03 A Little Bit Stronger

I got a little bit stronger, ridin' in the car to work and I'm tryin' to ignore the hurt.

– Sara Evans

•••

“You’re late.” Gerard crossed his arms over his chest. His eyes moved, following where his best friend was walking ever since she entered the room.

Annaliese stopped behind the kitchen counter and took out a glass from the cupboard. “I know, I know. I’m sorry. But like I told you before, I didn’t feel like watching The Good Doctor tonight. I didn’t promise I could join you guys, did I?” she defended herself.

“Well, that’s fine with me. But Bea was a little upset, so she went straight to bed right after watching only two episodes,” informed Gerard. He had to tell Annaliese about it so she could explain it to Beatrice first thing in the morning. If not, the so-called Princess Bea would not talk to her for the next whole day.

Even though they had only begun being friends three years ago, they had a strong bond. They hit it off ever since the first meeting and they slowly built trust in each other. They agreed that openness was a solid foundation for their friendship. When one made a mistake, they had to be humble to admit it and apologize. The others should also forgive.

“Anyways, who is he? I saw you coming home with a guy.”

“A guy? Annaliese?”

Annaliese was already startled when Gerard gave her the question. But then Beatrice appeared from the bedroom and chimed in. It only meant she would be bombarded with questions. Oh, how she wished she could’ve said no to William who insisted on taking her back. Now she had to give them a good explanation.

The only way out was to pretend to yawn. Neither Gerard nor Beatrice would force her to talk when Annaliese gave this code. She didn’t want to talk about it yet. To her, William was just another stranger that happened to talk with her. Both of them might never meet anymore.

“She will tell us eventually. But I hope it will be a good thing this time,” Beatrice pursed her lips and scratched her right eyebrow while seeing her best friend entering the other bedroom.

••

As a polyglot, Annaliese always sought opportunities to mingle with other polyglots. Fortunately, there was a monthly meeting held at a cafe around downtown. She didn’t need to think to finally decide to go there. She would usually go by herself but this time Gerard and Beatrice came along. They had no idea about what to do.

People of various cultural and language backgrounds were there. Annaliese talked with almost everybody. She really enjoyed it there. Surprisingly, so did Gerard and Beatrice. Even though they were not into languages, they were sociable and it was easy for them to just blend in.

“Ahora estoy aprendiendo chino porque es interesante.” She explained the reason why she was learning Chinese to her new friends. She always found all languages interesting to learn. Perhaps she would learn all languages if she could. “Desafortunadamente, creo que aquí no hay nadie que hable chino. Qué pena.” It had almost been an hour since she arrived there but she didn’t see anyone speak Chinese at all in the room.

“Actually, there is one person. My husband’s best friend. He said he would come, but I wonder, where is he?” Saoirse, the brunette-haired woman was looking at her left and right. "Um, I'll be back in a minute." She patted the shoulder of one of the people in the group and left.

Annaliese then started talking with the others who didn't speak the language she mastered. Thus English was the only way to understand each other. She found their cultural background quite fascinating and felt like visiting their countries one day.

In the middle of the fun topic they were discussing, a tap on Annaliese’s shoulder interrupted their conversation. She then turned around.

"Anna, this is the guy I told you about." It was Saoirse. She then moved a bit to the left, showing the person she had mentioned.

"You?" The voices of Annaliese and the guy synced perfectly.

Saoirse looked surprised. "You guys have met?" she wondered.

William nodded. "Yeah, not long ago. We've met twice at two different restaurants. The first one was—"

"Good." Annaliese cut off his words so as not to expose that embarrassing moment. She sent a secret code to him through her eyes which she thought he got.

"I was going to say 'amazing'. But it was just good for you?" William teased her instead. He chuckled gleefully looking at how she reacted.

Annaliese raised her eyebrows, drew half a smile to her right cheek, and crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, I didn't know you were that happy to get to know me," she replied, not letting him beat her in the automatically-started teasing contest.

William pursed his lips and smiled, making his dimples appear. "Yes. And I'm even happier to see you here. Guess I made the right decision to accept Saoirse's invitation to this meeting," he remarked with a slight move of his eyebrows.

“Be careful, dude. I have a charm nobody could resist.”

“Think it’s the other way round. You be careful not to fall for me.”

The sound of a clearing throat was heard. “Are we invisible?” Saoirse broke their intense conversation, making the others giggle.

Thus two of them also burst into laughter eventually.

William stretched out his hand and said, “It’s good to see you again here.”

“Same here. I might need to learn some Chinese from you.” Annaliese took his hand and they shook hands.

Thinking that it would be better to leave the two of them alone, Saoirse uttered, “Hey, ladies, I need to show you something. William, Annaliese, I’ll be right back, okay?” with a hidden meaningful smile.

“Sure. That's fine,” replied William, as though serving as the spokesperson for Annaliese who just responded with a nod. “So, hey.”

“Yep?”

The room was getting crowded all of a sudden. More people were coming in a group. It wasn’t easy to talk without raising their voice.

William then bent toward Anna who was shorter than him. “We’d better go somewhere with fewer people. I don’t want to hurt my throat by talking this way,” he told her a little more loudly.

Annaliese agreed. She then trailed after William who headed toward the front porch.

It was still warm outside in the first week of September. The sun was still on the west horizon, illuminating the sky with a reddish-golden glow.

William leaned over the wooden railing with his hands gripping the top. He inhaled the fresh evening air. "Oh, this is so much better, isn't it?" he asked for an agreement without looking at the one he was talking to.

Annaliese reclined against the comfortable white rocking chair. "Yeah, especially while rocking on this chair," she replied.

He turned to her and then took a seat right next to her. "Really?"

She nodded. "Back in my apartment, I have one too. Sometimes when I lack ideas, I'll go sit there and rock for a while. Then I'll be inspired," she told him the thing she didn't mean to share and discreetly got surprised.

"My grandma used to sit on a rocking chair for hours in front of her house porch. Yes, a typical old lady. But what was different was she didn't knit or just looked at the people passing by. Instead, she painted," he shared the lovely memory. "Now she's gone and sometimes I miss seeing her again."

Annaliese found his story to be fascinating to listen to. She didn't say a thing but only smiled. Her grandparents from both of her parents' sides had been gone years ago.

"So, are you here all by yourself?" William started a new topic.

She shook her head. "My two friends are here too," she answered.

"Oh? Thought you were traveling solo. You guys must be best buddies."

"We are." Annaliese nodded. "They've always been my support system besides my parents. I'm grateful for them."

A beautiful smile adorned William's face. "I can see."

As if knowing she was being talked about, Beatrice showed up and then stood in front of Annaliese.

"Oh, it's her. My best friend, Beatrice." Annaliese introduced her to William.

"Pleased to meet you, Beatrice," William politely greeted her.

Beatrice then smiled. "Same here," she replied. "So hey, we're about to begin a fun game. What about joining us now?"

Annaliese exchanged glances with William. She then turned to Beatrice again. "Actually, we're here because it's too loud inside," she uttered.

"Oh, come on. Just twenty minutes. Please join us," Beatrice, the most demanding princess ever, insisted. "You won't regret it."

William looked at Annaliese and said, "Well, this doesn't happen every day, so let's do it."

Annaliese shrugged. "Okay."

"Yes!" Beatrice exclaimed in excitement. "Come on."

The three of them then came back inside. There were around seven people in the living room with Gerard in the center. It wouldn't be surprising to find that he was the one who gathered the crowd there.

"Alright. The game is called Ostrich Dance. Each of us has to form a team of two. One of them has a card taped to their back with a word written on it. So the one without the card has to protect the other because the winner is the team who can read the other's team card." Gerard explained it very clearly in just less than one minute. Everyone understood right away. It was indeed his skill.

"There are ten of us, so there'll be five teams. How do we team up?" asked a woman in a pink dress who was standing next to William.

"Easy. Someone next to you is your partner," answered Gerard.

The same woman turned to William and said, "So, you and I." She smiled from ear to ear.

However, William felt something strange about the woman. "I'm sorry. I'm already with her," he countered, pointing at Annaliese who was on his left.

Annaliese, who didn't really care about who she was going to team up with, didn't say anything. But as soon as she saw how the woman fixed her eyes on William, she understood why he did that.

The woman then left and found someone else.

"Why did you reject her? She's beautiful, and she's obviously into you," Annaliese teased him.

William didn't say a thing but scrunched his nose in response.

"Oh, so it's a man and a woman in each team. Cool. We're even then," Gerard realized it. "Then let's tape the card on the women's back. Let us men protect you, ladies."

"And what about letting the man write the word as well? Make it even a surprise for the woman too," Beatrice expressed her sudden idea. She and Gerard were definitely a perfect pair. They loved spontaneity.

Nobody disagreed. They even seemed to like the idea as if expecting something good would happen after the game.

Blank cards and pens were handed to each man. After they wrote the words, they attached the cards to the women's backs.

"Are you guys ready?" Gerard, who was also involved in the game, gave a cue before starting it. When the others nodded, he signaled, "Let's begin!"

Instead of an Ostrich like the name of the game suggested, everyone started to act like a lion hunting prey. Most women shrieked behind the men. Beatrice was the loudest.

"You're good. Keep it up, Mr. Knight." Annaliese patted his back.

While still focused on the game, William replied jokingly, "Fret not. I'll protect you, Princess Annaliese, till my last drop of blood."

She found it hilarious and then laughed, holding her stomach. Hence, she let her guard down and without her knowing, she was out of his protection.

Seeing the open opportunity, one of the teams hunted her down right away. Nevertheless, William quickly slid back to her and then pulled her into his arms.

'What's happening? Why am I in his embrace?' Annaliese didn't feel comfortable somehow. All of a sudden, it reminded her of the bitter past. Thus, instead of cooperating by following William's movement, she freed herself from his arms and turned around. They lost the game when the other team read the word.

She didn't even hear the word. Her mind was completely distracted. All that she wanted to do was leave the place.

William was left speechless. He didn't know what was wrong, then turned to Beatrice and Gerard.

"I'll go after her." Beatrice exited the house and followed where Annaliese was going.