A Circadian Phenomenon - Another everyday love story

Chapter 4

 It had been a whole week since Mae and Jay had officially started dating. It turned out that Jay had temporarily been living with one of his sisters who lived in the area, and surprise of surprises, it was none other than the sweet red headed Ann. They looked almost nothing alike, yet there were similarities, albeit in personality rather than looks. On the other hand, Ann was almost a whole twenty years younger than Jay.

When Mae had commented on it, he'd laughed and explained that he had a whole bunch of siblings. His parents had remarried. Ann was his half sister. That had surprised Mae. Jay had promised to explain the family tree at a later date, in detail, the delay most likely for Mae's sake, who was an only child and couldn't grasp the idea of such a large and seemingly complicated family well. Not to mention, she had always only heard of upset kids in such families, but Jay and Ann... They were enough to put such rumours to rest in Mae's mind. After all, not all families were the same.

The week had been sweet and romantic, and they had both been more immersed in each other than the world that moved around them. It was the famed 'passionate beginnings' Mae had only yet heard about. Indeed, they were not to be taken lightly.

Each night, they would go out on a date. Mae would finish work in a rush - she refused to do any overtime for the first time ever - and would rush out to find Jay waiting at the reception. When people had first started to notice this, which was pretty much on the first day, there had been waves of rumours and whispers. Mae who had managed to blend into the background was in the spotlight again. She didn't like that, but at the moment, she didn't particularly mind. She was on a high called 'Jay' and she didn't want to get down just yet.

Each night, they did something different. Cooking at home, trying out different restaurants; they even had an outdoor picnic of sorts, mostly stargazing on a particularly clear night. Each night, they had one way or the other ended between Mae's bed sheets, leaning more towards a steamy night. It got to the point that Jay ended up bringing quite a bit of his stuff over to Mae's place and they were more or less living together.

Even so, each time Mae thought of their current living arrangement in words, her insides would go all fluttery. Winter was almost upon them, and even as they were caught in their own bubble of time, sooner rather than later, they would have to think of what to do next.

One thing she had quickly realized while living with Jay was that he did things at his own pace. If anything, people easily got caught in his pace as well. He had a strong presence. It was like he was the centre of his own sphere of gravity, and while it was true in the scientific sense, his 'gravitational pull' seemed far stronger than that of most people. It was tough to describe Jay or anything about him in words. To Mae, he was like an enigma.

Mae thought of all this as she stared at her book. It was the same book, the words were still foreign as ever, the same page. She knew that she could never read the book unless she learnt the language, but when she had bought the book on impulse while browsing online, she hadn't predicted that she would get into the habit of blankly staring at the words. That was all it had been; impulse. She hadn't any real intention of learning the language. Besides, even though she couldn't read the story in these foreign words, she had read it in English. Yet, she felt that the words had definitely lost their true essence once they had been translated from their original version to other languages.

"Hey," Jay called for her attention, scooting closer to her and hugging her from behind, simultaneously peeking over her shoulder.

"I thought you were asleep," Mae murmured, leaning into his chest a bit and covering her chest a little more with her bed sheet. Ever since Jay had come into her life, she had been changing her bed sheets way too many times, not that she minded. She was partly responsible, most of the time, after all.

"Nope, that is pretty much impossible."

"Why so?" As she asked, Jay squeezed her a bit.

"You're awake and next to me. It'd be a waste to let such moments fly by unnoticed, wouldn't you agree? I would rather stay like this," he said, his lips brushing her neck as he spoke, his breath soft and ticklish. "You like Kafka?"

Mae paused. Turned slightly, giving Jay a sidelong glance. "You know German?"

"A few words here and there. Can't even form a coherent sentence, though. But, that's by Kafka, right? Franz Kafka. Which one is it?"

Mae closed the book. "Judge by the cover. It's The Metamorphosis."

"Hmm, never read it. Actually, I've never read Kafka."

She fully looked at him this time. "Do you like reading?"

He thought about it. "Sometimes," Mae smiled.

"Yeah? What genre?"

"Anything that's interesting and not too dramatic. I don't like a serious atmosphere. What about you? I know that you like reading, so what genre do you enjoy? I want to earn more points as the caring and attentive boyfriend." Mae gave him a playful shove.

"I like... dystopian? And sci-fi? Or a good thriller. Mystery's good too. I don't particularly like supernatural, though, because I find those really boring. Just using your powers for everything seems too convenient. Romance is the ultimate bore. I like informational books, too. This is a bit outside, but I really like black holes. So I have some with theories about them, too. But sometimes, just once in a while, I find a book that may be of any genre, but sucks me in."

"You... love books, don't you?"

Mae offered a sheepish smile. "I guess."

"So why the German book even though you can't read German?"

"I bought it on impulse," Mae grudgingly admitted. Mae almost never did things on impulse. While she did go with the flow, she led a stable life and didn't do things she deemed unnecessary. Buying the German version of one of her favourite stories had definitely been unnecessary. Especially since she didn't even know the language and had no intention of learning. Learning German just to read a story was a waste of time, effort, and the money for the many reference books she would most likely end up buying. It was pointless.

"Then why not learn German?"

"I don't want to!" Mae snapped unintentionally.

Jay pulled back from her. She immediately regretted it."Alright! I get it, it's just... you look at the book as though you really long to read it."

"No, it's me. I don't do things on impulse, yet, I bought this. That's a stupid reason at that. I still didn't have to snap like that," Mae said apologetically.

Jay smiled. "You aren't very honest with yourself. And you're really, really stubborn. Isn't it alright to indulge a little?"

Mae opened her mouth to retort but snapped it shut. "Well, I am not usually like this, you know."

Jay full out grinned then. "Oh, I know. Ann told me. You were like an ice statue when I saw you first. You didn't even glance around once. That time, I really wanted to take a picture of you."

"You could take as many as you like now," Mae mumbled.

"That I can't."

"Why?" she asked, a little hurt.

"It's obvious that I would never use them for anything professional. I would never show a soul besides you. But once I start, I don't think I'll be able to find any subject that's even slightly more beautiful. I'll lose my profession because of you, and probably have you quit your job so that I can take pictures of you all the time."

"That's creepy," Mae commented with a small grin.

"Perhaps. But I really don't want to be seen as creepy just yet, so I'll wait for a more suitable time for us."

Mae sighed, content. She knew he was kidding, but she wouldn't mind being monopolized by him. She really did like him. She was lying next to him but then wriggled her way onto his back. She kissed his bare shoulder lightly and whispered a sweet secret to his ear. His body seemed to have frozen beneath him. Slowly, he let her off his back and faced her. His eyes shimmered. He gave her a loving kiss in answer.

'I think I'm in love with you.'