Snow globe
Day 4 of the Christmas Calendar Prompt: Snow Globe
That day they had breakfast together. It seemed as if everyone was on their own world: Mei and Lars were in the kitchen, Emma and Antonio were talking about the cold outside, Yao was complaining about everything with Jiang.
Henri looked at Ling; he felt a bit awkward, she made him feel really nervous with that attitude of hers, as if she hated him. He blushed when he noticed she was looking at him. He would have liked that Mei thought about a double date or something to be close to Ling, but she never suggested it, probably Lars asked her to not do it.
When Ling noticed Henri was looking at her, she ignored him. If it wasn't because his brother and her sister were together she wouldn't imagine being near someone like him. He wasn't annoying, but there was something on him that got on her nerves. Maybe it was because he smiled too much or because he looked like a prince. She rolled her eyes.
He looked down, probably she would never like him, and so he should try to stop to delude himself. And this was another of those occasions where he promised himself to stop liking her.
Days later, he went to do shopping with a friend. He wanted to buy a present for his siblings, Mei and his parents. Then he saw a snow globe and thought about Ling, he bought it, maybe he would give it to her, just to show her he was nice. He felt his heart beating so fast, but then he imagined her annoyed face and he got insecure about his idea.
Both friends continued walking around when Henri saw her. He tried to hide so she couldn't see him, but Marcello wasn't the most discreet person in the world.
"Hey, what are you doing? Isn't that the girl you like?" he asked.
"Shut up!" Henri said.
Obviously Ling had already seen him, but she pretended she hadn't. She wanted to smile, why he had to be so cute, she wondered. She had been thinking a lot about him, she wanted to be friendly with him, after all he was kind of part of her family. She thought that all that sounded very weird.
She walked next to them. Marcello told him he would go to another place and Henri saw him as if he felt betrayed. Henri and Ling stayed there, waiting for a word from the other. They smiled awkwardly.
"Hi" they said at the same time.
Then they had a small talk about the presents and other things they thought were ridiculous and unnecessary. They would have liked to run away, hide and never see each other again.
"Well, see you later" she said, a little bit embarrassed.
She walked away quickly, and he stayed there, trying to think on something to let her know that they were fine, but actually he wanted to tell her he liked her. Then he remembered the snow globe. He ran after her.
"Ling, wait!"
She stopped and turned around, while he tried to breathe more calmly.
"Here" he said, showing her a snow globe. "This is for you".
Ling winked twice; she took and contemplated the present as if it was something very delicate. He smiled, blushing and waiting for her reaction.
"I think I should give you something else" he said nervous because she didn't say anything.
"No, I love it. Thank you. In fact…" she said, looking in one of her bags. "This is for you". She blushed. It was another snow globe. "I want to apologize, sometimes I am very rude with you, but I know you are a cool guy" she said suddenly.
He was surprised. He had never imagined she felt that way for him.
"Thank you, I appreciate it" he said.
She smiled, she was still nervous, but it was something on him that made her felt that she didn't need to apologize, but it was a big relief to know that he didn't hate her and they were fine. She was about to say goodbye, but he took her hand.
"Would you like to go to a coffee shop with me?" he offered.
She nodded and smiled. She felt her heart beating fast again, his smile was so warm. Yes, she was right, he was a prince.