I looked up at the banner of the shop where I was standing right now, Marco asked me to meet him again but this time at a different place, "Cherry on top". It was the best ice cream parlour in our city and as far as I could remember, I have been going there since I was a kid and I still do. Since it was close to our school, me and Marco, used to come here and sit for hours. If I could name it then after Felicita, this could be our place. We had spent a huge amount of time here together. I entered and looked for him and found him sitting on the left corner of the window from where you could see the busy street, people walking here and there lost in their little worlds. We always sat there. It was our favourite spot. He saw me and waved. I entered and sat in front of him. When I looked at him and found him smirking at me, I lowered my gaze feeling slightly embarrassed.
"C'mon! Talk to me, Why are you looking down? Or are you still not over yesterday?" He emphasised more on his last line. The amusement in his voice was so evident at that time
Despite how right he was but I couldn't let him have the satisfaction of winning over me. Never. I looked up at him,
"I hardly remember what happened yesterday, I was just looking at the menu card to order." I tried to sound confident but honestly, it was just dumb luck that I found that menu card on the table at that moment
"Sure!" He looked amused with my answer
"Why did you ask me to meet today?" I asked
"It felt like I haven't seen you for an eternity."
"We met yesterday."
"And from yesterday to tomorrow, not only the word changed but many hours and seconds have passed by. Do you realise how long time it has been!"
"Really? If you cannot live without me mere hours apart how would you live for 3 years or possibly more?"
"I don't know, I don't think about it now." I looked up at him again and there were sadness on his face but the moment he realised I noticed he changed his expressions in a few seconds.
"Geez! You're so cheesy sometimes." I tried to laugh it off because this was the conversation we both weren't ready to have yet
He laughed too, masking his emotions with his high pitched laughter.
We both ordered our flavours and ate quietly. I decided to break the ice,
"What is it?"
He raised his left brow in a questioning way.
"There is something you want to tell me but you are very confused if you should or you shouldn't. Am I right?" I said gulping the spoon full of my simple strawberry ice cream inside my mouth
He chuckled, "When did you get so smart?"
I laughed.
He continued, "umm yes! I did want to tell you something that's why I asked you to come. Well!!! It's a story." He paused for a second and proceeded, " Our story." His eyes shined so brightly there
"About us?"
He nodded.
"What are waiting for, please tell."
"This place holds a special place in my heart." He said looking down at his mint choco
"Why?" I asked
"Just like that park where we met yesterday is the place where we met first, the same way this is the place where we became friends." He smiled
"Here? I mean I do remember that us coming here for a long time but this is where we became friends? Wasn't the friendship happened at that park ?"
"That was just how we met first. It has nothing to do with us being friends." He smiled
"Okay. So, tell me how we became friends, Mr Lambert. "
He kept silent for a few seconds before proceeding,
"We came here with our families together, maybe to catch up or whatever. I'm not entirely sure of this."
I nodded.
"I remembered your push a day before so I wasn't talking to you but you kept trying your annoying ways to talk." He tried making a cringed expression but changed it when I smacked his hand very hard,
"You dare call me annoying."
"Why do you get so worked up over something that happened years ago." He glared at me while rubbing his other hand over the hand I hit before
"It was just a minor reaction." I kind of always regrets my rash reactions
"Amazing. Now im not telling you anything at all." He rolled his eyes
"Don't do this to me. Okay. I will give my ice cream to you too. Will that be okay?" I pleaded to him
He denied.
"I will pay for both of us." I offered again
He denied it again.
"I will pay for us every day."
He ignored me and started to look outside.
I didn't know what to do. I knew he wasn't hurt but he was just teasing me but also if I let it slide he also wouldn't tell me anything and leave just like that. I was desperate to persuade him then an idea came to my head.
I pulled my chair closer to the table to get a little closer to him and snatched the phone out of his hand to which he gave me a confused look. I took his other hand and bend a little to softly kiss the same place where I hit him minutes before.
"I hope this makes it a little better." I kissed his hand again
He was about to say something but stopped.
"You got me there." He said was laughingly. He was a little shy because I could see his ears getting reddened
I gave him the most innocent smile that I could.
"Okay okay I will continue just don't kill me with your cuteness"
Fuck! Did he just call me cute? I tried not to think about it. But the more I tried not to react, the more I could feel my heart fluttering. Everything seem to fade out my mind was going back to just one word. Cute. He called me cute. I didn't know why but every compliment I ever heard, felt a lot smaller than his just one word 'cute'. I assume it's not about the words but the person who says them.
"Are you okay?" He pulled me out from my thoughts and I nodded
"Where was I oh yes, you being annoying." He grinned again looking at me but I chose to ignore him. He continued, "After successfully ignoring you when we all were leaving together." He stopped for a second and smiled at me and started speaking again, "There were kittens outside the Cherry on top and you asked your dad to give you something and you took that and fed those kittens. That's exactly where I thought she could be my friend because not only do I like kittens but I also used to feed them wherever I saw them."
I didn't know what to say so all did was smile. I was astonished to see how he remembers everything like it happened just tomorrow. I mean, I knew things we things together but I didn't remember things in as detail as he did. I looked at him to not my even surprise anymore, he was looking at me too, maybe trying to read my emotions. Ever since we met again and he kept asking me to meet these places with all these childhood stories, I wonder how long he had kept it inside all of these. The more I thought about it the more I felt guilty.
"I hope you had better approached me next" I said
He laughed.
"The same evening I came to your place with my toys to play with you. And this was how we became friends" he smiled. There was something so striking about his smile. I couldn't help but notice how beautiful he looked while smiling like it was a part of him, his smile. He made the entire place lit up with his pure smile, even my heart too.
"Can I ask something?" I asked
"Since when you started asking for my permission." He said jokingly
"How do you do this?"
"Do what?" He raised a brow
"Remember everything so vividly, as it happened only yesterday." I looked at his gorgeous face trying to analyze his changed expressions
He sighed and looked into my eyes in a way I couldn't comprehend,
"Because I have always felt more alive when you were with me and I could give my all just to live those moments again and again in life."
After saying that he simply picked his phone and started to go through it as if just minutes ago he didn't make my heart race with those words which he said with such ease.
We laughed. We talked. And we kept talking about the next few hours. When we were leaving and about to go on our separate ways I pulled him by his hand and he raised his left brow in a questioning way.
"Just because I don't remember things like you do, don't think that all of it mattered any less to me."
He left my hand and before I could comprehend what happened, he pulled me closer and tightly wrapped his hands around my shoulders. I also did the same.
"You can't stop to overthink everything, do you." He said while holding me close enough to him that I could really spend my whole life standing this close to hear his heartbeat all day long.
He broke the hug but still stood close. His face came a little closer to mine. My heart started to beat faster than before and I looked at him. He stayed like that for a few seconds, gave me a warm smile and kissed me on my cheek and left.
When I was going back home, I kept thinking about the new details he gave me today but mostly how different I felt when he hugged me today. It wasn't our first time, we always used to hug each other but today it felt different. Not today, everything we did now feels so new and fresh despite we have always been the same. I kept walking thinking about him and wondering about us.