A Flirt

We had lunch at the restaurant in the area. The atmosphere from the hilltop allowed her to see the ocean and one corner of the island to another. The breezy wind had its unspeakable calming effect. Celine silently observed Martin ordering food for both of them and feeling the joy of spending time together.

"I'm taking you to the beach on the other side of the island. Are you up for that?" He asked while sipping coffee. He didn't look at her, but his eyes were glued to the newspaper the restaurant provided.

"Sure. I have nothing else to do anyway." When he didn't look her way, she got more opportunities to look at him openly.

He was not one of those well-dressed men with their hair all gelled up and shirt perfectly pressed, nor did he wears any shiny shoes. He dressed simply, and that drew attention to his handsome face. Cleanly shaped, he sometimes reminded her of a perfume model. His dark blue eyes gave him a cool and cold persona, but recently she thought them to be warmer, like the sky in summer. His dark blonde hair was slightly disarrayed, and she loved how it gave him a more youthful look. Her eyes gazed at his muscular arms. He was athletic and lean. Of course, the man jogged every day.

She shook at head slightly. Admiring him openly as she just did was unbecoming even after she vowed to control him to feel a bit more.

"I observe that you read the newspaper every day…." She tried to start a conversation, but he was back to his usual serious self. His look was getting somber, and he appeared upset over one news in particular.

"Martin?"

No response from the man reading newspaper in front of her. He frowned and kept on reading. He most likely focused to the point he didn't hear her.

"Martin." She repeated his name. This time louder.

"Yes? Err, sorry, you are speaking to me?" He quickly folded his newspaper and talked to her as if nothing had happened.

"You seem to like reading the news every day."

"Oh, I was trained to read a newspaper. Usually, I read five to six newspapers a day in the morning, but since I was sent here, I just keep up the habits and read general news to keep up."

"You were trained, you said? Who trained you?" She didn't know if she was asking too much about his personal life, but she just wanted to know more about him.

He was quiet for a while. He smiled to himself and looked down at his hand, losing in thoughts.

"My best friend, he taught me many things."

After the meal had arrived, Martin was quiet. He was thinking and, as usual, wouldn't utter a word. She was not someone who totally felt at ease when sitting in silence with another person. Naturally, she started a conversation.

"Martin, can you tell me more about yourself? I've told you where I went to college and some of my life stories, but I don't know anything about you."

Martin looked up to meet her eyes and was hesitant. He didn't answer her question directly.

"What do you want to know?"

"Some simple facts. Like why do you choose to come to the island? What do you like to do in your free time? Are you dating anyone?"

Oops, okay, the last question was a bit of a Freudian slip.

Under her seemingly expressionless face, no one knew that Celine was mentally lightly hitting her own face for this small calamity of a mistake. Well, she really wanted to know that last question anyway.

Martin smiled at her before answering.

"There are many things I could not tell. Are you cool with that?" Celine nodded. She wanted to know him a bit more from basically knowing nothing at all. He gave her a surprisingly sad smile and began his story.

"Well, an incident happened that caused me to be very stressed. So stressful to the point I couldn't work. But I was a key member of the company, so they agreed to send me to a remote island with not many tourists. I should disrupt my pattern in life and work and leave the normal environment I was used to as much as possible. This is supposed to be a form of therapy that improves my condition. About work, hmm, difficult to say. It is not famous professions like doctors or businessmen that everyone immediately understands. Let's just say my work is about financial matters."

He took a pause to sip a coffee and chuckled to himself. He told more about himself.

"In my free time, I read. Back in the day, my best friend just dragged me around clubbing. Actually, I go wherever I got invited."

She was curious about this 'best friend' or was it a girlfriend? But he stopped her wandering mind.

"Oh, and about someone, I'm dating. None, actually. I'm not very good at relationships. All my exes ended the relationship because I rarely had time for them, which was fair games. I really didn't have time." He finished simply and looked down at the food in front of him. He scratched his cheek, not knowing what to do or say next after telling her about his personal life. He didn't know why she was smiling so broadly.

"Why are you smiling?"

Celine continued to smile at him. A small hope emerged in her heart. It didn't matter that all this was happening too fast. She was also spontaneous in every decision in her life. There were risks involved. But taking a risk was not deadly.

"I think we got to know each other a little bit more."

Before this holiday ended, she intended to find a way to ask him out. There was nothing to lose.