Somebody to You (Neymar Jr) ✔

#46, A long overdue apology

Considering that it was lunch time on a busy weekday, the little gallery was surprisingly well visited when Lorelai walked through the glass front doors: there were a whole lot of three people in there. A crowd for galleries! But that was not exactly uncommon in the district of Gràcia- always buzzing with life, no matter what time you came here.

The gallery consisted of one little show room with white walls, a small white reception desk with information and a guy sitting behind it, available for a small explanatory tour through the works of whatever local artist had payed to hang up his work in the gallery.

Said guy was busy leafing through what looked to be a thick business book in an elegant black leather cover protecting it. His hand held a pen at the ready, his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth, while the small group of rich looking folk (Don't judge, Lorelai!, she scolded herself, everyone's entitled to wear fancy designer clothes meant for visiting the Vienna Hofburg of the last century during a normal workday in Barcelona) were staring at the paintings and talking in hushed voices. Dear universe, the elderly man even sported a bowler on his head!

As she walked toward the desk, Lorelai looked in vain for an info patch on the side of one of the prestigious looking paintings she passed - not that she didn't recognize the distinctive style of one of Barcelona's latest over-hyped artists after one inquisitive look at the loveless splodges of bright colour on the still mostly white canvas. Each painting had a different, and just one, colour theme. Weird. Like the artist was afraid of using two distinctive colours at once.

»Lorelai!« she heard her name exclaimed in surprise.

Turning back to the desk she gave the man behind it a sheepish look. »Hey, Fernando,« she greeted him with an impish expression.

Fernando looked at her for a moment, apparently stunned by her presence. He obviously hadn't expected her to show up at his work place - or probably to see her again outside of campus. Ever. Damn those puppy dog eyes of his! Lorelai was fairly certain he wasn't even trying with her right now. But Fernando wasn't one of the most sought-after guys on campus for nothing - those eyes had certainly been the doom for many a girl.

But no matter how deep she looked into those eyes right now, they simply didn't have the same effect on her as another, more familiar, pair of hazel-green ones, and she relaxed after realizing that; she'd been uncertain about this meeting, as inevitable as she felt it was.

»Hi,« was the only thing escaping his mouth, which he shut afterwards, done with gaping at her. »What can I do for you?« he asked, correcting the glasses on his nose as his attention turned back to the book on the desk. He scribbled down something, waiting for her answer.

Now or never, Lorelai thought, taking a deep breath as she gathered up her courage.

It had seemed like a good idea to come to the small gallery he'd told her about on their date back then. She'd acted like a bitch to him, played with his feelings and gotten his hopes up. She'd ignored his painful looks of longing during class ever since the »café incident«, as Jane liked to put it so eloquently. But he'd left her in peace after finding out that her heart was really with someone else, hadn't chased after her like other men probably would've done, seeing the challenge for a conquest they couldn't possibly make.