The Dip and the Resurface

Part 5

Tyler

"Someone came in late last night," Josh wiggled his eyebrows at me as I sat down at the hotel's breakfast buffet. He had already eaten.

"Take it easy, big guy. Nothing happened," I said, rubbing my eyeballs with my fists.

"So you're saying that you came in at 7.30 without having even kissed the girl? You talked for five hours!!"

"Well, we kissed but that's just about how saucy as it gets.."

"You sound upset about it," Josh furrowed his brows.

"It's not that. She was just really cool, and funny, and smart..." my voice trailed off

"So why didn't you take her home? Did she not want to?" His face erupted in a devilish grin, "were you a bad kisser? You totally blew it, didn't you?"

"I did not blow it! It was the weirdest thing. She just turned around and...left," I said and told him about the pact that Margarita Girl and I had made to ensure some secrecy, "I don't even know her first name. Is it weird that I'm this upset about it?"

"We'll find you an even better girl in Germany," Josh nudged me with his elbow although I highly doubted it, "Besides, I've heard that German girls are wild!"

"Actually, I think I'm going for a walk," I stated.

"What?" Josh said, "right now? Why?"

I shrugged.

"You do realise how big London is, right? You're not just going to bump in to her accidentally," Josh looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

"I know" I said, "but I'm going to regret it if I don't try something."

"Tyler, come on.. We have to leave in a couple of hours," he sighed.

"I'll be back before. I'll just try...scouting for a bit"

"Scouting," Josh muttered under his breath before he let out a sigh, "Hold up....I know you can't be reasoned with when you're like this. Let me just grab my coat and I'll come with you.."

I sent him a look.

He sighed, "Don't look so surprised. I'm only doing this so I can make sure you get back on time. I still think you're being bat shit crazy.."

Josh and I walked from the hotel to where I had kissed Margarita a few hours earlier.

"I think she said that her flat was down here," I said, looking down the street.

"Flat? What the hell is a flat?" Josh exclaimed, looking confused.

"An apartment...I think?" I tried.

"Flat," Josh repeated in a mock British dialect, making me laugh, "learn some proper English, you pretentious bozos," he muttered under his breath.

"You're so dumb," I rolled my eyes at him with a grin.

-

I went from apartment building to apartment building, trying to guess what her name might be.

Josh had been helpful at first but quickly lost interest. An hour later, his good mood had almost completely vanished, "dude you're not going to find her like this.." he said while sitting on a steel rail, looking at me running from building to building looking at names.

"She doesn't quite look like a Daisy.. Does she?" I said as I read a label on one of the mailboxes.

"Dude, come on! You're guessing way too much! Plus, we have to leave in an hour or we won't make our flight.."

Deep down I knew he was right but I still had to check out just a few more mailboxes before I was ready to leave.

Twenty minutes later, I admitted defeat; "Let's just go," I said with a sigh, "as if I'm ever going to find her like this.."

"At least you gave it a shot!" Josh said and patted my back, "I'm sorry it didn't pay off. You'll forget about her soon enough."

We walked in silence back to the hotel where I packed my bag clumsily before boarding the shuttle bus that would take us to the airport.

I didn't speak the entire ride there. Never in my life had I ever been so irritated with myself for blowing it. And I didn't even know what I had done to make her turn around and leave so abruptly.

I wasn't quite sure if the mystery around her was the reason why I was so intrigued. But I had to admit that I was intrigued! She had hit a nerve inside of me and that made me doubt Josh' monologue about how I'd forget her soon.

-

That night, I dreamt about her. I dreamt that she'd come back for me and that she would drag me after her without saying a word.

When I woke, I had to lie still for a few minutes to not make an awkward situation out of the fact that Josh was sleeping beside me.

-

For the next couple of days she was occupying my mind all the time. I wondered if she thought about me too or if talking to strangers for hours was something she practised regularly.

I thought about the kiss we had shared and I felt her lips burning on my skin whenever I had a moment alone.

Never in my life had I been so infatuated with someone. I saw her everywhere; in the smiling middle-aged female scene-technicians, in the waitresses with crooked incisors, leather jackets passing me by on the streets, a thousand versions of her in the fair-haired Stuttgard crowd.

I wanted her to appear to me like she had done in my dreams, but reality was harsh and it was dragging me down. I was surely losing my mind over her and not even a million of Josh' jokes could keep me afloat.