Cafe A La Mode

(6) The Date

“Shh!” hushed Emiko.  “You’re going to give away our position!”

“No I won’t, besides, this is part of my disguise,” Meru insisted. “This is now, a flower bush.” She proudly adjusted the flower that was tucked in her cute knitted beret.

Juri giggled softly. Meru’s bright red flower was like a beacon of light, signalling where they were. But once they were behind the bush, the flower wasn’t very visible, only just poking out from behind the snow-covered leafy foliage.

“Are you sure that they’re going to meet here?” Juri asked through chattering teeth.

Emiko nodded. She had been doing the detective work while they were busy at the café – that is, if you could count glimpsing the movie time sheet in Arisa’s backpack. Besides, she had said so this morning, so if they didn’t meet at the cinema, they were certainly going to be passing by here.  She knew it was this cinema in particular, because of the logo on the time sheet. “Positive.”

Meru peeked inquisitively through the bushes. “I can’t see either of them yet. Oh wait - there she is!”

Immediately the other two girls peeked through the bushes as well, trying to catch a glimpse of what Meru was seeing.

Arisa was making her way into the movie theatre, her hair was tied back into a high ponytail and she wore jeans with a long-sleeved red shirt. Over that she wore a pretty thick blue jacket, and Juri made a mental note to ask her where she got it.

“Where’s Ryoma-san?” Meru asked, rising a little higher to get a better view.

Suddenly they heard someone running towards where they were, and all three girls froze in their positions. Any movement they made now would betray their presence, and they couldn’t risk Arisa knowing what they were doing.

The girls couldn’t see who it was, the young man had his back to them and he stopped right next to them, catching his breath. He straightened up and looked around, then his gaze landed right behind him, where the girls were hiding.

Juri felt her breathing hitch, and beside her she knew that the other girls were also just as surprised. It was Ryoma!

He slowly started towards them and Juri squeezed her eyes shut, forcing herself to remain as absolutely still as she could. What would they say to him? They couldn’t possibly tell him the truth…even if their stakeout was just too obvious.

Then he stopped, his hand reaching towards Meru, and he plucked the flower from her beret. Then he turned and hurried toward the theatre. Letting out a huge sigh of relief the girls fell back. Amazingly he hadn’t seen them.

“That was close!” whispered Juri.

“My flower!” wailed Meru, her hands over her beret. “My lovely flower!”

Emiko laughed at Meru’s melodramatic behaviour. She looked back over the hedges just in time to see Ryoma and Arisa at the line for the ticket window. “It looks like they’re buying their tickets now. Come on, otherwise we won’t know what movie they’re watching!”

There wasn’t much time to loose, the girls quickly made their way in line, inconspicuously putting on their excellent disguises, something that they had completely forgotten to consider on this expedition. Fortunately, Emiko had thought ahead, and now the girls sported over-sized, fashionable glasses.

As they waited in line, they glanced up at the ‘Now Showing’ posters, each quietly placing bets on which one would be chosen.

“They’ll choose something romantic,” Emiko insisted. “They’ll definitely pick ‘Heart Struck’.”