They had arranged to meet in another town that evening.
It was the latest action movie, and they were both looking forward to it. Richard knew they would make their way separately, she by bus and he on his motor scooter, straight after work. They would meet outside the cinema and Chloe would have the tickets ready to go in. The rain was pelting down when he finished work and he had to spend time getting into his waterproof gear before leaving. The downpour caused everything to slow down, and he knew there was a good chance that he’d get there late. Sure enough, he was several minutes late. Parking the scooter and getting out of his wet gear took time.
Anyway, despite this, he went straight in to collect his ticket. After a thorough search the man said he was sorry, but he couldn’t find any ticket. Roger was really annoyed, but realised she had probably waited until the very last minute, then in her panic, she had forgotten to buy a second ticket when she went in. He weighed things up. Would he go back to her place and wait for her to get home, or would he just go home himself?
He decided to go back to hers.
It was much later and getting dark, when he stood leaning on the gate, waiting for signs of the bus. The rain had finally stopped, and he moved further out into the road when he saw bright lights coming towards the junction at the top of the street. He began to walk slowly towards it as it pulled up. He stopped when the bus pulled up and passengers began moving to the exit. It was lit up like a CinemaScope movie.
He couldn’t see her at first. Then he caught sight of her in the line of people gradually moving forward. There was a boy behind her that he didn’t recognise. He was trying to put his hands on her shoulders, but she was shrugging him off. As she turned around, he tried to kiss her. Obviously annoyed, she pushed him away, quite hard.
Having watched all this, Roger hadn’t moved. He just stood there until she eventually appeared, walking around the back of the bus and making her way down the road towards him. When she saw him standing there, she walked a little faster with a big smile on her face.
After thanking him for waiting for her to get home, they hugged.
In that moment, regardless of the earlier mix-up, all his frustration simply faded away.