Flash Fiction Anthology

Charlie

"Elysha, Elysha wait!" Dunstan called.

The young woman stopped and waited for him to catch up with her.

She was on her way to work, but she had a few moments left to spend with her friend. Her best friend, who recently started to look like he was expecting something more from her, more than just a friendship. Like the majority of people who knew them, he seemed sure that they should take their friendship one step further.

Here, in St. Lucia, most of their friends were already married at the age of twenty-five. They were all looking at Elysha and Dunstan like it was their turn now.
Elysha sighed deeply at the thought of marrying her friend. She loved him, of course, but like a brother. She never felt anything different towards him.

Elysha was dreaming about that kind of love she read about in books, the kind that came with blushing cheeks and butterflies in your stomach...

Dunstan reached her now, pausing and leaning against a nearby tree, out of breath after his run up the hill.
She reached out to him, trying to put some order into the messy blackness covering his head.

"Did you forget to brush your hair this morning?" She asked, teasing him.

"I didn't have time. I wanted to see you before you start working. You never answer my calls lately." He said, his voice full of reproach.

It was true, and now he made her feel guilty about it. Since Elysha had noticed that Dunstan was trying to invite her on an official date, she started to avoid him a little. Why their friendship just couldn't stay the way it had always been...

"Is it about the dinner again?" She asked, before he could say anything more. "I'm sorry Dun, but... you know... not just yet..." It was more like 'never' to her but if she told him that, she would definitely break his heart.

"Ok, fine Elysha," he said, the hopeful smile abandoning his full lips, "just think about it, promise?"

She hated to make him feel sad. "I promise, Dunstan. Now I have to go or I'll be late."

Elysha turned away from him, resuming her walk.

"I'll call you tomorrow El!" She heard Dunstan calling to her as she entered the hotel.

The hotel Elysha worked in was located at the most beautiful view point of the island, high above the sea that rolled and stretched in the distance as far as she could see.

Elysha walked across the cool foyer to the reception desk, pausing to pat and adjust an old teddy bear sitting on one of the shelves behind her desk. Her father, who worked in this very hotel before her, found it abandoned on the little lawn in front ot the building, years ago. He brought the teddy to Elysha when she was a little girl, and since then it had become her inseparable friend and mascot. When she grew up and started working here, she brought it back with her, hoping that once she might find its rightful owner.

She found her desk full of little notes from the receptionist who did the previous shift, and set to work. There were phone calls to make, e-mails to respond to and much more. Enough work to keep her mind off Dunstan.

She was completely absorbed in her papers when she heard a voice with a thick English accent from the other side of the desk.

"Good morning, Charlie."

She stood up, straightening her uniform, and approached the customer.

"Good morning, sir, my name is Elysha," she said, pointing to her name embroidered in blue letters on her white shirt.

"Hi, Elysha," the handsome stranger said, "but I was actually talking to him."

Following his look, her eyes met Maia, her teddy bear. Bemused, Alysha said, "Her name is Maia..."

"I think you are wrong," the stranger went on. "He is Charlie and I lost him somewhere around here years ago."

Now she remembered. The teddy bear had a little luggage, where it could just about fit, with the name 'Charlie' written on the lining. Elysha always assumed it was the name of the boy who had lost it, not the teddy bear.

"Prove me it is yours and I'll give it back to you, sir." She said, pushing a few strands of her long, dark, curly hair behind her ear and smiling at the tall blonde man in front of her.

"Well, I used to carry him around in an old toy suitcase, and if I remember well, I wrote his name inside," he said, smiling back at her.

His open, friendly smile switched something on inside her. An emotion she had never felt before.
Elysha turned round, and took the teddy off its shelf.

"Ok Maia, sorry, Charlie, I guess you'll go home now." She said, addressing the toy, handing it over to him.

The man patted it softly and their hands met momentarily, sending a pleasant tingling up Elysha's arm. She looked up, surprised, and met his equally surprised look.

"What if I leave him with you, on condition that you help me a bit? I'm looking for a house, here in St. Lucia. You certainly know this place better than I do. Maybe we could have a coffee, or dinner together, and you can tell me something about your beautiful island. How about tonight? Or whenever you are free... By the way, I'm Daniel." He said, extending his had to her.

She accepted it, thankful to her olive complexion for making her blush less visible.

"Hmm, ok then," she accepted his offer, while putting Charlie back in his place and blushing even more.

When she turned back to Daniel she found him watching her with a huge smile plastered to his lips, and couldn't help herself but to mirror it.

What's wrong with me? She mused, observing the stranger in front of her incredulously.