The Twists and Turns of Love

It was Thursday and Sarah still hadn’t gotten the guy with the bike out of her mind. She had passed that corner where that had crashed into each other every time she could, but he was never there. Some silly part of her always expected him to be there with his bike, waiting for her too.

“Sarah, can you come with me to that used bookstore on Maple St.?” Claire asked her that afternoon.

“Of course.”

The bookstore was a small store on a corner with bookshelves reaching to the ceiling, old-fashioned couches and a wonderful aroma of fresh coffee. It was one of their favorite places to go because it was always so relaxing.

“Claire? Do you believe in love at first sight?” Sarah said, while walking to the bookstore.

“I don’t know. I’d have to live it to believe it. To me, love at first sight is a physical thing, and I care more about the sentimental part of a person.”

“But what if you felt there was a connection between you?”

“Like I said before, live it to believe it.”

“I-I met this guy the other day.”

“Met this guy as in met this guy?” Claire asked, widening her eyes and smiling.

“Well, kind of. See, that’s why I asked you the whole love at first sight question. We only saw each other once. I don’t even know exactly what he thinks of me, if he thinks of me at all. But there was this correlation between us. I don’t know how to explain it so it doesn’t sound crazy.”

“No, I think I get it. So, you haven’t seen him again?”

“No. And I can’t stop thinking about him.”

Claire smiled.

“I’ve always wanted to see you in love, Sarah,” she teased.

“Speaking of love, how are things with Jake?”

Jake was her lab partner in biology. Claire had a huge crush on him, and it was obvious he did too, but he was too shy to say anything.

“Same as always,” she replied, looking down at her shoes.

“Hey, cheer up, he likes you, at least.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“I can tell, okay?”

“Doesn’t matter, anyways. We’re here,” she said, cheering up.

Sarah glanced over at her friend to see if she was okay but her face showed no trace of unhappiness. She really was a good actress, because she knew how much she cared about that Jake.

“Oh, look a sale. Buy two, get one free. Let’s see if we find something.”

Claire started digging in, while Sarah just looked over the books.

“Look what I found!” Claire said, handing her a few books.

Sarah looked at them. One was The Pillars of the Earth, a huge book she would never dare to read, another, In My Father’s House, a historical fiction, and the last one caught her eye.

It was To Kill A Mockingbird, the same edition he had when she had tumbled into him. She opened it , throwing the other books to the floor, and flipped to the first page, where the owner had written Eric Baker. Could it be him? Or was it just too much of a coincidence?

“Claire, we need to get this one,” she said, holding up To Kill A Mockingbird.

“You like that one? I wasn’t sure if to get it or not.”

“Yes, I need it.”

“Okay, let me choose two and we’ll go pay.”

~~~

“You’re really into that book. I thought you didn’t like to read,” Claire said, sitting down beside Sarah on their living room couch.

“I- I think it was his,” Sarah said, putting down the book, “I can feel it. Is that weird?”

“Um, a little,” Claire laughed, “Seriously, the only reason I believe all of this is because I know how you are, otherwise I would think this was made-up or something.”

“I know, I can hardly believe it myself.”

“So, did you find out anything?”

“Well, if it was his, his name is Eric Baker. Claire, where are you going?”

“Wait a sec!” she called back, running off into another part of the house.

She returned a few moments later with a few phonebooks in her hands.

“Good thinking!”

“Anyone would have done this, except you’re too lovesick to think,” she smiled.

Sarah flipped open to the B’s and sighed. There were about twenty-five Bakers but no Eric Baker was to be found.

“This is useless. It’s way too hard,” Sarah said putting it down, “No offense, since it was your idea, but what if he removed his name from it? It’s possible, you know.”

“I’m sorry, I just wanted to help.”

“Don’t be sorry! It means a lot that you want to help out,” Sarah replied, hugging her friend tightly, “But sometimes there are things no one controls.”

“I really hope you find him someday. I just hope when you do, you won’t have a boyfriend already.”

“Or that he has a girlfriend. That would be so disappointing.”

“Well, it won’t happen, okay?”

Sarah sighed. The possibility that he had a girlfriend was really high, but if she found out he did have one, she had no idea what she would do. In her mind, Eric was all hers and no other girl existed for him except her. She pretended that he thought about her as much as she thought about him. That he cared about finding her. That she wasn’t just a ridiculous girl seeking a guy she had fallen for in a matter of minutes and she didn’t know anything about. That she really would find him.