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When I first saw Zachary, he was
reading a book on Egyptian Mythology. I knew it was a book on
Egyptian Mythology, because of the pictures on the front was an
Egyptian in a loincloth with a dogs head. Maybe it wasn’t a loin
cloth as such, but it wasn’t trousers or shorts or anything like
that.
Zachary was sitting at a table in
the café where I worked. He had walked in with a girl and they had
chosen to sit at a table near the window. She had talked to him for
at least ten minutes non stop. Then she stood up abruptly and
walked out. I knew that they hadn’t had an argument because I had
been closely watching the pair for those whole ten minutes. She
talked and he opened the book. She talked and he read. She talked
and he seemingly ignored her. Then she stood and stormed out and he
didn’t appear to have noticed her leave.
I watched as this whole scene
played out from behind the counter of the Mocha Arms. At that
point, I didn’t know if he was going to leave and follow her or what
he was going to do. Suddenly, Zachary looked up as if he was
looking for the girl. He turned his head this way and that before
he noticed me watching him.
I smiled at him and he smiled
back. That was when I decided that I should do my job and see if he
needed anything. I straightened my shoulders, picked up my order
pad and pen and headed towards his table.
“Good morning,” I asked brightly.
“Can I help you?” That was when I noticed Zachary’s amazing eyes.
I had never seen anyone with eyes that shade of blue. Granted, I
don’t often go around looking at everyone’s eyes, but there was
something about his eyes and the way he looked at me.
“Yes,” he started, “Did you see
the girl I came in with? Is she in the bathroom, do you think?”
Obviously Zachary had no idea that she had stormed out and left him
alone in the café.
“I think she left,” I nodded
towards the door. “She didn’t look very happy.”
“Oh.” Zachary replied as if he was
confused.
“Yeah.” I didn’t know what else to
say to him. I expected Zachary to get up and leave to find her.
“Well, can I have a hot chocolate
please?” he asked as he closed the book and rested his hands upon
it.
“You don’t want to go and find
your girlfriend?” I thought that maybe he needed a bit of
permission to leave and find her. “She might want you to chase
after her. Girls like that.” I tried to sound like I knew what I
was talking about because I’d seen it on the telly.
“She isn’t my girlfriend, she’s my
sister.” He rolled his eyes. “Girls can be so…” he made some sort
of strange flicking hand movement as he tried to find a word to
finish off that sentence.
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” I
agreed, grinning.
“My name is Zach by the way, but
everyone calls me Zachary,” he held out a hand to introduce
himself.
I reached out and took his hand
shaking it, “I’m Mark, but everyone calls me Mark.”
Zachary smiled and nodded before
asking, “Can I get marshmallows in that hot chocolate, Mark?”
“Yeah, sure,” I noted it down and
out of the corner of my eye I could see Zachary grinning at me.
Looking back up, I asked, “Anything else?”
“Um, yeah,” I could swear that the
tips of his ears had turned pink. Maybe they had been pink all
along and I hadn’t noticed. Slowly a flush went across Zachary’s
cheeks and he bit his lip. “Wouldyouliketogooutwithmesometime?” His
question came out in a rush and I had to stop and decipher it to
understand what he was asking.
“Sorry… What?” I asked at the
non-sequitor.
“I was asking you out. On a
date. Maybe to the pub, or the movies. You know, out.” All the
while he spoke, the pink in his cheeks spread across his whole face.
I stood stunned. It was the last
thing I had expected him to say and I must have been standing there
with my mouth open.
“Well, if you don’t want to,
that’s okay.” Zachary gathered the book in his hand and I knew he
was about to leave if I didn’t say something.
“Yes.” I said before clarifying.
“Yes I would really like that.”
“Great.” He relaxed into his
seat.
“Great,” I repeated. I must have
been grinning like a loon.
“Ummm,” he interrupted my
thoughts, “Mark, can you make my order ‘two hot chocolates’
please?”
“Two? Sure. Are you thirsty?” I
teased as I changed the number one into a number two on my order
pad.
“The other one is for my sister.”
He stood and waved through the window. To my astonishment, the girl
who had stormed out a little while ago, sheepishly walked back in
and stood besides Zachary. “Mark, this is Jan. Jan, meet Mark” he
politely motioned to each of us in turn.
I must have looked confused and my
question came out a little rougher than I had planned. “What the
hell is going on here?” I was starting to worry that they were
playing a joke on me. And it wasn’t funny at all.
“Please don’t be mad at Zachary,
Mark” Jan started to plead, “This was all my idea.” She visibly
took a deep breath before continuing. “I knew that Zach had seen
you a few times, when he came in here, but he was too nervous to say
anything. I made a deal with him, that I would only come in here
today if he talked to you.”
I ran a hand through my hair. I
wasn’t sure what to say next. “Well, he didn’t just only talk to
me, Jan. Your brother asked me out of a date.”
“Really?” Jan grinned. Right at
that moment, the look on her face reminded me of a cartoon drawing I
had seen of the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. “I just
thought he wanted to say hello to you, not ask you out on a date. I
had no idea!” She continued on and I wasn’t sure if she had taken
another breath.
“I really don’t think Zachary is
as shy as you make out.” I retorted crossing my arms.
“Mark, if you don’t want to go out
with me after this, it’s okay.” Zachary interjected.
Zachary’s statement took some of
the fight out of me and I turned my thoughts back onto him. I
really did want to get to know him better, but I also was thinking
that he must have been hurt badly in the past if he needed his
sister to give him courage. I mentally noted that it was the second
time that he had expected me to reject him. “Zach, I still want to
go out with you, okay?” I tried to smile to reassure him. “Just
not with your sister too.”
“Definitely without my sister.”
he agreed.
“Hey!” Jan pretended to sound
offended as she tried to elbow Zachary in the ribs.
“No offence meant.” I smirked at
her as best I could.
“All offences taken.” She smirked
back.
“Okay. You two sit down and I
will get you your drinks,” I walked around the table and stood next
to Zachary. I lowered my voice so that he was the only one who
could hear me. “I finish in an hour. How about you meet me back
here and we decide where we’ll go for our date.” He nodded in
agreement before sitting next to his sister.
That was the first time I saw
Zachary. The second time I saw him was when he was waiting out the
front of the Mocha Arms as I was finishing my shift for the day.
Sometimes it’s hard for me to believe that we have
only been together for thirteen years. It feels somehow that we
have been together forever. But every time I look into Zachary’s
amazing blue eyes, it feels like the first time all over again.
I hope you enjoyed this story.
Feel free to leave a comment in my forum.
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