Hearts Beat In Warm Places

Four Beats

Everything was so painfully awkward Anthony found himself once again chastising his stupidity at accepting the damned invitation in the first place.

They were at a coffee shop not further from his apartment, tucked into a corner nursing each of their own mug of coffee's. The both of them settled to stay here instead of going to the woman's apartment when, a few minutes after she extended the invitation, she realized the implications it held and had hurriedly stuttered apologies and explanations to him.

Really, if he had his way, he would have gladly told her to postpone this for some other time and be on his merry way back home where he would formulate plans on how to evade her for the rest of his life. But when he told her this (the postpone part, not the planning one), his traitorous heart constricted at the sight of her disappointed expression.

Out of his better judgment, when his eyes landed on this particular shop, his mouth opened on their own occur and he suggested they stay here. He only realized his mistake a little too late and the beaming woman had already dragged him inside.

To make everything worse, the second he saw the smile back on the other's face, he found himself feeling elated.

Damnit, damnit, damnit! It was like his happiness already centered around this woman - and he doesn't even know her name yet!

Wait, what yet? No, no, no, no, no, yet! There will never be a yet. This is the last time they would meet.

"So you have yet to tell me your name." The woman said, smiling at him over the rim of her cup.

He stared at her.

Well shit, this woman clearly had other ideas - why couldn't his soul mate be ones of those females who had the same views as him on this soul mate business? It would certainly make their relationship (or lack of it) easier.

"Anthony Caste," he replied, taking a sip at his own mug of coffee.

"Anthony huh," the woman murmured, testing the way it rolled on her tongue.

Anthony smiled at the sound of his name on her voice. He liked it. He liked it very mu-

No, he immediately frowned when he realized where that trail of thought was leading, he does not like it.

"Nice to meet you, Anthony Caste. I'm Eleni Kouris." The woman - Eleni - said, a hand stretched for him to shake.

He accepted it and jolted slightly upright when he felt something that passed between their hands. He stole a glance at Eleni and found, much to the happy beating of his stupid heart (that he, of course, scolded), her smiling fondly at their joined hands.

So she felt it too then.

"Can I ask a question?" Anthony asked, taking his hand back.

His soul mate raised an eyebrow in reply, a smirk curving on her lips.

"I don't know... can you?"

He paused, staring at her in light shock.

Okay, he did not expect that. Sarcasm didn't seem to run on her veins. But well, guess you can't really judge a book by its cover. Now that just made him curious to what other surprises she has under her sleeve...

No you are not Anthony Caste! Remember man, this is the last time you're meeting her. LAST TIME.

Her chuckles snapped him back from his debate with his mind and he couldn't help but redden lightly.

He cleared his throat. "I hope you don't mind if I ask where you are from? I can't pinpoint it just by your looks."

"Oh," she exclaimed with a laugh that made Anthony's insides mushy. "I'm Greek. Although my family migrated here in the US when I was five."

God, she was Greek - his soul mate was not American! Really, and here he thought having a soul mate was bad enough - they just had to be one of those very rare interracial pairs!

His mom would probably love Eleni. No, not probably, she really would.

"Can you speak Greek? I've always been interested in other languages - European especially." True, just too bad he's not good at them. He failed his Spanish and French twice back in high school while he aced law and government, his most hated subject at that time.

Story of his life.  The things he likes actually hated him while the things he hates likes him.

That's probably why he has Eleni as his soul mate - he hates that thing while she likes it.

The Greek woman gave him an apologetic smile. "I did, a long time ago, but I already forgot it. And it wasn't like my parents and I speak Greek at home."

"That's too bad..." he murmured. Oh well.

"But if it means anything," she continued, "I can speak Turkish."

Anthony scrunched his forehead in confusion. "Why can you speak Turkish?"

She laughed at his reaction. He noticed she had a penchant for doing that often. "You see, my best friend was one and practically forced me to learn. We met in middle school and bonded over the fact that we seem to be the only students who were not American. Not true of course, that was only what we thought. But then again we were in middle school where everyone thought they were the center of the universe."

"Ahh," he said. More for the fact he couldn't think of saying anything more.

"Oh yeah," she exclaimed, burying her hands on her pocket and produced a phone. She handed it to him. "Your number please. As much as I would love to talk more with you, I need to go home. I have a needy cat that needs tending to. I'll introduce her to you one day!"

Warning bells rang on his mind and he was more than ready to bolt out of the place and never turn back - only for those plans to be thwarted when he looked at her smile. It was a normal smile, people would state, but not to him. That smile bolted him to his chair and made his arm move to accept the phone and punch in his number.

"That your cat?" Anthony asked as he handed the phone back to Eleni, indicating at the fat Persian cat on her wallpaper.

Eleni stared at her phone's wallpaper and smiled wistfully. "Yup! My darling Eleftheria."

"Elefta-Elete-Tera... what?" He stumbled over the name, completely confused.

She laughed at his blunder, embarrassing him further, and stood from her seat. "E-Lef-Ta-re--a."

"Why are Greek names so hard to pronounce?" He muttered under his breath, standing up from his seat and following after the Greek woman when she headed out of the store.

Eleni didn't comment further but laughed again.

The cold chill of the night seeped under Anthony's jacket the second they were back on the sidewalk. He paid it no mind and slipped his hands inside his pocket, turning to face his companion.

"So..." he trailed off, staring at those blue eyes. "It was nice to finally officially meet you."

He was replied by a smile and a nod. "Yup! Till next time?"

He nodded and before he could comprehend it, Eleni dropped a kiss on his cheeks. He froze. Eleni noticed his reaction and laughed one last time before she walked away.

He only snapped out of his shock when his phone began vibrating violently on his pocket. It was from an unknown number.

"Hello? This is Attorney Anthony Caste. How may I help you?" His standard greeting for unknown numbers, since they mostly are would-be clients.

The voice on the other side made his heart thud sharply.

"Attorney huh?" Eleni's happy voice floated on his ear. "Anyway, this is my number. Don't forget to save it, okay? I saved yours under the name 'soul mate' but I guess I have to change it to 'Attorney soul mate' now huh?"

He was tongue-tied he could only squeak - that immediately prompted a laugh from the woman on the other side.