The icy wind stroked her face. Her coat pockets were stuffed with used handkerchiefs and her eyes were scratched. On any other day, she would have been lovingly on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate, but not now. Her heart beat in her throat. He had called her and asked if she could come to him.
A month ago she was sitting on a terrace with a friend after a lunch appointment. They were choking when a man came running and started talking to her. This had to be that friend who would come later, but how did he know who she was? Curiously she looked around where her friend had gone. Did she already come back from the toilet? And who was this incredibly nice gentleman? From the first moment she felt that she had known him for a long time.
Many drinks and laughter later she actually had to go home, but the man who had sat at the table with them remained fascinated. She did not want to leave yet. It had been a long time since she had been laughing at a man, and the tension continued to build up. They also had to catch a train and her stomach was again thundering hunger. "Let's have something to eat together" he said with a smiling face when he saw that she was about to go. "That must be another time", she laughed, "I still have to work."
When she sat at her desk at home she became restless. Why actually? It had been a nice afternoon and she still had time enough to meet her deadline. Where did that unrest come from? Suddenly she realized that she had not given her phone number. How was she supposed to see him again? Nothing and no one had seen them around them and the confused look on his face betrayed that he had experienced the same.
That same evening her phone rang, an unknown number. Nervously she picked up. It was the man that afternoon. He had invited her to a restaurant the next evening, but did not show up. How sad and bad she had been. How could it be that she had such a good feeling with someone, but that it had not been mutual. Had he lied when he told the phone about his surprise about their meeting? Why then had he bothered to call her and open up his feelings? But now that he had called again, she knew for sure that he could not have forgotten her.
With red fingers calling from the cold she tried to lock her bike on a lamp post. She could fix it best, because she would not leave this house that day. While she was at the lock, he came up the gallery. Nonchalant, as in all his movements, he hung over the balustrade and looked at her. She was intensely aware of his presence, it almost seemed like she could smell his aftershave.
Nervously she walked up the stairs to his apartment, waiting in the doorway. He put his hand on her shoulder as he led her to his living room. At the dinner table she found the biggest and most delicious dinner she had ever seen. "I have something to make up for, that I just let you walk," he whispered hoarsely, before his lips landed on her lips. Quasi angry she jerked loose from his embrace. "If you let me walk that is your choice," she laughed with a flicker in her eyes, "But first I want to get warm and eat." She stood on her tiptoes, put her arms around his neck and kissed his neck. She realized that she could trust her intuition. It felt good, it was good