First Impression
A sudden ring woke her from a deep slumber, eyes wincing at the sound making her groan as she tried to find her alarm clock. Rio kept touching the surface of her bedside table but she couldn’t reach for it, in an instant, she turned around and slammed the alarm clock. But guess what? It fell off. Wanna know what happened next? It suddenly stopped ringing. I think I broke it. She thought but none of it matters to her right now. The aching of her eyes from opening it too quickly is what she is more concerned about.
“Fuck,” she sighed as she sat up.
Lost in her thoughts, probably zoning out because she just woke up, Rio stared at the floor for so long that when she realized what she had been doing she bolted up in her bed, suddenly finding herself already standing up. Well, that was a nice way to start the day. She just shrugged it off.
While she fixed her bed, her eyes landed on the wall clock. It's a good thing she has another clock. 7:50. As if she just saw a ghost, she hurriedly finished the bed and made her way to the bathroom to at least clean herself a little. She didn’t mind if she ate her breakfast, what mattered to her was her plants. Yes, her only love in the world. Even if her plants are edible, she won’t dare to eat them. Rio would rather die than harm her lovely plants. Her garden is probably the most gorgeous one in this neighborhood—she just decided that title, but honestly, it is.
She has this strict schedule to water all her plants from precisely 8:00 to 8:20 in the morning. Rio doesn’t remember when and how this started but she just did it daily and it just occurs to her naturally. After almost 15 years of living in the area, she noticed that she had a little observer on the other side of the road. A cute little boy with dark brown hair and pretty eyes.
At first, the boy would take a little peek from the front window of the house and would be gone after. But as time passes, the boy is straight up sitting outside their house, watching Rio doing her daily thing. She finds it amusing. Rio never thought that someone that young would be interested in watching her watering the plants. Sometimes she would think that the boy already witnessed her talking with her garden. I hope he doesn’t think I’m crazy. But even if he did, he would understand when the time comes.
Rio wonders where his parents are. Although she finds it amusing, sometimes she can’t help but feel concerned that the boy is just by himself outside with no adult supervision. What a careless parent. Setting up all the gardening tools, a woman catches her eye. It was the mother of the boy. Woah, hold up. She can’t help but stare at her back way too long. Her dark brown hair is slightly messy but still looks good and a casual fit. Rio is waiting for the woman to turn around, curious regarding what her face might look like. I bet she is beautiful. Considering the facial features of the boy, no wonder her mother would be so gorgeous. I’m distracted again.
Rio quickly gets it together and continues what she is doing. She’s usually not the type of person to be distracted, but this mysterious woman is already causing her trouble.
8:10. She is almost halfway done with the right part of her garden. Rio looked around to see the other plants that hadn’t been watered, but then her gaze landed on the boy right over the fence.
Rio yelled. “Dear Lord, what the hell are you doing there?!” she said out of breath, hands on her chest.
The boy just grinned cutely. “Hi, Miss.” He politely said. This one is nice. Rio already knew half of the kids here, and they were nowhere near polite with this one.
“H-hello?” Rio whispered, taking the watering can she dropped earlier. The boy curiously peeked through the fence, at what she was holding.
“Oh—this?” showing the watering can to the boy, “It’s called a watering can,” Rio said delightfully. This one is going to be a fun day. The glimmer in the boy’s eyes was enough to tell that Rio would have so much fun teaching the kid with her knowledge about her garden.
Might as well adopt this kid.
The two spent about fifteen minutes talking about gardening tools and flowers. Rio already forgot that she still has plants to water, but she doesn’t care about it right now.
I like this boy.
She smiled at the thought, Rio then decided to pick a purple flower in her garden.
“Go on, take this flower.” Her voice was gentle as she softly placed the flower on his palm, closing it after.
The boy looked at it a little closer, amusement behind those brown eyes. Then he smiled and giggled. God, he's cute.
“Thank you, Miss!” he shouted, quickly hugging her with force that she almost stumbled. Rio placed her arms around the boy, kneeling due to his height. When they broke the hug, she asked him.
“What is your name, sweetheart?”
“Nicky!”
Rio softly chuckled, shuffling the kid’s hair. “Such a cool name, Nicky!” she replied. Nicky turned around, her mother closing the front door. Rio followed his line of sight. I think they are leaving.
“Is that your mother?” she asked curiously, eyes never leaving the woman’s back. A short yes came out of his lips but she was still mesmerized by this lady.
Please turn around. But she didn’t, she was looking down when she walked to the car.
“I better get going, Miss! I’ll see you later!” Nicky yelled as he ran down the road, the flower on his right ear.
Rio looks like a proud mom as Nicky returns to their house— her mom. When she turned around, that’s when it hit her. I didn’t water all the plants. Now, she is irritated again. She is lucky the reason she didn’t finish this is because of a cute and energetic kid.
“Okay, just this time.” She exhaled.
Setting up the plates on the table, Rio decided to have a simple breakfast. She is already annoyed that she didn’t finish watering the entire garden, she can’t deal with having imperfect egg shapes on her plate. So, she just went with hotdogs.
Usually, she would start scrolling on her phone, watching gardening videos, and journaling ideas, but right now, Rio seems to be too occupied with thoughts to function well. That lady. Her mind keeps replaying the same image of the back of that woman, analyzing every bit of her body, trying to memorize and decipher all her features even if she still doesn’t see her face yet.
I wonder what she looks like.
Then..
There was a knock on the door.
“Fuck,” Rio whispered, almost dropping her fork. The person knocked again, faster and louder this time. “Wait!” in a messy state, she nearly stumbled walking to the door. Keep in mind that she was wearing a large blue oversized shirt, a shorts, and disheveled hair. When she opened the door, she saw a woman standing almost the same height as her, although she’s a bit taller for a few inches, this woman emits a strong personality and let’s simply say a little dominance. Maybe more.
“Uh—”
On the lower part of the door, she saw Nicky with a sad expression. Where is the flower? Her eyes drag along from Nicky to the woman in front of her, and that’s when she realizes that she is facing the mother of the child. So, this is her. She observed her face briefly, the same with the other woman. Holy fuck, this woman is beautiful.
She’s pretty cute, Agatha thought. For a moment, she didn’t hesitate to look at her as well, but then she remembered why she was here— at this pretty lady’s house.
Agatha cleared her throat. “Excuse me? Are you the one who gave my son a flower?” her tone was quite offensive. Rio raised her eyebrows, opening the door a little to lean her hands on it. Tilting her head, “So what?” she answered cheekily. Agatha swiftly reacted, letting out a scoff as she rolled her eyes.
“You just gave my son a flower,” she said, emphasizing the word.
“So?”
“What if he has an allergy to flowers?”
“Does he?” Rio countered.
“No—”
“I don’t see the problem here, Miss..” she looked at her up and down before speaking again. “I gave your son a flower, Miss Beautiful raging woman who just knocked on my door to complain about her son receiving a flower from her neighbor for almost 15 years,” Rio sarcastically said, her tongue doing that thing again.
In just a second, Agatha took the flower from Nicky’s hand. Oh, that’s where he hides the flower. She then put it inside her mouth and swallowed it.
Rio’s eyes widened with both shock and amusement. “What—”
“I don’t see any flower,” Agatha said, almost choking up the flower that was right up on her throat, but she swallowed it again anyway. Rio looked back and forth between Nicky and the woman who just chewed and swallowed her flower.
The woman just ate a flower in front of her.
This lady is crazy. I love her already.
She doesn’t know if she’s going to laugh or yell at her to go away. Rio was speechless, and so did the other woman. “Mom!” Nicky said, pulling her pants to get her attention. “You just swallowed a flower! Are you going to die?!” the poor boy almost cried.
“Oh no, your mom is not going to die,” Rio said as she kneeled, her eyes glaring at the woman which earned a groan from her. “But I know she will poop those flowers within the day, don’t worry your mother will live” There was a hint of amusement behind her tone and Rio was enjoying it. She stood back up and curiously looked at her.
“What an unexpected first impression, my lady”
Rio flirtingly said, teasing the woman. She wriggled her hands right at the woman’s face, and she flickered Rio’s hand away from her. “Don’t call me that,” the woman replied, although her voice suggested that she was fine with it. “Well, I would if you would just tell me your name,” Rio answered.
“Agatha”
“What a beautiful name for such a crazy person like you”
Agatha’s mouth dropped lower than the Mariana trench. Nicky giggled and Rio joined him, kneeling to escape whatever reaction she would normally do.
This bitch is lucky my son is here, I would have strangled her to death.
“Hey, come inside I’ll prepare you both a breakfast.” Rio happily said to the kid, not even acknowledging the woman. I’m having fun with her.
Nicky went in first, hurried steps echoed in the living room. The two women were left at the front door. Agatha is looking at her, preparing to unalive this woman immediately.
“I will choke you,” Agatha threatened.
“Oh”, Rio let out a chuckle. “Please do”
And then she went inside, leaving Agatha speechless as Rio was when she swallowed that damn flower.
Just wait.