Clockwork Romance (19 page)

I believe she might be having a nightmare. One that I have never witnessed this bad. In all the nights we’ve slept in the same bed, she’s never reacted like this to a bad dream. I move closer, and when I’m close enough to reach her, I extend my arms out and grab her bare shoulders to gently shake her, while lightly saying, “Karina. Wake up. Karina.”

She gives one more unconscious moan before finally jolting awake. Her eyes pry open, gazing at me. I say her name one last time before she says, “Luke,” like she hasn’t seen me in fifty years. She throws herself at me and kisses me like a homesick person who’s happy to be home. Karina falls back onto the bed, bringing me with her. I don’t know if she wants to make love again, or if she’s really happy I woke her up.

“Karina, what happened?” I ask, as soon as I find air.

“Oh, Luke, I had a terrible dream. I dreamt you found someone else and that I would never see you again.” She says, terrified, resuming kissing me.

“I’m here. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here.” It takes a minute for her to calm down, but eventually, she does. I tell her that I want to take her out today, since we both love rainy days. For now, she just wants to relax, sit on the couch, and watch television for a little bit. But she agrees.

Later on in the afternoon, we’re shopping in the mall together. Karina is in a department store looking at dresses and shoes. I told her I wanted to look around in some other stores for a while and that we could meet up later. She said okay, but looked a little fearful, since she had that dream earlier. I assured her that everything would be fine.

So as I’m walking by myself in the mall, I see the jewelry store up ahead. I go inside, and a middle-aged brown-haired
woman is there to greet me. Her nametag says “Barbara,” with her flashing grin that I’m sure she gives everyone who walks in. The more money she thinks the customer probably has, the bigger the smile.

“How are you doing today, sir?” she asks, as if she’s reading from a script.

“Fine,” I answer.

“Can I help you find anything today,” flashing a modest-sized smile.

“Yes, you can. I’m looking for a present for my girlfriend and I could probably use some help.”

“Okay, do you know what you’d like to get? A ring? A necklace? Bracelet?” she offers, like she wants me to buy them all.

“I think I’d like a necklace… for her, my girlfriend, I mean. A ring might be too soon right now, but it’s definitely a possibility in the future. For now, I just want to get her something to show her how much she means to me. We’ve kind of hit a couple of rough spots recently, but we’ve managed to keep going strong.”

“Aww, that’s nice. Our necklaces are over here in these cases,” she says directing me to one side of the room. She steps behind the counter to introduce me too all the lovely necklaces available. “Is she more into silver, or gold, or…” she asks.

“I know she likes silver, so I think that’d be best,” I tell her. “Her favorite color is purple, so I was thinking maybe something with amethyst, maybe even diamonds as well.”

“I think I may have just the thing for you,” she assures me. She walks further down the counter until she stops, while I follow her. She opens the case from her side and takes out a pendant. She shows me the most beautiful piece of jewelry, which I’m sure Karina will fall in love with.
It was a square amethyst stone bordered by white diamonds. Barbara held it in her hands, showing it to me as I admired it. It sparkled so nicely, it made me wonder how much it was.

“We’ve got some nice silver chains that’ll go perfect with this,” she says. I’m not too worried a
bout the cost, although I kind of should be. I don’t want it to be too much, and since I don’t know all that much about jewelry, it could be as much as twenty thousand dollars. I’m not trying to break the bank, or myself, so hopefully the price is reasonable. I admire the pendant a little longer when I hear Barbara say, “Too bad she’ll never fall in love with you.”

I look up and directly into her eyes and say, “Excuse me.” I really hope she didn’t say what I just heard. She gave me that same old wide smile and clarified, “I said this will definitely make her fall in love with you.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I guess I’m just a little tired,” I say. Earlier today, I was seeing things, now I’m hearing things. “How much is it?” I ask.

“This piece here is four-hundred and fifty,” she says. That’s a lot less than I expected, to my benefit, since I expected to pay much more.

“Terrific. I’ll take it,” I tell her.

“Great,” she says, happy to know she just made a sale.
“Now over here we have chains. You said she likes silver, so we have plenty of those. Just tell me one which you’d like. Some are simple, and some are a bit more flashy. I look them over and choose just a simple silver chain. She told me it was another fifty, which I’d be happy to pay. Some of the other ones for sale went up to about three-hundred.

“Alright. Is this going to be all for you today?” she says, eager to sell me more.

“This is it,” I tell her. She rings me up, and I pay with cash. She looked sort of surprised when she saw me take all that money out of my wallet. She had a look like she had never seen so much money. But she still kept professional, not overreacting or anything. I just noticed her eyes glued to my money. I suppose there really isn’t anything else to look at when you’re waiting to be paid.

“Okay, sir, you’re all set. I put the necklace in a box for you. You have yourself a good afternoon and come back to see us.” I can tell she really meant that last part.

She gave me the small box inside of a bag, but since I’m with Karina right now, I don’t want her to see it. “Actually, I happen to be with my girlfriend right now. She’s out shopping in some other stores at the moment. I think a bag might be kind of conspicuous, don’t you think? I should probably just carry the box in my pocket.”

“Sure, sure,” she understands, taking away the bag. “Bye now,” she says, as I offer a thanks and turn around, walking back out into the mall.

There’s a little lounge area with couches and chairs for people to sit, right in the middle of the aisles. I sit down on a couch, on the left side, being the only one on it. I take out my phone and text Karina where I am so she can find me. After a few minutes, I still haven’t gotten a response. Then I feel something on both of my shoulders. They feel like hands. I look up, and see Karina standing right behind me. She notices me with nothing, and says, “So did you not get anything?”

“No,” I answer as she walks around the couch to sit next to me on my right. “I just looked around in a few places, that’s all.” I see that
she has a shopping bag in hand, so I ask, “What’d you get?”

She looks down at her bag, taking out
one of the things inside. “Oh, just a couple of things, like this beautiful top here,” she says, holding a red blouse. “I also got a pair of these cute yellow jeans. But that’s just the stuff for me. I also bought something for you too.”

“Oh, really?” I ask. “Let me see.” I wonder what she got for me.

“Well I don’t know if you want me to show you here, but I can assure you it’ll be something you’ll like,” she says with a girlish smile. She leans in to my and whispers, “to watch me take off.” Now I really want to know what’s in the bag. But to save us both a slight embarrassment, I don’t ask to see it just yet. Instead, I give a small laugh while Karina looks at me like she wants to devour me right here in front of the whole mall.

“So are you ready to go?” I ask.

“Yeah, let’s go,” she agrees.

We lift ourselves off the couch, and we leave, the box still on my pocket. And she still doesn’t suspect a thing. I think I’ll give it to her sometime tonight. That way, she won’t
be able to wait to show me what she got me. But on the way back to my place, in the car, Karina asks, “Since we’re alone, would you like to see a sneak peek of what I got you.”

“Sure,” I say, unable to wait. She
pulls out a smaller bag from the larger one, reaching inside to pull out briefly what I notice as a black sheer material and a pink bow. Whatever it was, I could see her hand clear as day on the other end. I try to keep my eyes on the road, but I would also like to decipher what’s in the bag. It was definitely some kind of lingerie. She puts it back in the bag, looking down, giving another girlish smile.

“Oh, is that all I get to see?” I ask playfully.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” she says. “You’ll see what it is soon enough.”

We enjoy the rest of the ride home where, when we arrive, I let Karina know I am tired and need a nap, since I got up earlier than she did. Although, I still need to hide my gift from Karina for a while. Where could I put it? In my safe? Where?

Karina and I ride the elevator back up, and while inside, Karina is the first to push three. I was wondering if the elevator would take us up to the ninth floor again.

“The funniest thing happened to me earlier. I was taking the elevator up, and instead of taking me to my floor, it took me to the ninth floor,” I say.

“The ninth? Did you push nine?” she questioned, making it sound patronizing.

“No, I didn’t,” I said back, returning the tone.

The doors open as she says, “Weird.”

We’re on the right floor this time, nothing strange happened. When I open the door, Karina sets her bag on the couch and goes to use the bathroom. This will give me some extra time to hi
de the bag for now. I look around, trying to find a spot. There’s not really a good spot in my living room, so I go into my bedroom. I see my dresser against the wall. I hear the toilet flush and realize I only have seconds left. I open the top drawer and put the box underneath some clothes. There, it will stay nice and hidden. I close the drawer right after the bathroom door opens, so I walk fast to the bed, sitting down and taking off my shoes. I lay in bed as Karina enters the room.

“I’m gonna try on my clothes first, then later on, I might take a shower, okay?” she tells me.

“Sure,” I said, closing my eyes and resting. I take off my shirt to get more comfortable. While lying down, I ponder further into when I should give Karina the necklace. More specifically, how? Maybe over dinner, or maybe as soon as I wake up. No, it needs to be more romantic than that. Oh well, I’ll think of something. I just hope when I pull out the box, she won’t think it’s an engagement ring and that I’m about to propose. I don’t want to be in one of those misunderstanding situations that seems like it’s taken right out of a sitcom.

I’d hate to see Karina all excited, and maybe even saying yes, only to feel stupid when it turns out to be just a necklace. However, it is more than just a necklace. This necklace lets her know how much I love her. I really hope she likes it. Believe it or not, this is the first time I’ve bought jewelry for a girlfriend. I mean I’ve been in jewelry stores in the past, but I’ve never made quite a pricy purchase,

I finally fall asleep, even though I can still faintly hear Karina walking around in the other room, trying on clothes. I can tell she is walking to and from the bathroom to look at herself in the mirror. But then eventually, the noise stops. I’m fast asleep. I feel like it’s one of those times where your mind doesn’t really dream, but rather it just spaces out for a while, and your body just shuts itself down. But it’s a peaceful feeling, no doubt.

When I wake up, I notice the room is pretty much the same. In that, I mean that the lighting in the room is about the same, meaning that I couldn’t have been asleep for that long. Even though it’s afternoon, it is still gray outside, since it’s been raining all day. I look up and I see Karina in the living room, sitting on the couch, brushing her hair. She must have just finished taking a shower. The only thing she’s wearing is a towel wrapped around her body. I get up, and stretch my arms while walking into the living room.

“Hey, how was your nap?” she asks.

“Fine, I feel a lot better. How long was I out?” I ask.

“About an hour,” she tells me.

“Wow. It felt longer than that,” I say.

“Hey, have you checked your mail today?” she asks, continuing to brush her hair.

“No, I haven’t. I suppose I’ll go ahead and do that. I’ll be right back.”

“Ok,” she says.

I grab my key to unlock my mailbox down on the first floor, then I leave.
I get in the elevator, and push one. I look above the door and see the numbers one through nine across the top. I watch the light as it goes from three to two. Then two to one. The bell dings and the doors open. I am in the lobby now. I go the area with all the mailboxes and unlock mine. Inside, I find just a credit card offer and some other junk mail. Nothing good today, but then again I don’t really get much good mail. The only things I really have to look forward to are bills. I lock my mailbox back up again and throw the mail in the nearby trash can.

Behind me, the maintenance man walks by, pushing a cart full of cleaning supplies and stuff.

“How are you doing today, sir? Trying to stay dry?” he says in a soft voice. He was an older man with gray and white hair.

“Yeah,” I say, “I’m doing alright.” Then I think to myself that h
e could be just the person to talk to about the elevator, and how it’s stopping on random floors. He was just about to walk away, when I catch his attention. “Sir?” I tell him.