Opening Story - 009

Between that Monday afternoon and Saturday, when I'm supposed to go on a date with Tayla, not anything of much importance or consequence happened. I continued my daily routine, though it had a new addition to it now.

Before work, sometime in the afternoon, I'd spend a couple of hours painting Massimo's fence. He said he'd pay me for it, though it wouldn't be much. That's fine, however. It would've been hard to turn him down. I don't want to be rude to my new neighbour, and he was so nice and apologetic about it when asking me, I would've felt bad.

On Thursday, I went into the town centre to see what they have here. I found the bus exchange easily enough, after all the bus took me straight there, and there were plenty of shops nearby to it, but beyond a few blocks, it all started to disappear.

There were entire blocks that were completely empty, with only abandoned buildings or empty lots filling them.

This place, this city, was hit by a major earthquake a while back. I can't remember exactly when, but I want to say it was about thirty years ago. Although the city has recovered, I guess it never really did a complete job. There are new buildings and complexes that have risen out of the ruins, but there's still as many if not more ruins, the further out you go.

I know when my father lived here, he was a child when the earthquake hit. His childhood was growing up during the rebuild of his destroyed home. I wonder how that affected him, if it did at all. If part of the reason he became the kind of cruel cold man that could abandon his own child, had to do with some experience he had at that time.

In any case, I quickly realised that there wasn't much left of the city, except the immediate area surrounding the exchange. Probably nothing we would want to see on Saturday anyway. That was my original goal, not thinking about my father, but working out what we might decide to do.

There are quite a few nice-looking cafés we could eat at, the river that runs through the park is clean enough that it's pleasant to walk along, and…

Wait.

Why am I putting so much effort into this?

I had come to the conclusion that the only reason she had asked me out, was because she wanted someone to save her, so why am I putting in the effort for such a façade? Maybe I'm looking forward to it?

Hmmm…

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I'm not sure. I guess I think she's cute, and I liked her personality enough once she opened up a bit. Once she recovered.

Okay, maybe I am looking forward to this at least a little bit. Just a little.

It is my first ever date, after all.

Like I already mentioned, not much of importance or consequence happened between Monday and Saturday. I just continued along with my daily routine. I decided not to work on Massimo's fence today. I've already finished one side, and am well on my way to finishing the other. I feel like I deserve a break.

I'll probably be able to finish it this weekend even without working on it today.

We're meeting at midday by the exchange, but I feel like I should get there early just in case.

I've also worked out what I'm going to do. To help Tayla out of her situation. As she's done her best to ask me to. Perhaps I'm butting in where I don't belong, but that's fine. It's of little consequence if she ends up hating me, or anything. We barely know each other, after all.

I get up at ten, like I've fallen into the habit of doing. That gives me just two hours to get ready. Or rather, to make it to the bus exchange. Once I finish my meagre breakfast of plain toast bread, I'm left with only about an hour. Less if I plan to get there early.

I brush my teeth, and dress in the nicest clothes that I took with me. Still pretty casual, however, I have to admit. I hope she isn't expecting too much from me. I don't imagine she will. After all, she stayed the night over here on the couch. She knows first-hand how I'm living. I'm sure she doesn't expect me to dress up too much.

I make my way to the nearest bus stop once I'm ready. I take my wallet with me, with the meagre amount of cash I'm left with after taking out the week's rent, and food. This city isn't too large, so almost every bus pass through the bus exchange on its' way to and from one suburb or the other, and only one bus stops here, so it isn't possible for me to get on the wrong one.

I get there about fifteen minutes before we were supposed to meet up. About when I expected to get here. Early enough that I'm guaranteed to arrive before Tayla, but not too early that I have to wait forever.

And besides, the bus only comes by every forty-five minutes, so I didn't have much choice about when to arrive. Fifteen minutes early, or half an hour late. I get the feeling that it would be suicidal to arrive half an hour late.

In any case, I'm glad I wasn't late, as Tayla also shows up five minutes before midday. I notice her before she sees me. She isn't too dressed up which I'm glad about. In that case she can't berate me for not being dressed up.