Summer love

 

 

 

Summer Love

          I was in Boston during the summer of 1998 visiting an old friend of mine who attended Boston University. Tam and I were best friends in high school we did almost everything together. He got a scholarship to Boston University two years ago, while I stayed back in a small town in Virginia with my family to go to a community college. I expected to transfer to Boston University at the beginning of my junior year, and I was in Boston to finalize my transfer and to look for an apartment for the fall. When I told people that I was falling in love, no one could believe it. It was a surprise for me and everyone who knew me. The second week of June, I arrived at Tam’s apartment. Since one of his roommates was going home for the summer, he had an extra room for me to stay in. 

Early one Monday morning when I was on campus to take care of paperwork for the September enrollment, I decided to spend some time going around the city to become familiar with my environment. I took the subway and finally, I decided to stop in Chinatown for lunch before heading back to Tam’s apartment. There was a small restaurant at few minutes away from the train station. When I walked into the restaurant, a waitress walked toward me.

“How many people do you have?” the waitress asked me.

“Just myself.” I answered.

“Please follow me.”

I followed the waitress to the table. While I looked at the menu, a beautiful lady walked into the restaurant. Wow, she was beautiful! She was like an angel, just walking in the door. She was very stylish. Her long black beautiful hair flowed from left to right as she walked though the door. By the way she was dressed I could tell she was on her lunch break. It seemed like she had been here before because she knew where to sit and the workers walked up to her and said, “Hi!” I kept one eye on my bowl of noodles and the other one on her. Oh boy, she was beautiful even from the back; I had fallen in love. I don’t think I finished the bowl of noodles that day.

After the restaurant, I headed toward the subway station still thinking about the mystery woman in the restaurant. Who was she? Why was she so beautiful? These questions kept coming to my mind. My mind was still on the mystery woman when the next thing I knew, I was at Boston Commons. Boston Commons is the oldest park in the country. I was standing just laughing at myself, and decided to hang out at the park for a while.

As I walked around the park, there was no empty bench near me, but then I saw one ahead of me, so I headed toward the bench to sit there for a while. My mind could not stop thinking about the mystery woman in the restaurant. The funny thing is that falling in love was the last thing in my mind when I headed up here that week. Two months ago I had broken up with my girlfriend, whom I dated for over two years. It was a mutual separation. My real reason for coming up here for a month was not to take care of some paperwork for school, but to get away from love.

While still figuring out why all this happened, I heard a woman’s voice. “Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?”

“Huh, What?” I was caught by surprise by the beautiful voice. Finally I looked up and couldn’t believe who was standing right in front of me: The mystery woman.

“I sorry to bother you, but is anyone sitting here?” she said.

I still could not believe this; one minute I was daydreaming about her and the next minute she was standing in front of me. I finally spoke to her. “Go ahead; I’m just sitting here by myself.”

“Thank you. Sorry to bother you, but for the last two months I have come here every day around this time, sitting on this bench and feeding the ducks”

“I’m about to leave, so you can be here by yourself.”

“No, I didn’t mean that; please stay. I need the company today.”

After that we both introduced ourselves; I found out that her name was Ha and said “I saw you few minutes ago.”

“Really, where?” she asked me with a surprised voice.

I smiled at her; and continued “At the restaurant, I was at the restaurant you just ate at.”

“Oh I see!”

We laughed after that, and for the few minutes we were laughing and talking, Ha almost forgot that she needed to return to work.

“Thank you I had a great time this afternoon.” Ha said

“Me too. Hey, I would love it if you joined me for dinner. My buddy is at work tonight. If you don’t mind accompanying me to dinner tonight, I would be pleased.”

“I would be happy to go tonight.” She smiled at me and continued, “But, I need to get back to work now. Why don’t you call me later and let me know where I can meet you.” She then wrote her phone number on a piece of paper and gave it to me.

“Sure, I will call you later on.”

I walked toward to the train station, but I still couldn’t believe what just happened to me. Was I dreaming or what? I finally got home, made few phone calls to the school asking them to fax some documents to me here because a few were missing. After all the phone calls, I decided to take a nap before calling Ha for tonight. While lying there relaxing, I remembered why I was in Boston for the first place. Yes, I was here to find a place to live and find a job, then complete all the paper work for school next year, and the last two months, I had avoided dating; a lot of my friends tried to set me up with different women, but I always found a way to get out of it. I never expected to date here in Boston, but I finally called Ha to confirm where she wanted to meet for dinner tonight. I found out that she didn’t live too far from me; so we decided on a Chinese restaurant close to both of us. We decided 7p.m. would be the best time; that gave Ha a chance to rest before heading out for dinner. After our conversation I decided to go for a walk, and I bought some flowers at the store for her.

I was at the restaurant about ten minutes early; I was sitting at the bar across from the door, keeping watch for her. Just few minutes later she walked into the restaurant; Wow! Was she beautiful! She was wearing a beautiful white dress as she walked into the restaurant. She was like an angel walking in the restaurant, and every eye was on her as she walked in. I walked over to her.

“How are you doing?” I smiled at her.

“Sorry, I’m late.” She shook my hand and continued, “How long have you been here?”

“Just a few minutes.”

She then walked over to the hostess and told her “Table for two please.”

“Follow me.” The hostess walked us to our table.

We were in the back of the restaurant close to the kitchen. We had only known each other for an hour at the park, but I felt like we had known each other for a long time. Our conversation was picking up right where it ended at the park.

“Great choice; I’m glad we chose this restaurant.” I smiled at her.

“I’m glad you like it; this is one of my favorites.” Ha said.

This was the first time that I had had so much pleasure with a woman, since my ex-girlfriend. Ha had allowed me to feel comfortable around her. We talked about almost everything. By the time we looked at the clock, it was late. We decided it was time to end the night, but we planned to see each other for lunch. The next couple of days Ha and I had lunch and walked to the park to feed the ducks. I spent more time with her during that time than with Tam. Tam and I were supposed to spend time together during the time I was up here. Instead, I spent more time with Ha.

          On Saturday, Ha and I decided to have a picnic but we couldn’t figure out where to go. So we decided to go back to the park where we been meeting during the week. She was taking care of the food, while I was taking care of the drinks, a blanket, and entertainment for us that day. We had so much fun together; I had never laughed that much before.

          “I’m glad that I ran into you.” I told her.

          “Me too, you know I’ve been going through a tough time lately.” She smiled at me and then continued “One of the reasons why I come to sit here everyday, until I met you.”

          “How strange; I thought, we were meant to meet.” I smiled at her and continued. “After lunch that day I was on my way back to the subway to head home, but I did not know why I came here, and I had never been at this park before until that day.”

          We both were laughing and could not believe that this was how we met. We believe it’s more than just chance that we met. Our faith was leading us together. We ran around the park flying kites and throwing a ball like two little kids. From that day until the time I went back to Virginia, we were hanging out everyday. Ha showed me every place that a tourist must see. I don’t think that I ever had so much fun.

 How time flies when you’re having fun. Finally, it was a time for me to go home. Both of us knew that we had to leave before the fall semester began; great minds think alike. I decided to plan a special date for both of us before I headed back to Virginia. Both of us were very romantic at heart, so I wanted a night both of us would remember until the day both of us would see each other again. Before I could suggest the idea, Ha asked, “Why don’t you come over the house for dinner tomorrow night?”

“Oh, OK! That’s funny, because I was about to invite you over my place for the same thing.” I replied.

Both of us were laughing; she said “I will cook dinner for both of us.”

“How can I refuse that? A beautiful woman wants to cook for me.”

“That’s the least I can do for you. You have been doing so much for me the whole time we have known each other.” She smiled at me as she told me that. She said that dinner would be ready around 6 p.m.

Before I headed over to her house for dinner, I packed up everything for tomorrow. I realized that Ha had allowed me to understand about love again. I was looking forward to seeing my family, but at the same time, I did not want to leave my new home here. I had fallen in love with the beauty of the city of Boston, and most of all, Ha.

It was time for me to head over to our date; in one hand I was holding a bottle of red wine and in the other hand I held a dozen daisies, because daisies were her favorite flowers. By the time I was walking closer to her house, I could already sense a wonderful smell of food. The door was already open a little. I knocked on the door a few times before I said “Hello there; Ha are you in there?”

I did not hear a voice respond to me; but instead I heard music from inside the house. I decide to walk into the apartment.

“Ha, are you in here?” I continue to walk into the dining room and again said “Hello there!”

“I’m in the kitchen.” I finally heard the familiar voice.

I followed her voice to the kitchen; she was finishing cleaning up the kitchen. I handed the gifts to her.

“Thank you, dear; you remembered that I love daisies,” Ha said.

“How can I forget that? That was one of the things; we were talking about the first time we met. Don’t you remember?”

She poured me a glass of wine telling me to relax in the living room, that she would join me in a few minutes. I was impressed with Ha; she had created a romantic mood in the living and dining rooms. Lit candles here and there and music was playing. With a glass of wine, candle light and jazz playing in the back ground, how could anyone not be in the mood?

Finally she reappeared wearing a blue silk dress telling me “I’m sorry that I’ve made you wait.”

“That is OK!” I looked at her for few minutes, and finally said, “Wow! You are look beautiful.”

She said “Thank you!” and then asked me to join her at the dinner table. The food was excellent, and the laughter was beginning all over again. Great food, great music and a lot of laughter, but the thing that made that night special was that I had a chance to dancing with her. Dancing with her was like dance with an angel; it seemed like my feet never touched the floor.

“It’s late; we need to end the night,” She said with sadness in her voice.

“I know; I don’t want this night to end.”

Ha smiled at me and then walked over and turned the music off. As I got ready to go home, Ha slowly put her head on my shoulder and asked, “When will you come back?”

“Soon my dear. In only two months, we will be together again.”

“I know, but to me that is a long time before I can see you,” she said.

That was the last thing we said to each other. I don’t know about Ha but for me the two months were tough. I missed all our lunch dates, the great talks that we had. Everything I did reminded me of Ha. Those two months were like a year for me.

During that time, there was no phone call or a single letter from her. I had tried to call her a few times and wrote to her. Not once did she answer me. 

Finally summer was over and school about to start. That meant it was time for me to return to Boston. I couldn’t wait to get back there to see her again. I missed her a lot. Plus I want to know why she not answered my call or answer my letters. We already had a plan for the first day that I came back; we would have lunch the next day. I moved into my new apartment, which was a few minute away from the campus. The apartment was great and I really enjoyed my first night there.

School would start in a few days; so I decide to get on campus to see where all the classes were located, and after that I would head down to the restaurant where Ha and I first met. Before I went to the restaurant, I stopped at the flower shop to bring some daisies for her, and I got to the restaurant before Ha. I decided to get a table for us. I was so excited to see her again; my heart was beating faster than normal, waiting for her.

After half an hour of waiting for Ha; I decide to ask the owner if he had seen Ha lately. He told me that he had not seen her for the last couple of weeks. After a lonely lunch, I went over to the park hoping to see her there. And again she was not there. I then decide to head over to her apartment to see if she was home. After a few knocks on the door a young man wearing a t-shirt and short opened the door. “Can I help you?”

“Is Ha home?” I asked in a confused voice.

“Who? I think you have a wrong apartment.”

I look at the apartment number again to be sure that I was at the right apartment number. “I don’t think so, there was a young lady living here. I used to visit two months ago.”

“Oh, I see. I guess she has moved out, because I have been living here about a month now.”

 I was confused; where is she? Where did she go? All kinds of questions are in my mind. Where is the woman I love? By this time I was knocking on the landlord’s front door to see if he knew where she moved. “Hello there, Do you know what happened to a young lady who used to live in 10A?”

“Oh her, she moved out a month ago.”

“Did she tell you where she moved to?”

“No, she didn’t. I’m sorry.”

I then thanked him for his help then walk away. I kept returning to the restaurant, the park and her apartment building hoping that she would show up somewhere, but she did not come. I could not believe that she disappeared on me. She knew that I was coming back to be with her. Why didn’t she write to me and tell me where she was going?

To this day I don’t know what happened to Ha, but the memory of our time together is still here with me. At a time in my life where love no longer existed, she showed me how to love again. She will always be my angel of love.

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

ignore grammer problems, what do you think of the dialogue, etc.

Reviews

[None]

Something else must have been going on behind the scenes with Ha. She must have been upset since your last date. Most people don't turn off the music and tell someone to go unless they are upset about something. Maybe she was expecting some kind of promise or simple ring to show she would be yours. Or maybe an invitation to your home, since she stated 2 months would be a long time. She didn't return calls or writing. Your story brings so many questions to mind and is very well written and had me waiting to see what would happen. I'm sorry for the sad ending. I know sometimes we have a dress rehersal before the real show. All the best to you! Excellent story, Thanh.

[Nico]

lovely story and the ending so terribly sad!!!!!!