Chapter 3 - A love in common

"Do I like the theatre?" Joanna stammered. She had never been so shocked by another woman's appearance, but this one was glowing with her kind dark eyes, black natural hair, and dark skin. She looked like the most kindhearted person Joanna had ever met. "Yes. I love the theatre. Big fan. Yes."

Big fan?! Who says that? Why do you have to be so impossibly stupid, Joanna? She thought. You have never acted this silly around anyone, why start now?

"My name is Joanna," she quickly added and put her hand forward. Ha! She thought, this time I remembered to introduce myself.

"I'm Mina," the woman answered, gently pushed Joanna's hand aside and embraced her in a warm hug.

Mina was a little taller than Joanna, and thus Joanna found the embrace a rather odd experience. She wasn't used to being hugged, and especially not by people taller than herself, she had only been hugged by her younger cousins.

"Oh," Joanna exclaimed and patted Mina lightly on her back.

Mina let go of Joanna and stepped back, "I'm sorry, are you not a hug person?"

Joanna laughed sincerely at the worried expression on Mina's face, "Not really, no. Sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for!" Mina rambled quickly. "It was me who made assumptions. I'm so sorry. I didn't think that... I didn't think you..." Mina started to fluster and hid her cheeks in her hands, which Joanna found to be rather cute. She had never seen someone fluster so easily and so visibly.

"Didn't think I what?" Joanna asked and made sure to smile to put Mina at ease, as her face was slowly turning the exact colour of a tomato.

"No, it was silly of me to make assumptions. It wouldn't happen again, I promise," Mina answered, looking to the ground and shaking her head slightly.

"Nothing to worry about. I actually liked the hug," Joanna said and immediately regretted it. Focus Joanna! She shouted to herself. You can't go around flirting and falling in love now, it is simply the wrong time for that sort of business. "Which isn't that common for me," she continued and winked.

Why did you wink? She asked herself and once more wished to bang her head against a wall.

Mina smiled and giggled, "I'm glad then. Would you perhaps like to... no never mind."

"No, tell me, please," Joanna said as she put the poster back on the wall.

Mina scratched the back of her head, "I was wondering if you would go to that production with me - and a couple of friends - this weekend?" She looked into Joanna's eyes and Joanna discovered that she could quite easily become lost in there. She had to ground herself in reality, she thought, think of something important and interesting, like… the Bohr model for atoms, H NMR-spectrums, and Redox reactions.

Joanna paused to think when she had gathered her thoughts. She had been planning on going, either way, so she might as well go with Mina and her friends. It was not like it was a date or anything since there would be other people there.

"I would love to. Want my number, so we can plan the details later?"

"Yes, wait I have a pen," Mina pulled a pink ball pen out of the brown massive purse she had hanging over her shoulder. "Here you go - you can just write it on my arm. My phone ran out of battery. I forgot where I had put it aside, and then when I needed and found it again, it was completely discharged." Mina giggled nervously as she gave Joanna her arm and turned it upwards.

Joanna took Mina's arm and held it firmly so that it didn't move as she wrote. "Here. You. Go." Joanna said pressed the ball pen against Mina's arm, trying to focus on the numbers instead of the feeling of Mina's skin under her fingers. Was it her own or Mina's pulse that picked up speed? Joanna was sure she could feel the rate of someone's pulse increasing. She let go of her arm.

"Thank you," Mina pulled her sleeves down to cover the writing. "I will be sure to note it down somewhere even safer very soon."

"Sounds like a plan - see you Saturday then?"

"See you Saturday," Mina answered with a slight giggle as she exited out the door.

Mina walked along the paths of the university park, humming a joyful tune. She hadn't made a new friend since she started university last year, and it was always a pleasant experience to make friends, Mina thought. And not only friends perhaps? Mina wondered if maybe she had been right in her first assumption about Joanna. But she would find out about that later, she decided. It wasn't something you just asked someone without knowing them first.

Joanna arrived home four hours later when she had finished her exploring of the other factions of the university.

She unlaced her 1930's style shoes and placed them carefully down on the shoe bench. She unpacked her bag and put everything in its place. Her laptop and books on the desk ready to use, her wallet in the upper drawer of the cupboard, and her long black coat (which had been too warm to use) in the wardrobe.

She read the chapters for her lecture the following day and made the assigned practice tasks before she dropped down on her bed and stared into the ceiling. It was a wonder that she had been able to focus on her studies, with everything that flew through her mind and disturbed her thinking.

She grabbed her phone and wrote a text. It took some time before she finally came up with the final result:

"Hey study partner!"

Was the exclamation point a good addition or should she stick to the classical dot? She opted for the exclamation point and send the text and turned her phone off.

Her phone buzzed a few minutes later and she quickly reached for it.

Her heartbeat fell into an unrhythmical pattern. Could it be an answer from George already?