Drabble 21: How's the Weather?

Cabel did not fall for her immediately. Broken hearts do not often fall again willingly. No, she must have passed by him for days, weeks, years before it even occurred to him that she was pretty. It took him even longer to get past Lucy's image and quirks and see her as her own person outside of the similarities and differences. For a long time Cabel's eyes followed her but not his heart.

She feel first. Fully. Completely. Terribly. Inescapably. She did not fall for his brokenness as some people fall. She did not love his daughter first, though she did care for her deeply. She did not like that she had fallen for him. And she was not stupid in love.

She saw how his eyes passed over here with a sort of matter-of-fact-ness. She watched the sadness. She was terrified of the way he was rusting-out inside, and she knew she had no power. For to love someone was not enough to make them love you. And to love someone so wholly oblivious to your love was not enough to get them to love themselves.

He had seen her a total of 731 times since Lucy's death. She was like the painting in a hotel lobby that the doorman walks by every day without registering. Day in and day out, all he thought was, "It's a painting." But then on one especially slow night when the air falls heavily about his still hands and his eyes weigh with boredom, it befalls him. A sudden, childlike curiosity, an abrupt need, to take-in the painting. And before him all along, it stood in its golden and pink splendor.

"Zelphia?" He asked, not quite sure of what he wanted to say. Perhaps he only wanted her to turn around.

"Yes?" She glanced over her shoulder at him. Her eyes surprised when they met his face and not the back of his head.

He stood quickly, almost knocking over his chair. "Sit down," he said urgently. "I'll get the tea." Don't go. Don't go. Don't go yet!

She blinked. "I... Well, alright." She walked slowly to the other side of the table and sat down. This was a dream. She stared at the brilliant blue wallpaper. Yes, a dream, surely wallpaper wasn't that blue...

"How's the weather today?" Cabel asked. He hadn't been outside in days. Not since he'd taken Ingrid to the park last Saturday. Or was that the Saturday before last?

"The weather?" Zelphia was flabbergasted. "It's..." Her voice faltered. He asked you about the weather, you buttonhead! She silently berated herself. She cleared her throat. "It's windy. Very windy." The leaves rained like wrinkled sunshine outside the window.

"Oh." Cabel stirred sugar into their cups. "... Do you like the wind?"

"I like the leaves," Phia responded.

"But not the wind?" Cabel handed her a warm tea cup.

"Well, I don't not like it..." She stared into the murky tea. "Do you like it?"

Did he like the wind? He had to search his mind to remember. "No," he decided, "I always feel like it's pushing on me."

"Oh." They sipped their tea awkwardly. Phia chanced a glance up, and they caught each other staring. Carefully, they looked away. The sound of their swallowing echoed in the tiny kitchen. Both were embarrassed. Both set down their cups with a clink.

Cabel caught her eye again. "Would you like to go for a walk?"

"Yes," Phia said and immediately abandoned her tea and the awkward-filled kitchen.

Notes: So many adverbs. I have failed you. I am sorry.
Awkward tea dates?
Sometimes I feel like getting to know people is just about ignoring a lot of awkwardness xD
Zel and Bel... Phia and Cab... Zel and Cabel... Zel and Cab... Phia and Cabel... Zelphia and Cabel... Gah, how to shorten?
(Thanks goes to Rand for Zelphia. Who knew my sister could be helpful??)