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Dancing Around In Circles

Two "will they, won't they" very short stories.

By Marie SinadjanPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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Dancing Around In Circles
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Hypothetical

"Hypothetical question," she started to say, leaning forward ever so slightly. "So there's this girl, and she has a guy friend that she really likes. But he doesn't seem to get the hint. Should she go ahead and tell him, so she'll know if he likes her back or not?"

He averted his gaze to his hands, which he'd wrapped around his cup of coffee on the tabletop. "What kind of hints has she been dropping? Maybe she's not doing a very good job at it."

Her cheeks grew flushed. It was a rather chilly morning, and it wasn't helping. "For starters, she spends her morning breaks with him. That's five times a week. Also, her texts have emojis."

He shifted in his seat, sneaking a shy glance at her before looking away again. "Don't all girls text with emojis?"

"This hypothetical girl doesn't."

"But she has a boyfriend," he said, lifting his head so he could look at her in the eyes. His own glistened with a strange sort of light – was it hope?

"I don't know what you're talking about." She was smiling now. "He must be hypothetical."

Photo by Jarritos Mexican Soda on Unsplash

Lunchtime

He hadn't been able to get her off his mind the past few weeks.

"You know that feeling, when you start to see something in a different light?" he asked her one day, during lunch. Ironically, he had no one else to discuss the matter with but the lady in question, since they were best of friends.

She poked at her food. He could almost swear she was trying not to look at him – but then again with women, he could never really be sure. Why did they have to be so complicated? "Something, or someone?"

He laughed nervously. "What makes you think it's a someone?" Oops. He swore viciously inside his head. Did he just give himself away?

She shrugged. "Just asking." Finally she looked at him. "But, yeah, I get that. I used to feel that way about running. It was pretty fun, and then the more we did it, the more it... well, you know, one day I realized I just really liked it."

Oh, you have no idea.

He slowly exhaled, hoping it wasn't obvious that he'd been holding his breath as she spoke.

"So what's really bothering you?"

He hesitated. "I'm not sure how to explain it." He took a page from her book, averting his gaze and poking at his food. "Well, I guess if we use the running scenario... what's next? Do we take it up a notch and start training for marathons? Or do we just keep running, the way we're used to? Option 2's awfully tempting. Because what if we don't really like running that much after all, or if things just don't work out, or-"

"Or what if we stop clinging to the notion of safety and actually give the marathon a try?" She folded her arms and grinned at him smugly from across the table. "Option 1's riskier, but you know what they say. Fortune favors the brave."

He stared into her eyes, and though they were surrounded by all sorts of noise, the silence between them was deafening. A silence that was so loud, he could hear his heart banging on the walls of his chest.

But in those few precious seconds they came to some sort of understanding.

"When do we start?" he asked, smiling.

She gave him the same smile in return. "Dinner?"

Short Story
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About the Creator

Marie Sinadjan

Filipino spec fic author and book reviewer based in the UK. https://linktr.ee/mariesinadjan • www.mariesinadjan.com

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