KNOWING THE STRANGER

"Don't worry. Your secrets will be safe with me. I won't tell a soul. And I won't judge you, whatever the problem is. So, come on?" He adds insistently.

"Supposing you are in a cage with a lion guarding you, and you want to leave the cage and seek freedom, but the lion won't let you leave. You are determined to leave the cage. Would you fight the lion inside the cage, or would you rather trick it to allow you to go out, then wait to fight it outside after it comes looking for you?" I ask.

"Unless I have a gun with me and enough bullets to kill the lion, I would go with the second option. There is a high possibility I will become it's prey if I choose to fight it inside the cage. Unlike outside, inside the cage there is no place to hide and no weapons either. You can't fight a lion with your bare hands. It will overpower you. It will kill you and feed on you."

"Right. Thank you."

"You are welcome. And cheer up! I am sure you will get out of that cage. I want you out." He wraps his hand around my shoulder, rubbing my hand.

"Thanks. What about you? What's worrying this beauty god, huh?" He chuckles out loud, revealing his long, well-lined-up white teeth. This guy's beauty is just top-notch.

"Beauty god? Is that what I look like?" He asks, in between laughter. He is more cute when he is laughing. Thanks to him, I am smiling like an idiot.

"Yeah. You are handsome. Good looking. Everything that describes beauty." I stop right there before I rant too much.

"I'm flattered." He places his right hand to his heart, and bows slightly, looking at me. "Thank you." That was a whisper which I wouldn't have heard if I wasn't reading his lips.

"Welcome. So, heartbreak?"

"That and a lot more. Work, family. Pressure from everyone and everything in general." He says it it deeply.

Huh? All that?

"That's quite a lot." I say.

"It is," he says.

"You want to talk about it? I'll do the same. Listen and not judge." Just then, this phone rings, and he excuses himself to take the call. He didn't walk far, so I can hear his conversation, which doesn't take long. He is being called for a meeting. I wonder what he does.

"Hey, I'm sorry, I have to go. Duty calls." But I want you to stay just a little longer. We can keep talking, and when we have nothing else to say to each other, we can just stare at the sea.

"It's alright. I'll head back too." I say as I fathom how I will walk back all drenched and wet.

"I can drop you off." He offers.

"Well, I am wet."

"You mean your clothes are wet?"

"Does it make a difference?"

That smirk again?

"A lot of difference. Anyway, I am too. There are shops around here. We can get something to change to." He says this with his smirk still on. He is so cute and weird.

"Unfortunately, I left everything in the hotel. The cards, my phone, even the cash I didn't have the crazy idea of getting in water when I left the hotel." I defend myself, and that's the truth.

"I am here for both of us. We both didn't intend to get wet. I will pay, just a way of saying thank you for your time." The way he is stressing on this "wet" word, though! It sounds so corny. I don't see anything wrong with it, though. And I hope he means thank you for my time for real and not that crazy thing I did back there.

"Your thank you is enough. So whatever you'll spend on me, I will pay you back." He lifts his hand up to surrender.

"Shall we?"

"Sure."

We walk to the shops, and we get to one of them. Good thing the shops are just nearby, or we would have looked like two aliens walking around with wet clothes. We bought what we needed, and we were guided to the changing rooms. I got myself another short and a T-shirt, while him—wait, I haven't asked his name yet. Weird! He bought blue jeans, a white T-shirt, and some nice shoes. We walk out, tossing our wet clothes in a carrier bag. I folded mine nicely to avoid some mishaps. We get to his car, and we hit the road. He didn't ask where I was staying, but because we are on the same road to the La Esmada hotel, I will just point out to him where to stop.

"So is it okay if I say, I am sorry for being the reason why you got wet?" I asked after a while. We are about to be near the hotel.

He first looks at me, then smiles, throwing a quick glance out of the window. "Apology accepted."

"Oh, so he can get wet, but I can't? Funny!" I murmur to myself, looking out of my window. I was about to turn to him to tell him to make a stop because we were at the hotel gate, but he magically stopped before I could say a word. I don't remember telling him where I was staying.

"We are here." He says.

"How do you know where I am staying?" I ask.

"I just know. It was a pleasure meeting you, Gia Wilsons." He says, straightening his hand to me for a handshake. Of course, it was a pleasure. I mean, it's not everyday you run into a psycho to kiss you out of the blue. It was really a pleasure for him.

"It was nice meeting you, Mr. I didn't get your name." I say, shaking his hand.

"Deep." He says this, still holding my hand.

"Sorry, what?" Maybe I didn't hear him well.

"Deep. My name is Deep Moore." Okay, I know I lost my memory, but since when did "deep" become the name of a person?

"Your name, your real name, is Deep?" I ask, just to confirm, because it sounds both funny and somehow sweet. In a naughty way, sweet. Deep, huh?

"Yes. It's in my ID. You wanna see it?"

"No. It's fine. I believe you. You have no reason to lie to me. So, where can I wire what I owe you for the clothes?"

"Next time we meet."

Next time? There will be a next time? How?

"How do you know we will meet again?"

"I am sure of it. Shorter than you think." I better go now because he is beginning to sound weird.

"If you say so. Bye, Deep. Deep."

"See you around." I get out of the car and close the door, but he calls me through the open window, and I look back at him. "See you soon. And don't go telling people that you are wet, okay?" What is so wrong with that? He waves to me, and I wave back, and he drives off. How many weird things will happen before this day ends, huh? It's been so weird so far. Meeting and kissing the stranger, realizing I don't know the meaning of being wet or the stranger's name. Deep? What sort of name is that?

Wait, he went with my clothes? For goodness sakes! What a day today! It's deep; everything is just deep.