Thank You Mr. Hiddleston

Chapter 2- Tea

“Tea. He’s British. He’s got to like tea,” I said to myself as I took the tea bags from my grocery bag. “He better like tea, or I am wasting my time.” I pulled out a bag and filled up the one kettle in my kitchen and put it on the stove. Once the water was boiled I poured some into a cup and then put the bag in. I waited a little bit and took it out. I put it right into a thermos and didn’t even bother testing it. I didn’t drink tea . . . so it was probably going to be a very bad cup of tea anyway. “Why do I even bother?” I ask myself, although I keep the tea in my hand anyway. I look up at the clock and see that it is 4:45. “Better be off then,” I said to myself. I grabbed my coat (it was chilly), the thermos with the first-time tea, and my phone.

I walked out the front door and headed over to the park. Once at the park, I sat down on my bench and went straight to looking at my phone. It read 4:55. “Only five more minutes,” I thought to myself. I looked over toward the playground where children were playing on the swings and slides, reminding me of how little time had passed since I had done the very same as them.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. The hand I had felt only 24 hours before. “Punctual aren’t we?” Tom said behind me and hopped his way over the bench. “It’s nice to see you.”

“And you,” I said with a smile. I paused for a moment and then realized that I had made him tea. “Oh, here,” I said as I handed him the thermos. “I brought you something.”

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that. Let me guess, is it TEA?” I nodded. “Hm, I guess we’ll just have to try it out then.” He pulled off the top and took a gulp of the tea. He made a face, “Tastes wonderful,” he choked out. I looked down at my feet, embarrassed. “First time making tea?”

I gave a light laugh and replied, “How’d you know?”

He gave a laugh that sounded like, “Ehehehe,” if you were to put it into a word. “I don’t think you got it quite right, dear. However, a noble attempt,” he commented.

I couldn’t help but laugh, I mean come on a “noble” attempt. “Well, thanks. I know now not to try that again.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“Your face said otherwise.”

“Oh never mind my face, I’m an actor. I can make anybody believe anything, or at least I hope I do.”

“You’re an actor?” I asked questioningly. I didn’t think I recognized him.

“Yeah, I’ve been in a couple of movies . . . but that doesn’t matter. I came here to talk about you,” he said quickly, trying to shake me away from the topic. I knew he didn't want to talk about it, so I let it be. “How are you? Are you okay?”

“Define okay.”

“Okay as in ‘I feel wonderful’- okay.”

“It seems you have a high standard for ‘okay’.”

“Well, what can I say? I’m an optimistic person.”

“I wish I could be like that. I wish that I could be optimistic, cheerful, and carefree. ” I said with a vanishing smile.

“You can.”

“How?”

“I don’t know how to quite explain it,” he dreamily said.

“Just as I thought,” I mumbled.

“Hey, you’ve just got to think positively. With no positivity, there’s no enthusiasm. With no enthusiasm, no optimism.”

“I guess that’s true. It’s just so hard to think positively. There’s so much negativity around me. At school: horrible, at home: horrendous.”

“Well, you should change that. You be the optimist. You be the one to bring positivity into the room,” he said as he nudged my elbow.

“You know what, you’re right. Although, I could use some advice to do so.”

“Like I said, I will be here at 5 o’clock every evening,” he said as he leapt off of the bench.

“You’re too kind,” I said stupidly. I got up off of the bench as well.

“Ehehehe I really hope there is no 'too kind' in the world.” He leaned in for a hug.

“Thanks again,” I whispered in his ear. His encounter seemed short but I felt that it was worth it.

“Once again, my pleasure,” he said as he pulled away from the hug. He hopped off of one leg and jogged away. After a couple of strides, he turned around and gave me a wave. I waved back and watched him jog away. If only all men were so kind.