She buries her hands in her front and angles her knees to the side, a Shirley Temple like move if I’ve ever seen one. And it’s the first time I’ve seen a young woman sporting pigtails in…forever.
Her short pink skirt shows off her athletic legs, and her white T-shirt with sparkles and a galloping pony on it say it all.
“Hi there,” she says, her tone playful and absolutely completing this little girl that I see in front of me. My heart does a backflip and I feel my pulse in my neck.
“You look adorable,” I say, using the word ‘adorable’ for the first time in my life. Ever. It’s not even a word that would even cross my mind, yet it flows out so naturally, like water down a stream.
“Thank you.” She pauses. “Where are we going?”
“That’s none of your business,” I say completely serious, but with a playful look in my eye.
“Oh,” she says, her eyebrows shooting up.
“When you’re with me there’s no need to think. I’ve got everything covered, always.” I pause. “Not to mention thinking isn’t something that little girls should be worried about.”
“We’re walking though, right?” she asks, a bit of fear in her eye and this new vibe that’s shooting through me stutters, and I’m flashed back into reality. “I’m afraid of driving.”
And just like that…it’s back.
It was like she was snapping out of this different version of herself and back into the hardened girl I’ve been trying to make progress with.
“No driving. Only walking, but I’ll take the side closest to the street to keep you safe…”
“Diana,” she says, the sound of her name light and musical, and her eyes dance in merriment as she finally reveals her identity. “And you?”
“Da…niel,” I say, my name getting stuck on the tip of my tongue for reasons I can’t explain. It’s like there was another word that wanted to come out, one I’ve never spoken to another person before, but it was right there yet for some reason I couldn’t quite say it.
“Is it far?”
“Don’t worry, little one. I’ll make sure everything is okay.”
“But my shoes?” she says, her lower lip rolling upward and out as I look down in time to see her toes also pointing up toward the sky in some open toed shoes, her toenails carefully painted with hearts and unicorns. How is that even possible on such a small area?
“Do you have tennis shoes?”
She nods, a big smile covering her face. “Let me change real quick.”
She darts back over into her apartment and I can’t resist the urge to follow her, to get a glimpse inside her world, her private space, her life.
As she’s turned away, pulling socks out of a duffel bag, my eyes scan her room quickly, trying to avoid getting caught.
I can’t help but lock onto the fact that the room is barren, she’s sleeping on a futon and my fists clench. She doesn’t deserve this, not to ever spend another night like this in her life, and I’m going to fix this. Today.
But my eyes narrow as I notice something sitting on the futon now…a row of stuffed animals, all lined up almost like they’re playing with one another.
“Ready,” she says, taking a big step toward me and sticking the landing with two feet, like Mary Lou Retton at the 1984 Olympics.
“We’re off,” I say, imagining what she’d look like when that tight little top of hers comes off, her pert nipples sharp as class cutters making me wonder how they haven’t cut through the fabric yet.
And she’s not the only one.
I’ve never been this hard in my entire life. Ever.
Sure, I’m a warm-blooded male, but I’ve never had time for dating, which is one thing, but this is something more than that. Something I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s something about what she does to me, the way she makes me feel.
It’s slightly confusing yet entirely illuminating at the same moment, as if I’ve been living in the dark my entire life up until her.
We walk and talk on the way to the coffee shop and in what seems like one minute flat, but in reality has to be at least twenty, we arrive.