...continued from part-1, part-2, part-3, part-4, and part-5
As the days went by, James couldn’t find himself staying apart from Anna for too long especially when she was close by. He always loved being around her; more so at work.
He practically dreaded the close of work, each day; as it signaled the beginning of a forgetful evening for him, without his dear Anna.
He had fallen hard for Anna, and the closing hours were now his most dreadful part of every work day – the moment he had to lose sight of Anna for the rest of the day.
He still hadn’t officially asked her out; but whenever he was free, he always visited Anna’s station. He resigned within himself that he would let things move smoothly in order not to complicate things.
Whether that was a good idea, he really couldn’t tell himself. But the one thing he was sure was that he didn’t want to jeopardize the budding friendship and closeness between them.
Most days, he dropped her off at home, but he had never been invited up to her place.
Anna was always grateful for his kind gesture in words, but virtually avoided direct body contact between herself and James, whenever they were in the car or even when saying goodbye.
James didn’t make a big deal out of that though. He assumed that she was simply being modest – of which there was nothing strange about that.
At work, Anna was in the Well-planning department of the company, while James and Brian were in the MWD department and LWD department respectively.
Although the company had various departments which the staff functioned from, there was a huge common office, where the senior Engineers had cubicles or stations to also work from.
James, Anna and Brian were senior Engineers. Anna’s station was to James’ left and he liked her proximity. And Brian station was on James’ right.
The three of them related well with each other. Brian especially got singled out for most of the office jokes; as he was getting married soon – having fixed a date for his wedding to his fiancé, Stella.
Anna bore no strange feelings towards him, and they were quite cool with each other, despite Anna having turned down Brian’s advances when she newly joined the firm, some two years earlier.
About three weeks to Brian’s wedding, James had to drop Anna off every single day for a straight week.
Their closeness was a bit apparent to everyone at work, by then. Although none of them ever accepted that they were dating – because in truth they weren’t.
On the Friday of that week, James dropped Anna off and, this time around, before she could open the car door to exit, he asked her the question he felt he should have asked a long time ago.
“Hey, Anna, would you go out on a date with me tomorrow being Saturday?” James asked.
“It’s a weekend and I would like to spend the day with you”, he added.
“We could go see some movies at the cinema or have dinner or whatever you would probably feel like doing on a Saturday”, he stated, while smiling.
Anna didn’t say a word for a few seconds, the goodbye smile she had on her lips before she tried stepping out of the car had completely disappeared.
She had a rather blank look on her face. James thought she probably didn’t hear or understand his question properly, and so he called her name and asked if she was alright.
“Anna, are you ok? Your demeanour has suddenly changed. Did you hear my question?”
After some seconds, Anna responded, “Yes, I heard you James. I just wasn’t expecting you to ask me that”
James got confused and somewhat upset.
“You didn’t expect me to ask you that? Why? What is so terrible about going out on a date with me, Anna?”
“Am I so repulsive? Am I so terrible looking or terribly behaved?”
He was visibly frustrated with her reaction and response, but he held back the urge to pour out his frustration. He wanted to ask her virtually every question that came to his mind, but he held himself back.
He felt like asking her why she hasn’t even invited him for once to her place, despite the fact that he has done so repeatedly and she always turned him down.
He had been dropping her off, at home every now and then. And now he also felt like asking her what she thought he was; her cab driver?
He wondered why Anna wouldn’t just loosen up a bit, live her life and allow him a chance to really know her and whatever inhibitions she may have.
His plan of going on a date with her was in-part to officially make his intention known to her, that he wanted to date her.
Yet, all she could do was remain silent and numb to his question? As if he had just confessed to being a serial killer or being something worse?
Despite his inner battle and confusion deep within, he masterfully controlled his emotions and voice. Rather than query her harshly and mess things up, he allowed her time to respond.
After a bit of the awkward silence of which she didn’t answer any of his questions, James simply and calmly spoke.
“I really don’t know what the problem is, Anna. I really do like you.”
“I always have, since the day I saw you.”
As he spoke and turned towards her, he saw a teardrop running down her left eye. Unperturbed by that, and not being ready to feel guilty of speaking his mind, James continued.
“I would like to be your man, and I’d want for you to be my lady, Anna. But apparently, something seems to be holding you back from expressing yourself and your feelings.”
Still she said nothing and made no attempt to respond.
James then reached a decision right there, and calmly stated, “You still haven’t answered me, Anna”
“And since you haven’t found me worthy to come up to your door step, let alone your house, despite knowing you for over seven months, I won’t bother coming up to the house to knock tomorrow.”
“I would be parked right here, at this very spot tomorrow by 11am, to take you out and hopefully give you a good time, which I think you deserve.”
“If you don’t come out after thirty-minutes, then I would get your intended message and leave, and I won’t push you anymore neither will I ever bother you again.”
After saying his mind, he stepped out of the car, walked over and opened the door for her to alight.
She slowly did and James shut the door.
“Have a good night, Anna,” he said.
He then entered his car and drove off.
From his rear-view mirror he saw Anna hold a short gaze at his car as he drove off, and then she walk to her building.
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