08 Apr A Short Story: Flirt

*This story is entirely a work of fiction.*

It was a nice and sunny day… the type of day where it’s warm outside, yet still a bit windy, but it was the kind of wind that carries a warmed chill through the air; much like the effect of decanting a new bottle of wine into a pristine tin chalice.

I was sitting with this girl outside, a beautiful girl, one that I’m attracted to and for awhile neither one of us said a word. Now, while the atmospheric vibe was phenomenal, I could tell that something was bothering her, neither in a good way or bad way, but she had her face turned in the opposite direction of me… most likely to avoid any sort of conversation.

 After a few moments I tried to break the silence and I said to her, with a light tone of voice, “Hello?”

She slowly turned her face towards me, squinted her eyes at me in such a way that felt like unwanted laser beams, then she let out a deep shrug-sigh and turned her face away from me again.

She did this like three or four times, each time it appeared like she was going to say something, but she kept hesitating and turned away.

I could hear in her heartbeat she was overly anxious, excited and surprised all at the same time.  I haven’t ever really heard her heartbeat sound like that before. I just continued to sit there quietly, reading the newspaper.  As I knew when she was ready to let me know how she was feeling, she would.

I got to the comic section of the newspaper; I’ve always enjoyed reading those mediocre jokes and I softly chuckled after looking through some of them. She heard me chuckle and she snarky turned to me and with an almost hurt sounding tone of voice said to me, “Don’t talk to me like I’m one of your composition pieces.” Then she turned her face away from me again.

I didn’t say anything back as I knew that is just her process of venting before she says anything meaningful, so I just continued to read the newspaper.

After a few more minutes, she turned her face to me again and with a harsh-whisper said, “Who are you anyway?”

This time I was a little startled and I spoke with that cadence in my tone of voice, “What do you mean? You know me… you’ve known me for a long time now.”

She then took lip-gloss out from her purse and as she was applying it to her lips, she rolled her eyes and turned her face away from me again. About thirty minutes had passed and by that time I had finished reading the newspaper, folded it up and placed it on the outdoor table. She then stood up, turned to me and with a little more of a relaxed tone of voice said to me, “You really are the real deal… as in the real deal.”

I took a sip of coffee, looked up at her and said, “I’m not sure what you mean?”

She then folded her arms in a slightly annoyed fashion and then continued to speak, “I just don’t get it. I don’t get you. How can you be so quiet and soft-spoken and then write and perform such amazing music… effortlessly?”

I smiled and said, “Shittt” in a way that I know usually makes her laugh, then I continued, “Well, we need money don’t we?”

She then walked over to me and gave me a playful slap on the face and said, “Don’t try and be smart with me… Avi… Jay… or whoever the fuck I’m talking to right now.”

She doesn’t normally curse, especially towards me so I was surprised that she was so upset with me, so I said to her, “Avi or Jay? Avi and Jay are one; I’m one man. Why are you so angry with me, what did I do to you?”

She then sat in my lap, looked me in the eyes and with a soft tone of voice said, “I’m not upset with you … I’m just confused.”

Her eyes looked very different than I had ever seen, almost like she, for the first time in her life, had been completely amazed.

I gave her a kiss on the lips and then said, “Look woman, you know how I’ve been writing since I was like seven or eight years old. I’m just finally learning how to put all the pieces together musically.”

She looked away for a second and it gave me a solid glance into her retinae, densely into her soul, then she looked back at me and said, “Avi… this is different. You know it’s different. Are you not surprised? Do you not surprise yourself?”

 I took some time to really listen to what she had just said, not just the words she was saying, but more importantly the tone she was using, especially with the sound of her heartbeat as I wanted to understand why all of a sudden she was feeling this way.

I then said, with a tone of voice that she likes, one that I know she really likes and one that I only use when I speak to her directly, “I guess you have a point. I don’t know… you know how I don’t ever really re-read or re-listen to any art that I make. So, I don’t really remember, I just know that I am getting better and I still can get a lot better.”

She finally smiled and calmly said, “So… you really can hear girl’s heartbeats? That’s not a joke, right?”

I laughed for a few seconds because she had said that so politely and then I responded, “Yeah. I can. But, they have to allow me to listen. There has to be some sort of love towards me, real love, pure love, true love, that initiates the process.”

She then moved her body from sitting on my lap to straddling me, in a very sultry and seductive way then she listened in my ear, “So you can hear my heartbeat all the time?”

I then whispered back in her ear, with a powerful tone of voice, “Only when you let me.”

She then changed her body language to be a bit more flirtatious and sat up a bit more proper so her cleavage was right at my face then she said, “What if I let you right now?”

Then I moved both my hands to grip the sides of her hips and whispered in her ear, “That all depends… do you love me?”