Short Story: A Second Chance

Short Story: A Second Chance

We were sitting in her office when she dropped the bombshell.

‘You fancied me? I can’t believe that you never said anything!’ I told her after taking it in.

‘Well it’s not like you were falling over yourself to say anything at the time either,’ she shot back.

‘That’s because I always thought you were out of my league.’

She snorted. ‘Don’t you believe it, I was so gagging for it from that first time I met you at Angela’s party.’

I shrugged. ‘I never was much cop at reading those kinds of signals.’ I sipped at my coffee.

‘Well, I guess I wasn’t much good either,’ she said.

‘How’s that?’

‘I was going through some boxes when I moved into my new flat and I came across some of the letters you wrote me.’ She shook her head. ‘Christ, I must’ve been blind not to have seen it – it was right there in front of me the whole time in black and white.’

‘Oh I don’t know; I seem to remember trying very hard to stay on the right side of the just good friends’ line.’

She smiled again. ‘Maybe that’s what you were telling yourself but I don’t think your subconscious was doing a very good job of filtering out your real feelings. Your heart was there on every line. I was just too stupid to see it until it was too late to do anything about it.’

‘Do you remember the tape I sent you? That really should have been a dead giveaway. I was always making mix tapes up for girls I fancied. I think I was going through my High Fidelity phase and hoping that my taste in music would win you over.’

She blushed over the rim of her mug. She fidgeted a little in her chair.

‘What is it?’

‘I used to play that tape every night before I went to sleep – it was like this ritual I had. God, I haven’t thought about that tape in years.’

I felt a burst of adolescent pride. At least some of my fledgling romantic gestures had been successful …sort of.

‘Have you still got it?’

‘My crappy old ghetto blaster finally chewed it up and spat it out one day. I had to bin it. Sorry.’

There was a not entirely uncomfortable silence. We were both looking at each other across her paper strewn desk. I could see the way her smile still crept past her lips to the corners of her eyes. It made those old butterflies land back in the pit of my stomach once more.

‘You know, we’re both so dumb it’s a wonder either of us is still breathing.’ I said.

‘Who knows,’ she said. ‘Maybe in a parallel universe we were a lot smarter.’

‘How do you think that one ended up?’

She reached over and put her hand over mine. ‘I’d like to think that we lived happily ever after.’

I raised my mug. ‘To being smart,’ I said.