We walked in silence down the block. Under a streetlight, I realized that our hands were still clasped together. I didn’t make a move to do anything about it. Instead, I stared ahead, lo0king at the ivy covered brick wall that was hosting a sign for some local deli, advertising fresh vegetables on their sandwiches. Mia hummed, and gripped my hand a little tighter. Her hands, so slender and smooth, fit nicely interlocked in my own, larger and wrapping around her hand. My thumb subconsciously kept moving in reassuring circles along the back of her hand. She squeezed a little harder.

“I suppose you would want to hear the reason why I didn’t show up yesterday?” she broke through the silence and my thoughts.

“Honestly Mia, this is nice. I really don’t want to hear why. It would only make me sad, yea? And I’m not a huge fan of being sad. I don’t like that. I’d much rather be happy and enjoy the moment,” I countered.

“But” Mia began, stretching out her words, as she turned to face me, the floral skirt gently rolling in the light breeze that came rolling down along the city avenue. “You still ought to know.”

Ok, fine. If she felt so strongly that she should tell me, I would let her. So I turned to face her as well.  I stared into her eyes, using my slight height differential to the most of its advantage. She looked back up at me.

“I got caught in a meeting with the worst person in the world,” she said, in the most conversational tone you would ever hear from a girl who stood you up, despite 4 weeks of flirting across public transit and local watering holes.

“That’s it?” I was pretty damned confused. “You brought me out of Harry’s where I got a free drink, which never happens, to say that you missed our date because you got, and I quote: ‘caught up,’” dropping my air quotations, ‘in a meeting’ I hissed, dropping the register of my voice to a frighteningly low level. “You will just have to do better than that Mia,” I began.

She cut me off there, her willingness to argue coming through, her eyes sharpening towards me. “Understand this, Jay, that I did want to come. I tried to get there on time. But by the time I got to Harry’s at 8:45, you were gone. Now you can listen to why I got caught or you can leave,” she retorted.

I grunted in acknowledgement of her statement, but didn’t make a move to leave.

“That’s what I thought,” Mia replied smugly, tightening her intertwining grip in my hands. “This man was simply awful. He would catch me and just wouldn’t let me escape. Then, he would put his hand on my shoulder to refuse to let me move at all,” I frowned. This sounded vaguely rapey

‘He did what?” I cut in

“Don’t worry too much, it happens a lot,” she said nonchalant.

“But it’s not ok! He was harassing you! That isn’t appropriate at all!” I sputtered.  And she damn laughed at me.

“That’s one more thing I like about you, you get all passionate and incoherent. It looks good on you,” she chimed. And with that she moved closer to me, right in my side, smiling, closing her eyes gently. It felt rather nice.

“Well that’s one thing. So this guy is the reason that you couldn’t show up?” I questioned. “Well, it only added to the terror that was my daily existence.” I added in.

“You need to relax. You sound like some emo kid who has just discovered the works of Tim Burton and Edgar Allen Poe,” Mia scoffed attractively. I didn’t even know you could do that, scoffing attractively. This girl was unbelievable. “But I doubt it was that bad. I mean, you got to work in a fancy building in the middle of the city. If you could ever escape from your cubicle, I bet you have a great view of the entire city. Imagine that, the whole city right there,” she threw her hand not attaché to mine out in front of her. “Right at your fingertips,”a smile tugged at my lips but was quickly shot down.

“I suppose. But it really isn’t that interesting. Corporate life is rather dull. Money is average. Hours are rather boring. It’s a job, which I’m glad to have in this economy, but it’s not the thing that keeps me motivated to get out of bed in the morning,” She grinned.

“I hope that the reason is me,” cheeky girl. I couldn’t help my smile here.

“Dunno, I was pretty sad yesterday, but things are looking better now,” I nudged her in the shoulder. In return, she squeezed my hand tightly, in an attempt to crush it. It wasn’t working, but it certainly was cute to watch. Each action she took drew me in a little deeper into her.

“You hush. But it seems so interesting. You do fancy corporate stuff. I don’t get to do that in my job, not at all,” she said, still leading me down the concrete jungle.

“You never told me,” I interjected in a hope to shape the conversation, “where it is you work. Or what you even do for that matter.”

“Oh, it’s nothing super cool like yours, I just work in a book store. Its right by the park’s main entrance,” she said, quickly. “It’s a nice, peaceful job.”

“So what’s the endgame for that?”

“Why does there need to be an endgame? Can’t something be done, just to be done?”

“Makes it rather pointless then, huh?”

“You always have an endgame?” Mia asked of me, spinning to face me. She stopped and put her hand in front of her to stop me as well.

“It’s what I do, darling. I work to the endgame. Each thing I do builds to the final goal.”

“So what’s the so called ‘final goal’ then?”

“I don’t know if you are ready to find that out darling,” I drawled out.

“Cheeky, but you don’t get to call me darling.”

“Why not?”

“Haven’t earned it.”

“How do I do that?”

“Figure it out. Though, telling me that endgame of yours might help.”

“Maybe, but you have to earn that,” I responded. Mia, pulled the still intertwined hands up, drawing us close together. She wrapped her free hand above my neck, and moved her head forward. Her hair fell over her face. I moved a delicate strand to display her face, which glowed. She leaned in. I reciprocated. My eyes fluttered shut. I felt Mia move her delicate lips right up to the shell of my ear and whisper

“This a good way to start?”

Suddenly, her warmth was ripped away from me. I jerked open my eyes. And Mia was out 2 meters in front of me, staring at me as I tried to regain my bearings.

“Yea, that was a good way to start. Care to finish it?” I quipped. Mia just laughed that god damn sexy laugh and ran away, her hair bouncing over her shoulder.

I couldn’t help it.  I grinned and chased after her.