First Love Slips Away

David pulled into his yard and saw that his mother was already hanging up the laundry. He was happy to see no greenish stains on his favorite T-shirt.

"Thanks mom," he smiled at her, "you're great!"

"And what are you doing here so early?" she called out surprised.

"Meiden sent me away," he shrugged his shoulders.

Anxiety appeared on her tanned face.

"Relax, everything is fine," he explained. "It seems that he showed himself around, because I met him at the park. He said he was satisfied."

"Really?" He could almost hear the tension escaping from her.

"Well, and on top of that he wants us to take care of his green areas."

"Really?" she repeated this time with joy almost jumping upwards.

"Yes. I guess he doesn't feel like bothering with a new team, so he decided to leave us."

How pleasant it was to look at the happy mother! She wasn't old yet, she was only forty years old and didn't even have to dye her black hair, which he had inherited from her. She had a similar friendly disposition to him so David didn't realize that she too was worried about his father's business. Only now did he notice how she really cared about this contract and thought that things were going well after all.

"I'll tell father about it. Is he in the kitchen?" He asked.

"No, in the greenhouse. He's catching up on the flowers."

"Aha."

Behind the house were two small, outdated greenhouses where they grew plant seedlings. With his broken leg, his father was unable to walk the large grounds and take care of everything himself, but with the greenhouses it was different. Not only were they small, but now most of the work was limited to checking the condensers.

"Dad!" he called out having opened the entrance to the first one.

"Here I am," his father straightened up. In his hand he had several plastic pots inserted one into another.

"You don't want to replant anything, do you?" scared David. "We are in the middle of summer."

"No, no, I just thought maybe I'd move them to a corner there."

"There's no room there anymore. Leave them where they were, because it will get messy."

"Since when did you, snot, conduct your elders like that, huh?" asked the father with feigned resentment.

"Since you're on leave and I'm the one who takes care of everything. You know, I talked to Meiden about taking care of the garden and the park.

"And what?" He asked pretending to be indifferent.

"He doesn't want strangers hanging around, but he accepted me."

"You?"

For some reason, the suspicious tone of his father's question seemed strange to him.

"No, Waldek from Poznan," he chuckled gruffly. "Meiden is kind of... strange."

"Strange?"

"I mean he can be difficult, but we seem to get along, so I thought that actually if I do everything on a regular basis, it won't be much at all. Instead of sending a bunch of people for one day, I can do the same thing in a few days."

"Well, if that's the case."

"The contract is to be signed with Krauzw. He is in the palace now. He already knows about everything. So if nothing unexpected happens, we have this contract."

His father's eyes lit up with joy. A wide smile appeared on his lips. So he cared that much about this order? Was his father's company in so much financial trouble, or was this simply a good opportunity to make more money? David was not privy to accounting matters, so he had no idea. However, it looked like he would have to somehow deal with the quirks of the unpleasant Norwegian for the sake of his family.

***

"Ouch! We have so beautiful Sunday!" Philip stretched showing everyone his naked, nicely sculpted and tanned torso. David looked at him with admiration and envy. He would have given a lot to have one himself, but despite the physical work he did, he couldn't get such a beautiful six-pack on his belly.

Not only he, but also the girls gathered on the other side of the pond looked on in awe.

There were no lakes or rivers in the area. There were what were called Ponds. About fifty years ago, someone ran fish ponds here with breeding carp and other freshwater fish, but the business went bankrupt. The dug-out pits filled with water became overgrown with calamus and water scythes. The area simply went wild. In winter the ponds froze over and could sometimes turn into a slide, while in summer they served as a resting place for the local youth, where they could hold a bonfire or barbecue or just sit by the water and pretend they were on vacation. A few braver people even occasionally swam in them, but since they were small, artificial reservoirs, the water quality usually did not attract those willing to swim.

"You do this on purpose?" asked David just to confirm his belief.

"What?"

"You're manifesting your muscles. You want to show off to the girls."

Philip laughed like a villain in a cheap movie. "Who knows?"

Actually, why wouldn't he? David thought. If one has some arguments that will help pick up a girl, one should use them. He sighed. Did he have any arguments for girls? Did his beauty only encourage guys?

"How do you like the new owner?" Philip arranged himself comfortably on a towel spread on the grass. "Apparently he surprised you guys quite a bit on Friday."

"Come on. I totally don't read the guy. He's pretty polite, but I think he's some kind of a jerk."

"A grump?"

"No, rather not. Zawilska would say of him that he's an eccentric."

"Zawilska...?"

"Our elementary school teacher. Don't you remember?"

"Right, that one. She was quite an eccentric herself. And just so you know, Berenice was at the disco on Friday?"

"What?" David almost jumped up from his seat.

"She came with some strange boy..."

On the other side of the pond, the girls were laughing gleefully about something and David felt his heart slowly being engulfed by darkness.

"Hey, it's just a boy," Philip went into consolation mode. He sat down so that he had David's face opposite his own. "Maybe it's the universe giving you the signal to finally get brave and confess to her how you feel," he said.

"But if she has a boyfriend..."

"Come on, the girl is only twenty years old. Do you think how serious she is about this guy?"

"It's Berenice..."

Fact. Beautiful as a goddess and, like her, serious and inaccessible. Many boys followed her with their eyes, but none received a signal from her to approach her. That's why neither in elementary school nor in high school did she have a boyfriend. But now she was in college.

David felt the darkness consume him. It was obvious that in a big city, at a good university, Berenice would meet some talented student with a career as a doctor or lawyer or corporate president ahead of him. This someone will give her a good, worldly life, while he....

"Hey, don't get me depressed here. That's not why I told you about Berenice and that boy to spoil my Sunday."

"Sorry..."

"That's not the point, you idiot! The point is that you should finally fucking dare and tell her before her relationship gets too serious!"

"But since she has already come with him to meet her parents..."

"Listen, as long as the girl doesn't have a ring on her finger, you can always try your chances. Who knows, maybe she likes you, but you never told her you were interested, so she decided you weren't?"

The darkness in David's heart began to dissipate and, as if through parting clouds, a ray of sunshine peeked into his heart flooding it with tentative hope.

"Do you really think so?"

"And didn't you notice that in elementary school you were the boy she talked to most often?"

Well, yes, it was true. For some reason Berenice always smiled at him. But all girls did. As a kid David was short and petite and a bit shy, so girls treated him a bit like a stuffed bunny. At least in those younger years. Then they started growing up, changing physically, and in the older grades the much taller David began to intimidate the girls, feeling pretty damn intimidated himself. But with Berenice, he somehow managed to talk.

"That doesn't mean she likes me. At least, you know, not that way," he muttered, unable to hope.

"Maybe she doesn't, or maybe she does. You won't find out until you confess your feelings for her."

"Easy for you to say." He wanted to ask if Philip had ever confessed his love to anyone, but decided he didn't need to. To him, it was the girls who lined up. "You've never been in my situation," he said.

"That's right, I know that the person I like loves someone else."

David shook his eyes. Impossible! Really? And David didn't know anything about it?

"You have someone..."