Please Don't Try and Turn On the Lights

20. She's Thunderstorms

Alex texted me later that night

Received at 05.16 p.m. from Alex Turner:
Wanna hang out tonight? The guys are coming too.

I received two more text messages right after the first one:

Received at 05.16 p.m. from Alex Turner:
Btw. this is NOT last minute

Received at 05.16 p.m. from Alex Turner:
Well...it is last minute. But your invitation was sent out at the same time as I invited the others

I chose to accept his offer - even though he just wanted to be friends...

Sent at 05.23 p.m. to Alex Turner:
Of course I'll be there

-

"Hi, Alex," I said as he let me in "thanks for the coffee this morning," I could hear the others laughing at some joke in the next room.

"Thanks for the...? Wait - what? I thought you paid?"

"Uhm no? You ordered the coffee. You paid."

"I'm sure I saw you with 5 pounds in your hand!"

"Yeah, that I donated to charity. They had a small box on the tabletop that read 'Doctors Without Borders'"

He started laughing, "Shit, we are just the worst customers ever!"

I chimed in, "absolutely horrible! We can never go back to that place, huh?"

"I guess not"

"Didn't they try and stop you when you left the café after me?"

He shrugged, "No they didn't. The barista did, however, send me a sad smile. She must've thought we had been on a horrible date seeing as you left me 20 minutes in. Probably felt bad for me," he laughed, avoiding my gaze.

"It was a good cup of coffee," I spluttered. Unsure of what else to say. I was afraid of what Alex might start talking about if I didn't keep the conversation on some random topic.

He just smiled at me.

"How was your ride home from the café?" I spluttered once more when the silence became too much for me.

He started to laugh at me, "you want to talk about the weather next?"

"Sorry, I'm a bit out of it," Even I could hear how stupid I sounded.

"Come on in - I'll grab you a beer yeah?"

-

"How can you read this?"

I was trying to decipher one of the thousand handwritten notes that were neatly arranged on the fridge.

"I can't always," he admitted with a shrug.

After a few beers with the others, Alex had decided that he wanted to show me around his abnormally cool luxury flat. The others were still in the living room and him and I were alone in the kitchen. I couldn't take my eyes off the notes hanging everywhere.

A hand-drawn lightning bolt next to some unreadable text had drawn my attention towards a particular note.

"What does this one say?" I took the poorly scribbled note down.

"Uuuh..nothing of importance," he looked uncomfortable and I wanted to know why.

"Come on - you can tell me. I promise I won't tease you," I laughed.