Us alone

‘Okay thanks for coming and good night,’ Linda said to David who was drunk and unwilling to leave, pushing him out and quickly closing the door, heaving a sigh of relief after doing so.

      Terence chortled at her actions.

‘What a party,’ he said, feeling a little awkward that they were now just the two of them in the messy living room. However, he had no choice― he had to find the letter before she did.  

‘Yah, I’m only glad that they didn’t wreck up the place the way my collage colleagues do,’ Linda said, pulling down the ‘welcome home Linda’ sign and putting it in the virtually empty huge bin in the corner. She carried the bin and carefully moved across the messy floor to switch off the radio on which some music was lowly playing. ‘I kind of hate parties because I always end up being the one to clean up after everyone is done,’ she added after switching it off.

‘I can’t believe you’re saying that about yourself because your looks suggest otherwise, you know,’ he unconsciously commented as he searchingly stared down, hoping to spot the white envelop somewhere.

‘Really? Am I that indecent looking?’ She asked, giving him an inquisitive stare.

‘Um… no, I didn’t mean it that way,’ he hesitated, suddenly caught unaware. ‘You’re…’

     ‘I’m what?’  

   ‘You’re a very wonderful looking person,’ he said, finally managing to construct a less romantic sentence. 

      She shortly gave him a vague glance and then started picking up the litter from the floor, putting it in the bin. 

      He quickly joined her.

      ‘You know, I find it strange that you and I have never had a one on one chat ever since I started collage, I’ve always felt that you’ve been avoiding me for some unknown reason,’ she said.

      ‘Have I?’ He alertly said, playing dumb. 

      She obscurely stared at him again, this time with a smile as amazing as her beauty.  

      ‘What?’ He asked, smiling back at her.

      ‘You’ve changed Terence,’ she said softly.

      An awkward silent moment followed.

‘Linda I hate you, you slut!’ Sara, her young sister, suddenly yelled from upstairs, disrupting things.

      Linda looked down with a slight smile, seeming a bit embarrassed by her sister’s behaviour.

      ‘Excuse me, I need to check on her,’ she said.

      ‘Okay,’ Terence said. 

      ‘You could leave if you wish, I don’t mind. I can manage to clean up alone,’ she said as she left.

      ‘No no, I want to stay, I’m glad to help. Besides, it’s not as if I live far,’ he said. 

      ‘Okay, I’ll be back in a minute,’ she smilingly said and left.

Immediately she was gone, he quickly began searching for his letter. He checked under the cushions, searched through the litter, and looked under the furniture but could not find it. 

   He tried to recall how he lost it but upon hearing her returning, he quickly pretended to be cleaning the furniture.

      ‘How’s she?’ He asked when she returned.

    ‘Lying drunk in bed,’ she said and then looked around. ‘What do you say we split tasks to tidy up quickly?’ She asked. 

   ‘Yah, that’s a good idea,’ he said. ‘Um, I’ll pick up the mess and remove the decorations, you put things back the way they should be since this is your home,’ he said, thinking that he rather had a better chance of finding his letter while picking up the mess than while organising the furniture. 

      ‘Okay,’ Linda agreed and they got to work.

He had his eyes everywhere as they cleaned up, but still, the letter was nowhere to be seen.

They worked for about forty-five minutes, doing about three-quarters of the work and decided to take a short break.

‘I need a drink, do you need a drink?’ Linda said, heading to the kitchen. 

‘No, I’m fine,’ Terence said, now concerned that despite doing all that cleaning, the letter still had not turned up. Soon they would be done, and if that happened, what reason was he going to give to stick around longer?

While returning, with a glass of juice, Linda switched on the radio― the song ‘the bear on two feet’ was playing.

‘Wow!’ She exclaimed. ‘Do you remember this song Terence?’ She asked, turning up the volume.

She took off her slippers, stood on her toes, and raising her hands in the air, began moving around quickly. 

Terence chuckled to see her do that.

‘Wow, fifth grade,’ he said, recalling. ‘The standing bear dance.’

‘The twinkle two!’ They exclaimed in unison.

She beckoned on him to join her.

He quickly removed his shoes and did.

They swiftly moved around merrily, standing on their toes with their hands in the air.

For a moment, Terence stopped thinking about the letter and truly enjoyed himself. 

‘Okay I think I’m done,’ Linda gaspingly said as she stopped and then sipped her juice.

Terence went on for a while and then stopped too.

‘That was exciting,’ he joyously said.

‘Yeah? Need a drink?’ She said, offering him her glass of juice.

He took it and sipped some.

Suddenly; his eyes were glued to hers. He turned off the radio and drew close to her. 

‘During the party I didn’t get to tell you this one on one; welcome home Linda,’ he said softly.

‘Thank you,’ she responded in a similar tone.

‘Linda I hate you!’ Sara suddenly yelled again.

‘Oh goodness,’ Linda said, groaning. ‘Sara shut up!’ she shouted and rushed up.

Terence quickly wore his shoes and began looking around for his letter again, knowing that this was likely his last chance to look around. 

While searching, he recalled that when he came in, he first met David who was behaving like a freak because he was already drunk. Then he met Sara who became very excited to see him and gave him a hug. She noticed the envelop in his pocket and asked what it was but he did not tell her. He chatted with her for a while and afterwards went to join Luke, Joe and Chris. While he chatted with them, two girls got into a fight, causing chaos. He and some other guys then brought the situation under control after which he discovered that the letter was gone. 

‘Are you looking for this?’ He suddenly heard Linda ask, disrupting him.

He saw her standing on the stairs with his letter. She looked neither happy nor upset.

  ‘So this is the reason you decided to stick around and help eh?’ She said as she came down. ‘It was with my sister and she’s pretty upset because she likes you,’ she added after getting down and handed it to him.

‘I can explain everything,’ he said, feeling ashamed. 

‘You don’t have to, I’ve already read your letter― you love me, you think I’m beautiful, and you hope that we could start dating,’ she said, now looking upset.

A sad silent moment followed.

‘You got what you wanted so I think you should go,’ she said and attempted to go and open the door for him but he caught her arm. 

‘Linda listen, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to lie to you or hurt your sister,’ he said, not sure what to apologise for.

‘Yah,’ she said, releasing her arm and went on to open the door. ‘Get out,’ she said without looking at him.  

He stared at her shortly and then humbly walked out feeling unsure on how to react. 

Contemplating on everything as he sadly began to head home, he wondered why women were so complicated to understand.

  Then suddenly realising that he had not made enough effort to make things right, he quickly turned back and went to knock on her door.

‘What?’ She said after opening the door. 

‘I’m here to apologise in the right way to you Linda,’ he earnestly said. ‘I know I lied and I apologise― I’m really sorry. All that I wanted was to give this letter to you in the right way because you’re a very special person to me. I guess I got carried away trying to do that and forgot that honesty is key in any friendship or relationship,’ he said and paused for a while. ‘If you gave me a chance, I would love to make it up to you by taking you out on a dinar date so that I could do things the right way,’ he said.

She smiled, staring in his his eyes.

‘How about we finish cleaning up and have a dinar date right here?’ she said, inviting him in. ‘The night’s still young and Sara is asleep now,’ she said.

‘Okay,’ he smilingly said, happy to be invited back in.

They finally finished cleaning up and set up a table for two where they had a romantic dinar date that same night.