The Inner Castle

The following morning I was up early. Taking advantage of the cool weather, I went for a nice easy run. The time alone, as my body went to auto pilot, running along effortlessly, gave me plenty of time to work out some rough ideas on what I would do next. My energy level and attitude were sky high, but I knew that I needed to rein myself in. Any mistake at this point would be catastrophic. Too fast and she would shut me out of her flat and her life.

Stopping at the coffee shop across the street I put two coffees on my tab and headed back up. I heard the water running in the shower so I put the coffees on the kitchen counter and went to get out of my sweaty shirt.

Sitting down at the counter, I started to read the paper and enjoy my coffee. Soon she came out of the bathroom, a towel rapped around her body. “Coffee?” she asked. I pointed to hers silently. I watched her smile as she picked it up, thanking me saying “your the best”. Then she retreated to the doorway to lean on the doorframe, crossing her legs. I sat there staring at her for a second, thinking how fucking gorgeous she was. Standing there sipping her coffee in nothing but a towel. “What” she inquired. Lowering my eyes back to the paper “oh nothing” I lied. “What are you up to today? It being Saturday.”

Blowing on her coffee she looked at me across the top of the cup. Again I couldn’t help thinking how everything she did was sexy as fuck. I took a drink to create a pause in the conversation. Perhaps that is what she had been doing also. Creating a pause so that she could try to puzzle out where I was going with this. This game of chess was just getting started and it was her move.

She didn’t say anything for the longest time, standing there drinking her coffee and looking at me. I was beginning to panic, tapping my foot under the counter. Trying to look as nonchalant as I could. In the end she didn’t answer, but simply thanked me again for the coffee, turned, and went back into the bathroom. “That was her move! What the hell?” How was I going to do anything with that?

Still her smile had been genuine, her easiness with me being there, were good signs. I decided to take this as a small victory, perhaps left over from the evening before.

All those plans though, that I thought I had hatched, dissolved into memories, relegated to that area of the brain used for useless data. I was stumped, her wall, that I thought I had breached, was being rebuilt. She wasn’t going to let me in that easily. I was going to need help.

Asking any emotionally deficient man was definitely out of the question. If it wasn’t a conversation about some sport then you weren’t going to get any viable answers. So, what member of the opposite sex could I turn to for help? My mom? Hell no! All she would do is tell me to buy her some flowers. As if it were that easy! My sister? Maybe, at least she would be able to understand the gravity of the situation. Her hippie-ish nature might be just what was needed. Though it was risky. I texted her an S.O.S., otherwise it might have been a week before she would have thought to answer.

Kris is one of those women that other women are drawn to. Her unassuming style and down to earth demeanor making it easy to like her. They also don’t feel threatened by her for some reason. Even though men flock to her like moths to a flame. Occasionally there are some women that feel an immediate dislike. Mostly women with some kind of self image problem. Kris’s confidence somehow pointing out their lack of it. So even though I knew she did not lack in confidence, there was still a chance that she might not like Kris or her hippie ways.

Worlds were going to collide.

Kris told me that she needed to wrap a few thing up and that then she could head my way. Maybe as soon as next week. I just needed to survive until then.

The first hurdle, and maybe the biggest one, was how do I bring Kris into the picture? She didn’t even know I had a sister, let alone that she was coming.

It was about this time that she came out of the bedroom, dressed and ready to go out. For a moment I thought that she was going to ask me to do something with her. Ya know, something that normal couples do on a Saturday. Like go look for a pumpkin to carve. But no, she blew me off with a quick “I’m going out” and left me sitting there looking like the chump I felt like.

Again I thought “Is she worth all this crap” already knowing the answer. Of course she was worth it. All this and a thousand times this. I wasn’t going anywhere. In time, she would come around. Hopefully.