Those Were The Days!

[This story is the 3rd part of a continuing tale. You can find the Part 1 titled One Summer Day and Part 2 titled That First Meeting when you click on the links].

Anna and Dave passed each other on their morning runs almost every day after that first meeting. But neither stopped to talk, they just waved to each other and continued on their run. For some reason, Anna always felt disappointed that he did not stop to talk to her. After all, he had asked her when they could meet again. Did he not mean it when he asked if they would meet again?  Maybe she was just assuming things. The way he waved at her and ran in the opposite direction, it felt as though, he didn’t seem to care for her presence. At least if he had brought Sally along, she could stop to pet the dog and make some conversation to Dave in the process. But he was running alone, without Sally, all these days.

Oh well! Maybe I just assumed he was interested! Anna thought to herself. She resolved to take him off her mind. It didn’t do her any good to dwell on something that was never to be. He was far out of her league, according to her. Next morning Anna took a different route for her run, as expected, she did not pass Dave on this route. She decided it best to take the new route every day.

A few days later, Anna and Dave met again. This time she was in her campus among her friends when she spotted a familiar face in the distance. Upon taking a closer look, she recognized the familiar face as Dave. Her heart skipped a beat as he smiled and walked up to her. She heard her friends swoon over his looks and giggle. She rolled her eyes at them and asked them to shut up.

“Ms. Brown, we meet again!” Dave said as he held out his hand grinning.

Anna shook his hand, smiled and said “Hi, Dave! What brings you to campus?”

“Oh, you don’t know? Well, I am heading the search party”

“Search party? For what?” Anna asked surprised

“I was quite convinced that you were missing since I didn’t see you on the morning run this whole week!” he said trying to sound very serious. “My first stop, of course, was the campus. If I didn’t find you here, I would’ve had to file a missing person’s report!”

“Lucky for you, your first stop seems to be the right place to look!” Anna said playing along

Just then Anna’s friends happened upon them and invited the pair to the cafeteria to join the group. Before Anna could reply, Dave said “Sorry guys, I will have to separate Anna from you this afternoon. I am taking her out to lunch!”

Anna’s friends eyed her suspiciously for she had the most shocked expression ever! Dave turned to look at Anna, concerned, he added, “Is that OK? Did you think I was joking?”

Anna looked at him, and quietly said, “That’s OK.”

Dave’s face lit up in a thousand volts smile at her response. Her friends smiled at her, waved goodbye and walked off in the direction of the cafeteria. Anna did not know how to react to everything that had just transpired so she simply stared at him; in response he took her hand in his and kissed it.

They decided to grab a quick lunch at a restaurant nearby because Anna had classes in the afternoon, but ended up spending the entire afternoon together because neither wanted to part.

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Dave then formally asked Anna out for a dinner date. “I think it is incumbent upon me to formally ask you to dinner, especially after the way I shocked you into accepting my lunch invitation” he said amused remembering her reaction from that morning.

“Yes, I believe you should formally ‘ask’ me rather than letting me know like you did this morning!” Anna replied embarrassed at her reaction from before.

“Well then, Ms. Brown, may I request the pleasure of your company for dinner this evening?”

“You may!” Anna replied and they both burst out laughing.

Dave then held Anna in his arms and looked into her beautiful brown eyes. He moved a stray lock of hair from her forehead with his finger before bringing his lips down on hers kissing her fervently.

The memories of those initial days brought a smile to Anna’s face. He had seemed perfect to her eyes, always so charming! Even now, she thought of those days with fondness. Was this at all possible that one could be so lost in love so as to not see through a person? Anna thought. Well, she was a classic example that it was indeed possible.

Anna took a deep breath and sighed. She looked at little Josh who was now sleeping sound in the in-flight bassinet, it was going to be a long flight of 15 hours and they had been air-borne for only an hour. She had another 14 hours to kill before landing in JFK Airport. Lying back down on her seat, she stretched her legs and closed her eyes. She wondered if Dave was back home from work, if he had figured that she left. How would he react? What would he do? She pushed the thoughts out of her mind. She did not have the energy to think about that now, this was something she would think about later!