The Girl From Spain (girlxgirl)

Day 16/182: Mila

"You are early," Camila exclaimed. "Give me two minutes, then I'm ready to go."

She left the door open for Sally to come in and hurried into her room. Camila didn't do more than retrieve her jacket, clean her glasses, put some banknotes into her wallet and grab her keys and phone, but when she walked back into the living room, Sally and her roommate Aki were sitting on the couch together, laughing and chatting as if they had known each other their entire life.

Camila stared at them in astonishment for a moment before clearing her throat to announce her presence.

Both looked at her and smiled. Sally beamed while Aki only shot her a small smile.

"Ready for dinner?" Camila asked. Sally had texted her only a couple of minutes ago, asking her if she wanted to grab something to eat.

Sally jumped up. "Yes." She turned to Aki and asked, "Want to come along?"

He seemed a little shocked and looked at Camila in uncertainty. "If it doesn't bother you."

"No! Of course not," she said quickly. "I'd be happy." Again, she wondered what she could have possibly done to make him so wary of her.

Aki nodded and smiled before he disappeared into his room, announcing that he would go and change. "What did you do?" Camila asked Sally quietly.

"You said you wanted to get to know him, shouldn't I have invited him?"

Camila shook her head profusely. "No, that's fine. I was just wondering how..."

Sally grabbed her hand and looked at her. Her lips were twitching but otherwise, her demeanour stayed calm as she stated, "Whale facts."

Camila blinked. "What?"

She laughed and squeezed her hand. Her skin against Camila's caused a subtle, yet unignorable flutter in her stomach. She needed to get a grip on herself but the truth was, their dancing in the pub had not helped the tiny, little crush she had on Sally.

"Just kidding," Sally said brightly as she freed her hand. Camila could only just stop herself from sighing in disappointment. "I told him some facts about otters. Whales are our thing."

She felt dense when she repeated, "What?"

Sally snickered. "I talked to him," she stated simply. "He's just a little shy."

"How were you so sure?" Camila asked curiously.

"All this, 'he is avoiding me, he must hate me so I'll avoid him too' thing was familiar to me. It's what happened between Jake and me when we first met."

Camila raised her eyebrows. "He used to be that shy?" While Jake wasn't always the loudest or the person that would say the most, he had no problem getting heard whenever he spoke up.

"Oh no, I've been that person."

The more Camila got to know Sally, the less she understood her. She just always became more unpredictable, more of a mystery.

Camila had already accepted that fact but still, the concept of a shy Sally didn't quite fit into her head.

"Oh," she could only say. "How did you do it? Change so much..." Camila asked then.

"In college, people started showing interest in me. It was weird and honestly, not always wanted but it provided me with enough confidence to come out of my shell. Eventually, I realized that the trick of not being shy is to pretend you are not. And the trick of talking to shy or insecure people is to pretend they are not. You just have to ignore everything they say or do."

Camila raised her eyebrows.

Sally cleared her throat. "Maybe I should have said that differently: Is the other person not answering because they don't know how? Don't feel personally attacked, it's not your fault. Ignore that, keep on smiling and just talk on. That way, they don't feel uncomfortable and even more insecure. Are you unsure of how to start a conversation? Screw that and just say something dumb. It's a much better icebreaker than smalltalk. Why do you think I approached you with a whale fact instead of asking you how you were?"

The weirdest thing out of this conversation was, Sally's words actually made sense. While she realized that, another thought crossed her mind. "Is that the reason you asked me to go to dinner tonight? So you could talk to Aki?"

A small part of Camila, regardless of her knowledge about Sally's opinion regarding relationships, had hoped it would be something like a date. Would they just pretend that moment in the pub hadn't happened?

Apparently, yes.

"Yes," Sally answered her question. "Not that I wouldn't want to see you, of course. Normally, I try to give people a little break before they have to see me again."

"I don't want a break." The words left her before she could think about it. Why would she not want to see Sally?

For the first time, Camila began to genuinely consider that underneath the bluntness and loudness was a deeply insecure person who, frankly, didn't particularly like herself.

Camila didn't like that realization. She had admired Sally's confidence, she had been happy for the woman that she was feeling so sure of herself.

"I like spending time with you," Camila added. "Please don't give me a break."

The smile Sally sent her was one she hadn't seen before. It was almost bashful, not as wide as usual. But somehow, it was genuine.

Camila felt this smile with every inch of her being. It filled her chest with warmth and made her own lips curl upwards as well. She felt the sudden need to make sure this was the way Sally would always smile from now on.

Sally didn't answer as at that moment, Aki opened his door and joined them. He seemed nervous, fiddling with his fingers. Camila shot him a wide smile and decided to listen to Sally's advice. She started a conversation with him, telling him about Spain and what she thought of England so far. After some time, Aki's answers became longer and eventually, he started telling her more about himself, his family in Japan and his dreams for after college.

They walked to a restaurant not far away and settled down on a table. Sally was quiet for the majority of the evening, just allowing them to acquaint themselves.

Every time Camila glanced at her, the woman was smiling at them.

Inviting herself to dinner to talk to her roommate behind her back and overwhelm both of them with an evening of three must have been one of the nicest and most considerate things anyone had ever done for her.