Love Letters

Love Letters (Part 37)

‘He sounds lovely Jem, is he good looking?’

I shook my head, ‘I haven’t seen what he looks like, and he doesn’t know what I look like either.’

‘But you still love him?’

‘I think I do. It doesn’t matter what he looks like, I just know his personality is beautiful.’

‘That’s so cheesy it’s almost mozzarella Jem, aren’t you in the slightest bit intrigued? I mean, you’ve got to be at least a little bit attracted to the person you love.’

‘It’s not about the looks, it’s about the-’

‘Yeah, I know, but spare a thought for those people who have ugly personalities; they deserve to be loved too.’

I laughed, ‘only you would say something like that.’

‘I’m looking out for everyone.’ Charlie replied, smiling broadly before her mouth widened in surprise and she grabbed my arm to stop herself from falling as she tripped over a stray pair of trainers.

‘What the hell?’ I muttered as I bent over to pick the trainers up, they looked fairly new and looked like the expensive kind too. I looked around but saw no one who was walking around barefoot so I dropped them back onto the gravel.

‘Careful!’ Someone called from the balcony above. I shielded my eyes from the sun and tried to find the owner of the trainers; someone grinned at Charlie and me and bounded down the iron stairs to reclaim his shoes, wearing black socks with white polka dots.

Sam.

‘Can I have those back?’ He asked, gesturing to the trainers on the floor and I made way for him to access them. I hadn’t realised before now that he had a faint accent, I think it was American. He bent down to pick them up but before he could do so Charlie grabbed them and started sprinting. Sam and I looked at each other and then at Charlie.

‘You can have them if you can catch me Sam!’ She screamed over her shoulder.

Sam turned back to me and then started jogging towards Charlie, a few paces away, he called to me. ‘Well, come on then!’

Reluctantly I trawled after the pair of them, I was not made for running, I hadn’t run in well over a year and almost a hundred yards later I was gasping for breath. Obviously, I was in dire need of more exercise in my life.

He finally caught Charlie and tackled her to the ground, pulling at the trainers. He pulled one of them off her and flung it at me, ‘’quick, don’t let her take it back!’ He bellowed and then the pair of them became more vicious and wrestled with the trainer until Sam repossessed it.

It was awkward standing there watching them since Charlie was better acquainted with Sam than I was and I stood watching like a passer-by.

When Charlie finally sorted herself out, I pulled out a few pieces of stray grass from her hair and she turned to Sam.

‘This is Sam; he’s my ex-boyfriend’s best-friend, which isn’t as weird as it sounds.’ She said, introducing me to the boy she'd just attacked.

‘Hey, thanks for the holding those for me J.’ He said and reached over and plucked his shoes out of my hands.

‘J?’ I asked, watching him cautiously.

‘Yeah, your charm.’ He said, nodding at my wrist. Well obviously, how else would he have known?

'You can call me Jem.' I said, smiling.

‘Sam is very much single.’ Charlie butted in and winked at me slyly.

Clearly everything I’d just said about Tyler had been forgotten.