Road to Evergreen | #Wattys2016

f i f t e e n

"I thought you were going to ditch me," Adam says as he leans on the car, his eyes scanning me from head to toe. His eyes widen as his lips part.

"Beautiful," he whispers.

My cheeks turn red instantly. I meet his eyes but directly look away and notice what he is wearing, black with black.

"You don't look so bad yourself," I say.

He smirks at me as he wavers his hand over his outfit, "the usual."

I let out a giggle and approach him, "and by the way, I'm only ten minutes late."

He clears his throat as he realizes that he's still staring at me. I'm not wearing something worth the time he's been looking at me, just a long sleeve dress that hugs my waist perfectly and flats.

He opens the car door for me, as he gestures me to get in.

I inch closer to him, "Gentleman."

I feel him gulp down and his breathing rapids. I step back from his face, that was an inch away a second ago, and enter the car.

I watch as he jogs his way to his seat and turns the car.

"I hope you like Italian," he says as his smile beams.

"I love it," I say.

Fifteen minutes later, we arrive. The Italian restaurant is crowded. It's more of a rectangle with tables on the right and the kitchen on the left. We finally manage to find seats for two.

"So, what would you like to eat?" Adam asks.

"Spaghetti bolognese will do," I reply.

He smiles, "I'll be right back."

It's a self service restaurant so Adam get's up to take our orders. As he waits in line, I glance around the restaurant. It has brick red walls with an exception of a quote wall. I try to read and I stumble upon one that grabs my attention, The secret of Happiness is Freedom and the secret of Freedom, Courage.

Am I a coward? Is that why I'm not Happy? But I am Happy at this moment. Aren't I? Maybe I was a coward a while ago but now, I feel courage tingling through my veins. Because right now, I'm free. My past, and my secret can't hold me back. My heart clinches every time I remember the scene of what happened. But this time, I'm going to move on because I'm Happy.

Adam interrupts my thoughts as he places our trays in front of us. My spaghetti looks incredibly delicious, and he ordered an extra large pizza.

"You're going to eat all that by yourself?" I ask while gesturing to his pizza.

He looks down to his pizza and pouts, "that's just my snack."

And we both burst to laughter. He laughs with the most beautiful smile I have ever seen and the most captivating shade of green.

"So tell me a little about you," I demand.

"What do you want to know?" He asks.

"Just the basics, I guess. Imagine me interviewing you, and I asked you to introduce yourself," I say while I lean back on the chair, "go ahead."

Adam arches his eyebrow to what I said. Then takes a breath, "My name is Adam Reindl, but you already know that," he pauses and then continues, "I'm 22 years old, and majoring in computer engineer. I have an older brother, and a dear father. I live alone in an apartment next to your work place. I work at HT Intel as a part time job. Um.. What else?" He stops to think.

I giggle, "I think that would do."

"So, if this time I ask you: what's your story, will you start yelling at me?" He asks.

"I wasn't yelling, but your question was so inconvenient at that moment," I pout.

"Well, you could've just told me, 'this isn't the right time for it'" he says will he uses his fingers to make imaginary quotations.

"You kept pushing me, just like you always do, just like right now" I argue back.

He falls silent, and so do I. He reaches out his hand to touch mine, "I'm sorry that I push you further than you're used to, Lesley. But you're a bright woman, who can achieve more than you think you can. I just don't want to see it go to waste."

I look up to meet his eyes, and I see concern. It's obvious how much he cares for me. And I care for him too. I take a breath and say, "Okay."