With Help from Michael O'Leary Pt. 04

He missed her smile, her intelligence, and her quick wit. He missed her accent and how she pronounced his name. No one has ever said his name the way she says his name. He missed her beautiful brown eyes, so happy and full of life. His heart ached so much that, at times, he thought he was having a heart attack. He missed her, his lovely Gabriella, his angel, his beautiful butterfly.

It was too late. What could he do now? She was gone. She visited him every day, twice a day, for more than two years under the pretense of making change for the cash register and making deposits for the hardware store when, just as easily, she could have went to the bank next door instead of to his bank across the street. She even closed the account at the bank next door to open one at his bank across the street just to see him everyday. What was he thinking?

Of course, she wanted him as much as he wanted her. Now, he did not have her address or telephone number and, because the hardware store paid her in cash and did not give her a paycheck to cash at the bank, he did not even know her last name. He tried to remember if she had ever told him her last name; he could not remember. He felt pathetic. He thought of going to the hardware store, asking them for her last name, and demanding her telephone number, but he could not summon the courage to do that. They might think he was a stalker and report him to the police. It was hopeless. He was hopeless. He was a loser.

He felt like the time when he stopped to buy Little Ralphie a hot dog and soda at the ballpark and, when he turned from the counter, Little Ralphie was gone. Although he searched all around and walked here, there, and back again, with panic in his heart and thoughts for the worse, he could not see what was in front of him the entire time. Little Ralphie stood at the souvenir vendor's stand not six feet away and he never saw him during those few, panic stricken moments, which to him, felt like a lifetime.

Gabriella had been there waiting for him to ask her out and claim her and receive her love. Did she really leave or was she still there and he could not see her to find her?