Dreams that never come true - A Short Story Collection

Rain's Story

⚠️ Strong Language! (W/ asterisks though)

Two weeks ago- Bucharest

"Cât costă asta?" (How much does this cost?) I ask the woman behind the stall counter, pointing at a magazine. It's snowing outside and I'm skipping work. "2 lei." She says, pointing at the sign.

So I forgot my glasses.

Sue me.

"Mulțumesc, o zi plăcută!" (Thank you, have a nice day!) I say, after handing her the money. I grab the science magazine and head back outside. Running across the road, I head back to my apartment.

I'm part of a program where sometimes I travel to give lectures on biology in animals. Isabella's the one who's the best at languages, but I try. I can speak French and Romanian (and English), as well as some very broken German and Korean (thank you, K-pop). Faith's also pretty good at languages, so it's kind of suprising that I'm the one travelling the world.

It sucks to be 27 and single. Bella's got engaged and Faith's probably going to meet someone soon, but I'm stuck. Faith and Bella tried to get me to go speed dating once, but that went horribly wrong. Maybe I'm just not built for relationships.

I walk into the building, to the lift. As the door's closing, I hear someone call out "Wait!" and I press the open button.

Sebastian.

My neighbor, to be precise. He has tanned skin, light brown hair and light blue eyes. He's taller than me (which was a problem when I was speed dating, half the guys I met were under 5'6) and has this smirk which makes me want to-

I almost forget that I'm staring at him and I'm in a lift. I am definitely telling Faith and Isabella about this man.

From what I've gathered (mainly from staring at him and stalking his page) he's 28, an office worker in some big company and has a younger brother. He doesn't have a girlfriend (that I know of) and is pretty introverted.

I've tried talking to him. When I moved in, I made gluten-free, vegan cookies to give him (I wasn't sure if he was allergic/intolerant to anything) from a recipe in Faith's newest cookbook. When I gave them to him, he offered to me to come in and I saw inside of his apartment. It was clean and tidy, but there were no photos of anyone or anything. No family members or anything.

I only know that he has a brother because his brother shares the apartment with him. His brother actually goes to the university that I'm lecturing at, but he's studying engineering.

As the lift door closes, I try not to think about how close I'm standing to Sebastian. Welp, he's definitely out of my league. "Hey." He says, dragging me out of my thought spiral. As he runs his hand through his hair, I blink, trying to keep my expression placid.

Don't stare, don't stare, don't stare-

Oh f*ck. I'm staring, aren't I?

"Hi." I say, fiddling with my jumper sleeves nervously. "How's... um... life?"

You utter genius Rain. You know what? I doubt this man hasn't fallen head over heels for you yet.

Sebastian laughs. I can practically feel myself melting. "Good. I got a promotion at work." He says smirking.

"That's great!" I say, giving a smile that probably looks like I'm dying inside. It's taking all I have to not run my hands through his hair or do something else that's stupid.

Can this lift go any slower?

"What about you?" He asks. "How's work?"

"It's good." I say. "I know that I was plannig on staying six months but I'm thinking of heading back home soon."