Duane turned toward him,
glaring.
Luke did not back down. He held his
gaze and glared back, swallowing once. As he stared at the manly
man, Luke had a thought on the cause of his abnormality. He must
suffer from XYY Syndrome.
Alyssa stood up, positioning herself in
between the two men. “Duane. This can’t work. I already have a
boyfriend.”
The entire café grew silent, becoming
the captivated audience of an unexpected drama.
Duane scowled. “Who? This dufus?” He
pointed at Luke. “He doesn’t even look like a real man.”
Duane grabbed Alyssa by the hand, and
tried to drag her toward the exit. Without hesitating, Luke hurried
after them, and cupped his hand over Duane’s muscular shoulder.
“Dude. I’m warning you. Get your hands off my
girlfriend.”
The enormous man dropped Alyssa’s hand
and advanced on Luke. “What are you going to do, little man? What
are you going to do?”
Duane got right into his face, and Luke
could smell the stinky cheese on his aggressor’s breath.
Luke knew he was not this guy’s match.
“Tell you what. I’ll let you take one swing at me in the chest, but
you have to leave Alyssa alone.”
Duane closed his eyes, as though he
were seriously considering the proposition. Then, he opened them.
“OK.”
He drew back his fist, and Alyssa
grabbed onto it. “Go away!” she screamed at Duane. She gripped him
on the shoulder, and tried to drag him over to the door.
Duane whirled around. “You really want
me gone?” he asked, hanging his head.
“
Yes,” she snapped. Then,
softer, “I’m just not interested in you that way, Duane. I‘m sure a
lot of other girls are.”
Duane turned around to look at Luke,
who stared back, breathing heavily.
Alyssa grabbed Luke’s hand. Luke was
taken aback by the heat of her touch.
The big man looked at Alyssa, then at
Luke, taking them in as a couple. He shrugged, then lumbered out of
the little shop.
The other customers kept gawking for a
while, then returned to their conversations.
Calming down, Luke sat down, his legs
shaking.
Alyssa peered into his face, her hand
still in his. “You were really going to take a swing for
me?”
Luke said nothing, his expression
betraying nothing.
“
You were,” the girl said,
her tone more certain than before. “Let me buy you a chocolate
brownie.” She went over to the counter and ordered two.
Alyssa returned with two pieces of the
pastry, and put one in front of Luke. “I’m so sorry about Duane. In
case you haven’t noticed, he’s a little slow. I told him I’m not
interested so many times already.”
Luke grabbed his chocolate brownie and
nibbled on it. “Thanks.”
“
You seem like a nice guy.”
He could feel her scrutinizing him, probing him, trying to figure
him out.
Then, before he could register what was
happening, she moved her head closer to him. He thought she was
going to whisper something in his ears, but instead, she kissed him
slowly on the cheek, a soft caress. Luke felt his breathing and
heart rate accelerate again. He felt his cheek wake up, jolted from
a deep slumber.
He would have thought that kissing this
early on, even just a graze on the cheek, would have been too soon
and awkward, but it didn’t feel awkward at all.
She pulled back and pointed to his
laptop. “Do you mind?”
He shook his head.
She typed a few numbers on the screen.
Then, she turned back to her table and packed up her laptop. “Good
night, Luke.” She smiled, and then, she was gone.
Luke looked at the screen. On it were
ten digits.
604-432-6342.
* * * * *
That night, Luke had a dream. He dreamt
that he was in a room with no windows. It was dark, dingy, dusty,
like a prison cell.
A figure materialized in front of him.
He could barely make her out. It was a slender girl with long brown
hair with light brown highlights. Her back was facing him, so he
couldn’t see her face.
As he moved closer to her, he could
smell a pleasant peach scent. He wrapped his arms around her waist,
and grazed his lips along her neck, moving down until he reached
her bare shoulders.
She giggled, and moved away.
He chased her, but she had
disappeared.
He glanced around the room, but it was
vacant.
Then, she reappeared right in front of
him and he grabbed her in an embrace.
In his arms, she felt familiar to him,
as though she were his wife of twenty years.
In their embrace, he felt like all his
fears were uprooted, tossed aside like the waste they were. In
fact, he was neutral inside. Blissfully neutral.
He whispered, “Will you be
mine?”
She did not answer, but uttered a
gentle murmur. He took that to be a ‘yes.’
Then, she moved into him, melting
directly into him.
Caught by surprise, he could not
breathe. He choked, then coughed, grabbing at his neck. As he
struggled to breathe, he saw the girl dissolving, becoming
sprinkles of dust, like a movie scene fading away. He was left
standing there, struggling for life.
* * * * *
Luke woke up feeling like he had just
been on a roller-coaster. He glanced at the digital clock. 4:20
am.
He realized that his eyes were wet, but
made no effort to dry them with his hands. Was it possible to be
terrified and euphoric at the same time?
* * * * *
Chapter 2
“
So you think I should call
her?” Luke looked at his longtime friend and colleague, Mike. They
were at the kitchen table at work, on a coffee break.
“
Totally. A girl that fine
doesn’t come into your life every day.” Mike had messy, shaggy
surfer blond hair, was lean, and wore blue-rimmed glasses that kept
slipping down his face. They were the same age, and were both
Associates, but Mike seemed much more grown-up to Luke.
“
Plus from what you told me
about her caring personality, she’d make a great wife,” Mike
said.
“
Just because you’re happily
married with a gorgeous, understanding wife and 1.5 kids with a
beautiful house in the suburbs doesn’t mean I want all
that.”
Mike pushed his glasses up.
“I’m not asking you to marry this girl. Just take her out and see
where it goes. Plus I’m sure you
do
want all that. You just don’t want to admit
it.”
“
But I don’t know if I’m
ready.” Luke stirred his coffee, playing with it.
“
Forget Nina. That’s
history. Move on. Plus you can totally tell this girl’s into you.
Why else would she kiss you on the cheek, then leave you her
number?”
He has it all, Luke thought. Mike has
everything I could want.
“
You know what you should
totally do?” Mike asked. “Write her poetry.”
“
Poetry?” Luke made a face.
“That’s really not me.”
“
Hey, that’s what I did for
Bernadette. That’s how she fell for me.” Mike paused, looking
hesitant. “You don’t want to end up like Gordie,” Mike finally
said.
Gordie was 26 too, but he was already a
Junior Manager, one rank above them, and earning a base salary at
the next level on the scale.
Luke saw Gordie here at all hours of
the day. Rumor had it that he slept, showered, and basically lived
at the office. With no personal life, Gordie could afford to do
that.
“
No,” Luke said, shaking his
head. “No, I don’t. I just want to meet a nice girl and fall in
love.”
“
I know you do,” he said,
putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I know you
do.”
* * * * *
That evening, Luke sat at the kitchen
table of his apartment, hovering over a plate of roast chicken and
vegetables. It was a small table, but since he was the only one
dining, it felt enormous to him. In the background, he could hear
an anchor on CTV NewsNet droning on about some foreign
war.
He dawdled over his meal, picking apart
the pieces of chicken. When he realized that his chicken resembled
mushy baby food, he gave up on eating, and wandered over to the
window.
The wind howled as the rain slapped the
glass, pelting against it as though it were bullets from a BB gun.
From the tenth floor, he could see the Alex Fraser Bridge in the
distance. The tall structure stood by itself in the freezing night,
withstanding the wet onslaught from above. To Luke, the lone bridge
looked forlorn. It was the only visible structure he could see in
the dreary weather.
As he stared out the window, he felt an
uncomfortable feeling in his stomach, as though he had eaten too
much. But that was impossible. He had eaten almost
nothing.
Clutching his stomach, he sat down on
his couch. It was not a pain, but a dull ache. Something felt
wrong, but he could not put his finger on it. It was the feeling of
not knowing that he had his shirt on inside out.
He looked around his living room. It
was so bare. No paintings, just grey walls. The apartment was so
empty. He needed to fill it with something.
On the coffee table, the laptop blinked
on. He glanced at the screen. Ten digits stared back at
him.
Should I call her? He thought. Would
she turn me down? But why would she give me her number just to turn
me down?
His hand trembling just a little, he
picked up the phone, and dialed her number, punching each number
meticulously, as if he were choosing lottery numbers.
It rang once.
Twice.
Three times.
He was about to hang up when a soft
voice said, “Hello?”
He was silent.
“
Hello?” the voice asked
again.
He finally spoke. “Hi Alyssa. It’s me.
Luke.” His voice sounded off to him, as though he were a nervous
teen again, asking out a gorgeous girl for the first
time.
“
You missed me already?” she
asked, a hint of teasing in her voice.
* * * * *
The next day, Luke stood on the hill at
Taylor Park, with a single red rose in his hand. He was dressed in
a casual blue dress shirt with the first few buttons left
unbuttoned and a pair of jeans.
It was 6pm and already, the Autumn sky
was darkening. He watched as the grapefruit red seeped into the
marshmallow clouds.
He glanced at his watch. Was she
coming? She said she would.
Then, he heard the slam of a car door.
He turned toward the parking lot, and there she was. Alyssa was a
vision in a purple cardigan, and casual jeans. Her hair was tied
back in a ponytail that swung back and forth as she walked up the
hill toward him.
Luke’s palms began to get sweaty as he
watched her. There was a strange, inexplicable feeling in his
chest.
She approached and extended her
arms.
Luke leaned in to hug her, and kissed
her on the cheek. He inhaled. She smelled like vanilla this
time.
“
This is for you.” He gave
her the rose, and watched as her face became even more
expressive.
“
Awww. No boy has ever given
me a rose before.”
“
Not even Duane?”
“
Nah, he stopped bothering
me since that night in the café.” She looked closely at him. “I was
hoping you’d call. What took you so long?”
“Work got really busy.”
“
Work? Is that all you do?”
She was grinning.
“
Pretty much.” Luke’s face
was neutral.
Quickly, he changed the subject. “So
what do you think of Taylor Park?”
She pointed at the horizon. “Are those
the Tri-Cities?”
He nodded. Twinkling lights were
sprawled out in front of them. Out in the open space and Fall
freshness, he was relaxed, almost hypnotized.
She stared in the distance for a while.
“It’s beautiful.”
They circled around the park, and then
sat down on a bench, under a cherry blossom tree. Luke looked up
and noticed that the flowers were a pale pink, bordering on
white.
The light wind blew, and the ground was
suddenly decorated with little white and pink flowers.
A single cherry blossom floated down,
landing on Alyssa’s head. She reached up and plucked it off, her
eyes wide, the corners of her mouth tugged up.
“
I thought cherry blossoms
only grew in Japan.” She stroked the blossom in her hand, holding
it as if it were a baby.
“
It was a gift from the
Japanese,” Luke explained.
She looked at the cherry blossom in her
hand, then at her rose. “I have two, and you have none.”
She put the cherry blossom in his hand,
letting her hand linger on his for a while. “This is for
you.”