She has forgotten the taste of kisses, but she doesn't mind it.
The day is hot and sluicing down her shoulders. She chances a glance at the man, a bit taller than her, striding alongside her with his umbrella tilted towards her side. Protective. She bites back a smile, and elbows him lightly, snapping him out of his reverie.
"What's on your mind? You're brooding. Regretting coming along with me today?"
He blushes, sheepish, rubs the back of his neck and gestures vaguely into the distance. She follows his line of sight, and spots a little shiba inu barking happily on the picnic area in front of them. The answering grin on his face is endearing, the love in his eyes gentle.
"I got distracted by the shiba there. I'm a dog person, stop teasing me," is what he replies with, and their knuckles brush against each other's. "Bet you're a cat person."
"What if I am?"
"You're missing out. See this?" He runs over, bends down and threads his fingers through the dog's fur. It yips eagerly under his touch. "They're way more friendly. Cats can be so aloof sometimes. They don't give you the time of day, you know?"
"It's the fun of the chase," and here she crouches beside him, scratches the soft underbelly of the dog's neck. The dog glances up at her, and she imagines its gaze seems quizzical, its round, watery eyes blinking rapidly. "Dogs are way too easy to tame. Cats are a challenge. I like that."
—
She loves sunsets. The idea of days ending in a beautiful explosion.
"Do you believe in true love?" she asks.
It's their first date, and he's been sweet so far. He's packed them drinks and snacks, a whole picnic laid out in front of them. It's his first first date in three years. It's her third first date in a month.
"Define true love."
"Well, people talk about the concept of soulmates. Of individuals being destined for each other. Of everyone searching for the one."
He's hesitant at first, but her eyes are encouraging. Slowly, the clouds are drifting across the sky, and they taint the pristine sky with their cloud-red, cloud-orange, cloud-purple, and they mingle with the taste of the summer breeze. His lips part and unpart like the petals of a flower.
"No, not really," he begins, fiddling with his knuckles. She nods, saying nothing. "It's limiting, the concept of true love. If you keep thinking you're only slated to fall in love with one person, then you're never going to explore or see each new person you meet in a different light. And people fall for each other in strange ways."
"Ed Sheeran lyric," she interjects, and he laughs - "Not quite, but okay."
"So what I'm saying is, we are all capable of loving everyone. Just in varying degrees. Why restrict yourself to one 'soulmate'? Why not go out there, and try everything, just for the sake of it?"
She breathes in a deep, deep breath of fresh air. Their hands brush again, and then finally intertwine, the movement seamless as the waves lapping at the harbour side. Her agreement is silent, in the form of the smile that stretches across her face as she looks, and looks, and looks at him.
She could come to love him. The thought briefly ignites in her mind then gets snuffed out like a candle, by the setting sun that pierces its rays through cloud cover.
—
He doesn't know who she is. He is better off not knowing.
They get lost on their way back, finding aimless circles through the park and back into the savagery of city life, where she almost gets careened over by a car if it weren't for his arm around her waist.
"You weren't lying when you said you were careless, hm?"
Lilting, his voice is young and high, excited, worried. The opposite of what she's used to, low seductive voices, smooth and dark, entrapping. She laces her fingers through his again, and thinks about another time, where her own heart was enslaved to fingers that felt like gossamer.
"Well, why does it matter? You're here to take care of me today."
She grins, bright, fierce, unyielding. She sees the beginning of a flower blooming in his eyes. It is not hard to get what she wants, she knows. It's keeping her spoils that becomes the hard part.
A guide dog passes them, leading its owner by the reins.
