Welcome to Strangely

He smiled and looked deep into her eyes. “So quick to never, ever see me again. I must admit it stings a little.”

“I really have to go to the toilet now,” she said as she pushed herself away from the counter determinedly.

Sebastian watched her as she walked away.

When Jenny got back to the corner in the pub, Sebastian was nowhere to be seen.

Veronica smiled when she saw Jenny approach them. “Ready to get out of here?” She asked.

“Am I ever,” Jenny agreed.

Sitting in the back seat of Karl’s Peugeot, Jenny clasped her hand around her phone when her ring tone announced she had a notification.

She swiped the lock screen and saw she had a few message notifications.

Sebastian: Get ready to have your mind blown, Jenny.

Jenny: You seem overconfident.

Sebastian: Oh, but I am.

Jenny: Why the friend request on Facebook?

Sebastian: It would be easier when we go public.

Jenny: Public with what?

Sebastian: You know. In, single or it’s complicated.

Jenny laughed.

Sebastian: Veronica said you must be home at ten. It’s now, exactly, 8:45. Are you keen?

Jenny: Keen for what?

Sebastian: Our date?

Jenny: Now?

Sebastian: I’ll be at your front door at 9. Be ready.

Jenny: No!

He did not send a reply message.

By the time they reached her house, Jenny could see Sebastian waiting for her where he was leaning against the low wall in front of her parents’ semi-detached house.

Jenny almost forgot to say goodbye to Veronica and Karl when she quickly pulled the door open and rushed across the pavement to reach him.

“This is crazy,” she hissed.

“You can lie to me all you want, Jenny, but your face… your body… They tell me everything I need to know.”

“And what exactly are they telling you, Sebastian?” Jenny asked with a sarcastic tone in her voice.

He gave her a sexy smile but said nothing as he turned to wave goodbye to Karl and Veronica.

After they left, he turned back to Jenny. “Would you like to go for a drive?”

“Where to?”

“This place I know.”

He walked over to his car and held the passenger door open for her.

Reluctantly Jenny stepped forward and sat down on the seat before he closed the door again.

After he got in the car and started driving, he did not seem so assured of himself anymore and there was a nervous silence in the car. He drove them to a quiet picnic area on the side of the river.

“Wow, Sebastian, the water looks pretty.”

“Isn’t it?” He asked, glancing in her direction.

Jenny turned to look at him. “It’s not often the moon is out, so it looks especially nice with it reflecting on the surface like that.”

His eyes were already locked on her. “Come.”

They got out of the car and met in the front. She copied him when he leant back, half-sitting on the front of the car. He stretched his legs in front of him and crossed them at the ankles.

“It’s a nice night,” he said looking up at the clear night sky.

Jenny looked up as well. “Not even a chill.”

“Perfect?” He asked softly.

“Well, as far as dates go, no.” She laughed amused.

He straightened and took a step in her direction. He pulled her up against his body, looking into her eyes and then he kissed her.

Jenny broke away from his lips. “What are you doing?”

“Fulfilling a fantasy, I have about you.”

“What?”

He said, “Maybe positive thinking actually works because I have thought of you and me together so often, even though I never believed it could ever happen. Would it be weird, if I said, I think I actually love you?”

“You did not just say it without even knowing if I feel the same way about you? Why would you do that?” Jenny asked.

He looked puzzled. “I have nothing to lose. If you loved me, would you be too afraid to tell me?”

“I would never, ever say it without being a hundred percent sure I’m not going to humiliate myself.”

“I guess that’s where we differ. I don’t care. My love for you does not depend on whether you feel the same or not. It just is.”

In a desperate attempt to get even closer to her, Sebastian moved his hand to the back of her neck. He kissed Jenny as he pushed against her to move backwards. When their mouths met, she was as eager to kiss him as he was to kiss her. Her lips were perfect the way they moulded and meshed with his. Her mouth tasted sweet, her tongue was teasing his, and the more he got, the more he wanted. He knew he would not go any further than just kissing – for now. His body paid him no interest, though. His body was not one to ponder consequences. He shifted his hips away from her so she would not think the words he spoke were lies, that he did not really love her, that all he was interested in was to shag her, to fulfil the fantasies he so casually admitted having.

With his one hand on her hip and the other behind her head, he gently prodded her backwards until the back of her legs were pushed against the front of his car, their lips staying attached.

Jenny whimpered. He was making every rational thought in her head scamper like frightened rabbits when faced with a hungry fox.

His hands went to her waist, caressing her skin under her jumper just above the top of her jeans. Sebastian had learned something interesting about Jenny tonight—with every kiss, he wanted so much more from her.

As they kissed, her hands moved from his neck and smoothed down his shoulders, her fingers burned his skin even though he was wearing a thermal T-shirt. He shuddered under her light touch. “It feels good when you touch me, Jenny,” he murmured against her lips.

She chuckled. “I guess I like touching you.”

He rested his forehead on her shoulder. “Why now?” He said softly. “All these years, and now...”

Jenny looked at the way the moonlight glimmered off the ripples the wind was creating on the river. She had a deep-seated feeling of dread. It was as if in a small fleeting second, she could see her future, and Sebastian would not be a part of it. She asked, “Don’t you think it’s strange how we’ve lived in the same village, and never ever saw each other after we finished Primary until tonight.”

“What are the odds of randomly meeting someone you know?” He asked, lifting his head from her shoulder, and looking at her.

“Some might say it’s just coincidence that in seven years we were never in the same place at the same time, and there are an unexplained order and structure to reality, something that connects everything and everyone. Maybe we weren’t meant to see each other until tonight.”

“So why now? Why tonight and not a month ago?”

Jenny looked at him confused.

“Seven years, Jenny. It’s been seven years since I last saw you, and tomorrow I am leaving to go to New York.”