INNOCENT ADVENTURE

CHAPTER SIX

Adrien? What is he doing here at this time? He smiled and nodded but instead of maybe reciprocating his actions, I tried to duck and hide behind Nancy's thin frame. She looked at me confused and asked,

"Are you ok, Emerald? What's wrong" she stretched out her left hand to 'check my temperature'. I waved my hand to dismiss her approaching hand.

"I'm fine. It's just that the man that sat beside me on the plane is sitting right behind you and he's looking right at me. Can we get the food packed and leave, please?" I replied as quickly as possible.

Even though I want to get out of here without interacting with him, I didn't want to waste perfectly good food. Nancy was about to turn and look behind her

"Don't look back" I snapped

"Why? Did something happen? Do you want me to go and warn him to stay away?" She said already preparing to go to his table

"Wait! What? No no no. Nothing happened. He didn't do anything. I'll explain on our way back, please." I said stopping her.

"Sigh. Ok." She calmed down and gestured for a waitress nearby to come and when she did. Nancy asked if she could pack our food for us to take home; she said she could and excused herself to get a tray to carry it away..

"Did he see you?" She asked

"Yh. I think. I think he did." I replied.

"Emerald, if he has already seen you, why are you hiding and why are we cutting our night out short. What happened on the plane?" She said teasingly with a sly smile plastered on her face.

"This is not the time for teasing. I will explain everything later. Please."

At this moment, the waiter that had served us earlier came with a tray to carry our food for packaging. I rested my head against the edge of the table with my eyes closed while Nancy counted the places we will pass through before returning home but she suddenly stopped talking and it caused me to raise my head to find out why she stopped and standing right there looking down at me was the very person I wanted to get away from.

Now, I wasn't like running because I had anything bad with him, I'm just still embarrassed from the things that happened on the plane; you know the arm grabbing and the hand hand holding and also I think for the very first time, I have a little crush on him. Just a little. And also I wasn't dressed up. My hair was in kind of a messy pony tail that can't be quickly redeemed. So l usually would not care about this but for some reason, at this moment, I did. Weird huh.

He stood there looking directly into my eyes with that smile plastered on his face probably waiting for me to acknowledge him but I was too frozen in place to say anything. Nancy must have noticed this and said in a rather high pitched teasing voice

"Hi Mr...." she said waiting for him to fill in the blank space

"Oh, it's Adrien. Just Adrien." He replied barely taking his eyes off me.

I think I melted slightly from my frozen state because I was able to blink but still didn't look away. Nancy stretched out her hand for a shake and Adrien took it and curtly shook it.

"Hi, I'm Nancy. And this here is -" she said trying to introduce us.

"Emerald." He cut in

"Right. So how may we help you Adrien?" She asked not minding that he didn't let her finish

"I saw Emerald whom I met on the plane early on today from my table (pointing to his table) and I thought I'd come say hi. Sorry to have interrupted your dinner. Are you her sister?" He said finally turning properly to Nancy

"No, I'm not. I'm her sister's friend. (turning to me) Won't you say hello to your friend, Emmy?" She said to me making me even more embarrassed.

I must have looked like a tomato as she burst out laughing causing the entire restaurant to look at us. I gave her a look that said 'you're in trouble for this' and she just shrugged it off. I plastered a wierd smile on my face and turned to Adrien and he smiled back.

"Hi Adrien, nice to meet you again. Didn't think I will be meeting you again so soon." I said

"Me neither. Well, I just came to say hello so I'll go back to my table and I'll give you a call tomorrow. Nice to meet you Nancy. Bye." He quickly returned to his table.

I turned to look at Nancy who had a very wide smile plastered on her face; I rolled my eyes, shook my head and looked away.

"So, Adrien huh? He's cute. And he has your number? Nice.

"Stop it Nancy. I'm not in the mood. What is keeping the food so long? I'm really exhausted right now." I complained, checking the time on my phone.

"Exhausted after seeing Mr Cutie? You're still going to tell me everything that happened on your way here especially the one concerning the cutie" she still said with the teasing smile.

I ignored her and turned to my phone again looking for nothing in particular; maybe I should get a game on it sometime to keep me occupied in times like this. But someone on the other side of our table might have seen that I was on my phone because I received a message notification. I tapped on the notification

Adrien: Hi there.

I raised my head and once again, our eyes met. I quickly looked away. Nancy was also on her phone so she didn't realize.Thank goodness. I replied the text

Me: Hi.

Adrien: Sorry if startled you earlier.

Me: No worries. I was wasn't expecting to you again so soon after we departed earlier.

Adrien: Me neither. I wasn't quite sure if it was you but I knew the person I was looking at looked like you. That was what you caught me doing."

At this moment the waiter returned with our packaged food and the bill. Nancy gave him her card and he brought out a machine, inserted the card and gave it to Nancy to input her code and he returned the card after doing his own input. The machine printed out a receipt which the waiter gave to Nancy. She thanked him with a shake (I think I spotted money in her hand which vanished after the shake), we got up and Nancy turned to Adrien as though knowing he was already looking our way and waved at him. He waved back and smiled at me and I returned the smile and we walked out of the restaurant to the parking lot.

We didn't even drive out of the parking lot when Nancy started asking all her questions at once.

"So, tell me about Adrien. What happened on the plane? Do you like him? Why did you turn red like a ripe tomato? You have a crush on him don't you? Aw this is so cute." She ranted on and on

"Nancy, calm down."

"Oh, I'm very calm. Just answer the questions"

"Ok. Ok. Sigh. So what happened was that when the plane took off, I got really scared; I have a fear of height and it was my first time on a plane. So when the fear kicked in I grabbed his arm very tightly without thinking it could be an arm, at that moment it was something that was giving me some kind of support but he did not complain or get angry or anything like that. Then he got me a little bit of alcohol to settle my upset stomach -" I narrated

"Wait, what? He gave you alcohol? Why would he do that? Does he know how old you are?" She cut in

"Firstly, I'm 19 and can if I want to drink alcohol. And he didn't force me to drink it. I did it willingly. Secondly, I was saying before you interrupted that it was to calm my upset stomach. I felt throwing up and I apparently looked like it so he lended a helping hand. And when we were about to land, he held my hand again but on his own will this time. Seeing him again mearly hours after the incident had me embarrassed all over again, hence the "tomato" face." I continued

"Aw, that was so sweet. But you didn't finish answering the questions. Do you like him or at least have a little crush on him?" She asked again

"I don't think I like like him like that but I do think he's good-looking. And I don't think I have a crush or anything like that on him." I lied and lowered my head so my expressions do not give me away.

"Mm...it didn't seem like that to me. Seemed to me that he likes you and you him."

Before I could protest what she said, she continued

"We'll get some snacks and the things we'll need for breakfast tomorrow from here."

I looked and realised we were parking in front of a shopping mart. We got down and walked into the mart.

"Do you know how to cook? I do not consider myself a cook or anything close so I don't bother."

"Yh. I can cook. I also do not consider myself a "good cook" but I try."

"Great. How about you make us some scrambled eggs with sausage and bacon with some fresh bread for breakfast tomorrow? Do you drink coffee?" She inquired

"No, i don't drink coffee or tea. I prefer chocolate drink. And everything you mentioned sounds great." I replied.

As we started earnestly shopping for our snacks and breakfast, Nancy decided to pick up from where she left off on the Adrien and I issue.

"So like I was going to say before we arrived here, there is nothing wrong with liking or having a crush on a man at your age, especially a very good looking man."

"I don't know anything about the man. I can't go liking every good-looking man I meet. For all you know he may be married and with kids. I'm just being cautious" I said seriously and more to myself than to Nancy

"Yh. You're right. He don't look like it though. Want some ice-cream for dessert?" she asked

"Sure." I replied

"Do you need anything else?" She asked again

"No, I'm good." I replied again

We went to the cashier who packed everything; Nancy gave him the card to pay and we left. The rest of the drive home was silent but for the radio playing music in the car.

When we arrived at the apartment, I was extra exhausted and worn out. Nancy and to put away the items for breakfast and I went straight for the food. I was still hungry though I was very exhausted. The food was still warm so without transferring the contents of my packaged food into a suitable bowl, I ate directly from the disposable plastic bowl.

Nancy who was bringing the 'suitable' bowl laughed when she saw me.

"You were hungry yet you didn't want to eat in front of your crush." She teased

I took my time to finish chewing and swallowing before replying her.

"Once again, he's not my crush. And don't you agree eating in the comfort of your home is far more comfortable and no one will be judging how you eat your food?" I asked

"Once again, I'm only saying this based on what I've seen; you hiding from him and him leaving his friends or whoever they are to come and smile at you while disguising it as "saying hello". It's all cute." She explained

My phone vibrated and I got it out of my pocket to see who was texting me at this hour and speak of the devil. I looked up to see if Nancy was watching but it looked like she was concentrated on the food before her. I turned back to my phone and tapped on the notification.

Adrien: Hi again

Me: Hi

Adrien: Are you home yet?

Me: Yes, I am. What about you?

Adrien: I also just got home.

Me: ok. That's great.

I was replying and eating at the same time so in no time, I was done. I trashed the disposables and went to sit in the leaving area (mother was always against going to bed right after meal) to relax a little before going to bed and I continued chatting with Adrien while relaxing.

Adrien: so, how are you enjoying the city so far?

Me: I haven't really seen much of it so I can't tell. But from where I am, it's all good."

Adrien: That's good to hear. I hope your sister's friend is not mad that interrupted your dinner.

Me: oh no she's not. There's nothing to worry about.

Adrien: Great. That's a relief. I will leave you to rest. Can I text you again tomorrow?

Me: You didn't need permission to text me today why do you need one for tomorrow.

Adrien: Well, I'm just being cautious. I don't want you to think I'm over pushing the boundaries.

Me: It's fine. You can text me, just not this late.

Adrien: Ok. Thank you

Me: You're welcome

Adrien: Good Night Emerald

Me: Good Night Adrien

I placed the phone down, leaned back on the chair and closed my eyes. Nancy brought the ice creams we got and handed me mine, sat in one of the sofas and turned on the TV.

"You look sleepy." She stated

"I didn't sleep much last night out of excitement and was up before the c**k could crow and I didn't rest on the train or the plane either and you woke me up from my sleep shortly after I dozed off so yh, I'm very sleepy." I replied

"Wow. Well, if you put it that way...didn't mean to. I was just so excited to have finally met Gwen's Emerald." she said.

"Why does everyone keep saying that? " Gwen's Emerald"?"

"Since I met Gwen, all she ever spoke about was her little sister back at home. You were like her little pride and joy, the reason why she would get up to do her best, work her hardest or achieve her best. And she has been waiting for the day she'll bring you to stay with her. She loves you so much."

"If that's the case, then why isn't she here. All these things we're doing, I had imagined doing them with her but where is she? After all these years that she hasn't seen me, why isn't she here? It's not like she wasn't aware that I was coming; I didn't sneak up on her and you say she loves me? Did she put you up to this?" I said while trying to hold back the tears

"Emerald -"

"I'm going to bed. Thanks for dinner and dessert. I must confess, I had a nice time. Good night."

I returned the ice-cream to the freezer in the kitchen and proceeded to my room. Without turning on the light, I went straight for the bed not caring if I walked into something. Thankfully, I didn't and when I reached the bed, I slammed into it with face down in the pillow and let all my emotions go.