Love, a Four Letter Word

Beautiful, a Nine Letter Word

Beautiful, a nine-letter word.

An adjective.

The only word that came to my mind whenever I thought about Adele.

I always found myself lost in a daydream, she took over my head.

Yeah, I know, people told me it was crazy and I was starting to think I was going crazy too, but I couldn't help it.

Her smile is what got me, I had never seen a human so cheerful and always so smile.

That's what I thought at the time, I never really knew such a fake smile could be so attractive.

But I did know she was the type of girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and there was nothing I'd do to give up on her.

I know, I know, it was silly but I thought I could make her happy.

I knew she'd make me happy, actually more than happy, she'd give me a reason to wake up every day.

There was something different about her, sh-

"Simon, Simon," I made eye contact with my best friend, James, also my boss at the time, "What are you doing?"

I ruffled my beard and rearranged myself in my chair, "Sorry, I was just, uh... I didn't get much sleep last night."

He shook his head while leaning against my desk, "You need to stop thinking about that Belle girl. She's taking you from your work."

I sit forward while scrummaging through my papers laid out in front of me, "Her names not Belle for your information, it's the most beautiful name to the ear James, it's Adele." I leaned back in my chair going back in my daydreamer.

He chuckled, "Well whatever her name is she's taking too much of your time. Get to work, or you might not have a job to go to if this is how you're going to work from now on." He crossed his arms.

"Man, you're supposed to go easy on me, we're best friend." I chuckled pulling my pencil resting above my ear.

He shook his head while walking to the door, "At work, I'm your boss, outside of work we drink and party." James turned around right as soon as he turned the doorknob, "Now seriously, get to work and I'll see you tonight. My house, big screen, football game, bring your beer."

***

I sat, leaned back, on James couch, beer in my hand. I was watching the game but didn't actually know what was happening.

James was sitting on the edge of his seat, chanting for our team we've rooted for, for really, as long as I could remember.

He shot up throwing his fist in the air getting all excited, "Did you see that, man!" He yelled grabbing another beer and sat back down. "We just scored! It was a beautiful cross, Lennon was right there and boom, right into the goal." He gave one more whoop of excitement and took a sip.

I felt James' eyes lay onto me as he took another drink, "Bro, you have to talk to that girl." He said with a friendly punch thrown into my arm.

Not listening, I looked at him, "What?"

"What's her name, Adele? You need to talk to her because I haven't seen my best friend act like this in a long time. You're really in love with her."

Taking a deep breath, I got up and stretched. I took the last gulp of my beer, set it on his coffee table, and grabbed my jacket.

"Where are you going?" He asked watching me head to his door.

"Home. I'll see you tomorrow."

"But-" I cut him off, slammed his door and ran to my car.

As I dove home, my mind really got going. I was thinking about my future more than anything.

Adele and I had been texting here and there for a couple weeks, not as much as I wanted to talk to her but at least she answered.

I needed to get home and talk to her, I knew James was right I needed to ask her out, again.

My foot stepped on that gas, harsher as I went faster.

I honestly, was starting to scare myself, this woman had taken over a huge fraction of my life, and I didn't even know why.