There’s no rain, there’s no storm,
I don’t dream of leaving
(musings of a Sophie Ellis-Bextor fan)
By
Karl S. Green
(Author’s Note: There are 45 hidden within this story. “45 what?” I hear you cry out. Well, any Sophie fan will be able to figure that out quite quickly…)
It was yet another hot day as Sam made his way through the park as he hurried along to his lecture at the Uni’s main building. It may only have been March, but if it was this hot now he dreaded what things would be like come the summer. But then Sam always dreaded the summer, leaving Uni and the Welsh countryside, and being alone in London for three and a half months, as he had long since lost contact with everyone that he once knew back home.
As he hurried through the park he could see that there were many people enjoying the hot weather. He saw one couple lying in each other’s arms on the grass, and he felt a pain of emptiness inside of him. If only he could find another who he could be close to like that…
He quickly put that out of his mind, he had other things to worry about at the moment. Because of a serious problem with the roof at his flat his landlord had forced him to move out, and he hadn’t even found a new place yet. Then there was this video production that he had to do for his course. It had to go well, as it counted towards a large proportion of his marks for the year. Sam was certainly going to be busy over the next few weeks.
* * * *
Michelle arrived at the lecture early and took her seat. She didn’t normally get to lectures this early, as she normally arrived at a more leisurely pace with her friend and flatmate, Emma. But recently Emma had been spending more time at her boyfriend’s place. Jack and Emma hadn’t been going out for that long, and they were still at the can’t-keep-their-hands-off-each-other stage. Whilst Michelle was happy for her friend she had to admit to herself that she was feeling a little jealous.
She had had a couple of boyfriends whilst she’d been at Uni, but neither of them had worked out. She just wished that she could finally meet the ideal guy for her, and soon.
But there was no time to worry about that, first she had this video production to get through.
* * * *
“Morning.”
“Alright Ed?” Ed had been Sam’s best friend ever since he’d started Uni.
“Yep, I’m fine. Can’t wait until this boring lecture’s over so we can get on with this blasted production. Has he sent round the group lists yet?”
“No, not yet.”
“He” was their lecturer, who had taken it upon himself to assign people to groups, rather than let them sort themselves out into groups. This wasn't going down too well with the class, but everyone had resigned themselves to the fact that there wasn’t much that they could do about it.
Eventually he turned up, and handed out the group lists. “Phew, we’re together,” said Sam, “Along with Simon, Tai, and Michelle.”
“Four guys and one girl? That’s hardly balanced!”
“Well, I’m sure we’ll cope.” Sam had never spoken to the girl in their group before, but he knew who she was, he could hardly miss her. She was, after all, the most gorgeous girl in their class…
* * * *
“Great, I’m going to be surrounded by guys!” Michelle wasn’t exactly thrilled by the idea.
“It’s alright,” said Emma, who had just made it to the lecture on time, “I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
Once everyone had digested the news of what groups they were going to be in, their lecturer went on to explain what it was he wanted from them. “When making your videos you must always remember to keep theaudience in mind. Don’t confuse them with stories that are too complex, or with shots that don’t serve any purpose other than to look ‘flashy’, but don’t patronise them either.”
Tell me something I didn’t know already, thought Michelle.
* * * *
A few weeks later they had settled on the script and were ready to start filming it. It had been decided that Simon and Tai would be appearing in it – it turned out that Simon had quite a talent for acting – along with one of Ed’s friends, Patrick. They were going to be filming in a nearby forest, and, fortunately, the rain of the past few days had held off.
“Looks like we’ve been lucky,” said Ed, “Today the sun's on us. We should be able to get the whole thing filmed by this evening.”
“Well,” said Michelle, “We might if Patrick ever decides to turn up.”
“Look, he’ll be here, alright? He’s never let me down before.”
Sam wasn’t feeling too sure. He’d met Patrick before, and he didn’t consider him to be the most reliable person on the planet.
About ten more minutes passed when Ed’s phone rang. “Alright Patrick, where are you…? You’re kidding me?!” Ed turned to the group, “He’s in Cardiff.”
“Cardiff!” exclaimed Michelle.
Ed held up his hand and turned back to his phone, “What happened…? Well, what were you doing going there for the night, you knew we needed you here…! I guess I could try driving down there to pick you up.”
“Are you mad?” interrupted Michelle, “We want to try and get this thing done today. Unless you’re car’s capable of travelling at supersonic speeds if you drive down there to get him we’ll be lucky to get half of this thing done today! We’re going to have to find someone else, and quickly.”
Sam’s heart was pounding. He’d done everything he could to try and avoid this, but there was nothing for it, “Look, I’ll do it, alright?”
“You sure?” asked Ed.
“Yes,” Sam lied. He didn’t have an acting bone in his body, but he would do his best. Michelle looked at him and smiled, and his heart skipped a beat. I’m going to have to perform my socks off here…
Ed turned back to his phone again, “It’s alright, Sam’s going to step in… OK, I guess I’ll catch you later then.” He then hung up, and turned to the group, “Right then, let’s get this show started.”
* * * *
The rest of the day went well, and they were able to film all of the footage that they needed from the various locations in the forest. It was time for them to return home, and, once again, Ed was leading the way, “I’m sure this is the way out.”
“Look, admit it,” said Michelle, “we’re lost. We’re just going round in circles now.”
“No we’re not! This is definitely the way out!”
“We’ve been down that path twice already! You do what you like, I’m finding my own way out of here.” Michelle then stormed off down the other path, with Simon and Tai following her.
“I guess we’d better join them,” said Sam, “And she’s right, we have been down that path twice already.”
They followed the others, who were now a few metres out in front. “You like her, don’t you?” asked Ed.
“What makes you say that?” Sam was starting to feel a little nervous, but Ed was right. She’d been wonderful all day…
“Well, for starters, you haven’t been able to take you eyes off of her, and you acted your heart out earlier! Don’t try and tell me that you weren’t trying to impress her! So, is she going to be your new flame now?”
“Shut up!” But Sam couldn’t hide it, he did like her.
“So, what are you going to do about it?”
“I don’t know…” Sam had always been a little shy when it came to girls. He rarely had the courage to ask them out for fear of rejection.
“I tell you what, why don’t you come out to the Union with me and the guys tonight. She’ll probably be there…”
“I can’t, I have to write that short story for my creative writing module. It’s just me and my imagination tonight I’m afraid.”
“Look, just leave that for another day, and come out with us tonight. You’ll enjoy yourself! And you might get to talk to her again.”
“I don’t know…” Sam was dreading the idea of going to the Union and not knowing what to do. What if he made a fool of himself?”
“Well, look at it this way. If you don’t go, you might regret it, you’ll be wondering ‘what if I had gone and I had spoken to her again’. But, if you go, you might get to speak to her again, and you never know what might happen. At the very least you won’t have to live with that ‘what if’.”
Sam could see where he was coming from, but he still wasn’t sure. “But places like that just aren’t ‘me’, I’d feel like a fish out of water, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
“It’s alright, I’ll be there with you. You don’t need to worry. Whilst I’m sure that I won't change you, I’m sure I’ll be able to coax you out of your shell a little, just enough to help you along with her. So you’ll come, yeah?”
Sam sighed, “OK then, I’ll come.” What on Earth am I letting myself in for…
* * * *
“Sorry, I just had to come and sit down for a minute. It’s murder on the dancefloor.” By some ‘miracle’ Patrick had made it back in time to join Sam, Ed, and the others at the packed Union. Most of the other guys were dancing and trying chat up various girls, but Sam was just sitting quietly with his drink – he wasn't one for dancing. “Have you seen anyone you like?” asked Patrick.
“No…” Sam had been looking for Michelle all night, but there was no sign of her.
“Well, keep them peeled, buddy! I’m heading back out there!” And with that he was, thankfully, gone.
Sam was starting to regret coming out, it seemed like tonight was going to be a complete waste of time. He could have got that story done tonight and out of the way, but now he was going to be behind and he’d have to rush it tomorrow.
Whilst he was trying to plot the story out in his mind (he was thinking up a story where a mysterious figure appears out of thin air and, “Christmas Carol” style, helps a guy out with his problems) his mind was quickly distracted when Michelle came in with her friends. She was looking particularly gorgeous, wearing a short black halter-neck dress and heels. But, now that she was here, what was he going to do?
He quickly found where Ed was and went over to him. “She’s here!”
“Well, what are you waiting for? Go up and talk to her!” Ed then turned back to the others, who were all dancing in a group with their arms over each other’s shoulders.
Sam had no idea what to say to Michelle and needed some advice, “Ed, can you just leave the others alone for a minute, and come and sit down with me…”
* * * *
Michelle was fortunate to grab a table that had just been vacated. She didn’t know why she had let Emma talk her into going out tonight, and these heels were a mistake after all that walking through the forest earlier.
No sooner had she sat down with her drink then Emma was reaching out to her with her arm to try and get her to dance.
“No! I’m not up to it!”
“Come on!”
“I’m sorry, I just can’t get into the groove…”
* * * *
“…Jet was my favourite Gladiator.” Sam didn’t know why Patrick had decided to join him and Ed, or why he was rambling on about 90’s television.
“That’s good mate,” said Ed, “although I always preferred Vogue, but then Lighting was alright as well.”
“You’re not wrong there! Right, I’m going to act like a Wolf and hunt down a girl!”
“Great! You do that!” And with that Patrick left them. “That guy and alcohol are never a good combination. Anyway, now that he’s gone, let’s talk about you. I think that what you need to do is bite the bullet, and just go up to her and ask her to dance.”
“That’s easier said than done!”
“Well, it’s always hard when you’re not used to doing these things. But, nothing ventured, nothing gained, my friend.”
Sam took a deep breath, “You’re right. I’ve got to do this.”
“That’s my man!”
At that point Sam saw her get up to go to the bar. “Now’s your chance!” urged Ed, “Go on!”
Sam stood up and made his way across to her. He got up behind her at the bar and said “Alright,” but she didn’t react. He walked round to the side and said “Alright” again, but she just ordered her drink. Dejected, he wandered back over to Ed.
“What happened?”
“She just blanked me.”
“I’m sure she didn’t mean to. Look, the music’s loud in here, she probably just didn’t hear you.”
“I dunno…” Suddenly, all of Sam’s newly found courage had evaporated.
* * * *
Michelle sat back down with her drink as she started to think if she should head back home. Emma came back over to sit with her. “You’re full of energy tonight!” Michelle said.
“Well, what can I say? Music gets the best of me.”
“And how’s Jack?”
“He’s great. Although he’s having a hard time trying to calm his friend Patrick down.”
Michelle looked over towards Jack, and saw that he was dealing with the same Patrick that was meant to have appeared in her video. They both came over to join them.
“Michelle,” said Jack, “You couldn’t help me out with this guy could you?”
“And how might I do that?”
Patrick then said, “Why don’t you dance with me?”
“Er, sorry, no.”
“Why not?”
“I’m sorry, but I won't dance with you.”
“Oh come on! Just one dance!”
“Go on!” encouraged Emma, “He’s alright once you get to know him.”
Patrick gave Michelle a cheeky smile, and, for some reason, she didn’t quite know why, she got up to dance.
* * * *
Michelle was finding it difficult to dance as her feet were starting to kill her. “You’re not much of a dancer are you?” said Patrick.
“Well, I’m sorry, but if I can't dance, I hardly think you can!” He was finding it hard to control his feet, and had nearly kicked her a couple of times.
“Sorry, I think we’d better sit down.”
“I think you’re probably right.”
They went back down to their seats. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it back in time for you video.”
“That’s OK, we managed.”
“I really wanted to be there, but my cousins were down in Cardiff and I hadn’t seen them for so long. And then my coach back was cancelled and I was stuck.”
“It’s fine, I understand.”
“But I was really looking forward to it. I was really looking forward to working with you…” He held her hands and looked into her eyes.
There was a strange warmth in his eyes, and before she knew what she was doing, she kissed him. And, as she did so, she could hear Emma behind her saying to Jack, “Oh dear, what have we started now…”
* * * *
Sam saw the whole thing, and his heart shattered.
“I’m sorry mate,” said Ed.
“Yeah, well, I never had much of a chance anyway…”
* * * *
“Ow!” said Michelle at breakfast the next day, “It feels like I have a party in my head.”
“Well, you did have a fair bit to drink young lady!” said Emma. “And how did things end up between you and Patrick?” She had a cheeky glint in her eyes.
“Nothing like that happened!” Michelle knew exactly what Emma was thinking, “We were both a bit tipsy, and I wouldn’t go there when we’re both like that.” But there was something about Patrick, something exciting, something that she wanted to explore a bit more.
“So,” said Emma, “will you be, how can I put this, ‘making music’ together any time soon?”
“Well, er, I wouldn’t put it like that, but I am seeing him again tonight, so we’ll see…”
* * * *
Sam felt terrible. Last night, before he went out, he had been excited by the possibility that maybe, just maybe, things may have worked out between him and Michelle. What he hadn’t expected was to see her sucking face with Patrick of all people.
“Chin up, mate,” said Ed at breakfast, “It’s not the end of the world.”
But for Sam it may as well have been.
* * * *
That night Michelle went with Patrick to a club in town. She didn’t particularly like this club, but she was prepared to brave it once more to find out if there could be anything between her and Patrick.
As they went in Patrick saw some friends of his and went over to talk to them. “So,” said one of them, “Is this the Michelle you were telling us about?”
“It certainly is!”
Michelle started to feel uncomfortable as his friends started to ogle her up and down. She tried to put them out of her mind, and she told Patrick, “I’d like a drink…”
“Well, you get yours, and I’ll come and join you in a minute.”
Michelle was taken aback – this wasn't the Patrick that she had seen last night. It was then she realised that she had been looking through beer goggles then. But maybe there was still some hope yet.
She got herself a drink and came back over to Patrick and his friends, who were still perving on her. One of them said, “You’ve hit the jackpot with this one, Pat!”
“Yeah, I know,” and he lent in to kiss her, but she felt decidedly uncomfortable about this. This is not what she thought tonight would be like. This was wrong, and she had to get out.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I should have come out tonight. Would you be able to take me home?”
“But we only just got here babe, relax!” He then placed his hand on her rear and she instinctively backed off.
His friends all went “Ooooooo!”
“What’s wrong with you tonight?” said Patrick.
“I’m just not feeling too well, I just want to go home.”
The friend that talked about Patrick hitting the jackpot then said, “It’s alright, you can relax. Pat’s told us everything, about you not being experienced and all.”
“I’m sorry?”
“You know, about you not being that great a lover last night.”
She turned to Patrick, and had an astonished look on her face, “You told them we’d slept together?”
“Babe, look, I can explain!”
“Don’t ‘babe’ me!” She looked at him in disgust, “I don’t know what I saw in you!”
Patrick paused for a minute, and then said, “Yeah, well, you should be grateful! I have girls fighting each other over me, but I chose you. So what if I embellished a little to my mates? All guys do it!”
“No they don’t! You really are up yourself, aren’t you? Girls fighting over you? In your dreams, mate! Do you think that the universe is you?”
“Right, now you’ll be sorry. You’re dumped!”
“Dumped? We were hardly even going out in the first place! Do you think that you’re God’s gift? Do you think that I won’t be able to get over you?” And with that, barely even thinking about it, she threw her drink in his face. “I wouldn’t sleep with you if the survival of the human race depended on it, creep!”
She then turned, and, without looking at anyone else, stormed out of the club. It wasn’t until she was outside that she allowed the tears to flow.
* * * *
Sam had just finished filling up the last box when the doorbell rang. He went to answer it, where Ed was waiting. “Alright mate? All packed?”
“Yeah, just about. Come in.” Sam hated having to move all of his stuff. He had had to move a few times already since he’d come to Uni, and he was starting to get sick of it.
They went into Sam’s room where a huge number of full (and heavy) boxes were waiting. “How come you’ve managed to acquire so much junk?”
“It’s not junk! It’s mainly my video collection!”
“Well, you should get around to copying them to DVDs”
“I would if I could afford a DVD recorder. But until then these will just have to suffice. Hopefully this will be the final move that I have to do and, after it, I can just settle down and relax.”
“Alright then, I suppose we’d better get on and move this mountain. By the way, quite by chance, I bumped into Emma, Michelle’s friend, this morning. She told me that things between Michelle and Patrick didn’t work out. I think the phrase ‘sexist pig’ was used. Things aren’t doomed for you yet, my friend.”
Sam’s heart skipped a beat. So she’s single again… “Yeah, alright, but what am I going to do? It was hard enough going up to her in the Union the other night, I don’t think I could muster the courage to do it again.”
“But how do you feel about her? You do still like her, right?”
“Well, yeah I do. I do like her, a lot, she’s wonderful. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her! Ever since we did that video I think I’ve gone beyond just liking her. I don’t know if it’s love… It is love, isn’t it?”
“It’s not for me to tell you what you’re feeling. But you’re going to have to do something about it.”
“But what?”
“Well I believe that you should just tell her how you feel and ask her out. Well, maybe not declare your undying love for her, but a least let her know that you’re interested in her.”
“I hear where you’re coming from, but that’d be really nerve racking. I have no idea what she thinks of me. What if she turns me down? I am not good at handling rejection, I am not good at not getting what I want.”
“Well, look at it this way. If you do tell her, and ask her out, and she turns you down, at least you’ll know what she thinks – years later you won’t be going ‘Oh what if I had told her’. And, you never know, she might say ‘yes’. But if you don’t tell her, if you don’t ask her out, you can pretty much guarantee that nothing will happen between you two. What you need to do is to try and find an opportunity to talk to her on her own. Now I know that may not be easy, but we can try and find a way to arrange it. And, then, once everything falls into place, you can just tell her, and then you’ll know one way or another.”
Sam mulled this over for a moment, but with a great feeling of dread coming over him. “I know what you’re saying, I know that I should be doing something like that, but, like I said, I’m not very good at taking rejection. It’s like I have a china heart – it has to be handled with care otherwise it’ll break easily.”
“Oh, for goodness sake!” Ed snapped, “Why do you have to be so pessimistic?”
“Well, at least a pessimist is never disappointed…”
“Yeah, and never satisfied either! You want to play it safe, but you also want Michelle. Well, you can't have it all. Sometimes in life you just have to take a chance. You have to get on and do this, and do it soon. Love is here today, my friend. Don’t keep putting it off for fear of rejection. You’ll never be happy that way. You don’t know that she wouldn’t be interested in you, and there’s only one way to find out…”
“But still, going up to her after what happened before…”
Ed sighed, “OK, maybe you don’t have to go up to her. Do you still have her number stored in your phone?”
They had all swapped numbers back when they had found out that they would be working together on their video production. “Yeah, I’ve still got it.”
“Right then, here’s what you can do, you can give her a call and arrange to meet up with her sometime. You don’t have to ask her out on a date now, just tell her that you want to discuss the video or something. Then, once you’re there, you two will be alone, and, if things feel right, if you’re getting a positive vibe from her, you can tell her how you feel.”
Sam sighed, he knew Ed wasn’t going to let him get away with doing nothing. And he was right, he had to do something otherwise this was just going to drive him crazy. “Alright, I’ll call her.” He took out his phone and looked her up in his contacts list. He found her name, and pressed the button to dial. “Here goes everything…”
Her phone started to ring, and she quickly answered it. “Hello…? Hello?” Sam froze, he didn’t know what to say, and so he panicked and hung up.
“What did you just do?” asked Ed.
“My mind just went blank, I didn’t know what to say…”
“Well, that went great then. Now she’s going to think that you’re stalking her! Never mind, maybe she’ll call you back and you can just say that you’ve got bad reception or something.”
They waited a few minutes, but she didn’t call.
“OK then,” said Ed, “Plan B… But this time, leave it to me.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll sort it. But it’s probably best that I don’t tell you what it is, there’s less chance of it going wrong then.”
“Ed, I don’t like the sound of this…”
“It’ll be fine. Trust me…”
* * * *
Michelle walked down the path towards Sam’s new place. She had been a bit perplexed when Ed called her about the change in plans. Instead of using one of the Uni’s edit suites they were to look over the footage they’d filmed over at Sam’s place instead. Apparently the edit suites had all been booked out, which seemed strange as she was sure that Ed had booked one ages ago. But she didn’t have the energy to argue, and so she just agreed to the new plan.
She went up to the door and rang the bell.
* * * *
Sam got a start when the bell rang – he wasn’t expecting anyone. He went to answer the door and couldn’t believe who was there. “Michelle, hi…”
“Hi, are you all set up and ready to go?”
“Ready to go?”
“Yeah, you know, to look over the footage that we filmed.”
“Footage?”
“Er, yeah, Ed told me that all of the edit suites were booked, so we were going to look over the footage here. He did tell you, didn’t he?”
Sam twigged, this was what Ed was planning. He felt that some advanced warning would have been nice, but then realised that if he had told him about it he would have tried to talk Ed out of it. “Oh, yes, of course, come in. Sorry, I’m half asleep today.”
“That’s alright.” She smiled her winning smile at him as she came in, causing that warm feeling to well up inside of him again.
* * * *
She went into the living room. Sam went towards the kitchen and said, “I’ll just get us something to drink. Would you like tea or coffee?”
“Coffee please, white with one.”
“Coming up.”
The shelves were full of videos, and he had quite a varied collection. There were films from all over the world, with quite a large amount by Akira Kurosawa, such as “Rashomon” and “Seven Samurai”, as well as both series of Lars von Trier’s “The Kingdom”. He had some unusual films there as well, such as “Koyaanisqatsi” and “Un Chien Andalou”. There were also a number of Hitchcock films, such as “North By Northwest”, “Psycho”, “Easy Virtue”, and “The Birds”, and next to them were some Charlie Chaplin ones, such as “The Great Dictator”, “A King in New York”, “City Lights”, and “Modern Times”. All in all, it was quite an impressive collection.
Sam came back in with the drinks. “Thanks,” she said as she took hers. “By the way, did you try to call me the other day?”
“Sorry?”
“My phone rang and it was your name on the display, but when I answered you didn’t say anything and just hung up.”
“Oh, right… I think I must have forgotten to lock the keypad when I put it in my pocket, it must have called you when some of the buttons were pressed accidentally.”
“OK, that makes sense.”
* * * *
Sam then said, “Would you like to sit down? I don’t know how much longer the others will be.” And he genuinely didn’t – he still wasn’t quite sure as to what Ed was planning, and whether or not the others were going to be coming at all.
“Nice video collection,” she said.
“Thanks, I’ve been recording stuff of TV for years, although I hardly ever get time to watch any of them.”
“I see you’ve got both series of ‘The Kingdom’.”
“Yeah, have you seen it?”
“Yep, they were much better than the American remake. Do you know if they’re ever going to get around to making a third series of it – the original I mean?”
“Probably not, I’d read on the internet that some of the cast members have died since the last series. Whilst there were scripts written for the final series, it’s unlikely they’ll ever get made.”
“That’s a shame, especially considering how the last series ended!”
“I know!” Sam then realised what was happening – he was having a perfectly normal conversation with Michelle, and he wasn't in the least bit nervous.
“I’ll just give Ed a call, find out when he’s going to be here.”
“OK,” although Sam knew that Ed probably wouldn’t be coming.
* * * *
“He’s had to cancel, would you believe it. Apparently his car’s broken down out of town, and Simon and Tai are with him.”
“Oh dear, shall we leave this for another time then?”
“Yeah, it’s probably best if we did.”
They both stood up. “So, what are you going to be doing for the rest of the day?”
“I don’t know, I’ve got nothing planned.” And she hadn’t, she was up to date on all of her work, and she had been planning to spend the rest of the day going through this footage.
“Well, I don’t suppose you’d like to go for a walk, or something…” He looked at her and smiled. There was warmth to his smile, a real, genuine warmth, not at all like Patrick’s smile…
“Yes, why not, I’d love to.”
* * * *
They’d been walking through the countryside for a good few hours now, and Sam was amazed at how well things were going, they were getting on really well. He was even more amazed that he had been able to ask her out on this walk, and he was so glad that he had. The walk had been quite pleasant, even if it was a cloudy day which seemed to be threatening rain.
“So,” he said, “my first year in Halls was a bit strange for me, it was a bit of a mixed up world, meeting all sorts of people from across the country, and a guy from China as well. Then I’ve had to move three times this year – the first time because my landlord went bust. The second time because the neighbours were completely intolerable, and finally again this week because of a serious problem with the roof, but hopefully I can stay put now.”
“Poor you! I bet you’ll be glad to be back in Halls again next year.”
“Absolutely!” Sam stopped walking and looked into her eyes. Things were going so well, and it was time to take another leap of faith… “Michelle, would you like to go to dinner with me sometime?”
She smiled her winning smile at him again, “Yes, of course I will.”
Sam’s heart lifted, “You have no idea I’ve been longing to ask you that!”
“Really? I didn’t realise that you liked me in that way…”
“Well, now you do. Michelle, I love everything about you. Your laugh, your smile, the way that your eyes sparkle. I’ve been thinking about you for ages now, it’s as though the walls keep saying your name. You’re wonderful, I think I’d be nowhere without you now…”
* * * *
Michelle was genuinely flattered, she had no idea that Sam felt this way about her. But, after the past couple of hours, getting to know him better, she was beginning to feel the same way.
“Was that a bit much?” he asked.
“No, it’s fine,” she smiled at him to reassure him. And it was fine. He was obviously a little shy and nervous, but he was a sweetheart. “You’re not too bad yourself. And now that the distance between us is no more, I think things are going to be good from now on.” Yes, Sam was certainly no Patrick.
He hugged her, and she hugged him back, and he felt so secure when she did. At that moment the sun came out from behind the clouds.
“Look!” she said, as they looked out across the scenery, the sun lighting up the unspoilt countryside before them. The whole place felt alive. “Do you think it’s a sign?”
“Well, yeah, it may be. I mean, is it any wonder that someone up there is looking out for us? After all of this time, we’ve finally found each other.” He then looked deep into her eyes, and kissed her, and nothing before had felt so lovely…
* * * *
They then went home, with the songs in their hearts. There was no rain, there was no storm, and the songs never left them, for the rest of their lives.
