Waking up, my gaze met with her canvases first thing in the morning. I quickly put them back in my car, and without even breakfast, I headed over the old McCartneys' home. Fortunately, their granddaughter was already outside waiting for her father when I got there; I understood Hermione's reaction and supposed it was hereditary as well, that is to stay away from me. Eda, before the door, seemed to be sleepy judging from her tired expression and her hands compulsively rubbing her eyes. Apparently, as I installed her in the back seat, she told me that she stayed up late to see a movie with grandpa and grandma; though, after that, she hardly could sleep for whatever reason. So, for the major part of the trip, she slept as I silently drove her home.
Then, upon the four hours, we climbed up the stairs with the paintings in our hands before knocking. The lock made a click and the door slowly and thus reluctantly opened as revealing Hermione. A frown very rapidly replaced her usual joyful face as apperceiving mine, and as hastily, she grasped her daughter's sleeve to take her inside. However, before doing so, Eda clung her feet to the floor and then showed one of the tableaux. Surprise replaced Hermione's frown before changing back into shock; I suspected that kind of reaction from her given how little she now cared for art.
"We took these back," I said. "I really wanted to show Eda how good of a painter her mother was."
"Thank you," she dryly replied as hurriedly closing the door and taking Eda.
"Wait Mom, Dad has something to tell you."
I looked at her with puzzled glances; she frowned a little bit but I soon understood that it was about the motel. The little girl then left us alone in the hallway by presumably going to her room.
"Here're the rest of your paintings, they are beautiful."
"Is that all you had to say?"
"Huh, no, right. I might've promised Eda that we'll be staying at that motel in the middle of nowhere, you know, the one a dozen of miles away from our hometown."
"I've already been there," she interrupted.
"With Eddie, right?"
"…How do you know that?" she clumsily asked.
"It spread around school," seeing her defenseless made me want to tease her a little bit. "You did it together back then?" I asked with a slight grin.
"No! We didn't! …We just slept in the same bed, nothing more…" she ashamedly trailed off. "And you should know that since my first time was with you… Why am I telling you anyway!?"
Hermione was always bashful when told about it, though, she was a really touchy person; it led all our classmates to believe that we were dating and doing… things in private. She was really self-conscious and would start being a little distant with me when remarked about that. But that didn't mean that I couldn't appreciate when she was touchy; not being able to remember our first time as she mentioned was quite regrettable for me, in respect to my young self.
"Beats me. Anyway, I promised Eda we'd go there, and with you if possible, this week. So I'm begging you to come, just at least for our daughter."
"I'll see, but we're obviously taking different rooms if I were to agree. Is that all now?"
Maybe because of my incoming death, an urgent urge to tell her how I felt for her came into my mind. It was as though all my primary instinct were coming back, I realized.
"…Hermione, I still love you… I never stopped ever since the day we've last saw each other. If you'd be kind enough to give me another chance, and I know I've always refused it, I'm willing to love you now, and I'll definitely try to love you this time."
She frowned before averting her eyes from mines.
"What're you saying now?"
"…Yeah, sorry. I just wanted to say that in case I'd never. There's also a possibility that I might invite you on a date this week, would you refuse?"
"I'll see," she replied with time more hesitantly. "Is that just me or you've somehow changed? From the way you speak to your behavior…It's weird."
"You gotta be the one to judge. Well, seeing my face must be an unsightly scene for you, so here are your paintings and I'll leave already."
"Thank you," she said as taking them.
"And you really shouldn't have stopped art, sorry."
"Why are you apologizing?"
"Nothing, forget about that. I'm just reminding you that your paintings could soothe any pain with their beauty."
"This really is getting weirder, but ok, thanks I guess."
She then closed the door, before reopening it a little bit.
"Ed, I'm glad you changed, even a little. Keep that for our daughter, please."
The door closed at once, leaving me alone in the corridor. I sighed; Hermione was less wary of me, but there was still a lot to do. I hurried to my apartment before pondering on what to do next. My priority was to keep getting closer to Hermione, but having her accept a date with me was quite a prowess in itself, so I decided to leave that matter to another day. After an hour or so of meditating, I received a text from an unknown number.
"Wanna go on a dinner?"
Followed by:
"My wife will be there too. My place, @ 6 p.m"
And finally:
"It's Terence btw"
The so-awaited dinner he talked me about for so long? I really couldn't understand why he wanted that so badly, or maybe I was just an excuse to stay with his Maria. At any rate, I decided to call him.
"Hey, it's Eddie."
"Eddie? 'Bout the dinner, right? I was gonna call you, would've been too long for a message anyway."
"What would've been too long?"
"Well, I wanted to invite your beloved Hermione as well. Two birds one stone.
"Would be a miracle if you managed to have her sitting at a side of a table with me."
"Better kid, you'll even ride her 'til my place."
"That'll be impossible, try if you'd like. Well, I'll be coming with some wine or something else at 6 then."
"Bring whiskey!"
"In your dreams, Maria has enough problems already, spare her a drunken husband."
"Teh, booze is booze anyway. I'll text you if Hermione accepts. See you."
"Later," I hung up my phone.
Well, I had plans for tonight then, and with that came responsibilities; bring flowers for Maria, maybe even for Hermione, buy some fine wine, prepare my attire, and just get ready for anything else. I was kind of awkward with strangers, so I had to make sure to not leave a bad impression on Terence's wife and not just be seen as another weirdo like the old man. I started by going around shops to find wine, and fortunately, Ed's passwords were still noted in his phone whose access was granted to me thanks to the fingerprint technology. Money was thus no problem, and I ended my errands with a great bottle of wine in my hands.
Soon, my phone chimed in a notification.
"Guess what, Hermione accepted. Better get your ass ready"
"And she said she'll be ready around 5. Good luck with her"
I ignored how Terence did, but learning what he achieved made me almost blissful.
So, I went to wash my car first; oddly enough, the idea that Hermione was coming haunted my every movement, thinking it was like a first date. I had to leave on her a nice feeling, as well as physically, with my car included, as mentally. After that, I regained my home and started to prepare myself with a thorough shower. Then, I put on what seemed to be my most expensive suit, watch, and perfume and went with the last thing to do; to practice social interactions. I started searching on the Internet on how to seem more sociable, before talking to my mirror as an exercise.
At last, looking at my watch, I realized that it was already that time and I thus hurried to take Hermione. I drove safely but with unimaginable nervousness. Though, I was forgetting something: the flowers. I slapped my forehead and remembered another awful thing I had forgotten; there was one flower that Hermione loved above all, but it was a hard one to find. How could I quickly find cattleya? Back in the days, she had one of these orchids often sitting by the window, however, it required much more care to fully bloom and not perish. This special care made the flower into a reasonably expensive one; my best chance was to find a flower shop specialized in orchids. I quickly found one with my phone and headed there before being too late for my "first date".
A hundred dollars or so later, I was in my car with a single cattleya lying next to me by the front seat, as well as a bouquet for Maria that I bought on a whim in whatever flower shop was around. I still hurried as if my life depended on it before arriving at Hermione's place around 5; it definitely was later than that, but I had a nice excuse involving the quest for a rare orchid. Upon climbing the stairs until the second floor, I was before her now-familiar door and found myself knocking on it without even preparing myself, only with the said flower within my palm.
The lock opened and soon revealed a very lovely woman; as usual with a loose cardigan, a dazzling purple one, attention was obviously put in the choice of color and no ripple was to be seen on her clothes. Beneath and well-hid by the cardigan was a cramoisy dress reaching her tibiae, as well droopy and quite near of the common idea of antic dresses. But what stroke me the most was her braided hair which immediately reminded me of the time when I went to a prom with her; by the time we were fifteen, I had no other girl to ask out for the annual prom, and thus eventually stick with Hermione. And as always, I was dumbfounded by her beauty, for an absurd amount of time, enough to receive confused glances from her.
"You took your time," she complained.
"I…" I stopped and handed her the sole cattleya. "I was busy with finding this."
"Oh… I can't receive this; wasn't this at least fifty bucks?" The double and more, I thought.
"Would you be kind enough to accept this flower? At least for the price, please do it."
"Alright," she awkwardly replied though letting appear a faint smile across her face. "You suspiciously have good taste in flowers… "Rather, I would make my whole self into a cattleya, which I would want to give to you—" "
" "—But in the end, you would put me in a vase by the windowsill and leave me there, so please understand." " I interrupted.
That was what she liked the most with that orchid; there was a literary French expression with the name of the flower, a metaphor for love, and I realized by finishing that quote that the latter perfectly described Hermione's situation back then. She offered her love to me, and yet, I wouldn't accept it.
"Where did you hear that?" she surprisingly asked.
"I did some researches," I lied. "And I heard from Eda that it was your favorite flower", I continued as deceivingly.
"…Thank you anyway. Let's get going already."
"So you're willing to come with me?"
"Well, Terence being reluctant to tell me his address, I have to go with you. Almost seems like he set up all this," she glared at me.
"Yeah…" I muttered. "And what about Eda?"
Hermione slightly jolted as if remembering something and then loudly called for her daughter. The little girl rapidly came by the door: she was dressed as elegantly as her mother, as well with a deep green dress, quite cute and small enough for her.
"Gosh, Ed isn't the only one late. You took your time!" Hermione said.
"I'm done, Mom! And we still have a lot of time anyway," the little girl grumbled.
"Right. Hey princess," I happily greeted. "Don't worry, being late runs in the family," I joked before turning to Hermione, "and we still have time," I added to tease her.
"Hi, Dad," this time, less awkwardly. She looked at the orchid in her mother's hand, "he brought you flowers? A cattleya?"
"You're sharp as always," the mother praised. "Could put it in a vase for me please? And be quick."
The little girl rushed to take the flower, and as quickly as her mother asked, she came back an instant later with the task done.
"That was fast," I said. "Want me to drive like that?"
"Yeah! Like we could be there in less than a minute!" Eda happily replied.
"No! No fast-driving with a kid in the rear seat," the mother severely scolded.
"I'm kidding, alright?"
"No kidding on that! If you exceed the speed limit in town, I won't let you see Eda anymore, plus the penalty."
"I was kidding," you insist. "Don't worry princess, I'll never do that," I said to the little girl.
"I don't think Mom could do that, but just in case…" she replied.
"Well I can't, but that could be used in a law court, don't you think?" Hermione retorted as looking at me.
"I was kidding," I said once more. "Let's just go already, and without exceeding anything."
"You better should," Hermione added.
Upon closing the door, we finally went in the car and headed to Terence's apartment. For most of the trip, Hermione and Eda were just talking to each other back and forth between the rear and front seats. At last, the little girl lost herself in the mesmerizing lights of the neon and ads around the streets, thus letting space for a conversation between Hermione and me. She spoke before I could open my mouth.
"How do you know Terence?" She casually asked as only paying attention to the scenery outside her window.
"We befriended at Eddie's funeral," I clumsily lied. "Poor guy."
"Poor guy," she sighed. "You went to his burial?"
"By the town's outskirt. Oddly enough, it's a nice place to be buried."
"To say that I couldn't go because you were there," she sighed as ignoring my comments.
"Listen, I really want things to get better between us. I've changed, I promise you; I'll be there for Eda and for you, I love you."
"What are you saying now? How come you suddenly love me like that anyway?"
"I've changed," I cryptically replied.
"It's so easy to say," she retorted as mindlessly.
On that, I shut my mouth and continued driving. I understood, by the time of our dialogue's end, how painful it must have been for Hermione when we were young; add to that other teen's problems and the fact that these are formative years, and you have the roots of half her suffering. Not having your love accepted, let alone reciprocated, was one hell of a punishment. I innerly sighed before pondering on other matters.
"You look wonderful tonight, by the way."
I rapidly glanced at her, and a faint smile flashed across her face.