Title: From Across The Room
Part 5: Right Place, Wrong Time
Rating: PG-13
Author: Alse    
E-mail: alsepang@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: You know it. I'm just telling a story.   

I'm bribing Sake-chan here...                  

          *     *    *

    It was a strange day in late July when it 
happened.

     It was late in the afternoon when 
business was slow and there were few 
people in the café. I happened to pass 
behind the counter from the back and 
caught Andrew absently wiping a very 
clean counter, his brown eyes resting on 
the booth in the corner. A certain dark-
haired man sat there, with a gorgeous 
redhead and a giant double milkshake 
for company.  I would have turned and 
walked away silently, as I had done so 
many times before, but then Andrew 
spoke abruptly.

    "I don't understand." His voice was 
quiet and faintly worried. "She's totally 
gorgeous, but all wrong for him." He 
sighed softly. "I wonder...what 
happened to his dream girl?"

    I turned very slowly to face him.

    He was silent for a moment before
continuing, his voice still low. "He told
me once that he had one. He thought he
might meet her here-- it's a funny thing, 
Sere, but he swore that he had 
sometimes felt her presence here, in this 
very café...I don't understand."

    Was Andrew aware that I was listening 
to him? Or was he talking to me?  Why 
was he talking to me? Did he suspect--
did he know the truth? Should I leave--
or stay? And who-- who was this dream 
girl?

    "He only met her twice, he said, and 
both times she left with him something. 
He was so sure that she was one and the 
same person and the only woman in the 
world for him.  I don't see how, but he 
was sure of it." Andrew shook his head. 
"She gave him a rose and a chocolate 
cupcake the first time, he said, and a rose 
and a note the second time--"

    Now another memory rose before me. A 
dark-haired boy sat silently at his desk. A 
tear slid down his cheek, because it was 
Valentine's Day, and everyone in his 
class had been given something, all 
except him-- I remembered beautiful 
dark blue eyes that had not changed in 
more than fourteen years--

    Three times. I could not repress the 
shiver that ran over me. I had now met 
him thrice, by a curious chain of 
coincidences. There was no doubt in my 
mind about the 'dream girl' Andrew was 
talking about and having listened to 
what he said, I felt my detachment 
crumble to pieces. I glanced at the 
handsome, dark-haired man in the booth 
and for the first time, did not disguise the 
pain in my face. I didn't care this time; I 
knew that he would never see it. 

   He had been looking for his dream girl, 
but he had never once considered me. I 
understood. I did not measure up to 
what he was looking for. I knew without 
a doubt that he would be intensely 
disappointed if he ever found out the 
truth. His disappointment was 
something that I would never be able to 
bear, heaven help me! My eyes blurred 
with tears and I lowered my head and 
turned back to Andrew, who was now 
glumly polishing the knobs of the 
drawers nearby.

   "He's been lonely most of his life, you 
know. He's an orphan, you see-- has 
been since he was six. That's why he 
loves his dream girl so much. According 
to him, she was the first person to love 
him. He says he dreams of her 
sometimes, but he can never see her face, 
only that she's promised him her love...I 
think the whole thing's just too 
unbelievable, Serena, but sometimes I 
find myself wishing that he could find 
her--"

   My head was bent so that Andrew could 
not see my face and I spoke in a low 
voice, cutting him off. "Why are you 
telling me all this?" I pretended to polish 
a glass, my fingers shaking even as they 
grasped the glass.

    Andrew sighed again. "I don't know. 
Maybe it's because I think you'll 
understand. Maybe it's because you're 
not like the other girls around here. You 
don't fall all over yourself trying to get 
his attention-- you're different. You'd 
like him for himself, unlike other girls, 
because you know the real him. 
Somehow, I think he knows that..." 

   Yes, but he must never know the truth. 
He would be happier and better off not 
knowing that the 'dream girl' in reality 
was someone who could never measure 
up to his hopes and his dreams. In time, 
he would find someone-- someone he 
could love-- someone who would fulfil 
that dream girl's qualities-- someone 
who would love him back-- who could 
make him happy the way that girl from 
years back would never be able to...  

   He had so many girls already... I knew 
that he had already begun to forget that 
dream girl. She would fade into 
memory-- perhaps fade completely with 
time-- she would be no loss to him.

    "Hey, don't tell him I told you all that."

    "I won't," I said softly. "He wouldn't 
like it."


(c) 2001 original storyline by Alsepang


Have you ever wondered...how did Hitler 
convince so many of the blond, blue-eyed
Aryan ideal if he himself was dark-haired?
Seems that it would be most awfully strange...