Chapter 32

Brock and Melissa walk down the street. Sully and Storm slightly out in front of them. Sniffing at all the new smells occasionally lifting their legs on the lampposts which bring the couple to a stop, only for them to carry on, after a few seconds of the dogs deciding that the smell is not worth following up.

There is a comfortable silence between them, as they pass nicely decorated houses and now closed stores, it’s only broken when Brock tells Melissa about certain things that happened in specific places.

“This is where I broke my leg when i was 15.” Brock said pointing at a plaza that had a statue of a unicorn in bronze, rearing up, on a plinth, surrounding it is stairs that lead down to a fountain, and railings.

Brock continued on “I was a bit of a skater when I was younger. And I was trying to do an Ollie, and instead I fell, landing on my leg. It snapped in two places. I was in plaster for 8 weeks.” He chuckled at the memory.

They walked a bit further “Oh this used to be where Mrs Muggeridges cat used to hiss at us. When we were young we used to throw pebbles at it. It was a horrible thing. You only had to walk past it and it would scratch you.”

They enter the park, there are a small smattering of people all round all walking their dogs or going home from work.

The park is mainly open, with bright lights all round its very well lit, lots of green grass which now has white tips where it looks like it’s had the touch of a frost.

The dogs start to pull, they are desperate to try and find friends in the park. But Melissa doesn’t let either of them off the lead. Although she knows that Storm and Sully are dog friendly, she’s not so sure about other dogs.

Keeping them on the lead they do a full circuit where Melissa learns at the bottom of the hill is a children’s playground, as they walk back up the path, and past a frozen stream, to get back onto the circuit they walk up onto a little wooden bridge. Brock says “This is where Blake and I discovered the meaning behind the name of our town. We were on a field trip and Blake....” Brock looks at Melissa as he talking animatedly and when he mentions Blake’s name he sees Melissa visibly wince.

“Oh god. I’m sorry Melissa. I’m sorry for the way my brother treated you.” He said as they both came to a stop, little lanterns dug into the ground, lit up the stream, it was a beautiful sight. The dogs sit down for a minute, all the pulling they did has made them out of breath.

Brock continues speaking “You didn’t deserve to be treated like that.” Melissa turns away staring far off into the distance as if looking at something tiny on the horizon, then she said “I just wished he’d said something, instead he ghosted me.”

Brock looks at Melissa for what seems like an age, after about five minutes he holds her arm turning her to face him, “I can’t change what he’s done, but I can help you move on. Melissa I. I’m developing feelings for you, I really like you, I tried hard not too, I never set out to do so, I just wanted us to be friends, I believe that I should be honest. I really like you. And if it’s something you want we could give it a go between us, if you can’t because of the hurt you’re going through I understand, I just want to see you smile, especially the way you smile at me, when we’re watching a movie, or you’re eating ice cream, and saving none for me.” This brought a smile to Melissa’s lips. “That’s it. That’s the smile I want to see, to me it’s brighter than the sun, when you walk into a room I don’t see anything or anyone else.” As he finishes his declaration of love, a snowflake lands in Melissa’s hair, but neither of them see it. He looks into her eyes.

It’s like he can see right into her soul, Melissa tries to look anywhere else, tries to pull away from his loving gaze, it’s at that moment she realised she can’t. “Brock, thank you for telling me how you feel. And I will be honest too. Because you deserve that. At first I was happy to have found a friend in you. We like the same things, we have similar interests. As we started to get closer, I tried to stop thinking about you, but the more I did the harder it became, I tried to stop myself for developing feelings for you. Now standing here with this beautiful scenery, and you being honest I have to stop denying how I feel, I want to take a chance on you, on us, because if I don’t, I will look back and always wonder what if?” She looks back deep into his eyes, and then both of them move closer, before he puts his hand on her face, cupping her jaw, stroking her cheek with his free hand, gently and softly he brings his lips to hers in a sweet kiss.

As they break apart, their foreheads touch, and they both smile, looking at each other, wrapped up in their own little world as the snow falls around them.

Brock comes to the realisation as they both start to go cold. “We’d better be getting back, or Mom will send out a search party.”

Just as they’re about to walk off the little wooden bridge the dogs stand suddenly, noticing a little squirrel hopping close by the dogs zoom off after it pulling Melissa and Brock with them. “I think the dogs have other plans Brock” Melissa says squealing with laughter, the dogs barking as the squirrel disappears off up a tree, once the squirrel was confirmed dead (up a tree away from the big barking machines and the even bigger humans) they walk back to the house. Holding out his hand Melissa puts her gloved one into it. And they walk back the whole way holding hands. No talking, just happiness and contentment.

Brock turns to Melissa just before they reach the house “Melissa, do you want to tell my family about us? Or would you rather wait?”

Melissa fidgeted “Do you mind if we don’t tell them yet?” Brock fully understood where she was coming from. She wanted to get used to them as a couple first, before involving his relatives. Giving her a quick kiss on the cheek they walk towards the house dropping their hands at the last minute.

Little did either of the couple know they were being watched by the same car who had been following Melissa that very morning