"Reservation for William Chester?"
"Yes"
"Follow me," the waitress grinned her way.
Jovic followed the blonde as she sashayed her way through a beehive of people out on dates and business call. Jovic heard the sounds of her heels clinking as they got through to the exclusive part of the restaurant. Down to where she saw the man waiting for her. His hands playing with the tablecloth, face pensive. His head rose up as her presence loomed over him. Those grey eyes of his looked at her passively, then he turned red, awkwardly ushering her to the opposite chair.
Jovic offhandedly told the waitress to give them a moment as the blonde floated the question of what they will like to order.
"You are late." William kept his tone light as Jovic settled into the chair.
She looked at him set in the eyes and when he dropped his gaze, she clasped her flawless manicured fingers on the table and said: "I am."
"Is good to see you again," William began again, raising up his head to show her his blooming smile, then dunking back.
"I can't really say the same about you."
"Why? You didn't miss me?" He said, his tone teasing, testing the waters. "Even just a little?"
"No. I didn't."
"That's okay." William waved off. "Because I missed you," the man exclaimed. "So much! And the amount of time I've missed you is enough to cover for us both."
"Is not."
"Yes it is."
Jovic leaned forward sharply to argue that point and in an instant, William finger was against her lips, shushing her. She fell back against her chair and William blushed. For all the times she knew William, he had never been this forward.
"Sorry. I know how much you love to argue," he provided, "but not today. Not when I haven't seen your face for so long. Maybe so other day, I'll like to hear your voice ringing out loud."
"You think I will see you again after today," Jovic scoffed. His attempt in getting a rise of whatever he was looking for was pathetic. As pathetic as the tail between his legs.
"I think we will be seeing each other more often," he uttered, smiling bashfully.
"No we won't!"
"Yes we will."
Jovic grunted. "Enough with the niceties. What do you want?" she said, her tone interwoven with anger. "No, why did you call? And if you say because you missed me, you might not live to see the next morning."
"You make threats now. Huh! The girl I knew couldn't even watch an action movie without being squirmish. Lol, what changed?"
"Lol? L-o-l! What changed?" she rasped out those words and it left a bitter residue in her mouth.
Was that question legit? Did she hear him right? Of course she did. "What changed?" She felt like reaching around the table and ripping off that groomed head of his. His cute innocent look was almost mouth-gagging. "Nothing changed," she replied blandly. "I have always been like this."
"So why hide?"
"Hide what?"
"This side of you," he smiled. "I have always wondered the danger behind your pretty eyes".
"You think you will survive if you get a glimpse."
He nodded. "As your friend, I was always ready to catch a bullet for you."
"You and I are not friends."
"Yeah...But I want us to be...more than friends. I never looked at you as a friend anyway."
Jovic scoffed, shaking her head.
William in a grin, scratching the back of his head. "Corny? Trust me I know. Today, I have been very mushy and stuff. The thing is, seeing you again after so long, talking to you, hearing you talking back is too much for me. And..." he shuttered. "I want more than a glimpse. More and more. Again and again."
"That could only be possible in your dreams."
"My dreams," he mused blushing, "lately, in my dreams, I do more than talk to you," he confessed. His grey eyes which bore a storm of emotion set on hers till she felt like backing away. "I do more than watch you perched upon your chair like a faraway memory I can't hold. I do more than gaze at those pretty full lips. That's why I picked up the phone. You haunt me."
The edges of her eyes crinkling up, her mask slipping, Jovic turned and flagged down a waiter. "We're ready to order," She said, her breathing uneven.
William smiled cheekily.
***
Instruments played. Mixed together in peceful, silent harmony; mixture of jazz and classical. A feminine voice barely floating above belted out a rendition. The singer's emotions all over the place, her face a picture of a troubled woman as she sang about a tragic love story. Microphone in hand, she expressed how her man got her where she was; pallid and dependent on him. She never wanted to fall for him at first, been through much heartbreak, she'd told him. But his words made her stumble, his beauty made her trip, and the little things he did for her made her crash so badly. The singer paced back and forth as she sang about how she began following her man faithfully, crossing mountains and rivers for him, only for him to twist the knife in her back.The singer stomped her foot against the theadbared stage floors. In another life, she wished never to meet his kind. His knife was more cruel than the other, unsuspecting, slow and dull.
Her wail carried the whole room with her, reaching a crescendo. Jovic pushed away her plate. Picked up her wine glass. Glass after glass, applause reigned for long in the background. Jovic studied William over the rim of her glass: his creased edges of his eyes, the twinkling of those eyes as it focused on the dirged singer, his paper white teeth on display, hands slapping against one another. He looked just the same– more broader. The dark shirt he wore accentuated his well-built frame. Light brown hair never missed an appointment with it's stylist. He looks the same, the man she missed. Handsome as ever with an over friendly smile. His jaw has lost some of its definition, but that in no way made him any less handsome. He was her friend. A friend that she once had all his trust. He was never hers; in those fakery happier days, maybe he could have been. Now, she didn't know what to do with him.
His eyes flickered back to her and she dared not look away.
"I want to see you again", he said.
"Maybe," she replied. Her voice flat. "Maybe."