Soul Harbour

0.21|when sightseeing|

0.21|from Sabah's hastily written notes on tissue paper: when sightseeing|

As the days sighed past us humans, I began to realize that after my little breakdown, Anthony and Auburn had started coming more regularly. Their visits very often didn't match but they came. I would find Anthony, at first shyly but after a couple of visits more comfortably, swinging the glass door and bestowing the world with a smile that made his face a lot more mischievous than he was, in the afternoons and evenings of Mondays and Wednesdays or Tuesdays and Thursdays or just whenever.

Meanwhile Auburn has started mostly living in the shop during the weekend. She would be here by eleven because unlike you, Sabah, she actually slept and woke up late. Sure, it was kind of awkward to think that they thought I needed looking after as if the sadness, the darkness I held in my heart would one day swallow me whole but to be thought special and worthy of any sliver of concern was new for me.

I am not ashamed to pick favourites. The weekends became my favourite part of the week because from eleven in the morning to eleven in the night I could joke and fuss over someone who liked my company as much as I liked hers. In those days I hardly ever thought of Julia because with Auburn around, it was like I never lost a part of myself. I swear, in those days, I felt that if I had to die I would die then, at my happiest.

When you experience such happiness you don't want to turn the corner and find something that shatters it but as it is people walk on and so did I.

Where was I? Yes, the tour. Well, you see watching these two kids spending all their free time on me, made me want to do something special for them. Fridays were the days you could arrange something like that because Friday evenings were when they were together, sitting at their favourite table, Auburn pretending to correct papers and Anthony pretending to enjoy his coffee. I was lucky enough to see them turn from strangers to friends to the best of friends.

They found ways to hold hands and blushed like a tomato whenever they sustained eye contact for more than a couple of seconds but that was it. Whenever they seemed to be approaching "the moment", Anthony would start fiddling with his hair and Auburn would become very interested in the notebooks she was correcting.

Which is exactly what they were doing when I decided to intervene, "That's it, you two. Stop behaving like old bores and grab your jackets. We are going sightseeing."

Auburn closed the notebook she had been lining with red ink and smiled, "Sounds great. I haven't seen anything in the time I've been here."

"You?" I asked Anthony.

He got up, pulling his black jacket over his white and shrugged, "I've seen all the football stadiums."

I looked at them, disappointed, "You live in Madrid and Barcelona isn't far off too and yet you've not seen anything worth seeing? You two are weird people."

They were actually alike in some ways. They didn't like making first moves, learning Spanish was still not a priority for them, they didn't exactly excel at making friends, they over-thought everything and now, it seemed as if not sightseeing was another common factor.

"We'll take a taxi," I said, following them out of the café.

"Or we could just take my car?" Anthony smiled, excitement written over his face.

I straightened after locking up the glass door and looked from Anthony to Auburn, "He has a car? And I'm the only one who doesn't know?"

Auburn nodded, "Yeah, he dropped me home once."'

Anthony said dreamily, "She's a beauty."

"Your car is a she?" Auburn asked. "How sexist."

"Its not," he frowned. "The one in Germany is a he."