Will you marry me, Ms.C?

Chapter 1 - First Sight

It was one normal Friday morning in Portugal, when everything happened…

I woke up, had breakfast, took a shower, brushed my teeth and combed my hair; basically, I did everything I do in the morning. I put my sports trainers and a t-shirt on and started my morning run. 

I had been running for about half an hour. Approximately, twenty minutes more had passed and I felt someone was observing me, so I decided to look back to check if anyone was looking at me, but no one was, at least I didn’t think so. As I continued my run, I also tried to push away that feeling. But actually, someone was really staring at me and that was pissing me of. I was feeling it, I looked back again and this time, I saw a girl running behind me trying to catch me, which kinda scared me, so I started running faster in the park.

I was starting to get tired so I looked back to see if she was still following me. Luckily, she was nowhere to be seen. Having successfully escaped, I decided to rest and sit on the ground while leaning my back against a tree. Unfortunately, when I was about to sit down, I saw her again and I got back into my running. She looked like a crazy person!

I was almost in the middle of the park when I looked back only to realize that the girl wasn’t behind me anymore. In that exact moment, I bumped into a woman and I fell to the ground. I was grabbed by a big guy who took my feet off the ground. I was so scared by him and the obsessed girl who kept running in my direction! I could see her getting closer while looking over the shoulder of the woman I bumped into. I just started screaming, “Deixem-me ir! Tenho que fugir! Larguem-me!” ( In Portuguese because I was oblivious to the fact that she wasn´t Portuguese, so what I yelled was, “Let me go! I need to escape! Let go of me!”). I could see that she was mad at me, but she also had a beautiful smile on her lips, which I captured. I think she told him to let me go. He did as he was told and I started running again, this time through the strait ways. I was almost dying of tiredness, and then, I don’t know why, the girl gave up and I went home.

When I got home, I went to the bathroom and took a shower. 2 hours of pure rest; during the first hour, I kept thinking about the obsessed girl, but during the second hour, the women I bumped into flowed into my thoughts like water on a river. It was only her in my mind, just her smile and her mad eyes.

It was one o'clock when I went to have lunch with my sister and her boyfriend. I told them about what had happened that morning and they thought it was an absurd. They didn’t really want to believe it either. Lunch was over and I went back to my ordinary life. Time passed absurdly fast, and before I knew it, it was time for dinner. I was going to have dinner with my parents, but I decided to call my mom and cancel the family dinner, since I wasn’t hungry and my patience for talks was not on its best days.

It was 9:00pm when I decided to call Nicole, a friend of mine, and I arranged with her to go to a beach bar called “Costa 17” so I could confide to her what was happening to me. Half an hour had passed and she was nowhere to be seen, so I decided to go inside and sit on the puffs they had in the terrace overlooking the sea.

The sea relaxed me and allowed me to get lost in my own thoughts, and with the music on I was absolutely off of what was happening around me. It wasn’t until someone touched my shoulder, scaring me in the way that I noticed that someone was beside me.

“Good evening, do you want something?” – The shop assistant asked me

“Sorry?” - I asked, jumping of the sit

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to know if you’d like something to drink. Or to eat” - The shop assistant asked me again 

“Oh, yeah, I want an orange juice and a grilled cheese, please.” – I answered her

“Do you want it at room temperature or cold? – She asked