Love with a Bang

5. Lachlann

It's now Tuesday and I'm sitting at a corner booth at the back of Bumble Bee Coffee. Aida's friend from the shop last week is behind the counter. I remember her from the last time. She seemed nice. Except now, instead of smiling, giggling and twirling her hair around her finger, she was glaring at me. Glaring so hard, I'm beginning to worry that I'll have to be very careful during this chat with Aida.

I have been waiting years for this. When we first became friends all those years ago, I was too shy and unsure of myself to fully act on my feelings. Aida was special. She always had been. Rather than tell her how I felt, I just kept on being the shy guy that she probably befriended out of pity. Then, a year later, I became the guy that didn't stand up for her when she was being verbally attacked. I doubt I have any chance of getting her to listen to me. To start rebuilding what little genuine friendship we may have had. It's worth a shot though. I can't keep living my life, waiting for her to come back home. I think everyone back there knows that won't happen. Social media is great, but it's not the real thing.

After the not so meet cute in the store, once I had finished up in Nate's, I went home to shower. Except once I was under the water, alone with my thoughts, thoughts of Aida infiltrated my mind. My cock started to swell. There was no stopping it. It was the first time I had seen her in almost 10 years. She was beautiful. Even in a pair of joggers and oversized hoodie, clearly not worried about how people perceived her. I catalogued every inch of her body. The curve of her ass, made bigger by the joggers and swell of her breasts, just about peeking out from under the baggy jumper. I pictured her, as I stroked my swollen length, each tug getting harder and faster. I'm ashamed to say, not a minute later, streams of cum painted the wall of the shower. It's not my fault she's more beautiful in person than online.

The bell over the door chimes and knocks me out from the memories of my steamy solo shower sesh. I look up to see Aida. She's dressed casually. A pair of blue denim mom style jeans, a red shirt and those chequered vans. I'm already going to have to hide my half chub, which is definitely not going away now. Under the booth, I try to rearrange Lachlan junior, so that I can stand up and greet her without looking like an idiot. When I'm finally feeling somewhat presentable, I shuffle out from the booth, toward Aida, who is chatting to her friend behind the counter. "So yeah, if I make that signal to you... Oh! Lachlan. Hi, I didn't see you there." Okay so clearly, I was not meant to hear that. The fact that she feels she needs a signal means this is going to be harder than I thought. "Vanilla Latte, Lachlan?" Aida's friend says, with about as much enthusiasm as someone on the way for an endoscopy. "Yes please.....". Fuck. I don't know her name. I know she told me that first day but after seeing Aida that afternoon, everything else was forgotten. She looks at me, as if I should know her name. "Millie", Aida says, putting a hand over Millie's, as if consoling her. I feel like I'm missing something there. Aida tells Millie that she'll have the usual, as I begin to lead her towards the booth.

She sits facing the counter, no doubt, to allow her bat signal for escape to be easily noticed, if needed. I can tell she's nervous. While she may be sitting up tall, shoulders back, but she's fidgeting with her fingernails. It was always her tell in the newspaper club when she was nervous about getting everything to print on time. I take the time to look at her. Really look at her. She has her strawberry blonde hair, tied up in one of those perfect messy buns. Kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion, but hey it looks good. Two strands are curled, dangling at the front of her face. A light blush stains her cheeks and onto the bridge of her nose. Her cupid's bow juts out just a little, to make her plump lips pout. She has a slight scar over her left eye. I know what it's from but I don't want to bring that up today if we don't need to. I don't want her believing that I think any differently of her because of it. It seems I linger too long on her eye because my mental catalogue is interrupted. "Just focus on the right eye and you won't notice it". Fuck. Now she thinks I'm an asshole. I clear my throat and try to recover. "So, how are you doing? It's been a while." She scoffs. Well, she tries to cover it but, it's too late, I caught it. "Really, how are you doing? That's what you're going to lead with?" Well, she's feisty anyway. This is really not going to plan. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? This is just all very new. I just want to catch up. How about this? You ask me the questions for now, and we'll see how it goes...". She relaxes a little, and the defiant sparkle has dimmed. "What are you doing here? I've lived here for years, you've just arrived. There's no way anyone could live here without us being none the wiser. The yoga club make sure of that". I chuckle. I've seen the yoga club around. Mostly consisting of women over sixty, they are itching to find out my story. If they are anything like my grandmother was, they're already lining up granddaughters, or friends of friends for dates. That's not me being cocky. I work out regularly, and eat well most of the time so I know I'm not terrible to look at. But it's not my appearance that starts the dating menagerie. It's my age. In ye olden days, I should be married with 4 kids by now. 'It's time I found a suitable young woman to settle down with', were the exact words of both my mother AND grandmother. "Yeah, good point. I only moved her about 2 weeks ago. The first few days were just moving boxes and reorganising shit. Which meant no venturing outside. I still had to get some work done too so it meant a lot of food delivery and minimal exposure to the townsfolk." That was probably far more detailed than she wanted, but I can see her relax a little more so I keep going. "So yeah, I moved in next door to my childhood friend Nate. Maybe you know him?" I can see her thinking. Scrunching her nose as if it will help conjure a memory of him. It looks as if she's about to say something, but instead just shakes her head. Worth a shot. Although if I was bargaining on knowing Nate getting me brownie points, I'm not sure I had a chance anyway. The mans a mess. I can say it because he's like a brother to me. Millie comes over with our drinks and pastries and gives a quick glance to Aida, who gently shakes her head, and leaves with a parting glare to me, just narrowly missing the small pigtailed child that's come to a stop beside our booth. The little girl tugs on Aida's jeans. Aida looks down, a heart-warming smile adorning her face as she focuses on the little girl. "Hi Lola, what can I do for you?", she asks, with every ounce of patience. Lola, points to the little plush attached to Aida's handbag. It looks handmade but it's still amazingly intricate. "Do you like it? Here you can have it", Aida offers, as she unclasps it from her handbag, handing it over to Lola, who has now begun to scream and giggle with excitement. Not long after the screaming starts, a young woman rushes over and grabs Lola by the arm. "Ugh Aida, I'm sorry. Every time she sees you now she just runs off. We have a collection of your stuffies in her playroom don't we Lols? How much do I owe you?". Aida waves her hand to refuse. "Any that I keep for myself all have small errors so don't worry, she can have it". The mother thanks her, and carts Lola back to their own table. Aida looks back at me and begins to apologise. "I started making the stuffies to go with some of the orders I was putting out. A trial run really. Turns out they were really popular. Almost all of the kiddos around here have at least one. They were my little guinea pigs at first." she explains. There is an utter serenity in her face as she talks about her business. Her love for it is so strong, she's forgotten that it's me she's talking to. It's truly amazing, watching her transform from shy, nervous Aida, to proud businesswoman. I sure wasn't about to interrupt her and lose our progress