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4th July was a beautiful day. I spent the morning with Melissa and Luke at the beach among all the other folks that had arrived with their picnic baskets and camping chairs. At 11 am, I had to leave for work, but it was extremely quiet when I got to the pub. I spent hours cleaning vitrines and glass shelves. Then, I stocked up all the fridges and stood in front of the pub to enjoy a few sunrays. I read all the proverbs at least twice and, once I really didn’t know what to do with myself anymore, played a few rounds of hangman with Josh. I much preferred the evenings when I hardly had time to think about anything else but orders.
Thank God when Paula finally came.
“Wow, don’t overstrain yourself.” She yelled at me when she walked in and I was daydreaming, leaning against the counter.
“It has never been so slow here. I could have taken a nap, and nobody would have cared.”
“Don’t worry; it will pick up once the fireworks are done.”
The city provided big fireworks at 8 pm.
As Paula told me about her day and showed me the new sports clothes, she bought time started to fly by. At 7.30 pm, a pleasant surprise in the form of Alex walked through the door.
“Speaking of the devil,” Paula winked at me.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” I asked. “I thought you were with your friends.”
“I was. They are down at the pier. But I thought I come by to say hello and see whether I perhaps could steal you away for an hour to watch the fireworks.” He showed an innocent puppy face smile.
I couldn’t believe he had thought of me. I glanced over to Paula. She knew exactly that I wanted to go.
“Go, it’s not like a soccer team will storm the pub within the next ten minutes. Just hurry up with whatever you are doing after the fireworks.” She grinned.
“Thanks. See you later!” I shook my head, grabbed my jacket and stepped out into the agreeable evening breeze.
"I didn't think it was fair that you needed to work through the big show." Alex tried to explain his sudden showing up.
"Thank you for coming to save me then." I noticed how people parked themselves on camping chairs inside alleys too.
"Where are we going?"
"Somewhere, where we have a nice view," Alex smiled.
We walked to the next metro station and then squeezed into an overcrowded train. Being pushed against strangers on all sides wasn’t the most pleasant feeling. Being squeezed against tall and deliciously smelling Alex made up for that though.
"Don't worry, it's only two stops," Alex said.
We followed the stream of people upstairs and got out near the harbor.
"I figured we wouldn't be the only ones. Good thing that fireworks aren't on the ground.
We pushed past groups of people, who kindly parted the way to let the guy on crutches through. Along the pier, there were concrete cubes, and we found one that nobody was standing on. Alex held out his hand to me.
"After you." I grabbed it and stepped on the cube. Alex followed me a moment later. Now we were a little higher than the people around us. Also, we were standing rather close. I could feel the heat of his body radiate against me. It made it hard to concentrate on anything else.
"What have you been up to today?" I turned half around to face him.
"We had a BBQ at my friend’s house and pretty much ate all day." He patted his stomach.
"Sounds like a good day."
"The best part about it is now." He looked at me, leaving me unsure whether it was because of me or because of the fireworks that were about to start. To mark the beginning, there were three red fireballs shot into the air. Like the emergency lights on boats. More explosions in all kinds of colors followed and reflected on all the upward turned faces. I had my back against Alex again. Just as my neck started to hurt from craning it up too much, Alex put his hands on my shoulders to massage them. I hoped that he didn't notice the goosebumps his touch provoked. I rested immobile until I couldn't bear it any longer. While I turned to face him, his hand softly brushed across my chest and left a trail of small electric sparks on the inside of my body. I looked up into his eyes and found the reassurance that he wanted to kiss me, too.
"I'm not sure this is such a good idea." He breathed.
I was confused whether I had heard correctly since it was quite loud. The phrase didn't make any sense to me.
"What do you mean?"
"Ever since I saw you the first time, I want to be with you. I'm trying hard not to appear like a stalker. I've never felt so strongly pulled toward someone before. And I am afraid if I kiss you, I might lose the last bit of control I possess." As he was saying that, his hands wandered to the back of my neck, his fingers gently finding their way through my hair. I closed my eyes. "It might be a bit late to back out now," I whispered.
He slowly pulled me closer. When our lips finally met, the fireworks that were going off inside me were definitely stealing the show from the ones above. This kiss felt so perfect; I never wanted our lips to part. I was glad I could hold on to his body, to steady myself. I might have passed out from this strong sensation otherwise. How could a simple kiss feel so different? It was worlds from when Toby kissed me.
After a short eternity, we drew apart and stared into each other's eyes for a moment.
"I should have done that a long time ago." Alex breathed and then pulled me in for another kiss. The fireworks stopped, but our kiss continued. We parted with a smile planted on both our faces.
"I agree. You should have done that a long time ago. But I have to go now. I can't leave Paula alone all night."
"Right." He didn't sound as if he wanted to let me go. "Fine, let's go." He put an arm around my shoulder.
"You don't have to come with me. No offense but I'll be faster without you." I apologetically pointed to his leg.
"Wow, one kiss and already she is running away. Perhaps, I should become gay." He joked and pulled me closer one more time. Our faces were only an inch apart.
"But before you push me to the outside of the closet, I ask for one more chance." He kissed me again.
"Believe me; it would be a huge loss for the female world." I was too much out of breath to make a sound.
"I'll see you tomorrow then?" He asked.
"Yes. Can't wait." I pulled away and brought some distance between us.
"By the way, I'm glad you stole me away tonight."
"Me too."
We both smiled. I turned around and first let go of a long breath. All this tension in the air made me feel charged up. I disappeared in the crowd. I knew I would be quicker without taking the metro, as everybody seemed to be floating there in one stream. When I felt safe and unnoticed, I took off at a faster pace. It was awesome dashing past crowds of people or slaloming a path in between them. I was so full of energy that I ran around Boston about six times until I went back to the Irish pub. When I arrived there, I noticed that Paula hadn't exaggerated. It really was packed with people. Therefore, Paula already was hurrying around.
"Jeez, finally." She yelled as she was rushing toward me with two full trays of empty glasses and bottles. "Why are your cheeks so flushed?" She laughed. She was already tending to the next customers at the bar. I tied the strings of my apron behind my back. From the second it was on, I was hurrying around for the rest of the night, without having another chance to exchange a word with Paula or obsess further about kissing Alex.
When the guests started to leave, we were busy with cleaning and counting money.
"Yup, good night," Paula said as she stacked the money into a plastic zip bag. Her face was red and her hair in an even messier ponytail than at the beginning of the evening.
"How could these people stand it in here? It was like a sauna. I was glad whenever I had an excuse to go to the fridge." I said.
"Yeah, it was very tempting to hide in there, but I was afraid you wouldn't bloody survive out here without me. Fucking war zone."
"Still, a lot more entertaining than the desert environment it was before. Plus, look at the tip jar." I pointed to the almost full jar on the counter.
"Yes, the people were in a good mood today. I'd say we've earned ourselves a beer." She disappeared to put the money in the safe.
I still was in an extraordinarily good mood too. I checked my phone to find a text from Alex, which surged another rush of adrenaline through me.
'Hey, Nathalie! I hope work is going ok. I wished I didn't have to let you go, though. Really enjoyed the time we had. I thought about going on a bike ride or inline skating tomorrow. But unfortunately, choices are a bit limited at the moment. So, what do you think about going on a Whale Watch? Sleep well later! Xx Alex'
I quickly texted back.
'Whale watching is an awesome idea! I really liked the fireworks and the sideshow wasn't bad either ;-) Good night. Xo Nathalie'
I slid my phone back into my jeans and went to wash the cloth for its final time tonight.
"What's that grin on your face?" Paula came back into the room, taking her apron off.
"I'm going whale watching tomorrow."
"Could it be with a certain someone? Come on, don't make me have to worm in out of you." Paula poured a beer for each of us. Only a small one for me. By now, she had realized that I wasn't that much of a drinker. We sat down, and I recounted the events of the evening to her. I didn't go too much into details of how I was feeling though. It sounded a bit crazy due to the fact that we had only just met.
"I'm glad you had a good time. But be careful. They are always nice and very generous with handing out attention in the beginning.”
"I'll wait and see." I tried to sound casual.
"Take a picture if you see a whale. We did a field trip in 5th grade. That was awesome!"
When I came home, I chatted with Melissa and Luke for a while.
“So, you are seeing him again?” Melissa asked and they exchanged a look.
“Yes, he is quite nice actually,” I said casually.
“Just be careful, ok? Relationships between a non-human being and a human are no less complicated than the normal relationships. Plus, you have to be extremely alert at all times, that he doesn’t find out about our little secret”, she warned me, and Luke nodded.
“You are the right ones to say something.” I rolled my eyes.
“That’s why I know what I am talking about.” Melissa chuckled.
“It’s not even a relationship yet.” Again, I felt like a teenager, and they were my parents who knew everything. I felt like this warning was very much unnecessary. They didn’t know him, and I had only started to get to know him. How about being happy for me? “Don’t be such hypocrites.” I was thankful to Roisin that she obviously hadn’t told them about the puddles. If they knew about them as well, they’d completely flip.
“We’re only telling you to be careful because we care about you,” Luke said. “If you should choose to pick him and you end up together, I can assure you that he is a very lucky guy. I speak out of experience,” he winked at Melissa.
I went to my room and turned on some music. I couldn’t help myself, Alex’s face and the memory of our kiss passed by my inner eye again and again. I had been mistaken about one thing. A kiss did not relieve my longing, especially such a good kiss. Now, I wanted more.