Dahlia Grace, a 22 year old ambitious young woman, is on her way to begin a new life after having just graduated from college.
She has the perfect job, the perfect apartment and the perfect friends.
But she is hiding something. Her grievous pas...
"So when exactly are you going to tell me where we're going? " I asked Mark, who still hadn't revealed the location of our first date, making me very anxious.
Mark, though, knew how to be a perfect gentleman. He had complimented me the moment he'd met with me on the street. Though I doubt it was forced. Or at least hoped so.
He had then led me through the heavy New York crowd, despite the stormy weather, to this lovely neighborhood which was filled with aged brick buildings, decorated lavishly yet elegantly, with little golden lights and hung on the walls were colorful and evidently fresh climbing roses. The whole scene was beautiful.
The street was quite empty, but not fully so. I spotted another couple, in their middle 30's probably, walking down the street earlier and a couple of children playing hopscotch down the road. We came to a halt near one of the old brick buildings, five storeys high and had a bottle green plate on its front which said 'Julio's Pizza Place.' This storeyed structure too was lit up with the lights and garnished with flowers.
It seemed lovely, and the fact that he hadn't taken me to some rich snobby place to boast showed how thoughtful he must've been.
"I love it." I said, beaming.
"I'm glad you do, because you haven't even seen the best part of it yet." He replied, excitedly and I had to laugh at his cuteness.
We entered the place and the guy there directed us upstairs, on a spiral black metal staircase that ran through the body of the whole building.
Once we were on the top, I was faced with a set of closed double doors. After that, the man at the restaurant left us alone.
"Ready?" Mark whispered and I nodded my head swiftly.
He gave the double doors a push and led me out onto the marvelous and splendidly done balcony. It was so beautiful that tears welled up in my eyes.
There was a table for two lodged in the center of the area and was of course, candle lit. There were strings of deep red roses all along the walls, and the open side gave out to the view of a very beautiful skyline of Manhattan, as never seen before, by me at least.
The snow was drizzling lightly around us and the flooring was covered in a thin sheet of snow.
There were lights put up all around the yard and soft music was playing in the background. It was so much more than perfect. It was magical.
As we sat down on the table, a waiter came upstairs, took our orders and left. And the best part about it? I didn't have to eat some salad or small piece of meat to get such an amazing location. I got to have pizza!
We talked and laughed the entire night. I told him about my life and he told me about his. Both of us turned out to be extremely good listeners as well as talkers. Later, after desert, we danced on one of the slow songs for a while and it was the most personalized, caring and romantic gesture I had ever encountered in my entire life." I said finishing my story for the very two eager listeners- Emma and Charles.
They cooed together and then Em popped the most needed question, "Did you kiss him?"
"Well actually he did, but it was amazingly ridiculous. It felt so right, you know?" I replied dreamily and I blushed on recalling the endearing events of last night.
"So what happened next?" she asked enthusiastically.
"I'll tell you what happens after that, because it is so much more interesting in my point of view." Says Andrew suddenly coming in from his room.
He had gone inside earlier when I had started narrating the story on the excuse that he had to do 'work'. Like anyone worked on Sundays. I don't know what was up with him.
"Dahlia here brings Mr. Richie Rich home from their precious date and they stand out there in the hallway doing god knows what. And then she brings him in to our apartment, for some incredible reason which I am yet to know, and comes in, in a furious and hot make out session." Andrew states and looks at me for an explanation.
"I didn't want to take him to our apartment for the first time, because I don't know what Charlie might have had out there. And I didn't want to be embarrassed. Plus Em had no problem with it." I reasoned with him.
"I don't think he might've had enough time to inspect the living room if what Andrew just described was true." Emma pointed out and I glared at her in response.
"I'm truly offended." Charles commented.
"Oh please. Once I came home from work and there was a burning pan on the stove in the kitchen and you were in the bathroom wearing a freaking scuba- diving mask!" I retorted.
As Charlie opened his mouth, about to explain the reason of his condition, Emma put up her hand.
"I really don't want to know." She said pleadingly.
"But that's not the point, you didn't tell them the other part did you? When I came in after our date and gave Mark the treatment he deserved for the beautiful gesture, I saw playboy over here making out with another girl on the couch and trust me, she was not wearing nice." I rebuked.
"As if you don't have hook-ups." Andrew retaliated.
"I don't okay?" I said, increasing my voice a bit higher.
"Forget it, we'll just end up quarreling again. Congratulations on your date. I'm sure it was a success." And without further conversation, he just went back where he came from.
"He always has to be such an ass." I muttered angrily and stomped out of their apartment to go to my room, banging three doors on my way there.
What I hadn't revealed to anybody else was why I was so frustrated with Andrew.
a) Being my friend, best friend, he should be supportive of all my likes and dislikes.
b) He should not be mad at me for actually having a good time with a guy after so many years of trying to get over him.
c) I realized I was still miserably in love with him because when I was kissing Mark, I was having hallucinations of Andrew.
I felt extremely guilty for feeling this way, because I knew that he would never reciprocate those feelings for me. I was at least going to try to make this relationship with Mark work.
And the fact that he was my neighbor once again did not help. So I made up my mind that night. If even after dating Mark, I had feelings for Andrew, I would run away like I usually did, because I couldn't tolerate this daily torment anymore.
