New York City
United States of America
April 2120
United States of America
April 2120
It was only a few months into their relationship when Elena Jones noticed something a little off with Ansel.
Overall, her boyfriend was normal – he had no creepy
tendencies nor did he have any skeletons in the closet to be worried about. The
most peculiar thing about him had to be his busy work schedule on the weekdays,
but that was about it. She had already come to terms with her geeky, sarcastic
and sharp-tongued parter and found no other problem with him at all. Even
Amelia, her sister all the way in Connecticut, thought that Ansel was an okay
kind of guy.
Part of Ansel Free’s work schedule was to drop by during his
lunch hours and go to the coffee shop where Elena worked. He would be there
every 1:00PM, ready to order his usual coffee and his usual snack.
Almost all the baristas there had grown used to the fact
that it was Elena that would be the one to serve him, as she would usually
spend five minutes catching up with him until Luke Truman called her back to
the front.
Even with that, Elena couldn’t help but notice one small
thing that was off with him. It wasn’t obvious at first, but as time passed on,
she realized it and wondered why she never bothered to correct him the first
time around.
It was the way he called her.
Elena.
She first noticed it one afternoon when he and Marion
Salazar, his co-worker, dropped by for lunch. Ansel had ordered his usual while
ignoring Marion’s teasing. “Is this why you always have lunch here, Ansel?” she
teased. Ansel merely said nothing more as the male barista accepted his cash,
returning the change smoothly after.
“I’m flattered,” the male (his nametag read Luke) answered with a smirk, “But I
don’t think he swings that way.”
“Too true,” Ansel agreed, tucking the change into his wallet
and moving on. Marion merely chuckled and ordered, Ansel hanging around and
waiting for his drink to come up. Marion glanced at him and saw his eyes a
little wider, a grin curving along his lips in excitement. She blinked and
there stood a familiar brunette, putting a plate onto a tray along with the
usual plastic cup. “Elena!”
“Retel!” Elena called. Ansel beamed and raced to the
counter, Elena shaking her head as she glanced down at what Ansel had ordered.
“One Chicken BLT and a Java Chip Frap…you need to eat more,” she scolded. Ansel
gave a goofy smile and kissed Elena’s cheek, handing over the receipt.
“I think I’m already satisfied,” he replied. Elena rolled
her eyes (while blushing) and stamped the piece of paper, handing it back to
him. “Save me a banoffee, Elena?”
“Yeah, yeah. It has your name on it,” she snorted, watching
with a fond look in her eyes as he sat down at his usual spot. Marion came up
after buzzing with energy, eyeing Elena curiously. “Grilled Cheese and a Flat
White for Marion?”
“That would be me,” Marion affirmed. She handed the receipt
and watched Elena with a pleased smile. “So you’re the El he keeps talking
about during work.” The brunette blinked, looking back up and seeing the amused
smile on the lady’s face. “Elena Jones?”
What the – Elaine-ah –
that’s now how you…?
“Actually, you pronounce it as Elena – not Elaine-ah,” Elena
corrected, though it came out more as a question than a statement. Marion
tilted her head to the side, pursing her lips.
“Oh? That’s now how Ansel says it.”
At that point, both of them looked towards Ansel, who was
eating and remaining totally unaware of what the two were talking about.
“Haven’t you ever corrected him?” Elena said nothing and
Marion patted the other, shooting a teasing smile. “Girl, you are in so deep.”
* * * * *
Elena had to think back to the time she had first met Ansel.
She introduced herself as Elena – and he pronounced her name
right. As the weeks passed, however, he began to slip and pronounce it in
another way. Elena wasn’t sure how she was able to miss such a change within a
span of weeks, but after Marion said it herself, realized that it was a
horribly obvious change.
So out of curiosity, while the two were watching TV and
eating Chinese take out, Elena found herself leaning into Ansel’s shoulder
while finishing a container of chow mein. “Ansel?”
“Yeah, El?”
Fuck it, she
thought. Just go straight.
“Is there a reason why you never say my first name?” Ansel
blinked and turned his head to her, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
“What do you mean? I always refer to you with your first
name, unless you mean by your second first name.”
“No, not that. I mean…” Elena hesitated and sat up straight,
the two facing each other soon after. “You pronounce it like Elaine-ah instead of Elen-uh. I’m not complaining,” she
defended. “I just find it…”
“You find it…?”
“…weird?”
“A little,” she admitted. Ansel smiled shyly and ran his
fingers through his hair slowly, Elena recognizing this as his embarrassed
face. His cheeks were a little pink. “I mean – how’d you start calling me that
and why?”
“It’s a long story,” Ansel mumbled. His ears turned red. “It
started with a dream, actually.” The male set down his container of sweet and
sour pork, Elena doing the same with her chow mein. “I had a dream that stuck
in the first few weeks of us being together.”
“Was it one of those dreams?”
Elena asked. Ansel nodded. Into the relationship, Elena had shared that she
kept a journal with all the dreams she ever had. Ansel flipped through the
pages and a jolt of familiarity struck him as he read pages telling of two
girls in uniform, holding hands and giggling away in a school campus surrounded
by evergreen.
He told her this. Both of them fell silent after, quietly
confirming in their minds that the person across them was indeed their fated
Soul Mate.
“In the dream, a girl was saying a certain name over and
over and over again,” Ansel narrated. He closed his eye and hummed, “The mood
wasn’t that great. It seemed like she was…sad, even. She kept saying the name.”
“And the girl – which one was it?”
“The two young ones. The students,” Ansel replied. Elena
fell silent and Ansel glanced away. “I guess it stuck. After she kept calling
the name, it stuck in my head and then mixed with your name, hence my
pronouncing it that way. Sorry,” he added hastily. “If it’s too weird. I
thought you were fine with it and…” he trailed off, shakily pushing his glasses
up his nose.
Elena tilted her head to the side and stayed quiet for a few
seconds, finally finding the words right after. “Nah.”
“Nah?”
“You can keep calling me that. It’s okay,” she told him.
Ansel looked at her. Elena was looking away, but she was smiling. “Consider it
as your special nickname for me, Retel.”
“You serious?”
“You want me to take it back?” the girl grumbled. Ansel
quickly shook his head and smiled widely, pulling Elena close and kissing her
cheek.
“Consider it done.”
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