Something for Keeps

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

‘Here’s your tea.’

Haziq set two cups of two on the table and sat himself down opposite to Hazel. Hazel smiled and accepted her cup of tea.

For a while, they both sipped their scalding hot tea in quiet. Then Haziq broke the silence.

‘You know, I was thinking about the train station,’ he said, slowly.

‘What about the train station?’ Hazel asked.

‘The fact that when I first saw you there, your dress, your attitude, your aura. It really led me to believe that you really were an heiress or some rich girl.’ He grinned at her.

Hazel smiled too. ‘Same goes for you. I thought you were a spoilt heir to someone’s fortune.’

Haziq laughed.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I’m quite the actor aren’t I? But then again, so are you.’

Hazel sipped her tea.

She found herself looking at the people around her once more. There was a couple sitting at a table right in front of them.  She observed them as the man wrapped a large arm around the shoulders of the woman with her. The woman looked a year or two elder to Hazel herself.  She had hair as dark as the night and a quite chubby bodice. Her big brown eyes sparkled. Her teeth, Hazel noticed, were crooked from the front. She wore a cheap bright pink coloured gown that had stains near its hem. The man was not very different either. He was a large towering man, with extremely hairy arms and a thick beard on his face. His blonde hair grown a bit too long shaded his twinkling grey eyes.  His large belly protruded from his old worn out shirt. His big, beefy hands played with the dark curls of the woman whilst he gazed her with longing eyes. The woman gazed back into his grey ones and kept smiling beatifically at him. Despite their unsatisfactory looks and worn out clothing, they looked really happy. So happy that their eyes crinkled and their skin glowed with their smiles. Hazel kept staring as the man tipped his large head towards the lady’s till their foreheads touched. The everlasting gazing continued.

Haziq looked at Hazel staring at the couple. He followed her glance and chuckled.

‘Give them some privacy, won’t you?’ he teased, his voice low.

Hazel tore her stare from the odd couple and looked at Haziq with inquiring eyes.

‘What do you mean?’ she asked.

‘Just because they are too smitten themselves to notice does not mean that you can keep staring at them as they share this dear moment with each other.’

‘I just don’t get why are they so happy staring at each other that way? Because obviously, the sight in front of them is not exactly very nice,’ Hazel wondered aloud.

Haziq looked at her, scepticism evident in his eyes.

‘Who cares about the sight in front of them? As long as they like the sight, who are we to judge?’ he said.

‘But that is what I’m trying to ask!’ Hazel said, ‘Why do they like the sight of each other so much? They shouldn’t be gazing at each other like that.’

‘Why shouldn’t they?’ Haziq asked indignantly.

‘Why would they?’

Haziq sighed loudly. He nodded his head toward the odd couple and whispered, ‘Watch.’

Hazel did as he said. They both watched the couple in silence as their foreheads were together, the man whispering something to the dark haired woman in her ear. In answer to his whispers, the woman started to giggle. The man smiled too and gazed some more in her eyes.

Then his heavily bearded face tipped a bit too further, and their lips met. Hazel looked away sharply as the man jabbed his tongue in the woman’s mouth, and the woman accepted it with overwhelming delight etched across her features.

Haziq turned his gaze from them, to Hazel. He started to chuckle when he saw the blush streaked on her cheeks.

‘Now do you understand why they are so happy?’ he asked, chuckling.

Hazel said nothing and resorted to sipping her tea quietly.

When she would still not reply, Haziq said, ‘Hazel, they are in love with each other.’

Hazel mumbled ‘hmm’ at him, and kept sipping her tea in silence.

A bit confused over her silence, Haziq asked, ‘Hazel? Is everything alright?’

‘Yes’, Hazel mumbled in reply.

‘Then why are you so silent? Do you have something against love?’

Hazel winced slightly when he said ‘love’.

‘Hazel,’ he said again, ‘What is so bothering about love?’

‘Nothing.’ Hazel’s eyes kept toward the ground.

‘You don’t believe in love?’ he asked in a confused voice.

‘I do. It is not like that.’ Her finger slipped in one of her chestnut curls.

‘Then what is it that is so wrong about it?’ he nudged.

‘No, there is nothing wrong with it, only that,’ she looked up in his eyes, and said shortly, ‘I don’t believe that those who love you, or those who you love, ever last. So it is always better not to love or be loved, since it is always painful...’ she kept on her words.

‘What are you saying?’ Haziq’s eyes wide, ‘Are you speaking from experience?’ his face changed into a concerned one.

‘No,’ Hazel said a little too quickly.

‘It is okay, you can tell me. Trust me.’ Haziq tried to coax her into spilling all that she had inside her.

‘There is nothing to tell. Nothing at all.’ Hazel’s eyes once more returned their gaze toward the floor.

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