Alone together ✕ Wayhaught

nine

"Nicole! Nic, you can't just walk away from me! You can't leave!" Her voice breaks mid-sentence. With tears in her eyes she tries to run after the girl, but she skips by the passing groups of tourists so fast, it's no use. Nicole is out of sight and Waverly is left behind, all by herself. How could this have happened? It wasn't supposed to end like this.
"Fuck!" She kicks a garbage bin and makes a cluster of ladies standing next to her stare. They whisper something to each other and Waverly isn't thinking straight, she can't help herself.
"What?!" Tears are fully streaming down her face and she attempts to wipe her running nose with the back of her hand.
"Never seen a crying woman?!"
One steps forward with an apologetic look on her face.
"Madame,"
"Je ne parle- I cannot fucking speak french! You just heard me speak English, for fucks sake!" The lady looks very uncomfortable and Waverly grunts, thinking to herself why she's even doing this. She looks at the lock in her hand and the initials drawn on it. Like it is burning her hand, she throws it as far as she can off the bridge she's standing on. The sound of it clashing with the water makes her break down even more and she doesn't know where to go, she just runs and runs. Her legs take her all the way to her hotel, on the other side of the city.

-

Yes!, I want to exclaim. Yes, yes, yes!
But it won't come out. It's terribly sweet of her to ask me to go with her, but can I? My gut says yes. My mom would never allow me to tell her no, but I can't leave my mother like that. Not even after she approved of it? She's still staring at me, I don't know what to say to her. God, she's beautiful when she is unsure of herself. It happened only for a few seconds, but I saw it in her eyes. The confident woman she played faded and the authentic worried girl she is right now appeared. It's hard for me to misread Waverly, she's different from the other people I know. I feel like I've known her all my life. It upsets me that she doesn't want me to see her true emotions, but I won't show it. Now is not the time.
"You want to take me with you?"
"If your mom is doing better."
"Let's see how she's gonna react to the new medication. Maybe she's gonna improve in the upcoming weeks, before I have to leave. If she's doing okay, will you go with me?"
"Waverly, are you sure about this? It's not like you're asking me to sleep over one night, you're asking me to go with you. To another continent."
"I know," she takes my hand, "I want you to come with me. I really like you. And I want to make this work, I want us to work out. We had a rough start, but I'll prove to you I really want you."
"Wave, you don't have to prove anything to me."
"Sorry, I know. But I want to show you anyhow. I want you to see me dance onstage, I want you to take me back to our hotel room and be like the first time you saw me. I want to have breakfasts with you in cafes in Berlin and look at the Seine while we walk hand in hand in Paris. I want to visit museums or sit around reading books or do nothing all day. I can do all of that myself, but I want to do it with you. I want you to come with me. Please say yes."
It's hard to disagree on that one. Lord, does that sound tempting. Maybe I should put myself first for once. And I want this, and I want Waverly.
"If my mom is doing better," I take a break to kiss her hands, "then sure. I'd love to go."
Her frown turns into a grin and she wraps her arms around me, meeting my lips in a long kiss.

-

I lean over the opened window and kiss her one last time. I take in her scent, it still makes me all fuzzy inside, every time, even all the times I just think of it.
"I'll see you around then, baby."
With a toothy smile she's off. When the truck turns around the corner of my street and Nicole is out of sight, I do a fist pump and start dancing on the middle of the sidewalk.
"Ya girl did it! She said yes!", I sing while doing my victory dance.
"And ya boy wants some peace and quiet!", it sounds from above. It's Harrold.
"Sorry, Harry!"
"You did what, now? You proposed?"
His comment makes me burst out laughing and he just annoyedly asks why I'm laughing at him, but I don't care enough to actually explain.
"Want coffee?"
"Yes, please!"
I hurry inside and make my way to Harry's apartment. It's on the second floor, I decided to take the stairs but profoundly regretted that decision halfway through. What can I say, being a professional dancer doesn't make you gasp for oxygen and wish to just end it all because of the exhaustion (maybe a little dramatic) any less than other human being. When I arrive he's already waiting for me at the door, I greet him and he lets me in. I hang my coat on the hanger and make some small talk with Harrold, it's been at least six months since I last visited him. We continue catching up on each other and he makes us both a cup of coffee. I look around and nothing has changed. On the TV stand next to a, in comparison to all his other stuff, modern flat screen television, there's old photo's of him and his family, and other pictures of his wife, who passed a few years ago. On the windowsills there's a bunch of fake plants, with a thin layer of dust on them. I take a seat on the big leather sofa in front of the TV and immediately sink into it.
"Take whatever you want", Harry says referring to the tin of cookies on the table, as he comes to sit next to me with two mugs in his hands.
"Thanks", I take one of the mugs and take a sip. "How're you holding up?"
"Oh, you know," he takes a deep breath after roughly coughing, "kids stop by sometimes, it's nice of them. When they're not around, I'm holding up fine, too."
"It's nice that you came over, I was getting pretty lonely up here."
"You and me both, I've been alone a lot lately."
"A pretty girl like you? I can't imagine you spending your time alone now. I bet there's a lucky fella in your life, at least."
"Well, sort of."
"Ah, see, I knew it. What's his name?"
I awkwardly sip my coffee and think of telling him a fake name to avoid the conversation that would follow if I told him the truth, but I decide I am too proud of my relationship with Nicole to lie. I clear my throat.
"Actually, her name is Nicole. And I am the lucky one, not her."
"Nicole. Well, anyone who can call themselves your boy- or girlfriend, is one lucky person, kid", he says and winks at me. That went easier than expected. "What did you say before, you asked her to marry you already?" I start laughing again and he looks confused, waiting for an answer.
"Of course I didn't!"
"Well, you never know with you millennials...", he mumbles.
"No, I asked her to come with me when I leave for Europe, she said yes."
"Oh, Europe for the rah rah woman?"
"Yes, the rah rah woman", I laugh. We talk some more about everything on our minds, his kids, my work, the weather. We were just having a light discussion about which city in the world is the prettiest (I said Paris and he said Purgatory) when my phone interrupted us.
"Saved by the ringtone," I glance at him, "do you mind if I take-" I stop in the midst of my sentence when I see it's Wynonna calling me.
"Who is it? Nicole?"
"No, someone unimportant." I press the decline button, "It's just my sister."
"Your sister? Wynnona? I didn't know you started talking to her again. When did that happen?"
"It's just," I sigh and look down, "I didn't really. Start talking to her, I mean. She keeps calling me, but I am too scared to answer."
"Listen, I don't know what's going on with you two, but are you sure you don't want to talk to your sister? My sister passed long ago, and I wish I could talk to her again just once. Take your chance while you still can."
"Listen, my situation is kinda different. Extremely different, actually."
"Are you sure?"
"I guess. If you really want me to I could give her one call. That would make me feel better, anyway. I told her I would call her."
"You won't regret it."

-

"Hey, Wynonna."
"Waverly... I didn't know I was calling the right number."
"Yeah. Sorry I haven't called you back."
"You're calling me now."
There's a moment of silence.
"Would you want to come over this week?"
"Oh,"
"Well, you sounded like you wanted to tell me something last time I saw you."
"Yeah, no, I just wasn't expecting the invitation. Yeah, I'd like to come over."
"Well, that's that."
"Yep."
"I'll see you, then"
"See you."