowed smoothly thereafter and spilled into the vastness of all the things we had been through while we had lost touch. Time did fly, sharing silly conversations and candid laughter over brunch. Being the middle of the weekend, we did extend our time together, sipping cocktails on the other side of town. It was just one of those things that happen from the blues and all you can do is go with the flow. It’s not like I had a better place to be anyway, I had missed her and her suggestive flirtations. Our conversations were just about borderline intimate but in all honesty, they were all undertones to nudge each other into a slightly uncomfortable space, unadmitted we both enjoyed it.

I drove her back to her place which wasn’t far out. The goodbye was a little awkward. We were both out of the car, the conversations seemed to be thinning. Alcohol and bottled feelings is the equivalent of a ticking time bomb in my books and that eeriness lingered like a dark cloud.

“The day was fun while it lasted,” she said and immediately came in for a hug. Her scent was hypnotizing. I squeezed her into my arms and whispered in her ear, “Maybe we can pick this up next weekend?” as I planted a kiss on her cheek. She disengaged from the hug, giggled coyly as she tuck her hair behind her ear and walked away without saying another word. I watched her disappear into the other side of her door smiling sheepishly, assuming that was a yes.

WRITER: Tony