Ryu's delivery
had been beyond expectations. Not only was the fight between 5:2 and
3:1 resolved, but they had gained another ten students from 9:1, and
with that Ulf's remaining staffing problems dissolved.
He smiled
remembering Ryu's heads up. Apparently a girl in their middle school
with fantastically bad taste in boys had nurtured a crush on him
before he was expelled. It was a little flattering, and he wasn't
above feeling his self esteem rising a bit.
Maybe Christina
wouldn't think it was that fun, even though he trusted her to be
mature enough to laugh it away in the end.
Probably.
They hadn't been
able to share all that much time together since the night he spent in
her apartment. By any normal standards they should have been lovers
by now, but that night they only slept together just as they had done
at the resort her grandfather ran together with his wife.
There was no
mistaking why she called him over, but when he got there he was just
too emotionally drained to do anything, and in a way he valued her
closeness more than sex.
Ulf rehashed that
evening as he had done several times by now. They slept together and
nothing else but was that what she wanted? Had she wanted more, and
if so was she angry with him now?
Gah, I'll just
ask her when we meet. No point in worrying on my own. This was
one occasion where fifty was much better than sixteen. Knowing that
in order to avoid misunderstandings actually talking things over was
a perfectly acceptable solution.
When he had been
sixteen the first time talking something specific over hadn't been
the main problem. Talking with a girl at all had been. He spent his
two first years in high school with his tongue perpetually glued to
the back of his mouth whenever a girl approached too close.
Third year less
so after a second year took a fancy to him and tired of waiting. She
made him her boyfriend with all the finesse and subtlety of a
stereotypical caveman. She crowned her whirlwind campaign by kicking
in the door to his classroom mid lecture, declaring she had come for
her boyfriend and frenched him before he had a chance to rise from
his chair.
Ulf grinned at
the memory. It only lasted a little over a year, but before they grew
apart she had reshaped him into a very different person.
His first. There
was something about firsts.
“Hamarugen-san?”
He shook the
memories away and turned to look for whoever had spoken to him.
“Hamarugen-san?”
A junior from the
liberal arts section, but which class he couldn't tell. “Sorry, I
spaced out a bit, what can I help you with?”
“We're the
Latin seafood stall.”
Ulf dug up his
phone and made a search. “The grill?”
“Yeah. There's
a problem. We wondered if we could extend the barbecue instead. We
could use the stall for sales only.”
There's no way
they came up with this on their own. They're not club members
so no one told them to think independently. “Who told you to
ask me?”
The junior
pointed over his shoulder with a thumb. Behind him Ulf saw Christina
talking frantically into her headset while still making time to wave
at him.
“Fine, we'll do
so. Get your grills out of the booth and set it up at one end of the
two lines.” Ulf drew a quick sketch on the ground with the two
lines of grills and where he wanted the last two set up at one end.
“Got it?”
He received a nod
in return, and the junior returned to make the changes.
Christina. I
should have known. But Ryu's getting damn good at this as well so
it could have been him. Ulf started walking towards
Christina. If nothing else he could get a hug and a kiss from her
before they were swamped with more work.
He made it
halfway to her.
“Hamarugen-san?”
What's up this
time? The girl looking up at him was a complete stranger. “How
can I be of assistance?” Not much point in pretending I don't
know she's looking for help.
“I'm from the
tea club and we've been told to cooperate with the espresso stall.”
“Yes?” How
bloody hard can it be?
“We don't know
how. Just because both stalls serve hot drinks we're not the same.”
Ulf looked over
her shoulder to where Christina still stood. She threw him an ironic
smile and waved to let him know she'd wait for him a bit longer.
“OK, split down
the middle.”
When he saw her
face mimic a question mark he pulled out the umbrella he had used
just moments earlier.
“Like this,”
Ulf said and drew two boxes on the ground. “You're organised in two
groups like this at the moment. Split each group in two this way and
merge the two halves. Got it?”
She nodded
understanding.
“Each new group
continues planning like before, but this time both groups will have
knowledge about serving tea as well as coffee. Should solve your
problem.”
The freshman
girl, because her uniform gave away that she was one, gave him an
uncertain look as if she couldn't believe such a simple solution
would do any good.
“Trust me on
this. If it doesn't work you can always come back. OK?”
“Thank you
Hamarugen-san,” she said.
He was about to
leave her when she suddenly tugged at his shirt sleeve. Ulf looked up
and saw Christina glaring at the girl, and just then she let go.
“Anything
more?” he asked, but she shook her head and ran away.
When he started
walking to Christina he saw how she had already made the distance to
him. Amused worry played over her face, and Ulf had an inkling of an
idea what it was about.
“Sorry about
that,” he said to Christina, “but I don't do two girls at the
same time so you don't have to worry.” But isn't that a lie?
Isn't this cheating on Maria?
She smirked. “I
hope you understand that 'doing' a girl means something else.
Besides, you all that certain she was going to confess?”
So you didn't
catch up on my lie? “You glared. If I wasn't sure before I was
after that.” It wasn't a topic he wanted to spend time on. Instead
he drew her close and let go of all thoughts. Her arms around his
back and her body pressed against his was all that mattered.
I can never
get enough of this. If I didn't know how much I'd hurt your dreams
I'd declare my love for you from the rooftop for the entire school to
hear. He knew he wasn't in the
clear yet, but at least admitting to himself that there were two
women in his heart meant he was moving forward another tiny step.
“Ulf,” she
murmured into his shirt. “do you have some free time around two pm
day after tomorrow?”
Reluctantly he
let go of her. There was something in her eyes, like she had thought
something over and made a decision. If it's important for you.
“If you need me at two pm I'll make time.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
He was rewarded
with a smile that almost made his heart stop.
No comments:
Post a Comment