He tells stories to her. Logically she wonders if they are light, offhand lies, but she wants to believe him. She ponders his truth and his lies when she brings him his drink in the bar every night, leaning on the counter across from his lovely dark hair. She flirts as her first setting of social behavior, but unlike with the other customers, she means the oversweet words she gives him.
One night he tells a story that makes her pause, ignoring the calls of the other men in the bar. He tells her a story of a beautiful woman who hides herself in a deep, red sea, the surface of which tosses with deceptively lighthearted waves. He talks of a man who could look down past the lying surface of the water to see the woman crying at the bottom, all alone.
"What did he do?" She can't look away from his eyes.
"He reached out and put his hands around her face." Unconsciously she has leaned forward enough for him to reach out and demonstrate, his hands calloused but gentle. Her pulse pounds.
"And then?" She can't hear her own words.
"And then he kissed her." His lips are so soft that she thinks she imagined their touch on her own.
"And then?" She wonders if she really spoke the thought aloud.
"And then the woman decided the ending." He is smiling but his eyes are so wide and fearful that they might collapse.
She smiles and wraps her palms around his cheeks, her fingers into his hair. "And then she kissed him back."
And she did.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Anyone have any guesses? ….. *imaginary drum roll, or maybe the Jeopardy theme* It's Dan and Eve, from Magical Melody! Both of these characters are a lot of fun. Cookies to all who guessed right! ;)