moment I felt like we had known each other all our lives. How was that possible if we just have met?
Alex dropped me off at my doorstep and didn’t even ask for my phone number. I instantly felt a bitter taste in my mouth. Is that it? Did our first date just become the last one? To my surprise he called me the next evening. He found out my phone number, drove to my flat and took me out for our first proper date. Since then we’ve been almost inseparable. He’d pick me up after my lectures and bring me home where we’d spend some time sitting around and drinking coffee. I heard a lot of good advice from him about how to start a new business and how to avoid mistakes which new entrepreneurs were so prone to. As far as I could understand he had already owned his own business but for a long time but I didn’t get a chance to discover what it was. I didn’t want to question Alex much but to enjoy the closeness we had and I assumed that over time all the other answers will be revealed. I also found from Alex that he’d recently broken up with ex-girlfriend. After a few years of the relationship something went wrong. As he spoke about it there was a shade of sadness in his eyes and I wanted to comfort him at such moments.
I have to admit though that there were occasions - now that it’s easier to judge - when Alex showed different sides to his personality: there was irritation, short temper and at times even anger. But it was very short-lived and since I was a patient person we got on with our lives avoiding arguments.
Yes, that’s what our life was like at that time.
I decided to put my flow of memories on hold as I suddenly felt tired of lying on the bed and I started to feel a little peckish. The orange sunset was shining through the curtains. I got up, opened the curtains and window. The room immediately filled up with various sounds: the whispering of the grass swayed by the gentle breeze, chirping of cicadas, a monotonous voice was murmuring from somewhere underneath me. That must be someone’s TV.
I went to the fridge, opened it and not paying much attention to the abundance of food on the shelves (thanks again to Carlos Brodsky) I took a bottle of sparkling water thinking that I might also fancy a cup of tea later.
After a few minutes I put the kettle on. I reached for the biscuits, opened the pack and put one biscuit in my mouth - it appeared to be crunchy and salty. While chewing the biscuit I began to drown in my memories again.
Alex did not insist on intimacy straight away and I was happy about that, thinking that if he did it would mean that his interest to me is just physical. I was quietly hoping that one day our relationship would grow into a real family - a family that has lots of cosy evenings in; a family busy with everyday worries. I dreamt that we’d travel a lot and we’d get a big fluffy dog...
Plans, plans… and more plans….
One and half months later Alex eventually confessed that he was a firearms engineer. His choice of profession surprised me but at the same time it made me respect him more. In order to invent new types of weapons the person must be very talented and clever and Alex in my opinion was a clever and talented man. Some nights I saw Alex sitting there until the early hours with his blueprints but I never asked him any questions and he never told me much about his work. The only thing I knew was that Alex was the owner of a small plant for developing and producing new weapon samples and there were about forty people working there. Most of the production system was automated. On a few occasions Alex told me that he wouldn’t mind extending the business but in order to do so he would need a hefty additional investment and Alex didn’t have the money.
Then Elmer came on the scene – a man with black thinning hair, a hawk nose and grasping eyes. Elmer didn’t know much about the weapon industry but he was the one who provided Alex
Alex dropped me off at my doorstep and didn’t even ask for my phone number. I instantly felt a bitter taste in my mouth. Is that it? Did our first date just become the last one? To my surprise he called me the next evening. He found out my phone number, drove to my flat and took me out for our first proper date. Since then we’ve been almost inseparable. He’d pick me up after my lectures and bring me home where we’d spend some time sitting around and drinking coffee. I heard a lot of good advice from him about how to start a new business and how to avoid mistakes which new entrepreneurs were so prone to. As far as I could understand he had already owned his own business but for a long time but I didn’t get a chance to discover what it was. I didn’t want to question Alex much but to enjoy the closeness we had and I assumed that over time all the other answers will be revealed. I also found from Alex that he’d recently broken up with ex-girlfriend. After a few years of the relationship something went wrong. As he spoke about it there was a shade of sadness in his eyes and I wanted to comfort him at such moments.
I have to admit though that there were occasions - now that it’s easier to judge - when Alex showed different sides to his personality: there was irritation, short temper and at times even anger. But it was very short-lived and since I was a patient person we got on with our lives avoiding arguments.
Yes, that’s what our life was like at that time.
I decided to put my flow of memories on hold as I suddenly felt tired of lying on the bed and I started to feel a little peckish. The orange sunset was shining through the curtains. I got up, opened the curtains and window. The room immediately filled up with various sounds: the whispering of the grass swayed by the gentle breeze, chirping of cicadas, a monotonous voice was murmuring from somewhere underneath me. That must be someone’s TV.
I went to the fridge, opened it and not paying much attention to the abundance of food on the shelves (thanks again to Carlos Brodsky) I took a bottle of sparkling water thinking that I might also fancy a cup of tea later.
After a few minutes I put the kettle on. I reached for the biscuits, opened the pack and put one biscuit in my mouth - it appeared to be crunchy and salty. While chewing the biscuit I began to drown in my memories again.
Alex did not insist on intimacy straight away and I was happy about that, thinking that if he did it would mean that his interest to me is just physical. I was quietly hoping that one day our relationship would grow into a real family - a family that has lots of cosy evenings in; a family busy with everyday worries. I dreamt that we’d travel a lot and we’d get a big fluffy dog...
Plans, plans… and more plans….
One and half months later Alex eventually confessed that he was a firearms engineer. His choice of profession surprised me but at the same time it made me respect him more. In order to invent new types of weapons the person must be very talented and clever and Alex in my opinion was a clever and talented man. Some nights I saw Alex sitting there until the early hours with his blueprints but I never asked him any questions and he never told me much about his work. The only thing I knew was that Alex was the owner of a small plant for developing and producing new weapon samples and there were about forty people working there. Most of the production system was automated. On a few occasions Alex told me that he wouldn’t mind extending the business but in order to do so he would need a hefty additional investment and Alex didn’t have the money.
Then Elmer came on the scene – a man with black thinning hair, a hawk nose and grasping eyes. Elmer didn’t know much about the weapon industry but he was the one who provided Alex
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