Transition and Restart, book one: Arrivals

Chapter three, 2016, beginnings, part five

I guess I was the one suggesting this, even if I had to teach him just about everything about a proper formal first date. Christina groaned inwardly. So embarrassing! She sighed again. Well, I owe him big-time.

And that was it. She owed him, but it wasn't as if he really stirred any emotions in her. So, one date. She'd give him one day to shine with her beside him, but he also needed to see that he was outclassed, outmatched and out gunned.

He's just a boy, and a geek to boot, even if he knows how to be a knight in shining armour. That thought did stir emotions in her. In that locker room he had been anything but a geek. More of a frightening avenger.

But in the days since he had reverted back to the shy, clumsy boy. But not during club hours. And she had an opportunity to share memories from Sweden, in Swedish as well, and hearing that language built a hard lump in her throat.

But we did good work with that club of yours. Ten more members, and I wouldn't be surprised if we get a few more. The student council president looked like fainting when she saw the list.

Still it wasn't enough.

I didn't spend ten years on the catwalk to pair up with a little kid.

So, why was she here, standing below that stupid statue and listening to gasps of adoration half an hour early? She should have waltzed in quarter of an hour late instead of standing here with a steadily growing crowd of admirers watching her.

I did the full super model stunt to give him the shock of his life. But now with some of the braver in her audience closing in on her... Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. She started recollecting exactly why she had been surrounded by body guards in her previous life. I don't like this

"You want a real man." And the feeling of unease grew to fear. After that locker room, always fear.

Around her the circle of admirers shrunk as people felt the mood change.

"She could use more than one real man. I heard foreign girls like it kinky."

I'm scared!

Soon they would grab her.

"Christina, you look astonishing!"

Swedish? That's Ulf!

She looked frantically around her, but none of the teenagers standing in their casual clothes matched his looks.

But I'm sure I heard him! Where?

"I'm stunned! You're, you're more beautiful than I thought possible."

Where? Where? Wh... No way!

He would never be a super model, as she had once been, but 'handsome' didn't even come close to describing the young man who broke in between the two most insistent of her 'admirers'.

"Excuse me, but I'm here to meet my girlfriend." Ulf said in Japanese.

Girlfriend?

Dazed, Christina accepted the offered hand. She stared at an Ulf she had never seen before. An Ulf in a lazily unbuttoned business suit, with a deep burgundy shirt to ironically admit that he had yet to grow into adulthood. He no longer wore any glasses, and his usual, lifeless hairdo had given way to a playful one that didn't even attempt to deny that gel had played an important part in the making.

In ways it was a bit old-fashioned, but Christina liked that. It made her feel less of a stranger.

Italian suit, Swedish shirt, German shoes, Japanese neck tie. High quality but not stupidly expensive. Oh, and that Swiss watch looks gorgeous on him! Damn, that man knows how to dress!