Smudged

It stopped raining shortly after he dropped her at her place. The car stopped at a red signal. He starred out of the window at the almost empty road. The sky had begun to clear out. The wind was taking the clouds away. It was a bit chilly.

How can be someone so scary and scared at the same time? He thought to himself and smiled. The car behind him honked causing him to stop smiling and to focus on the road. He came out of his thoughts. “Sorry!” He waved his hand lightly out of the window and accelerated the car. He was going to Nora’s house now. He took out his phone and dialed her number. She picked up after the second ring.

“You have reached Nora’s voicemail. Unless it is extremely important that you’d die if you didn’t seek my expertise don’t say anything. Have a good night and let me have one as well.” She had her nose pressed between her fingers.

He rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Oui, madame.” He shook his head and continued, “I’ll be at your place in 10. Is that okay?” He heard her sigh on the other side.

“What? Why?”

“I’ll tell you in person.”

“Something happened?” She was concerned.

“Um, yeah… not really. I’m almost there.” He said and hung up the call.

Around ten minutes later he was sitting in her living room.

“So?” Nora asked. She was sitting in the chair on his right side. She had a cushion in her lap.

“I- uh…” He tried putting his words together. He hadn’t thought about it through much. He was only going to ask for some stuff. But how it got so difficult for him to do such a simple task he couldn’t get it. Nora was waiting for him to say something.

“What?” She loudly said.

“You have Penelope’s bag and a file in your car. I’m here to pick them up.” He finally said after a long pause. She frowned. “How can you tell?” He scratched his neck. “I- mean… I -uh… It was raining. And, uh – I dropped her. How could I have let her take the bus in weather like that?” He wasn’t even looking at her.

“She told me that she left her things in your car. Now, if you please give me those so I can go back to my home.” He finally moved his eyes from the floorboards to her face. She raised a brow at him. “Wait, wait, wait.” She was confused.

“You both were at the restaurant. And then you dropped her at her place. Then you came all the way here from there? Just because of some stupid file? And, you’d go from here to your place now?” She said with wide eyes, her hands up in the air.

“Uh- yeah…?” He chuckled nervously.

“You told her my house was on your way back home? Didn’t you?” She questioned. His palms were sweaty. “Mm-hm.” He slightly nodded. “Asshole!” She threw the cushion at him. “What?” He caught it.

“Last month I asked you to drop me when my car ran out of gas but you were being a sick dumb-fuck like you always are. You said my house is out of your way and went away so quickly that I didn’t even have a chance to follow you.” She was almost shouting.

His face color drained at seeing her like that. “Uh… Calm down.” He raised his hands up in surrender. “I’ll make that up for you. I’m very sorry. I had a really important meeting that day,” He swallowed. “Also, I had asked James to drop you.”

“You are still an asshole.” She huffed. “I’m sorry. I’m the worst. There’s no one out here worst than me.”

“Whatever… I’m not gonna give anything to you.” She paused for a moment and then smirked. “I’ll return them to her.” She crossed her legs and leaned back in her chair. She wasn’t looking at him.

“No!” He said too soon. “I- uh… I can give them to her. She has to do this… uh- really important thing. She must be worried. I promised her I’ll help her with that.”

She looked at his face. There were tiny sweat droplets on his forehead and he was actually pleading. She started laughing at him. “Oh gosh. Look at your adorable face. You look like you are going to collapse any moment if I said no to you one more time.” She fell back on the chair laughing.

“I- I…” He stuttered. His face turned red due to embarrassment. “Look at your face!” She clapped her hands.

“Stop laughing.” He was so embarrassed by her actions. “My poor baby.” She laughed and walked towards him. She ruffled his hair. “Hey.” He shoved her hand away. “Not my hair.” He ran a hand through his hair and tried adjusting them again. She shook her head and sighed. “I’ll be here in a minute.” She said and walked down the hallway towards the garage.

“Yes!” He whispered shouted in joy.

She came back in a moment, holding a bag and a file. She gave them to him and said, “You owe me now.” She put her hands on the side. He shook his head. “Yeah, whatever.”

“Hey, uh… can you give me her number…” He smiled sheepishly. He took out his phone and turned it on. "Why?" She folded her hands over her chest and smirked. "Well, you know... H- How else will I tell her I got her things? Oh, and I would have to call her tomorrow as well when I'll be at her place. To—uh… inform her." He kept fumbling and fidgeting.

"It's okay, Dame. You are such a love-sick puppy." She texted him the phone number. "Here, I've texted it to you. Stop being so stupid now."

"See you... at work?"

"Now go, dumbass!" She laughed again.

He put the car on the road. It was almost midnight. He smiled to himself as he thought about holding her hands. Her hands were so soft. It almost felt like the world break if were squeezed forcefully. And that how beautiful her eyes were. The perfect mix of brown. Her eyes were innocent and the moment he looked in them they were nothing but scared. He kept driving and driving, thinking about her. The car took a turn. It was a very quiet neighborhood. He slowed down and stopped in front of a house. It was big, not that big, but not small either. It was all black and grey.

He parked the car in the garage and entered the house. Through the garage, he walked down the hall and came out in the living room. It was very dimly lighted. It was all empty and dark inside. From where he was standing on the right side there was the front door and stairs just on his side. There were many couches, chairs, and three tables in the living room. On the right side of the front door, there was a guest bedroom.

In front of him, on the other side of the dining room was a door leading to the dining room and the kitchen. He walked leftward. There was another small hallway with two doors on the right side and two doors on the left side.

The first door on the left side was the bathroom. The other door led to the study room. There was a glass door at the end of the hallway on the front side. It was leading to the backyard. There was light coming through it. Both doors on the right side were bedrooms. He entered the first one.

Everything was grey, white, and black. There was a king-sized bed made of mahogany wood on the left with two side tables. The headboard was bigger than the usual size and there were silk sheets over the bed. A big leather couch across the room. An LED tv fixed inside the frame on the right wall and some paintings.

One painting was just smudged colors. There were green, blue, yellow, and, red blurring into each other at no specific points. The other was kind of a starry night. It had a black background that was fusing into the reddish-blue sunset sky. There were white dots, and strokes over it. They both were hanging above the LED.

Two grey coffee chairs beneath them. Their frames were made of the finest wood. A small table was placed between them. It had a black vase on it. On the left side of the bed, there was a walk-in closet and the bathroom. The bathroom, just like the bedroom, was grey, white, and black.

The lights flickered on his entrance. He placed the bag and the file on the table, plugged his phone, and walked inside the closet. He changed his clothes after a quick warm shower and went to bed. He kept laying there for God knows how many moments.

When he couldn’t sleep, he unplugged his cell phone from the charger and rolled over on his side. He moved his fingers on the keyboard. He wrote and deleted it. Wrote and deleted. Wrote again and deleted again. He couldn’t think of one appropriate text to send her. “Oh, God! When did it become so difficult to text someone? Damen had girlfriends when he was in college. Nothing serious.

In their office, Marissa had shown interest in him but he just could not think about her in that way. She tried so hard for him to fell for her. All sorts of tricks but Damen being Damen didn’t give in. Marissa, although, was very beautiful with her green alluring eyes, her brown locks, her perfect body shape, her attitude, everything. But even with everything she had failed to capture his eye.

James and Nora were well aware of this ‘wanna-bish’ relationship. They used to tease him every now and then by mentioning her name and saying silly things about them.

“Hi, it's Damen.”

He finally wrote and hit send. He kept starring at the single tick mark but it didn’t change to deliver. He sighed and tossed his phone on the other side of the bed. He put a pillow over his face and let out a muffled groan. He kept laying like that till he finally slept.

***