My eyes fluttered open and adjusted to the light. I stretched, yawned and groaned in my usual fashion.
“Morning sunshine,” a voice said.
I rolled over and looked in the direction it came from. I rubbed my eyes to see a clearer view as it was all still foggy for me. “Vince…?”
“Hey buddy. Slept well?” he said. He was sitting across the room reading a newspaper. “Your club’s climbing up the table now. Nice. Though, it is surprising not seeing your face in today’s issue.”
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“What time is it?” I asked ignoring everything else.
“Around 8 I think.”
“****. Why are you here so early?” I yawned, lifting myself to the edge of the bed to sit.
“I came in last night actually but you were passed out when I came. Had another night with your mystery girl?”
Truth is, I did. That night at the park, the stranger that called my name was her. I smiled remembering everything that had happened:
She called my name and I turned around to be completely surprised. What followed was amazing. She patted the space on the bench next to her inviting me to sit. “I think it’s in everyone’s best interest that we sit. Can’t have you running over me again,” she teased and giggled. We spent hours into the night talking right there on that bench. She told me she read about my Vegas adventure which made me feel completely embarrassed. Then she shared some of her embarrassing stories to make it even. While she talked, I couldn’t help but keep my eyes glued to her. The way her nose wrinkled when she smiled to her dark eyes that the lights around us lit perfectly. When she laughed she would flip her head back or run her hands through hair and when she was trying to remember something she would touch her nose with her index and look out into the horizon. I was completely taken by her. At some point in the night, I made the decision to not leave without asking her one question, “What’s your name?” She promised to tell me if I walked her home again and I didn’t think twice about it. On the walk I told her about how I spent my time in Newport searching for her after the first night we met and she told me that because of me she kept an eye on sports news. Then as we got to the spot where she ran off into the night the first time, she turned to me and whispered in my ear, “Emma. I’m Emma Smith” Then she slipped something in my pocket and walked off into the dark again, looking over her shoulder smiling at me.
I smiled at the memory. In my pocket, she had slipped a paper with an address. The next day, I went to the address and found out it was a local library. I sat there for six hours after training and to my delight she came. Since then, I have met her at this library as many times as my schedule allowed it and we spent nights together talking.
“Hey lover boy! Quit dreaming and snap back to me, yeah?” Vince shouted effectively ending my trip down memory lane.
“Huh? Sorry. What did I miss?” I rubbed my hands over my face to wake up some more.
“I asked if you had another night with Emma but based on your smile and drool after the question, it seemed you did,” Vince said smiling.
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “She’s amazing. I’m telling you Vince.”
“You know, I got the tech guys at the offices to run a background check on her,” she said quietly as he went flipping through the papers again.
“You did??” I asked surprised. “What did you find!?”
“Nothing…” he said continuing in his quiet tone.
“What? What do you mean nothing?”
“I don’t know. All we have is a name on her. We found a few Emma Smith’s in the area but none match your description. Yours has no social media presence or any records nor anything.”
“That’s not a bad thing though,” I reasoned.
“You sure she’s real right?”
“Oh not this again. Yes! She is!” I yelled getting out of bed to put a shirt on.
“I’m just making sure you’ve not gone bonkers man. I mean, you only see her at night. Most times you two are completely alone. She’s given you no number or you haven’t actually been to her house. You just walk her to a spot and she disappears after that. All a little weird no?”
When he listed it out like that, I had to question it myself but I was defiant. “Enough Vince. You’ll meet her soon enough. You’ll see.”
