He let out a relieved sigh, when the door closed behind her and rested his forehead against the cool surface. As much as he was capable of acting like this meeting had absolutely no influence on him, it was very far from the truth. Despite the fact that the last time he saw her was eighteen years earlier, the moment he realised it was her, all the feelings which were haunting him for a very long time after her sudden disappearance and which he believed he managed to completely suppress, emerged from a place deep in his heart that would always belong to her.
It seemed quite a popular belief that even if those relationship didn't work out, people would never forget the people, who they kissed for the first time in their lives, who they have fallen in love for the first time and their first lovers. For him, all of them were one and the very same person and he could wholeheartedly agree that the theory was true. Even though he gave up the hope that he would ever get to see her again a long time ago and was through a few relationship, he has never really forgotten Toni Rodriguez. He could still remember the first time he laid his eyes on her and his feelings upon seeing her now, after all those years, didn't seem to be that much different from that moment.
He was just seventeen-years-old and just came back home from one of the trips, which his parents used to send him and his sister during school-breaks and holidays. The main disadvantage it had for them was that it was only a week long, and the only reason why he wasn't sent to spend the remaining week at his grandmother's was that the woman was going on a cruise with her new man-friend. He just went out to spend some time in the garden, which has always been his favourite place in the house because of the hiding spot in the back, where he could go whenever he wanted to spend some time alone and didn't have to worry about being bothered. He only managed to step out of the house, when his eyes fell on the girl, struggling while she was trying to carry a big flower pot with beautiful, exotic flowers – amaryllis, as he later found out – to the other end of the garden.
The sight made him stop dead in his tracks. As pathetic as it was, especially that he was never really hiding his disregard for all those boys, who ran after girls because of their good look and didn't seem to care about nothing else, he actually found himself stunned. She was in every possible way, the most beautiful girl he has ever laid his eyes on. She was quite a few inches shorter than him and had an absolutely gorgeous body. He couldn't understand why most of the representatives of the fair sex seemed to think that guys preferred skinny girls with sticking out bones, what really wasn't an interesting sight. Even more, he couldn't understand why most of the guys seemed to give them the reason to think so, as most of them didn't pay attention to the girl, who didn't look like a skeleton clothed in a skin. The girl in front of him, however, had a great, curvy body, and he couldn't deny that her whole appearance was breathtaking. She looked tanned, although he later learnt that it was actually her natural skin colour as even though she was born in the States, she had a Latino origin; her black hair was falling down her shoulders in very pretty waves and when it came to her eyes, when he actually got to knew her, he often found himself melting into a puddle when she would look up at him. For seventeen-year-old Myles Leland the third, she was a walking image of perfection.
Still, even though he has taken a few girls to dates a couple of times, he has never really had a real girlfriend; any bit of hope that he had was quite quickly disappearing after one or two meetings with any candidate. Reasons were various; some were really pretty, but it was everything they had to offer and there was no chance for a real conversation with them, some wanted to date him simply because his family was quite influential and hoped that good relations with him would bring them some benefits, and the others, who were quite nice, were finding him absolutely insufferable and didn't want to have anything to do with him. He often found himself teased because of it, but what could he do? He has never been a person, who was making friends easily and it was even worse, when it came to the girls. So, even though the girl in front of him took his breath away for a good moment and made his heart skip a beat, he didn't raise his hopes high.
It was the ever-so-proper gentleman in him, that actually made him approach her. The flower pot was obviously causing her a lot of troubles, and it simply wouldn't do for him to just stare at her when she was in need of some help. So he walked to her and suggested that he could carry it wherever she wanted to take it.
"How long do you work with Mr. Rodriguez?" he asked, his curiosity raised quite high as he has never seen her earlier.
"It depends how you look at it. I've been helping him since I was strong enough to carry and manage a watering can, gradually learning more tasks as I grew up. My dad says that I have a gift and if I plant something, when he wants it to grow a little before he would set it in its final place, he is sure that it will actually grow." she explained, as she led him through the garden.
"Oh, you're his daughter!" he exclaimed, obviously surprised. "I've heard him praise you a lot of times! Still, I would have never guessed that you're Tori. Terri!" he immediately corrected himself and when he noticed an amused expression on her face, he realised that he still had it wrong. "Tammy...? Tracy?" he groaned, feeling terribly embarrassed when she laughed. "I'm sure it's something starting with the letter T." he mumbled and his eyes widened, when he felt the touch of her small hand on his arm and saw her smile at him.
"You're right, it does start with a T. In fact, you were close the very first time. It's Toni."
"I'm Myles, it's nice to meet you. So, you're helping your dad around?"
"Yeah, a couple of days ago he mentioned that the family suddenly came up with a brilliant idea to decorate the garden for some sort of gathering and there is no way he's going to finish everything by himself on time. From what I understand, the family living here is rather pompous and he didn't want to risk angering them with saying that he has too little time, so he asked if I felt up to helping him for some extra pocket-money. He didn't know that I actually hoped I'd get to help him some day, and I didn't really made him aware of that and…" she got quiet all of the sudden, blushing and while he sent her a questioning look, he also noted that she looked very cute this way. "I talk too much…" she explained and it was his turn to smile at her.
"I don't mind." he said, and it was somewhat surprising to him, but he truly meant it.
Usually, he was easily annoyed by talkative people, but he didn't mind her chatter at all. In fact, he found it rather interesting and amusing, especially the comment she made about his family. He was somewhat shocked by it and probably under different circumstances he would feel offended, but this time he somehow didn't. It was obvious she had absolutely no idea, who he was and because of this one statement, decided that it would probably be safer if she stayed oblivious for some more time.
"Do you have anything else, that you could use a hand with?" he asked, when he placed the flower pot in the place, which she pointed to him.
"No, I'll be fine with the rest. Thanks very much for your help." she stated with a smile, which made her whole face light up and he immediately found himself speechless and unable to take his eyes off her.
"You're welcome." he eventually managed to stutter and nodded his head before turning around and walking away, with his heart thundering in his chest.
He didn't see that she actually stood there for a moment simply watching as he was walking away, biting on her bottom lip. She could feel her heartbeat quicken, when she raised her gaze upon hearing his voice and looked straight into a pair of incredible blue eyes. There was something about him, what made her feel act like a blabbering fool and she was pretty sure that her heart was going to jump out of her chest, when he actually smiled at her. She hid her face in her hands, feeling the heat radiating from her cheeks and shook her head; why on Earth she was suddenly acting so silly?!
She jumped, blushing even deeper as she got out of this small reverie, when she heard her father clear his throat and looked at him to notice that he was watching her with his eyebrows raised, and most probably witnessed at least a bit of what happened.
"Myles just helped me carry the flower pot." she said, feeling suddenly abashed and the man nodded his head, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"I know I'm saying this about every boy, which you happen to meet since you turned thirteen, but this is one, who you should really stay away from. For your own good."
"You know, he actually seemed quite nice and I can't see what harm could come out of getting to know him." she said and rolled her eyes, when she noticed the frown on her father's face. "Oh, please!"
"Fine, fine." he said, raising his hand as a sign of giving up. "What can I do, I really hate the idea that my baby girl might be actually interested in boys."
"You know Dad, I'm fifteen. I can hardly be called a baby. And I never said that I was interested in Myles THIS WAY!" although, she couldn't deny that he was quite charming and this was this sort of funny but endearing, gallantry way that he seemed to treat her in.
"And you better don't be! I can only imagine his parents' reaction if they were to ever find out about it!" seeing the questioning look she had sent him, he realised that the boy obviously didn't made her aware of who he was. "He is the Lelands' son."
"WHAT?!" she exclaimed, staring at her father in disbelief mixed with mortification. "I just called his family pompous..!" she admitted, and looked at the man with reproach when he started to laugh. That would be it from making a good first impression.
He actually chuckled at the memory of her face expression after her father must have informed her about his identity. As he was walking away, he kept fighting the urge to turn around and finally couldn't prevent himself anymore. It was when she had already turned to Antonio and wasn't even aware that he was looking at her, and he felt really relieved because of it.
Straightening himself, he started to walk around the house in order to look for some occupation, what would take his mind safe from drifting off to her. All the feelings and memories, which he has fought for so long to get rid of, seemed to be coming back with full force and there was only one thing, which he was certain about. If she was to keep her word and engage in arranging his garden herself, it was going to be a very challenging period of time for him.