Chapter 14: S.O.S, If You Want

Your catastrophizing mind began to kick into action, the worst case scenario is all you could see. You needed an outlet, and quick.

As you walked back to your table, you noticed Aya typing into her phone. The seconds it took you to walk back to your table led you to realise that you had not really paid attention to how good she looked. The red body-fitting little number she was wearing was enough to make your pants feel smaller than they always did.

'Oh hey you're back,' she chuckled. She was clearly a little tipsy, and for some reason that made you even more excited.

'Gosh was I gone for that long?' You muttered under your breath, with a smirk largely inspired by your silent scene in the men's room.

'What?' She asked with another high pitched chuckle.

'Nothing, nothing... I think you've had enough to drink, love.'

Pausing her slight fidgeting, she looked you straight in the eyes. 'Did you just call me 'love'?' Her tone suddenly considerably more sober.

Her inquisition made you pause for a moment as well.

Movement in your peripheral vision suddenly caught your attention. Gently turning your head revealed Stan walking from the direction of the men's room. Your body went cold, and your heart felt like it weighed a tonne.

You quickly looked back at Aya, seeing that she was just about to turn her head in response, you had to think of something.

'Do you wanna order dessert?' You did your best to suppress your tone of panic and desperation as you blurted out the question.

'Dessert? Yeah, sure, I could go for a quiche or something.' She said with a smile, terminating her head turn.

Stan stood at one place for several seconds and began to look around. In fact, he had been looking around since he walked into the eating area. He took the opportunity to look around more thoroughly as he was helping his date from her chair.

Noticing this, you reached for the menu and pushed a fork off the table. Aya immediately offered to pick it up, in her tipsy voice again. You insisted she didn't, but she already had her head under the table. You followed her, making sure to kick the fork further into oblivion before you did.

You stayed there for a full ten seconds, dicking around so that the fork's recovery depended upon Aya's slowed cognition.

'Haha found it!'

'Dang it,' you said to yourself.

At this point, the couple at the next table were staring, and rightly so. Stan wasn't staring anymore, however. And thank every deity out there, he wasn't even there anymore.

Bursting into a light cackle, she asked what you wanted for dessert. You reached for the menu and had half a mind to backhand a spoon for another dip under the table. But only because she seemed like she was having a nice time.

Still in a bit of a panic, you managed to get through the last bit of your date, and even got a little lost in the moment with Aya. That cheese cake and frozen yoghurt could have been the whole date and you'd have been okay with it. From the looks of things, Aya would've agreed. Her smiles were beaming even brighter.

You were pretty sure Stan was long gone, but even in the renewed delight of conversing with a now sobered up Aya, you didn't feel safe enough to hang around for much longer.

A gap in conversation gave you the chance to reach for her hand, with a sly boyish smile on your lips you mumbled oh so amorously.

'How about we get out of here?'

The baritone of your voice shocking both you and her.

* * *

Aya's front door was riddled with potted plants, you stared up and down the porch unsure if you were marvelled or creeped out. You told yourself it would be a story for another day and resumed focus to your chattery date.

'Hey... are you even listening to me?'

'Huh? Yes yes, I've just never been here, you know?'

'Hmm, it's the plants, isn't it? My friends once said I surpassed her and went from 'I like plants' to 'due for an intervention,' she said, with a chuckle.

'Yeah, no kidding'

Finally pushing the right key into her door, she looked at you with a warm, toothless, smile, 'there we go'.

When you walked in, she had her arms around your neck before you could even close the door. She acted almost involuntarily, as if to keep any kind of awkwardness at bay, should she have hesitated. You put your arms around her waist just as unwittingly.

You both paused, and just stared at each other. She was overwhelmed by the unexpected intensity, you were rendered motionless by uncertainty.

One of you almost stepped over the cliff, when four rapid notifications chimed from your front pocket. It was two dark, blurry, pictures, a short audio recording, and a location link.

It was an inconvenient reminder that many months ago, you configured the 'emergency mode' feature on your wife's phone, which activates by pressing the power button three times really quickly. A time came when you thought of disabling it, purely out of spite, as your marital issues began to peak. You later completely forgot about it, however.

'What is it?'

Your heart rate went through the roof, but only from the sheer degree of confliction; you didn't know what to feel. You thought about the possibility of it being a false alarm, but that was quickly superseded by the possibility that the woman you were about to be unfaithful to was being murdered in cold blood.

'I gotta go. Someone's in trouble.' You tried to sound as panicky as you could, which you found a little funny, because using dishonesty to enhance truth isn't something you ever thought you'd need to pull off.

'Uhm o-okay,' she cleared her throat and gave you room to walk out the door. 'Who?'

'I'm sorry,' you said as you speed-walked out onto the porch, stealing a glance at one of the creepers which had had its territory well-marked before you were in a light trot to your car.