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Chapter 1
2008.07.30. 22:03
Destiny
FOREVER
Chapter 1
Dave frowned slightly as the girl at the table across from him sighed heavily once again. He’d been watching her on and off for the last 40 minutes or so he reckoned, something about her made him want to keep staring at her. Luckily for him in all this time she hadn’t noticed him looking at her. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen her here working, she’d been here two or three times this week, always with her head buried in a text book or writing notes.Quickly he glanced away as she momentarily looked up from her laptop and he looked down at the newspaper spread out on the desk in front of him. Surreptitiously he watched as she reached for the cup beside her. No don’t… he grimaced to himself as she took a gulp from the long gone cold coffee. Honey that must have tasted awful he thought as he watched the expression on her face change to surprise. Turning the page of his newspaper he watched her closely as she looked confused at the cup, obviously she hadn’t realised just how long she had been tapping away at the keys of her laptop.
The waiter came over and refilled her cup and she tore herself away from the screen long enough to thank him before starting to flick through the binder of notes at her side. She sighed again pushing away a couple of stray blonde curls that had escaped from the loose ponytail gathered in a soft band at the side of her neck, curls that for some reason Dave wanted to stroke. There was something about her he liked, small and petite she was nothing like the kind of girl he usually liked, yes she was most definitely beautiful but she had a sense of vulnerability almost fragility and innocence about her.
“Be careful” he called across at her as she reached out absently for her cup without looking up from her papers “You’ll knock it ov….”
She jumped at the sound of his voice and knocked the cup with her hand causing it to tip in it’s saucer, somehow Dave managed to reach across and right it before it fell completely and flooded the table with it’s contents.
“Here let me” he said grabbing a wad of napkins from the box on his table and mopping up the hot coffee before it could spread any further “I’m sorry I made you jump but I was trying to warn you that you were going to hit it with your hand.”
“Oh” she looked up at him “I’m sorry I’m always doing that kind of thing.”
“Hey you’re English” he smiled. Watching her face he was faintly relieved to see if that there was no recognition of who he was now that she was finally looking at him.
“Yes” carefully she rubbed at her wrist.
“You didn’t burn yourself did you?” Dave asked her concerned
“No they just ache today that’s all, I guess I’ve spent too much time working recently.”
“Could you get the lady and fresh cup of coffee please” Dave asked as one of the waiters passed by and handed him her dirty cup and perhaps you would be good enough to bring me a refill please.”
“Yes sir”
“Thanks” he turned back to her “Now you look like you could do with a break and perhaps even actually drink one of these coffees.”
“I guess I could do with one” she pushed her hair back from her face “I’ve pretty much been here since it opened.”
“Since 7am” Dave looked at her surprised
“Yeah the place where I’m staying is pretty noisy the whole time so I can’t work there properly so I usually do a lot of the work I can in places like this, I can use their WiFi for my laptop and there isn’t the constant banging and coming and going like there is at my place.”
“Thank you “ she smiled at the waiter as he placed a steaming cup on her table before he looked at Dave inquiringly
“Would you mind if I joined you he asked?”
“No, that would be nice, thank you.”
Dave sat down opposite her and nodded at the waiter who sat Dave’s cup down in front of him.
“Cream and sugar?” He asked her
“No thank you, I prefer it black.”
“So where about from England are you from then? Judging by your accent it’s somewhere in the south am I right?”
“You are” she smiled back at him “I’m from Surrey.”
“And I detect more than a little English accent in you, where are you from?”
“I’m an Essex boy me, Basildon to be precise, although now I live here.”
“Basildon isn’t that the place where they used to have plastic cows or something?”
David laughed “No honey that was Milton Keynes and I should imagine that was well before your time.”
“Oh yeah I remember now” she answered and Dave couldn’t help smiling as she began to blush. She held out her hand, “I’m Callan by the way.”
“Nice to meet you Callan” he replied taking her hand and kissing it lightly “and I’m David”
Once again he watched to see if there was a flicker of recognition as he let go of her hand, but there was nothing. Smiling to himself he picked up his cup and took a sip of his coffee. “Callan that’s an unusual name”
“I know everyone says that, usually I get called Calli for short.”
“So what brings a Surrey girl to New York then?”
“I’m on a study exchange program, so I’m here for 6 months to… well to.. study.” she laughed.
“Interesting, what subject?”
“Engineering.”
“Engineering” Dave looked at her surprised “ But that’s.. that’s not…’”
“Not a girl subject?” she looked questioningly at him at him
“Well I..didn’t mean…..ok you got me yeah I was going to say that.” he chuckled. “You’ll have to excuse me sometimes I can be a bit of a dinosaur, not many girls would even have thought about doing that when I was at school they either went to work in shops, be secretaries or just have babies. So what type of engineering?”
“Civil, it’s what I’ve wanted to do for as long as I can remember. “
“Wow, so you’re here now doing that? ”
“Yes I got this chance that I couldn’t turn down, it’s great, I’m getting to see all the amazing buildings and bridges that I’ve loved and wanted to see for so long, really you’re so lucky to live here surrounded by all this amazing stuff, I wish I could move here permanently,”
Dave smiled at the excited look on her face as she continued “Manhattan bridge is just so much bigger than I ever imagined it could be and the day I touched the Empire State building,” suddenly she reddened “I …I…”
“You what?”
“It sounds really stupid but I started to cry.”
“That doesn’t sound stupid, if it your passion and something you’ve dreamed of happening, it’s only natural that you’ll get emotional.”
“I… I guess so, the view from the 102nd floor though, blew me away, have you ever been there?”
“I embarrassed to admit I haven’t Callan, I’ve lived here all these years and I haven’t even thought about it.”
“You’re kidding me right?”
Dave shook his head “I’ve told you I’ve never been.”
“You should Dave, it’s really a wonderful experience….” Suddenly she stopped, “Sorry I must sound like a total idiot telling some stranger what they should do.”
“Don’t” he smiled “Actually it’s nice to see someone getting passionate over something they obviously love. So is it buildings you’re interested in then?”
“Yes..but bridges are my thing really, that’s why I had to come to New York, there are so many bridges here like the Williamsburg bridge, did you know that when it first opened it had the longest suspension span in the world?”
“Honey I’m not even sure if I know which bridge it is?” He laughed.
“David but it’s only a few blocks from here, surely you know it.”
“It’s a bridge, it goes over water what else is there to know?” he chuckled looking at her.
She smiled and shook her head as she looked back at him.
“So is that your favourite then? Or perhaps.” he thought hard trying to think of the name of bridges he knew desperately for some reason now wanting to appear knowledgeable on the subject “The Forth or perhaps The Severn?”
“Callan shook her head “No my favourite is The Clifton Suspension… it’s in Bristol” she added seeing the blank look on her face.
“Look” she dug around in her bag and pulled out her mobile, “I’ll show you” she said scrolling through menus.
“You have a pictures of a bridges on your phone?” Dave laughed “I thought most students had friends, or guys they think are cute”
“Well I have bridges.” she giggled.
Dave looked at her closely “Hey you’re not one of those, oh what do you call them… people who have relationships with inanimate object, you know they like to have sex with their cars and stuff.?”
She looked at him and smiled “Oh you mean like a mechaphiliac? No nothing like that.”
“Mmm.. you seemed to know the word a little too quickly sweetheart are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” she laughes ” I just happened to see a programme on it the other night that’s all, now look” she turned the phone towards Dave “See it’s this one”
“Oh yeah of course that’s the one I was thinking of” he bluffed “Why that one?”
“I don’t know really, it’s probably because I used to travel over it when I was little, it always fascinated me how a bridge could stay up like that, of course as I got older learnt how, I used to make my Dad drive me all the way up there just so I could stand on the walkway for hours and hours, trying to work out how they’d built it.” She paused and looked at Dave’s bemused expression “Ok I’ll shut up now I must sound a total nerd.”
Dave laughed “No only the type of nerd that maybe perhaps would take me and show me the Empire State.”
“Pardon?”
“I said would you take me to see the Empire State building?”
“Oh, I’m not sure, I’ve got all this stuff with me and I have a lot of studying to do and…and..” She broke off and looked at him flustered.
“And your Mom told you never to go off with strange men right.”
“Actually it was my Dad who told me that” she smiled “I’m sorry, but that doesn’t mean that you couldn’t go on your own though.”
“Well I could but I wouldn’t understand the technical aspects of it, if I go I want to know all the details like that.”
“David there are people there you can ask questions to.”
“Yeah but I want to go with someone like you, someone who understands it, not someone who’s just got the answers to the questions that tourists ask, please come with me, didn’t you tell me it would be a wonderful experience, wouldn’t you hate for me to miss out on it because you won’t come with me?”
“Well maybe tomorrow I could.”
“No tomorrow is no good,” he said sensing she was weakening “I want to go now”
“You really want me to come with you that much?”
“Huh huh” Dave nodded his head and gave her what he hoped was his most pleading look. “And you need a break, call it a field trip or something.”
“Well I suppose I could, ok then, but I need to take this stuff back home first. I’ll meet you there in an hour ok.”
“You can leave it at my studio if you want to, it’s just across the street.”
“No It’s ok I don’t mind, I’ll meet you there.”
“It’s ok” he reached over and touched her hand “I’m not going to try anything untoward with you, I’m not a mad axeman or something trying to lure you into his trap, anyway there’ll be people around, there’s a couple of my friends working there today.”
He looked at her expression and laughed “Ok that probably sounds worse doesn’t it offering to take you to a strange place with strange men there, that makes me sound like some weirdo doesn’t it.”
“Maybe” she gave him a small smile
“No what I’m saying Callan is leave your stuff there and we can take off and do the tour now, you can pick it up later OK.”
“I’m probably going to regret this but yes ok.”
“Good girl lets go.”
Next chapter
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