"Suze? Suze? Are you home? "
Someone is calling me. I open my eyes despite the silent struggle between my eyelids and my mind. I walk to my drawing room and look around. Geez! I feel so groggy. I look around the house, then I walk to my phone. Of course the call has gone to voicemail. It is Nancy, my best friend slash collegue.
I hastily pick up the phone. She wants me to come over in that signature urgent tone of hers which she overdos for just anything. I pick up my keys and start to leave the house after I get ready when suddenly my throat starts to burn.
I look around the house, there's some bottles of water on the table, some beer in the fridge, a can of juice in the kitchen, but my body disobeys me when I try to walk in that direction.
Mechanically, I turn around against my will and my feet take me to the only place I dread going to. I struggle to hold myself back, but my efforts are feeble. I pick up the weird bottle stacked in the deepest cornor of the utility room and gulp down its contents. And only after that I gain control over my body. Once I'm done I'm devastated. I scream and run out to the living room and out of the house.
I gasp for breath only once I'm out. I sit down on the floor and put my hands to my throbbing head. I see a pair of denim blue sneakers beside me. I wonder why anyone is even here. Then I reacall bumping into someone when I ran out. I gulp down a few times, feeling embarrassed and fervently thinking of a lame but not lame story.
I look up apologetically. But as soon as my eyes land over those marine puddles inside his sockets, my innnermost emotions trigger and I drown in them, apology forgotten ages ago. I feel a pull, a shiver sprints down my spine. He is saying something. My heart whispers. Of course he is bitch. My mind counters. I try swimming out of those irises and make a coherent reply.
"I... uh.. that... was... probably... my... the.... " Holy cow! What the hell! Why am I speaking lika a novice... Gosh! Woman, you need to get your head straight. You've made enough fool of yourself for the day. My mind screams rolling my eyes in my peripheral vision, I compose myself.
"Hey... maybe you could do with some cocoa down your system. Come along, my apartment's just round the corner. " He smiles. I want to tell him that this cocoa can be made even at the house in front of which he is standing, which apparently is still mine. And it's just a step in as opposed to his round-the-cornor. I couldn't, and I couldn't ignore the fact that I was drawn to his marine irises, the deep magnetic voice and the aura that spoke 'hotness overloaded'.
I size him up as he makes the cocoa and I gawk at him like a kid at a candy. All the while he keeps saying stuff that doesn't register, I shrug it all off because that's not important that the pretty sight I am beholding. He is now looking at me. I wonder why he has stopped talking? I look at my hand, I am pretty well drinking the cocoa, so why the strange stare? I smile. He looks more confused.
"So you moved in recently? " Superbly stupid! Why is that the only thing I could come up with? He looks at me even more intently, but this time his expression is amused. He smiles and looks me in the eye, I struggle to look away. "Well, to put it that way, your moving in here is more recent than mine. " He says looking at the window.
"I've been living here since three years, surely that cannot be counted as recent." I say surprised at his words.
"When did I say you moved in recently, I just said your moving in was recent than mine. " He shrugs.
I replay that in my mind and I laugh as the words register. "You are kidding me, I've never seen you around here. " I say defensively. "Well, you certainly don't look like the cop-on-the-block. " He smiles. Jeez! He sounds like he walked right out of those silly 1950's movies. So long for that, I should be going now.