Emily's Cottage, unknown location

Clouds soaked in paints of lavender pint-sized gold had taken over the sky. Quintessentially girlie. The Artist had flicked these strokes ethereally. As the sun rose from over the mountaintops, every aspect of femininity and canniness relinquished the stage. The redness looked more than a mere die-worthy lipstick mark; more than a fake blush. Redder than blood, redder than wine. More like delinquencies.

Sunday welcomed wind and antagonised bright sunshine at dawn. But as the day lived itself more and more, bright latent rays announced, "We're here!"

Emily was teaching spells to Sarah while Nathan challenged himself to read every book in the library shelf of the house that talked about time travel. He missed Ava—he couldn't tell which part of her he liked the most. Or maybe it wasn't her at all. It was possibly how she changed his perspective of the world without changing his originality even a bit. He loved it when she was mad at him for not being punctual or just procrastinating. That made him think a something:

June 25th, 2012

"Do these jeans look too tight?" Ava asked while wearing a pair of black jeans suffocating her legs, and formal white shirt.

Nathan, playing with darts and aiming them on the dartboard, randomly cried, "Bull's eye!"

"What?" Ava said quizzically, not knowing what Nathan was occupying himself with.

"What?" Nathan said vaguely, still not paying attention to her.

"What?" Ava returned.

"Where are you going?" He finally looked in Ava's direction.

"I just said I'm going to an interview. Do these jeans look tight?"

Nathan looked at Ava and started, "Well, it depends—"

"I'm serious."

"Then—yes. Can't you feel it?"

"Of course I can," she said while tucking in her white shirt. "Can you see any absurdness in my walk?"

"Blimey, Ava, who cares about some stupid job?"

"This one's important. This is an even year that means both of us have to work this year. And don't you have a job in the bakery?"

"That was for charity. I work in a library."

"I thought working in library was a joke."

"My career is a joke for you? I work day and night. Oh my god, how could you said that, my love?" Nathan said ostentatiously while imitating some cringe doofus TV character.

Ava raised her eyebrow.

"Lord, what is this job?" he said jerking his neck backwards. "And why on earth are you wearing a scarf and beret? So sinfully French." He threw a dart aiming her face, knowing the consequences already.

She caught it at once without even looking at its direction and threw it back at him. "The interviewer of Gucci is French."

"Do you even remember French?" He dodged the dart. Their house was a constant mess mostly because of the one and only Nathan Wilson.

"Non, je ne peux pas."

Nathan smiled. He didn't know what it meant but knew she said something like: "No, I don't."

"Seriously, wear something else. Wear mine," he suggest vaguely. He instantly remembered the time Ava had taken 'Boyfriend T-shirt' too literally and Nathan had nothing to wear and that's when bottled deodorants became his best friends.

"Are you kidding? Don't you know the perfect jeans aren't supposed to be comfortable at all? It's a huge misconception that jeans are supposed to be commodious."

"What's the use of wearing something if you can't walk in it?"

"I'm getting late," she said and picked up her wristwatch. "Make chips and gravy, please. And order something other than cider."

Nathan shook his head and said, "Ah, no, no, no, no. I know your tricks very well. You'll put dishes into the dishwasher."

"Fine, whatever. And for God's sake go to the library," she said as she wore her heels and left the house and Nathan groaned.

***

PRESENT

Nathan came back from the flashback, smiling.

"Do you want to join us?" Sarah intruded.

 Nathan, interrupted, didn't look at her. She grabbed the novel out of his hands and rested it on the tabletop. He cocked his head up with his eyes saying "Excuse me?"

"Sorry for that but I don't understand this era's English," she explained and turned to looked at Emily who was making patterns on the snow with the various parts of her hands. "And she starts speaking some other language in between. But she's so sweet! I shouldn't say all this about her."

Emily was a kind-hearted person who shared a soft glance with everyone. And that was the issue. You can't possibly tell a kind and affable something very blunt about them because A- it's usually not their fault for being that way, and B- you can't turn your back on someone who is being incessantly compassionate with you, without ending up thinking yourself to be the wrong and impure one.

"Just for your information we're in the Serbia of nineteen hundred. You don't know how awkward that conversation was." He shook his head, showing exasperation.

"I bet even modern Serbs couldn't be able to decipher her," Sarah commented.

Nathan couldn't help but release a laugh.

She gave him a look and cried, "Come!"

***

Thank you so much for reading till here. It really means a lot to me.

Question: Do you feel like Ava and Nathan are fun? And did you know about that jeans fact? And there I was thinking jeans are my one true love, LOL.

Date for next upload (for me today is Thursday, 24/06/21): Sunday, 27/06/21

Have a day like a reader in Nathan's library, LOL!

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Please DO NOT promote plagiarism AT ALL. It is a punishable offence. If you do, serious action may be taken against you.

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