Her Wish

Her Wish [Chapter 40]

Jennie’s gaze fell on a display of bracelets of a local street vendor, a childish attraction rising towards them. She hesitated, her feet pausing only for a second in walking, casting a quick glance from the corner of her eye towards Danny beside her, wondering if it was worth the bother.

After all, they were only bracelets.

Just as she was about to move onwards, Danny pulled her back, halting her, and smiling slightly like he knew her secret.

A sheepish grin lifted Jennie’s lips upwards, knowing that she had been caught. Still, she worried, the fear of wasting Danny’s time getting the better of her, “You don’t mind, do you? We don’t have to stop.”

Danny only shook his head and tightened his grip on her hand, steering her back towards the vendor so that Jennie could properly admire the bracelets. Watching her simper in appreciation, he nudged her slightly and scolded her, “You really need to stop worrying so much about pleasing others. What you want is much more important.”

Avoiding his gaze and instead, regarding the bracelets with renewed interest, Jennie mumbled softly, “I can’t help it.”

And she couldn’t. Although at times, Jennie found herself more easily expressing the thoughts and opinions that crossed her mind while in the presence of Danny, she could never fully manage to escape the binding notions of what others might think and how they might perceive her before acting. Such a trait had grown to be such an integrated quality of hers that even while trying, she could never completely shake herself from it.

Danny knew this as well, and therefore dropped his cause. With time, things would change. People would evolve. Jennie would. He would. And they would. Together. It was all only a matter of time, he knew.

Jennie, oblivious to these thoughts of Danny’s, was now selecting a few bracelets from the pile that had caught her eye. As she reached for her wallet, however, Danny quickly brushed her away, taking over the situation at hand,

“How much will that be?”

Rather than bothering to protest, Jennie merely smiled sheepishly and blushed, having already experienced that arguing with Danny over such matters would only be a lost cause.

As the two walked away after thanking the vendor, Danny released his grasp on Jennie’s hand and slipped an arm around her shoulders instead, though lifting her arm and fingering the newly bought bracelets falling downwards on her left arm.

“You didn’t have to buy them,” Jennie chided him, though not because she was ungrateful; “I can buy things for myself sometimes too.”

“If my girlfriend wants it, then I’ll buy it.”

He said it in such a self-assured tone, the newly gained title of Jennie’s slipping off his tongue as if it was the most natural thing, when in reality, it had been the first time she’d heard it.

Warmth filled her body, the term resounding in Jennie’s mind, “Girlfriend…” she whispered it softly, the awe in which she regarded it reflecting in her tone.

Danny grinned down at her, adoration for Jennie rising for the umpteenth time. He wasn’t sure that he would ever be able to get over Jennie’s small quirks that brought him smiles, “Yes, girlfriend.”

“So you’re my boyfriend,” Jennie declared.

“Uh huh.”

He tried to brush her off, as though the matter was minute and of sparse meaning, but they both knew better than to believe it. Regardless how much Danny attempted to deprive their three-day-old relationship of its meaning, he and Jennie both knew the truth.