The Comeback

Chapter 15 - The Date

Chapter 15 - The Date

She holds on to me tightly as I keep driving the old Vespa around the city. It’s our first day in London together for Uni and we decided to take a little tour. We asked Sean for his vintage Vespa instead of taking my car, just so we could see better. Plus, it’s a lovely day, it’s great to feel the air on our skin as we drive around London.

I like feeling her this close, trusting me to keep her save as I drive. She’s not really fond of motorbikes, but as long as I’m driving, she hopped on.

We don’t really know where we’re going, we just let ourselves be guided by instinct, I guess. We’ll end up somewhere and we’ll manage to get back somehow. My phone has GPS.

We find many beautiful places with marvellous buildings. Nice small shops and she even buys some antiques to add to her collection like an old long necklace with a locket. We find a small coffee shop and after we buy a cup for each of us, we just walk around and we find this nice and kind of abandoned playground. It was two seesaws, two swings and one merry-go-round that looks kind of old. Cass looks at me with a big smile before running to the swing. Or something close to running as she’s careful not to drop her coffee. I go after her with a smile of my own.

“I like this place,” she says and although it’s old and clearly kids have forgotten about it, I like it too. “Probably kids don’t come here because there’s a larger park a few blocks away, don’t you think?”

“Probably,” I answer sitting on the swing next to her. It makes a funny noise and I freak out, which makes Cass laugh. “Or maybe they realised it wasn’t safe to play here.”

“Silly,” she tells me still laughing. “But I really like it, it’s quiet and simple. And imagine all the things that happened here! Imagine all the memories this place holds.”

I smile at the love in her words and I can see all the scenarios she’s playing in her mind in the green sea of her eyes, all the adventures she’s seeing. One of her hands holds the coffee, the other grabs the long necklace she bought and by the way she’s looking at it, I know she’s imagining a life for it.

“Whom do you think owned that before?” I ask her because I really like hearing her made-up stories.

Her smile is big and precious before she starts talking. “It was nineteen forty-three, it belonged to a girl. She was twenty-three when her boyfriend gave it to her.” Did I mention she is very detailed for her little stories? Yup, she is. “But he had to go to war and that’s why he gave her this necklace. To remember him when he was away, thinking of her. He promised her that he would come back and they’d be together forever, but he never came back. She kept the necklace until her last day and although she knew he was dead, she kept waiting, knowing one day they’d be together again.”

“Well, that’s rather depressing,” I tell her and she shakes her head with a smile.

“It’s romantic, don’t you see? It’s real love, a kind of love that goes beyond death,” she explains with her smile, holding the necklace tightly. “It’s the kind of love everyone wants to experience one day.”

I’d love you even after death, I think to myself but I can’t say those words out loud, but I know them. I just know them.

“Imagine all the things that happened here!” She exclaims, raising her eyes to look around. “All the kids having fun, all the teenagers that run here. Maybe even a first kiss on this very swing. So many possibilities!”