Living in Sin (On Hold)

46 _ The Killing Joke: Part-1

It’s not a lie, if you want to believe it.

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“Hey-umm.” Squeezing the brakes, I slowed to a stop and she also came to a halt beside me. “There might be a slight change in our plans.”

“Why? Oh.” She seemingly realized what the problem was just after she asked. “The bike path is closed.”

“No. It’s always like that. I was going to take the main road in the first place. What I’m talking about is …” I jutted my chin towards the guy in uniform. She chuckled when she saw him eyeing us.

“Yeah, no kidding.”

Then my eyes caught a kid slipping out of his mom’s grasp to dash towards where I suddenly realized Greenwood Park was located.

“Hey, why don’t we kill some time in there? We could use the other exit when we leave and find another way.”

“Sure.”

I made sure she was ready to follow and pedaled out ahead to veer to the right and made for the entrance to the park. I paid the admittance fee and we both rode in.

“There should be small speed bumps a few meters in from here so watch out, okay?”

“Right, thanks.”

I tried to stay abreast with her but the kids that crowded the place on a Friday morning made it a little difficult for me.

“That’s a lot of people on a weekday.” She voiced her opinion a moment later.“Do you come here often?”

“No. Haven’t been here for ages now. The last time was maybe three or four years ago, I think.”

“Oh. Then you probably…”

“With mom and dad, yeah.”

While I answered with genuine nonchalance, I still went silent afterwards. There were no negative feelings stirring up inside me, though: just memories. She didn’t interrupt my thoughts for a couple minutes either, until she put those thoughts on a completely different path.

“Actually I was going to ask if you’d started going out with girls then?”

“Oh.” I glanced at her to find a penitent smile on her features. Giving her a reassuring look, I shook my head. She didn’t let the silence last this time, though.

“So this isn’t where you bring them to sweep them off their feet.”

“Aheh, not really.” I chuckled a bit nervously, remembering where she’d asked me to take her. Then not wanting to hold back anymore, I asked, “Why would you be so interested in where I take my girlfriends?”

“Well, because I kind of wanted to see how you do it.”

“Do what? The wooing?”

She just giggled. If only she knew she was going through the very process she was curious about.

“But you can’t find out this way, can you? You’ll have to personally spy on me when I am with a girl.”

“Nah, just because I’m British doesn’t mean I’m a double-O. It’s just, Steve says you’re good with the ladies and I wanted to see, you know, what’s the charm.”

“I am not, actually.” At least, they’re not ladies.

“But you are. I’ve known that from day one.”

That reminded me of the first time she showed up in my life. A smile jumped onto my lips when I remembered the way she’d twitched her lips after I’d smirked at her. The thought brought my eyes to her, then to her lips, and I remembered how soft they’d felt against mine the first time, and the second just yesterday.