INTERTWINED PERFECTION {Currently Editing}

CHAPTER 3

{Edited}

Maria tried to remember the last time she felt this nervous. Seated in an car with a guy. A car?

"How come you have a car?" she spoke her thought.

"I've been working hard"

"H-A-R-D, hard?"

"Not that hard" he laughed, the sound settling her nerves "It's not like I'm a workaholic, my Mum gave it to me"

"Oh! For a moment i was wondering what you are doing at Hen's"

"Trying to raise money"

"For?"

"School"

"Uni?"

"Hun-um"

"How old are you?" That slipped out.

"21"

"I never thought you're that old"

"I'm very old" He laughed and his eyes sparkled.

She suddenly had the urge to give him a bare hug. Instead she smiled at him, really smiled. He winked.
................

Victor took her to a cozy restaurant 20 minutes from her home, she studied the room while he got their food. She noticed a couple kissing a few tables from theirs. Some other were involved in a telepathic communication, just staring into each others eyes.

What a way to communicate.

"Here we are" Victor smiled setting their tray on the table.

"I don't have an appetite this big" she gasped.

"I did not know what to get, so I picked everything" he sat "Though you should finish more than half of this"

With that they resumed eating, he kept stealing glances at her. He'd look at her with this strange look then draw himself out. that pattern continued for a while.

"Told you you'll survive" he pointed to her now half empty plate.

"I'm trying" She said with her mouth full. She looked at his own empty plate "How is this possible?"

"I'm the man" he flexed.

"The man" she repeated quietly.
..................

Sometimes, she thought, you'll meet someone who makes you feel right about yourself. Someone you didn't have to pretend with because they love those embarrassing details about you. Maria didn't know it all but could tell she'd found that person in Victor Dervis.

It was a few minutes past eleven when he pulled into her drive way "Hope your parents wouldn't mind you stayed out late" he asked when she invited him in for tea.

"My parents are dead" she told him.

Surprised, Victor tried to put two and two together. Ana-Blaire couldn't be more than two months old. Did their mother die during childbirth? Maybe their father died of something, could be----maybe be--- different scenario formed in his head, he finally decided that nothing she said could be worse than his imagination."How?"

"An auto-crash " she said distantly.

"I'm sorry" he felt bad that they'd talked about everything but parents.

"Hmm-nm, are you still coming for tea?"

"Is the offer still available" he teased unfastening his seat belt.

"Would expire in 30 seconds"

He raced her to the apartment. Maria opened the door to a silent apartment.
Rufi and Ana-blaire were already asleep.
She flicked switches here and there and got the water started.