The Voices You Hear

... when an 'apparition' appears

They agreed that Richard will just pick her up at the wine store near his place. Maine insisted that he shouldn't pick her up anymore from where she lives because he still has to cook dinner anyway. She was paying for the wine that she bought when Richard came in the store, and she heard the gasp from the cashier girl as he went up next to her.

"Hi. I don't mean to rush you but I just parked quickly outside, so..."

"Oh, I'm done. Uhm, miss? Miss? My change, please?"

The cashier girl was staring at Richard, her hand with the change suspended in mid-air.

"Hi, Miss? We might get towed so if you can just hurry up with her change..?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Sir... here you go Ma'am. Sorry. Have a good evening. Goodbye, Sir..."

Maine was suppressing a giggle as they made their way out the wine store. Richard opened the door on her side, assisting her as she went in, before going around to the driver's side. She was already laughing when he sat beside her and started the car.

"What's with you?"

"Goodness Richard, that girl was in shock either by how handsome you look or because you suddenly snapped at her!"

Richard smirked, his dimple deepening.

"So you think I'm handsome?"

"Haha, that's what you got from all that? The cashier girl looked as if she saw an apparition when you came in, and then you snapped at her with what you said about the change..."

"But you do think I'm handsome?"

He was now looking at her, as they stopped for a red light. She turned to look at him, gauging how serious he is with the question, and decided to play along.

"I think..."

"Yes?"

She smiled and held his hand, which was holding on to the gear stick.

"...I need more than just one bottle of wine before I answer that question. And the light just turned green so ..."

He grinned and turned his attention back on the road. Maine shifted in her seat, and tried to calm herself. She's never been this flirty before, not even with Andrew. But she felt a certain familiarity with Richard, not only because they both have a certain 'ability' to talk to objects (and their objects talk back, hah!) but she felt comfortable with him. A day spent with him may not be enough to make that conclusion, but for the first time, she trusted her instincts. The days she spend with numbers made her believe that logic and reason all have a formula, a basis by which all other computations should follow. But with Richard, even in less than 24 hours, she wanted to throw away all formulas.

And it scared her.

She now wishes she didn't leave Bic back home. Bic always puts some sense into her, even if she gets so tired of listening to it. She left Bic because she doesn't want anything to mess with this dinner, yet now she wants some sort of distraction from this overwhelming feeling.

"We're here."

She blinked and saw that they were at the basement parking of Richard's condominium building. As Richard opened his side, she also opened her door, a little surprised to find that he has made his way to her side already.

"Tsk. You should have let me open the door for you."

"Why?"

"Because that's what gentlemen do. And Bel will want me to report about doing so."

"Oh, okay. Wait."

She went back in the car and closed the door. She saw Richard laugh outside, and then opened her door, his other hand laid out for her. She took it and did a bit of curtsy as she stepped out.

"Why thank you, kind sir."

He laughed again, pulling her to him and she almost stumbled. He was quick to wrap his arms around her, steadying her, with the wine bottle between them.

"Oops. Sorry, I didn't mean to."

"You didn't?"

"Huh? I meant...ahhh..."

"It's ok, I'm good. Uhm, I think we need to open this wine before it gets dropped."

They were both red as Richard, quite reluctantly, let her go and led her to the elevators going to his unit.