5 CHAPTER 5 : ENCOUNTER

Marley was putting back some books on the shelves in preparation to get off work. It had been a pretty slow day and she couldn't wait to get home, slip into some silk pajamas and binge watch anime all night. It had been raining as usual, so very little customers had visited the shop. Their boss had suggested that on extremely rainy days like this particular one, they could close up early and head home. But Marley enjoyed being surrounded by books and preferred to work the usual working hours regardless.

Cherlynn on the other hand was elated by the idea of cutting off a few hours from her boring job, but she knew she would be bored out of her mind without Marley by her side, so she stayed in too.

"Oh my gosh!! finally we can leave this gadforsaken place and go out!" Cherlynn yelled as she shoved some papers into the desk and slammed in the drawer.

Marley arched a brow at her best friend, "go out?"

Cherlynn wrapped her arms around her best friend almost chocking her. "Yes Marley 'go out'", Cherlynn replied. "It's Friday and you know what that means"

"Sleep in"

"Parrrrtyyyy!" Cherlynn yelled, completely ignoring Marley's sarcastic comment. "You're such a party pooper Marley, you're lucky I love you. So I choose to stick around."

"Lucky me" Marley replied sarcastically, making Cherlynn hit her over the head with some old newspapers.

*

Outside the book store Akira was pacing around and rehearsing what to say to Marley as his brother chuckled at his attempts in the background.

"You're not helping!" Akira spoke angrily as he hit his brother with the phone he'd been using to look up 'how to ask a girl out' for the past hour.

Hisaki picked the phone up and read out loud, in a British accent, what was on the screen. "Pardon me young las, would you care to join me for a spot of tea". and instantly burst into laughter, agitating Akira even more.

"I've never done this before" Akira complained as he sat down on a bench across from his brother. He rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache brewing,. "On mount Olympus you just turn eighteen and your father just throws some woman your way and boom you're betrothed. Why are earthly relationships so complicated?"

Akira buried his head in his palms about to give up on attempting to talk to Marley.

"Well whatever it is you're gonna say dear brother, you better think of it quick" Hisaki spoke.

Akira looked up at his brother questioningly "What are you talking about?"

Hisaki pointed down the street at the two girls walking towards them.

"The love of your life. Four o'clock"

Akira stood up in a panic and turned to the direction his brother was pointing, and there, just two feet away from him, was Marley.

Just the sight of her made Akira a nervous wreck. A thousand years of studying the arts and languages suddenly went out the window whenever she was around. His brain was practically short circuiting at this point.

"Marley!" He blurted out while staggering trying to keep his composure. " I umm..salutations!"

Marley chuckled at the awkward greeting, "salutations to you too ol boy" she responded with a grin on her face, speaking in the best fake British accent she could conjure.

Akira facepalmed, realizing how stupid he'd just sounded. His face changed to a light hue of red as he regretted his very existence.

Hisaki who was chuckling behind him wasn't making things any better.

"Akira right? Were you out here waiting for me?" Marley asked, noticing the embarrassment on Akira's face.

" Yes!" He declared, and instantly regretted it, "I mean no.. I umm.. I was actually coming to the book store, to uh tell you how great the book you recommended was"

"Oh really?" Marley spoke with a warm smile, "I'm really glad you like the book, it's actually.."

"Your favorite!" Akira interrupted her, and instantly felt embarrassed... again! "I uh.. I remember you mentioned that it was your favorite the last time we spoke" he concluded as he nervously scratched the back of his head with a nervous smile on his face.

This was going terribly.

"Yeah" Marley responded with a chuckle. "Well we just closed up the shop. You can tell me all about it some other time. Yeah?"

Marley gestured Cherlynn to continue walking. "It was nice bumping into you again Akira" Marley spoke as she waved him off

"Wait!" Akira yelled

Marley and Cherlynn turned to face the blonde haired man who was now sweating nervously.

Akira was frustratingly embarrassed and wanted nothing more than to go dig a hole somewhere and burry himself, but he didn't want Marley to leave. At least not just yet.

"Have you met my brother?" He spoke pointing at Hisaki, in a desperate attempt to get Marley to stick a round a little longer. "This is Hisaki. He's a fan of books too"

"I am?" Hisaki questioned, utterly confused.

Akira elbowed him hoping he'd catch on to what he was trying to do

"Oh!" Hisaki blurted out seeing his brother in desperate need of saving, "Oh yeah, for sure, for sure. I am sooo into that stuff. I just love them" Hisaki responded, hoping he sounded convincing.

"Really?" Marley responded happily, "whose your favorite author?"

"Uuh" Hisaki had never read a book in his life. He was more of an athlete and the only time he saw writing was on sports tabloids he'd glance at as he waltzed around earth. He was definitely screwed.

"Argh" Cherlynn sighed in exhaustion, "books books books! Can we talk about something else. I've had enough of books for one day. I wanna go out and relax"

Cherlynn's interruption must have been sent by the gods cause it gave Hisaki an idea to help his hopeless romantic of a brother.

"You know you're absolutely right" Hisaki spoke, "you ladies must be tired from being stuck in a boring bookstore all day," he spoke as he put his arms around the girls' shoulders, "so why don't we all go someplace nice and grab something to eat. Our treat". He turned to Akira and winked.

"I don't know.." Marley began to speak but was interrupted by Cherlynn's scream of glee.

"That sounds like an amazing idea! Finally someone who speaks my language!" Cherlynn spoke excitedly.

Hisaki offered Cherlynn his arm, which she took,and led her towards the car.

Akira nervously pointed towards his brother, too shy to even consider offering her his arm. "shall we?"

Marley sighed and walked towards her best friend.

Well there go my plans to binge watch anime

*

The group ended up at a fancy restaurant not too far from the book store. It had elegantly dressed waiters and fancy cutlery. And at the front of the restaurant was an oak bar furnished with exotic drinks and a fancy looking bartender making even fancier cocktails.

Marley looked around the restaurant feeling a little uncomfortable. She wasn't the extravagant kind and definitely didn't like people spending money on her, and this place looked like you needed a black card just to get in.

As Marley looked around the restaurant, Akira was looking at her. He was absolutely smitten by this girl and he could do very little to hide it.

He'd made up his mind to make his intentions known but had no idea he'd even get this far. He was determined to not mess things up and make sure everything went smoothly.

"Wow this is a nice place, you guys must be loaded" Cherlynn spoke as she examined the fancy restaurant.

Marley elbowed her to get her to tone it down a little. She was practically drooling.

"Umm well we just wanted to make a good first impression" Hisaki responded sheepishly, "nothing wrong with spending a bit of your earnings for a pair of beautiful ladies like yourselves"

Marley sipped her water and cleared her throat, "speaking of," she spoke, "how exactly do you get these earnings, what do you do? If you don't mind me asking"

Akira and Hisaki exchanged nervous looks.

"Umm we're into business" Akira responded sounding a bit unsure.

"Oh what kind of business?" Marley asked as she took another slow sip of her water.

Marley although being generally sweet could be very intimidating. She had a sharp eye and keen sense of detecting BS. And these guys weren't giving her very positive vibes.

"I'm more into the umm weather business." Akira responded, stringing together lies as he spoke. "Trying to combat climate change and things of that sort".

"And what about you Hisaki?" Cherlynn asked, curious to know more about her potential new target.

"Oh" he looked at his brother as he came up with an answer, "I'm more into sports"

"Oh wow that sounds wonderful" Cherlynn cooed, "you must be really fit" she giggled.

Marley rolled her eyes and continued with her meal, not wanting to even think about what her best friend was planning.

"So Marley?" Akira spoke, looking directly into the girl's eyes.

Marley was a bit flustered when her eyes met his gaze. Was she seeing things or were his eyes a strange hue of brown. Almost gold maybe.

"Tell me about yourself? Are you married?" Akira asked

The question took her aback a little. It was so direct.

Marley cleared her throat stopping herself from choking. "No I'm not" she responded as she sipped her water

Akira saw that he had made her uncomfortable. He had no idea on how to hold a proper conversation in this world.

"I mean looking at how pretty you are, one would think men would be practically throwing themselves at you" Akira added on trying to stir the conversation out of the woods.

Marley looked down at her plate, a faint blush tinting her cheeks.

Akira had only succeeded in making her feel more uncomfortable.

Hisaki sighed inwardly as he watched the cringe worthy scene unfold. He knew he needed to do something about it before he scared the poor girl away.

"Whose up for some drinks?!" He spoke as he stood up, gesturing them to go to the bar.

"You read my mind!" Cherlynn declared as she stood from her seat.

"I'm not really a drinker" Marley and Akira responded simultaneously.

They looked at each other wide eyed and both let out a chuckle.

"Suit yourselves!" Hisaki spoke and offered Cherlynn his arm, "care to join me m'lady?"

"With pleasure" Cherlynn responded. And off the two went to the bar.

"Can't hold down your alcohol ey?" Marley spoke, seemingly a little more relaxed than before.

"Yeah" Akira responded, feeling a little embarrassed, "it's so bad I get drunk off grape juice"

Marley laughed and put her hand over her mouth, "I'm sorry what?"

"One time when we were kids, my sister and I got into my mother's wines. We downed it and were complete wrecks. My mother found out and didn't even scold us because we'd gotten into the batch that wasn't even fermented yet" Akira spoke.

"Then what we're you drunk on?" Marley asked holding back chuckles

"Stupidity" Akira responded blankly

Marley burst into laughter at the statement.

Akira looked up at Marley as she laughed and smiled. He knew she was laughing at him but he was so grateful for it. He was so tense at first, but now all that was behind him. Sitting there watching Marley laugh was a moment he wanted to hold on to forever.

*

"Then Hisaki looked at me holding his stomach, practically shitting himself and said, 'I think I'm lactose intolerant'"

Marley was laughing so hard tears were practically falling down her cheeks. She wiped her face and took a deep breath before leaning back on her chair.

"Your childhood must have been amazing" she spoke in between chuckles.

"Yeah it was really something" he responded also catching a breath from all the laughing.

He hadn't had a conversation like that with a woman in years. All the Greek goddesses were snobbish, stuck up and down right boring. It felt so refreshing, sitting, talking and laughing with her.

Marley looked down at her phone and almost jumped out of her seat. "Oh my gosh!" She squealed.

"What's wrong?" Akira asked a little concerned.

"The time!"

Akira looked at his phone and understood her reaction. It was almost midnight.

"The premier of BNHA season 5 is in 10 minutes I can't..." Marley cut her statement short. Did she just say that out loud? Gosh he's going to think she's so weird. Now it was obvious she broke nights waiting for anime to air. She felt embarrassed.

"What's BNHA?" Akira asked

Marley thanked the gods he didn't know what she was talking about. She regained her composure and tucked away her phone in her purse.

"It's just a silly show I watch" she lied

"Sounds important" he responded with a smile, "we should get you home before you miss it."

Marley nodded and smiled. She looked over at the bar and saw Cherlynn and Hisaki singing at the top of their lungs with drinks in their hands. She'd be selfish if she took her away from a moment she was clearly enjoying.

Akira seemed to read her mind and took her hand in his. "I'll come back for them and I promise to get her home safe."

Akira had sincerity in his eyes. She shook her head in agreement.

Akira smiled but then realized he was still holding her hand and quickly pulled away, feeling his cheeks burn up.

Marley noticed this and felt a little embarrassed as well. She hadn't even noticed he had still been holding her hand.

"Umm we should.. we should get going" Akira spoke nervously as he stood up, "don't wanna miss that show."

*

Marley waved Akira goodbye and walked into her apartment. She closed the door behind her and breathed out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

She thought back on the night and smiled inwardly to herself. It had been a while since she'd had fun like that.

Akira had watched Marley as she walked into her apartment and close the door behind her. He felt butterflies in his stomach as he looked at the hand that had made contact with hers.

"Cupid you bustard" he spoke.

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