They spent the evening talking about their past years, the different paths their lives had taken, the choices they had and hadn’t made. And the more they spoke, the more they felt nostalgic, the more they felt back to the time they were teenagers, sitting on a bench in the empty town park.

But now, differently than all those years before, Mark was intoxicated by her lips opening and closing as she spoke, by her hands and gestures, by the emphasis she gave to her words, by her thin eyebrows moving up and down as she changed expression every sentence. She was still Paula, and yet she had grown a new, beautiful woman.

“Did you know, at the time?”

“Did I know, what?”

“I mean, if you knew I was in love with you. I would have paid anything to be with you, but unfortunately love can’t be bought.”

For instance, Paula would have never had the courage to pronounce those words, before.

“I knew, and I didn’t like you,”

Mark realised he was being a little too harsh, and hurried to add a lame excuse.

“It doesn’t mean things cannot change, though.”

But he felt embarrassed as soon as he said it.

“Oh, that was bold of you! Shouldn’t this be only an old friend reunion?”

“I guess I’m just feeling nostalgic. And lonely.”

Well, for sure Mark had always had no problems confiding in her. He could have never said anything like that to any other girl in the world.

“We have changed,” Paula said with a veil of sadness in her voice.

“But I feel lonely, too.”

Time stopped, as their eyes met and said rivers of unspoken words, then flew by so quick that Mark realised what was happening only when they were already inside his apartment, and in the moment he closed the door behind him, their lips and bodies met.

***

Part 1: https://www.maxcarezza.com/her-blue-nail-polish-that-was-the-most-vivid/