Before I Met You

Waking up in the morning seemed like quite the chore for someone like Diego.

He was a heavy sleeper, another soul that enjoyed the escape sleep provided for him easily. Rousing himself from this took maybe more than an hour on bad days, and good days never seemed to come nearly as much as he wished they would. Shaking his hair out of his face, he went about his business slowly, collecting all the articles of clothing he wished to use for the day and made his way to his bathroom.

Turning on the water, he waited for it to warm up before slipping underneath the steady stream of water. Finishing quickly, he dried himself off and climbed into his worn, slightly ripped jeans and peered at himself in the moist mirror.

People always told him he was beautiful, and he had no problem believing it. Diego was not a selfish, conceited boy. In fact, he was anything but. Always thinking of others, but his downfall was his cowardly attitude about taking chances. That’s why he inviting that wonderful girl from the theater yesterday, the magnificent Leslie, to his place, the old strip of forgotten beach was so out of character for him. Diego was shy, and he was little anything else when it really came down to it.

Ten minutes later, he left his small apartment. Carrying his white backpack, worn and dirty, over his shoulders, he was content with how the day was going. Climbing into his small car, he flipped on the music and rolled down the windows as he made his way to his part-time job at his uncle’s record store, humming quietly to himself as he drove, taking in the scenery of this town and all it stood for.

He arrived soon enough, locking his car and entering the small shop with no problem. Locally owned, this shop was very big with people in the surrounding area. It was where some famous duets came to perform, and with the coffee shop right down the street, it was the perfect scene for the young kids from the local high school and universities to come by and pop in for a quick listen or cup of coffee. Diego enjoyed his simple job, although inventory was not a favorite pastime of his. And unfortunately, that is what his uncle decided to assign him for the day.

“My god man, you drive me insane at times,” Diego complained to his beloved uncle. Grinning, his uncle simply ruffled his wavy hair and waved him away to continue with his work. Some new releases were recently shipped over and Diego went over each and every order along with shipments and organized everything as best to his ability while his mind was swarming with thoughts about the previous night.

Leslie. Such a kind, shy, loving girl. He could tell her personality simply by the way her eyes lit up at the sight of the sea, the shock in her eyes when Diego bumped into her, and the way she simply walked with the grace of a thousand ballerinas. Yes, Leslie was beautiful. Forbidden and beautiful.

The doctors warned him about his delicate heart condition. Diego only knew he had so much time left before his clock ran out, but did it condemn him to a life of loneliness fit for that of a widow? Diego was not one to believe in the whole ‘it is better to have not loved at all’ saying. He was a steady worshipper of ‘it is better to have loved and lost’, and that is exactly what he intended to do to that saint of a girl Leslie.

He was going to break her to the point where she would never want to let him go.

Never a heartbreaker, Diego was extremely inexperienced with girls. He was not naïve, however. He knew the woes and tall tales that frequently came out of most relationships, but he almost always turned a blind eye to such useless gossip. Keeping to himself was something he was almost too good at… Something he wouldn’t mind changing about himself but at the same time perfectly content with.

As he heard the small tinkle of the bell above the store’s door ring through the space, he set down the last box of new releases and heaved a heavy sigh as he looked up to greet the customer, and stopped dead at what he saw.

“Hello Diego,” his older brother, Craig spoke. “Been a while, hasn’t it?”