Steemit Challenge s28wk6: Unexpected Chat's True Twist
The chime of the bell on the door of the cafe had wakened Antony with a mild shock, as he stepped out of the cafe and the cool evening air bent his cheeks. The lights in the mall sparkled over the car park and Tina walked down beside him with her calm yet weirdly exciting presence. Antony was lightheaded, which was unusual with him, who typically counted the words and did not want to talk too much.
The time had passed unconsciously, moved by laughter, anecdotes, interruptions that were not clumsy but natural. This was wonderful, Antony said, at last, as they pulled up before her car, and his voice faltered and was earnest.
Tina smiled and she squeezed his hand and looked directly into his eyes. “Let’s do dinner next week? There is a place where I know there is the best food.
They embraced close, and she drove off and Antony lingered there longer than she needed to re-experience the scene, reliving it a hundred times. He was so glad when he was home with a smile, which he could not control, as he asked for something to drink like coffee and it turned out to be something that touched his heart.
Sleep was not that night to be. His mind was busy with every bit of their conversation: how Tina had so easily lent him her ears, how she had so easily laughed, how much it appeared she had been interested in his life. In the morning there was excitement and doubt. Perhaps he was reading between the lines. It was, perhaps, merely a nice evening.
Nevertheless, there was a part of him that told him that this was not normal. Three days afterwards a message was received on his phone.
Tina: “Hi Antony. Will you mind my asking a question? Do you think that a conversation can alter somebody in his or her life?"
He looked a long time through the screen and then answered.
Antony: “Yes. I believe that we have conversations at the right time when we are not planning them."
A pause followed. Then her reply came.
Tina: “Good. Dinner is still on. Yet, I have not told you everything."
All that week he kept that sentence in his mind and was quietly fussing with curiosity and concern.
Tina appeared different when they met at the restaurant calmer, though more serious. Then she laid her hands on the table and shook slowly as she took a breath after they ordered.
“I need to be honest,” she began. The shop where I work with clothes is not my dream. It’s just a stop. I learned about digital marketing but was paralysed by fear. I am talking to customers all day long, yet I was evading my own life.
Antony was listening, and was oddly connected. Her language was the reflection of his own plight. He informed her that he worked freelance in designing, that he had ideas locked in his notebooks and that he waited all the time until there was the right time but it never came.
"Well," Tina, said to herself, "what if we quit waiting? What happens to us, we finish what we talk about?"
Everything we changed the word.
What began as a light dinner turned to be hours of planning. They exchanged thoughts, questions and opportunities. It had no dramatic promise, no sudden romance merely two individuals refusing to be truthful to fright.
Antony awoke that night to find out that this was not love at first sight. It was encountering a person who questioned his indecision.
Weeks turned into months. Dating over coffee took the place of working. Night time conversations became strategic plans and web pages.
The two started small with a brand on the Internet with Tina doing the marketing and outreach and Antony doing the visuals and designs. It wasn’t easy. Rejection and frustration occurred some days. Other days came along with little victories that were gigantic.
They argued sometimes. They themselves were not very sure. Yet they never did cease talking.
It was one rainy evening when they had their first profitable month and they went back to the same cafe at the mall. When they stepped inside the same bell went on, but it was different now.
Tina shook her drink and contemplated Antony. I had imagined that that was a day of attraction, I had thought, she said.
He smiled. “So did I.”
“But it wasn’t,” she continued. “It was about being seen. You listened. You didn’t rush me. That changed something for me.”
Antony brought in her hand, and a comprehension came softening his heart. Love didn’t arrive loudly. It was cultivated in silence, based on trust, and influenced by mutual risks and sincere discussions.
When they went out into the rain there was no great declaration, no great denouement.
Nothing more than two individuals who had met accidentally, talked straight to the heart, and left one casual conversation to bend their lives into something interesting, courageous and true.
I invite @josepha, @stef1 and @mikitaly to drop a very constructive comments on this post and also to participate in this contest.
Hello @adese, thank you so much for taking part in Steemit Challenge Season 28 Week-6. I truly appreciate the time and creativity you put into your entry. Your assessment, including feedback and scores based on my evaluation criteria is provided below: