“Give me your hand, love, and I’ll put my heart at your feet. For eternity”

The squirrel showed his red tail for a few seconds more until completely disappeared in the narrow scurvy dig in the upper part of the trunk.

It was a 70-years-old Maple tree, but big enough and rotated to be mistaken for a secular one. Its trunk is quite thick and with deep marks on it, a sign that this tree had passed through too many harsh times and cold winters. The tree bark has an interesting dark-brown color with some kind of black oval figurines sketched on it. If you watch closely at their form and slowly sink into your imagination, you can teleport yourself in time, and, taking a pencil in your hand, be the one sketching them on the tree bark.

Their smell is wonderful too. It’s somehow similar to the smell of love that Eva was feeling at that precise moment, passing under her nostrils and this scent made her happy.

She took her gaze from the squirrel’s scurvy and looked at Brian’s face. He was still looking up, waiting for the squirrel to exit, but his waiting wasn’t related at all to his interest in the little fluffy red animal world, but because for the first time in his life he didn’t know what to say. This little beautiful creature called Eva was next to him and he didn’t know how to act so as not to scare her.

His dark olive skin and his deep glance, made Eva wonder if he is real. Brian was really handsome and it made her heart vibrate like the guitar strings. She knew that she was falling in love, without feeling something like that before, and it made her happy. She knew nothing about him: neither if he is single nor he has a wife, nor if he is really interested in her, but Eva didn’t care about it. For the first time in her short life, she wanted to live the moment and to love a real person and not a character.

Brian looked at her and their glances had met each other. They kept silent for a few seconds more, preferring to talk in an unheard language known only by their ears, feeling with the entire chest the scent of love and their bodies, pore by pore, were slowly trembling as if a gust of an April wind had slowly caressed their skin.

It was something so nice and so romantic at the same time. A mature man, in love with a young girl, helping her to discover deep inside her true feminine nature. And this was really captivating. Brian could see now in her blue, deep gaze that blink of happiness he was waiting for so long. He had many women during his mature life. Many of them had loved him with all their heart, but he never loved anybody. He doesn’t even remember how many of them looked and it wasn’t because they weren’t attractive, but because they couldn’t enter deeply into his heart. But these blue eyes, so magnificent and so innocent, could touch not only his heart but also his mind. He feels himself completely out of reality. He doesn’t even care about what would say the wagging tongues anymore, about the fact that he had a wife at home and that it could bring many problems in the future. He hadn’t anything to give her right now, he couldn’t promise anything to her, but he knew that he wanted to love her. He must have her and she must love only him.

“Eva, I want your heart open only for me. Can you promise me that your pure love will be only for this stupid man that can't promise you a future right now?”, said Brian while watching insistently in her eyes.

She kept silent for a few seconds. She knew the answer, but she didn’t know how to say it. Something inside was telling her not to rush to answer and to wait, but her heart was yelling, with a loud voice, that she must love this man. She didn’t know why. She didn’t even know the real meaning of the word love, but her woman's heart was stubborn, was blind, and was ready to jump into the void only not to lose this feeling, which was filling her right now.

“I don’t know, Mister Beneath”, finally answered Eva. “I don't know what to say, because I never told anybody that I love him”.

Her innocent answer made Brian feel that she had a real feeling for him. It wasn’t anymore about revenge. He didn’t even know how to call it anymore, but he will figure it out later. He must live it first and think after.

Both smiled. Their smiles were pure and real. It was something that they couldn’t hide, but it also filled their hearts with shame. That shame you feel when you meet for the first time the one who likes you so much, but you feel so clumsy, butter-fingered. But you like it because it is something that makes you feel alive. These are the first thrills of love you felt, something that can rise into something bigger, something that will last for life or it will be just a dumb sweet memory in the future.

“Let’s take a walk”, said Brian. “I think that our fluffy friend won’t show up anymore”.

“Aga”, mumbled Eva and both took a few steps forward. None of them knew what to say anymore and that silence made them feel clumsier than before.

Albert, who had finished gathering the dead-yellow leaves from the backyard, showed up not too far from them, but he rushed to disappear when he caught in the corner of his eyes, Miss Davis’ sign. It meant only one thing: he must leave those two alone and immediately.

Brian noticed too Emily’s sign headed to Albert but said nothing. He knew that Miss Davis was aware of his intention and he also didn’t like it, but he will let things flow this way for the moment. Later, he will figure out how to take Eva out of this. Later.

“Do you like to read, Mister Beneath?” Eva’s soft voice was heard and he saw her watching him.

“Not too much”, shortly answered Brian.

“Then … what do you love to do? … In your free time.”

“I don’t have so much free time. I just … work.”

In his answer, Eva could notice that he was trying to avoid telling her the truth. It's impossible to not have a hobby. Everybody has one. He just … doesn’t consider her worthy to reveal such important things and this made Eva sad.

Brian noticed that mood change, but he didn’t say anything else. He knew that she was trying to talk to him, to get to know him better, but he couldn’t tell her about his affairs and to talk to her about work, he considered useless. She’s too innocent to know about the dirtiness of this world. He preferred to keep her away from all this, at least … as far as possible.

“I think it’s time to go inside,” said Eva and she looked elsewhere. She was about to cry and the last thing she wanted was to be seen by Brian crying once again. He saw tears in her eyes that day at the lake and it was the first mistake she made. At least this was what she thought. “He considers me a stupid girl that cries all the time. It’s because of this he doesn’t consider me worthy of his interest. If she was more mature, if she didn’t cry that day, maybe he could have trusted her more. But, thus, he is getting further and she hasn’t the strength to follow him. She’s stupid and she knows it, she had so much to learn about this world and about men, and this ignorance she grew inside her only by reading books made her even sadder.

“Why didn’t she read more about real things? Why did she prefer to immerge in strange invented stories and not learn anything worthy? If she would have been wiser and smart she would have kept him next to her, but this way she probably will lose him forever.

“Ok. You can go inside. I think it’s too cold too. You can get sick,” said Brian. But not this was the answer Eva was waiting for. She had wanted to hear from him that everything would be fine, but instead, she just sent her inside. He didn’t even say that there will be a next time when they will meet each other. He just… walked away.

And it was so. Brian took a few steps toward the entrance of the house. He wasn't in a hurry, but he felt that Eva wasn't walking behind him and he stopped. She was standing in the same place and she had tears in her eyes, but he said nothing about it. He wanted to calm her down, to make her feel the importance of his intention, but this wasn’t the right place.

“Miss Stonebridge?”, Brian’s voice was heard as if a teacher was calling for his student and he forced this voice to sound like this to hide the real intentions he had. It was better this way for Eva. If Christine will find out about his interest in this little creature, she will use her as she wishes and the last thing which Brian would have wanted was to transform Eva into his victim, but she was already his victim, but Brian didn’t notice it. Or he didn’t want to notice it.

The door closed behind them and the strong autumn wind had started to blow outside. Cold days were coming.