After spending almost 30 minutes talking with Joss and the guests of the party, I started to search the room for Tom. After scanning the house for a couple of minutes and greeting some people I had not yet talked to, I saw him standing on the patio, by himself with a drink in his hand. It was already dark outside, but the lights of the patio illuminated beautifully into his curly hair. He was wearing black straight pants, a dress shirt and a nice vest over it. That man truly knew how to dress himself.
“Tom, may I talk to you for a minute”, I said, startling him.
“Oh hi! You were fabulous out there”, he said, squirming. It looked like he did not know how to react to me. I approached him, went for a hug and gave him a kiss to his cheek. He flustered, laughed his usual charming laugh nervously and smiled.
“Thank you – I hate performing, but couldn’t say no to Joss”, I said, smiling to him, leaning my back to the patio railing. I was no facing him and he looked right into my eyes. God, his eyes were beautiful. “I want to talk to you about the night we went out. I feel really bad, that whole ‘if we don’t see anymore, good luck with everything’ line was just horrible. You were extremely nice to me and I acted like an idiot. That awkward handshake still haunts me”, I said and laughed nervously.
“Don’t worry. At least you did not pretend anything and expressed how you feel very clearly”, Tom said, sadness in his eyes.
“Oh my, I really did hurt you. I did not want to do that. The thing is that I really enjoyed our date; it was probably the best date I’ve ever been on. The restaurant, the conversation, everything was perfect. And I do like you, a lot… It is just that I come with a lot of package which I don’t want to drag on anyone else’s shoulders”.
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My heart was beating faster than normal. She had had good time on our date. But it was clear she had something on her shoulders – worry, bad experiences. “Package” is how she put it.
“Mira, what’s wrong”, I said as I realized tears were slowly falling from her eyes. I stepped closer and attempted to touch her face in order to brush the tears away. The moment she saw her hands moving towards her face, it was like a wall magically appeared around her.
“Tom, please don’t make this any harder than it already is”, she said, turning away. I wanted to comfort her, make her feel better, but I did not know how.
“Mira, please talk to me.” I said, touching her hand softly. She turned and faced me. Her beautiful eyes were glistening with tears. She looked so sad and hurt. She attempted to say something, but words did not come out. I looked into her eyes, begging for permission to comfort her. It was like she was able to hear my thoughts – she looked into my eyes, and finally her expression softened a bit and I regarded that as a permission to come forward. I enclosed her into my arms. She leaned her head to my chest and sobbed. I moved my other hand to her hair and softly stroked her hair.
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Tom’s hand was in my hair and I was sobbing in his arms, my head leaning on his chest. After a couple of minutes of just standing there in silence, only hearing the thumps of Tom’s heart, I collected myself and looked up at him. He looked so sincere and worried.
“I am so sorry for ruining your shirt”, I said as I lifted my head from his chest. I started nervously go through my purse, looking for a tissue when Tom took hold of my arms and placed my hands into his.
