A smile is enough - Chapter 1

The expression on his face changed in a second. The sides of his mouth rose almost imperceptibly, but I knew that inside of himself he was laughing while he was helping me to get up after my fall in the hugest puddle that I've ever seen.

Yes, stumble in my own steps is something that happens a lot to me.

All my girlfriends love to wander around and do shopping. They say it's relaxing. They'd have changed their minds if, like me, they'd have been forced to do it constantly to replace all the clothes, too ruined to be worn again. 

I readjusted the bag on my shoulder while I did a quick estimation of the damages.

Here. I knew it. I ruined another thing. 

This time was a long, simple skirt, made of pure white cotton, that I bought at the flea market not far from my house. 

I hated that place, too much chaos, but I was often forced to rely on it to save at least a small part of my savings. 

While I was lost in my mental considerations, Lucas had already taken off his jacket and he was fastening it around my waist, making me come back to reality.

"Thank you" I was able to slobber after a moment of daze.

He didn't respond, he simply smiled and I was thankful for his decision not to beat the dead horse. My ego was beaten up enough.

After the puddle crisis, we kept walking through the Caroline Caffè where my best friend Amelia was waiting for us.

I adored that place. The nineteenth-century vibe of the furnitures and the eccentric character of the owners made it charming and adorable. This was the main reason why I chose this place in particular to bring together the two.

I met Lucas the afternoon that he moved in.

I was walking home, in the St. John's Wood district of London, with two huge overflowing grocery bags, that basically weighed like ten. I was so loaded of stuff, I didn't even noticed that I had hooked one of his designer lamps with one of the rebel celery sticks I was carrying.

I didn't noticed until I heard the din of the glass smashing on the grown, few centimeters from my feet.

I stood petrified.

I was staring at the abstract artwork that I just created on the sidewalk and meantime my mind wandered sounding out all the possible consequences.

When my system metabolized the damage that I just made, I suddenly lost the grip on my begs, almost if they were became heavy the double. 

"OUCH! Are you trying to dissuade me from moving in this building?!"

I turn and I saw that the owner of boxes and furnitures meantime approached me, and one of the bags that I just left fell right on his foot.

Perfect. 

"I...I'm... So... I'm so sorry. I... Sorry. Really. I swear... I promise that'll pay you back for everything. I'm gonna pay you back! Yes!" Oh Gosh, I sounded dislexic. 

"Ahahahah... don't worry, I didn't even like that lamp" said him, hinting what I later I learned to recognize as his sweet sarcastic smile.

He was lying. Clearly. What I just had destroyed was the better half of the most wonderful couple of lamps that I've ever seen, and now the survivor seemed to looking at me from the top of a coffee table, surely also from one of those boutiques in the center of London.

I mumbled another river of apologies and him responded not to bother to everyone of them.

I felt like my feet were made of marble and my eyes were filling up with tears.

I don't know if was my italian accent to soften him, or the fact that on the entire right side of my dress, and on part of my arm, there was a huge stain which I just got by leaning by accident on a freshly painted fence, but the fact remains that he decided to pick up my bags and started walking up the stairs or the building.

There were just a couple of steps left when he turned to look at me, and I raised my eyes on him back.

His look was secure and proud while mine resembled the same one that I used to gave to my dad when I was a kid and I accidentally made my gelato fall from the cone.

"You're Bianca, right? I'm Lucas... nice to meet you!"

What...? But... How?

"Sorry, but how... how do you know what my name is?... And how do you know that I live in this building?" I said then, almost shocked.

"The owner of the building warned me that the tenant living in the 1b was a clumsy girl. He told me that I shouldn't get worried to hear hustle coming from your apartment. I don't know why, but I guessed it was you"

"Oh... right."

In that moment I felt all the blood of my body flow toward my cheeks which, in that moment, I imagined they were shining by their own light.

I threw him an infuriated look for few seconds and just in that moment I focused Lucas and all his beauty.

I had to be taller than 6'3 ft. since he exceeded my 5'7 of more than a span. His eyes were so blue that seemed almost fetched and they created an incredible contrast with his softly tanned skin and his dark hair. He was also someone whom was clearly into going to the gym often. His biceps were noticeable, underlined as they were by the short sleeves shirt that was wearing and pumped by the weight of the begs he was carrying. 

I admit I had to swallow a couple of times while my eyes were moving on him.

He seemed not to notice, or he was just too used to those kind of reactions from women to be bothered.

"So, Bianca... aren't you coming to at least open the door?"

Here, that smile again.

Was he mocking me?

"Oh well, aren't you afraid that something could happen to you again, if I come too close?" I said rabid. I hate to be reminded of my clumsiness. 

"Uhm, probably I should. But I love extreme sports!"

Boaster.

During the month that followed Lucas became a constant in my life and, strangely, in my apartment. 

I don't know why but he preferred to spend the nights in my three square foot hole, rather than invite me in his super duper fancy apartment on the second floor, big as much as the sum of the four niches present on mine.

Sometimes he showed up at my door, with a puppy look and hands full of bags of chinese food and a movie on dvd. During those nights we used to holed up on my couch, that was also my bed, with a wool blanket and we just ate almost in silence, watching the tv. When the movie was over I knew that he couldn't resist to make a mess of my hair and, right after that, he used to go out the door just saying "night". 

Some other times I found myself in front of him who was revved up, like a dog ready for his walk. Those times we used to live the worldly life of London, or we ended up just walking for kilometers around the town. He argued that it was the only ways to make me fell more english than italian transplanted in foreign ground.

I trusted him.

In just something more than four weeks, the cold eyed braggart had become my best friend.

It was during a day of the end of july I came up with the brilliant plan that would take me that day toward the Caroline Caffè and that puddle. 

Amelia was finally back from his trip to Berlin. Soon we would have been reunited after what had seem to me as a century and, for the first time, I had a lot of things to tell her. 

Author's Note

I have no idea why but all the dialogue parts where removed and I didn't noticed :/
sorry for the non sense that was left

Reviews

[Ke11y]

I think you have great story telling ability. I hope to be helpful by suggesting that this particular chapter needs some strong editing. That said, I enjoyed what I read and would continue to read further chapters. I like the idea of not editing anything until the book is complete, and if this is the case here, your'e off to a good start. Well done.

[Rumbling Writer]

Yes, the idea is to revisit everything at the end, re-write the pieces that need to be re-written and edit out the grammar and spelling mistakes too! I'm planning to sent the finished novel to an american friend that will help me with those stuff.
Thanks for your comment!

[MyRathDothEnd]

its easy for me to relate to your characters -- thats very important

[Rumbling Writer]

I'm glad! :)

[JordanIsaacSmith]

Fantastic piece of writing and great story. I'd have organised the sentence structure a little differently, but that's just me! I like a fairly complex sentence structure. There are a few grammar mistakes and a couple of spelling mistakes that I noticed. Other than that keep up the great work.

[Rumbling Writer]

I imagined that it was full of errors! xD
I'll have to check it out more carefully when I have time. In the italian versions the sentences are indeed more complex, but I had to revisit some stuff due to my lack of competence in English writing.
I hope you'll continue to read the story which I hope I'll be able to make it evolve in a more grammatically reasonable way!