Chapter 10
Francy's p.o.v
We found a convenience store and I grabbed a croissant and chocolate milk right off the shelf.
"That is not real food." He walked over, taking the chocolate milk out of my hand. "Really?"
"It's not like I have the taste buds of a five-year-old. I just have the wallet of a grounded teen."
He laughed and gave me back the chocolate milk. "I'll pay. Just pick what you want."
"You work?" I raised my brow.
"I don't have a monthly allowance so I have to work. And I get paid well. So just enjoy today on me."
"Well then." I smiled and picked up another chocolate milk. "How about since you're paying, you leave me with the food choice and blame the ridiculous extras you're about to eat, on me."
"As long as we don't buy anything with caramel. I hate it." He made a disgusted face that made me laugh.
"Okay, okay."
"So why don't you get allowance?"
"I live alone.. And I'm stopping there because you're threading around the personal information line."
Tck. I just learned something interesting and I can't ask more. Oh well.
I picked up some things and we went to the checkout.
"Oh look at these." I grabbed a bubble blower.
"I haven't seen one in years." He leaned over me and I froze in place.
Each time he got close I felt like the air around me vanished.
"Let's take those." He said and added them to the counter.
We found a small park and sat down on each side of the wooden bench and table. There was a fountain next to us that was covered with golden leaves. Now that I see it dry and covered with the fallen leaves it feels like October.
I passed him a cold sandwich and took mine.
"What um..." I hesitated to ask. I didn't want to sound stupid. "What is the most beautiful place you've ever seen in your life?"
He took a bite out of his sandwich. I could see the tip of his nose getting red from the cold.
"I've never been somewhere nice so I don't know."
I took a bite as well, a bit embarrassed that I even asked that question.
"I can tell you that I want to go to France though." He said, taking another bite and watching around the park. "I want to go to these little villages that are hidden and no one knows about them and the people there will give you a side-eye if they hear you talking a language other than French."
I laughed. "That sounds like the perfect place to travel to."
He smiled and finished his sandwich in three more bites.
I looked at mine that was barely started. I guess guys are a bit different from girls. I took bigger bites hoping to finish the sandwich faster.
He took the chocolate milk out of the bag and poked the straw through one of them handing it to me.
I nodded my head as a thank you and gulped down the food I had stuffed in my cheeks.
He chuckled watching me struggle.
Great just great. I'm either a slow girly eater or a pig.
"Do you have any place you want to travel to?" He asked me.
"Everywhere. Cities, villages...Anywhere far." I answered, finishing my sandwich. "I feel like before tying myself in one place I want to see what's out there."
"What about your parents? Do they know about these ambitions of yours?" He asked quietly.
I took a sip of the milk. The sweetness was perfect. "They do and they don't. I don't think they want to pressure me to do anything, but they are also worried since I don't ever show interest in other things other than making my room and clothes aesthetic. With my crazy brothers, I look rather average. I feel average."
As the words left my mouth I regretted it. Now I sound like I don't have any confidence at all.
"What is average really? We're all average." He said
I smiled and eventually had to laugh.
"What?" Now he was confused.
"If you knew how nervous these silences make me."
"You're nervous?" He asked and then moved over to my side and sat next to me. "hm?"
I tensed up and nodded my head. "Very nervous."
"Do I make you nervous?" He asked leaning in.
I looked away hoping I can change the subject. I opened a pack of gummies. "Even geniuses are average at something."
"Sure but, some people just do better in life. They are smarter and prettier or wilder and more creative." I said finishing my milk and leaning over to take a gummy.
"No see, that's what the world wants you to think. It's all about timing. When you feel like someone is doing better than you in something it's just that you didn't reach your timing in being special in something else. It's silly but, the way things are timed I think has a lot to do with how the world works and how we make decisions."
I leaned my elbows on the table and rested my head over my hands. "I never saw it that way. Sometimes I want to leave things alone and not overthink because there are things you don't have control over. But also I want to think about things and wreck my brain over how something is...is that..do you understand where I'm going with this?" I asked, seeing his serious face.
He leaned over. "It makes perfect sense to me."
We stayed silent like that for a while and then he chuckled out of nowhere.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Isn't nice when you can just be silent with someone a bit," I said and reached for the bubble blower.
His hand reached forward and grabbed his chocolate milk. His gaze never left me.
I opened the bubble blower and before I blew..
"If there was a bubble over your head right now, where everyone can see what you're thinking, would I see myself naked or you?"
Suddenly he choked on the milk and started coughing.
I tapped his back until he could breathe.
"Sorry." I laughed. "I just wanted to make you uncomfortable."
"Well, you succeeded." He coughed until he calmed down and then gave me a dangerous stare. "If you make that joke one more time I'll give you an answer."
Yeah, I thought he was being overly gentlemanly..I decided to shut up for now and blow some bubbles.
"Let me try." He took it out of my hand and leaned close, blowing air into the circle. A large bubble came out.
"Oh, you are good at this." I smiled at him, seeing how mine either popped or came out little.
He came even closer and from behind he took my hands.
"Here. Make sure there isn't too much of the solution on it." His hands were so warm over mine. I tried breathing but his face was so close to my cheek I could feel the warmness.
"Then just bring it close to your lips.." He brought it closer to his. "And slowly taking your time, you blow into it.."
He blew into the circle and another giant bubble came out.
The way he held me so close and his lips were so close to mine, I was sure he was going to kiss me. But smiling he pulled away and handed back the bubble blower to me.
"Try it."
I lifted my hands but my fingers were shaking. I was overly excited. I took a deep breath and tried blowing on it. I was too nervous.
"slowly.." He repeated, but the more he talked like that in his deep voice, the more nervous he made me.
I ended up failing again.
"Aaa ." I got annoyed. "Save me the shame."
He laughed and grabbed it from my hands.
"Give me that little fucker. It's probably broken."
"Yeah." I laughed. "Completely broken. Useless thing."
He rose up from the bench and started cleaning it up separating the garbage from the rest of the stuff we didn't eat. "Can we put the food in your bag?" He asked.
I nodded.
Throwing the garbage away we headed further in the center. The light was already starting to dim down.
"Should we go and do something interesting?" He asked.
"Do you have any idea?"
"No."
Of course, he didn't. As we walked I noticed this very cute antique looking bookshop. Ah, they really knew how to bait bookworms.
"Do you read?" I asked him.
"Not really."
"Well then. You should start." I told him.
His brows furrowed. "
"Don't you want to try something new? It might surprise you." I said.
"Why does it feel these questions have an intention?" He asked, taking a step closer to me.
"Let's go in there." I pointed at the book shop.
"Oh you're a bookworm. Okay. I'll bite. Let's go." He followed me in.
I breathed in the smell of printing ink. The books were stacked on these beautifully carved bookshelves and there were little spaces with a soft couch and beautiful giant pillows, where you could sit down, relax, and read.
"If you were a book person I know exactly what type of book you would read," I said and pulled his sleeve so he moved from the door.
"You think you have me figured out?" He asked, teasingly, grabbing a Steven King novel.
"Not completely, but enough to know what you would like." I moved down the shelves looking for what I thought he would love.
"Here we go." I reached up grabbing a book. "You are a pure classic." I handed him an Edgar Allan Poe's book.
"Poe?" He asked, taking the book. "The murders of Rue Morgue."
I came closer pointing at the book. "It's a short story. Morbid dark and it will make you feel all sorts of ways except good. Your reaction to my Dorian Grey was just a complete giveaway. Any man who knows Oscar Wilde has to read Poe."
He covered his smile with the book. "Alright, I will give it a try."
"Also..I have one more book that popped in my head for you." I gestured to him to follow me to another shelf. I took the book and handed it to him. "There you go. Huckleberry Finn."
He took the book and glanced at me. "I've read this one. Why is this your choice?"
I bit the inside of my cheek embarrassed. "Well... I am not sure why, but you remind me of him."
He started at me quite seriously; that I wondered if that might have insulted him.
"You are quite shrewd."
I take it that means I figured him out to some degree?
We took the books to the checkout and I saw the girl working there was my age. She couldn't take her eyes off him.
I sized him up and realized how dreamily this whole afternoon has been. Almost unreal. I was with a very sexy guy who just made this day unforgettable and I was really attracted to him.
As we got out of the store I took his hand and pinched it.
"Ouch." He flinched looking at me utterly confused.
"Sorry. I had to check you were real."
"Don't people normally pinch themselves?" He complained.
"Yes. When they're dreaming. You seem like a hallucination."
I let go of his hand and instantly he grabbed my hand back.
"That was a sly trick." He held my hand.