Second Encounter Pt 1

Elaine

"You think I'm sexy do you? Who else have you seen to think there might be a trend ?" The mocha skin of the man seemed to glow in the sun to match his grin. Standing to his full height, he was taller than my 5'8 height by five inches. His body is lean and wiry and the way he moves shows he is familiar with some form of martial arts. 

'What is with all these men I keep bumping into putting me in a daze and making me feel competitive.' 

I am in fact starting to see a trend that makes me feel conflicted in not being sure if I want to keep walking around town to see if the trend will continue or if I should just head back to the cottage to avoid the possible trend.

The man grabbed the remaining books before he brought his gaze back to me. We now stood facing each other and we examined each other as if we were looking for clues. To what I don't know but we seem to be on the same wavelength. 

"So you didn't answer my questions and this isn't meant to be a pick up line but do I know you from somewhere?" His voice is a lovely mellow tenor now that he isn't anxious. It send shivers all over my body.

"You know what you look like so I'm not responding to that question since I don't want to inflate your ego any more than I already have and this may be a response to your not pick up line." I roll my eyes grinning.

" I don't know if we have met before. Maybe in a past life? I've been finding I'm experiencing that trend of meeting people or going places I may have in a past life these past few days so who knows. Maybe fate brought us together." I shrug then start following him when he begins walking down the walkway past a few stores before turning left. We reach a mostly full parking lot and we stand next to each other looking at the cars then back at each other.

"Well I would like us to part on positive terms so I will take back my books and pray fate will cross our paths again so we may discuss books and siblings at length next time. I don't want you thinking this was a crazy kidnapping set up or anything." He laughs but stops when he notices I flinched and am now playing with my fingers now that they are free from the books.

"Hey I didn't mean to. . ."

"It's okay. Thank you for a being a gentleman and making sure I felt safe. See you around." I say quickly before I'm running away from him with a wave of goodbye over my shoulder.

Once I've rounded the corner, I slow down and start walking to help slow my heart rate down. 

'I feel so silly for freaking out like that. He couldn't have known that would trigger me. Hell, I didn't even know it was a trigger. Maybe fate will erase that last minute of our interaction and we will not cross paths again. Yep that is what I'm going to hope for. He is going to forget I freaked out and we will just be a fun moment on this summer day in our memories.' I stayed strong in my delusion until I forgot all about it after I got back to my cottage.

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Malachi- 35 years old

The books I've been waiting for finally came in so before my mother and sister could rope me into anything after breakfast I snuck out of the house. I drove myself into town to lower my chances of getting caught. 

As I drove, I felt I could finally breathe for the first time in days. It has become tradition that every year we celebrate Selina's birthday for a week then we end the celebrations with a big party on her birthday. It's exhausting to have to block out a week for whatever she wants to do every year because every year is something different and it can change at the drop of the hat. 

Killian and I want to protest every year but Adrian and Uncle Hartley remind us its one week out of the year and we are honoring Adele during this week as well since we tell Selina, Mom and Dad that we are setting up a surprise for Selina but really if we are back here in town we will go the day before their birthday on the 22nd to her grave site and give her fresh flowers and a mini cake with a candle and just talk to her. If Selina has us some where else we will try to find a botanical garden and find the place we vote on feels the most like her and sing happy birthday to her with a cupcake and candle. We rotate who gets to blow out the candle and we divide the mini cake up between the five of us.

Of course to cover up our ritual we do plan ahead a surprise for Selina so our actions are hidden. We started this ritual 15 years ago when Mom and Dad told us they would prefer Adele wasn't mentioned anymore and that we stopped family visits to her grave site during the week of Selina's birthday celebrations. They felt the visits were bringing bad energy and memories to a week that should be positive and creating new memories. 

Uncle Hartley decided we should respect their wishes. It was by pure coincidence or maybe our bond was stronger than we thought but that first time; the day before Selina's birthday we all made excuses separately not knowing we all intended to visit Adele's grave in spite of us agreeing to not go. Our uncle and aunt laughed as they told us they must have raised us right. From that day on we would honor Adele on that day so she will know she is never forgotten or far from our hearts.