Linger

First step

Maybe it was only at half-five in the morning when Kalea blinked her eyes slowly as her hands fumbled over the bed in search of her usual cell phone that she held until she fell asleep. 

With eyes still tight like glued with super glue, Kalea stared at the screen of her phone that showed a notification pop up of a name that was still unfamiliar.

Gavin 

That's how the name is on the screen of his phone. It's Sunday, if Kalea doesn't remember wrong. So it's kind of weird to find the guy sending him these early-morning messages. Isn't Sunday a mandatory day for everyone to wake up during the day? Oh, or is it just Kalea and Karel?

It took at least ten seconds until Kalea managed to reassemble her entire life wandering to and fro. He sat himself down, leaned back in a comfortable position and then began to open the message he received.

There are three messages from the same person.  The first is just a short good morning. The second is the mainstream pleasantries about whether his sleep last night was good or not. Until the second message, Kalea still felt nothing. He thought this kind of sentence was very common to be used as a first step in the approach process. But as she read the third message, Kalea was forced to hold her breath.

Here is the message: Mama said, you rarely exercise. So this is Sunday and I no longer have another schedule, what if we jog together? Oh yeah, because I know you don't like sports, I think you probably don't have any running shoes. So I have sent you special running shoes, light blue, your favorite color. There are after sports too, two pairs, white and black. I look forward to the good news, yes, Kalea... See you's.

For Neptune! Gavin-like men are really not good for the heart health of women who love their language act of service. Without saying much, without much ado, without even asking this much, Gavin once found out about Kalea. And find it directly to a reliable source. Mama!

Kalea thought this kind of man only existed in romance novels she had read as a teenager - before she switched to the thriller genre because it was more challenging and made her flutter. Apparently, the man who mirirp the main character of the romantic novel actually exists. Gavin is one of them. 

Well, Karel treated her like this too, anyway. His best friend also always acts sat set to please him. It's just, Karel is noisy. His talk and mannerisms were too absurd to be categorized into one of the male lead roles in a romance novel.

Back to the message Gavin sent. Kalea was silent for quite a while before her fingers moved impulsively typing in a few words that she finally deleted again. It repeated a few times. Until the moment he was about to write a reply that he had thought carefully, his intention was clouded because his phone suddenly rang indicating there was a call coming in.

Gavin called. Kalea did not see the online sign in the man's chat room. Kalea was surprised, but was lucky to be able to control her feelings before sliding the screen to the right to receive a call.

"Hello?" The man greeted from across. His voice was heavy and sounded a little hoarse. Sexy. One word had stopped in Kalea's head before finally being kicked out just like that before provoking other strange words to come along.

"Yes, Gavin. Why?"

"Would you read my message?"

"I just read it."

"So, how?"

"You?"

"Yes, I want to." 

"OKAY. My man again on the way there. Wait, yeah."

"Yes." Yeah."

"See you, Kalea." 

Call disconnected. Kalea was still unable to regulate her heartbeat even after minutes later. It was only when the door of his room was knocked that his consciousness seemed to be pulled back. 

Kalea got off the bed, slightly staggering and her hands slightly shook as she moved around turning the doorknob. In front of the door, Bi Imah (household assistant) stands with one shoe box on the right hand and two paper bags on the left hand. The middle-aged woman looked troubled carrying those things. So by putting forward a high sense of humanity, Kalea immediately grabbed the innate from the hands of Bi Imah. No, Kalea is not excited to check the contents in the box and also this paper bag. He already knows what it is. Again he did it because he could not bear to see Bi Imah distress. Please believe that.

"Thank you, Bi." He said even before Bi Imah opened her mouth. After that the door just closed. Kalea certainly did not know how the expression of confusion that appeared on Bi Imah's face after the door in front of her closed just like that.

"Why tea?" Mumbled Bi Imah while scratching the head that is not itchy at all.

In the room, Kalea looked at the shoebox she had placed on the mattress for some time. He then sat back on the bed, opening the shoe box in front only to be stunned by the color of the shoes so beautiful and refreshing to the eye. The color is dominated by light blue with white interludes in the strap and also the sole of the edge. It was a local brand shoe that Kalea met several times while surfing the marketplace to shop online.

When Gavin said he was going to send him running shoes, Kalea thought he was going to send him Nike or Adidas. It turns out that came even local brand shoes whose names may still be foreign to people's ears. Was Kalea disappointed? Sure didn't! He actually felt happy because apparently Gavin not only attach importance to prestige. Kalea admitted that famous brands that are often purchased by people as a show and a place to prove social status do have good quality (comparable to the price is not cheap) but local brands like this nor is it any less good quality, and Kalea is happy Gavin is willing to buy it. Counting helps the domestic child business, right?

Kalea's admiration did not stop at the shoes. The two sports suits that Gavin sent also turned out to belong to a local brand that Kalea had bought several times (although the one he bought was not a sports suit but an oversize T-shirt and some sweaters). 

But more than that, Kalea is most touched by a post it that is attached to one of the paper bags. In the post it was written light blue: may you like:) which makes Kalea smile herself like crazy. Those three words are enough to make his heart beat fast, let alone add an emot smile as a suffix. Ughhhh! Kalea couldn't stand it. Gavin is really sweet.

Not lost the smile on his face, he was again made wrong by the message just sent by Gavin. It's like this: I'll be there in 30 minutes. But if you need more than 30 minutes, don't worry, I can wait."

30 mins. That should be enough time for Kalea to get ready. But he was wasting a lot of time because he was too busy rolling around on the bed. Ah... I don't know where the famous disappearance of Kalea and Judes was. Because now in this room is just a 25-year-old girl whose behavior resembles a new teenager puberty.