5.

Daryl stopped kicking the car tyre only when he felt someone drawing close to him. When he turned to see who it was he froze in shock. He knew God answered prayers but this couldn't be real. There she was, standing right in front of him. He wasn't sure she was really standing there in person so he just stared. If she was a figment of his imagination then nothing would disturb the peace and calm he was feeling from seeing her. If this vision of her was all he was getting then he'd take it as it came. But he didn't know what to say and wasn't sure she was real till he heard her speak.

"I uh.... I saw you and ..... I uh .... I wanted to know if uh... if you're okay? " she stuttered.

Karen was sure this was the last time she was ever going to approach someone without thinking it through.

"You're real? " The man asked very quietly, almost as a whisper. Confused, she nodded.

"Can I, ... can I touch you?" Karen slowly stretched her hand towards him. He took it with reverence, as if her hand was a fragile china bowl.

Before she could say a word he hugged her tightly. Karen squeaked in alarm and struggled a bit to let him know she was uncomfortable and stepped back the moment he let go of her.

Now she regretted approaching him. She turned to walk away.

"No, no please don't go" Daryl cried out in desperation. How could she just leave like that.

"I'm sorry but I have to go. I thought you weren't alright, I see you're fine now"

" I'm not, please wait. Please"

At his soft tone, Karen could only wait and watch helplessly. What had she gotten herself into now?

Daryl wiped his face with a handkerchief and tried to calm his beating heart. A pleasant way to get into her life indeed.

Karen stood and watched him try to compose himself. After a while he nodded at her and smiled, a small shy one.

"I'm sorry, I grabbed you like that." He apologized. "Can we go somewhere to talk? " he asked.

" No, I don't think that's a good idea. I was just worried something was wrong with you but it seems you're better now. I'll have to leave now." She insisted.

Daryl sighed in defeat.

"Okay, but please may I know your name? Do you work in that restaurant?"

"Yeah, I work there and I'm Karen." She told him, not seeing any harm in telling him her name.

"I'm, Daryl, nice meeting you Karen" he said, extending his hand for a shake. She raised an eyebrow at his gesture and smiled. She didn't take it.

"Nice meeting you too Daryl. Bye!"

With that she left him standing there. Daryl could only watch her go.

When he could no longer see her, he sat in his car and lay his head against the wheel. Why did she frustrate him so?

On his way to the house he realized seeing her again was by grace. Soon he was laughing in the car with his mood significantly improved.

Walking home, Karen wished Kobe hadn't gone for his date. She wished he'd walked her home, then when she decides to make a rash decision like she just did, he'd be there to talk her out of it. But he wasn't there and now... and now she was going to forget it ever happened and cease thinking about it. She told herself as she let herself into her apartment.

Busily thinking about not thinking about Daryl, the handsome weird stranger, she walked straight to her bedroom. She stripped and went for a quick shower, coming out of the bathroom fully refreshed and in an oversized t-shirt, she retrieved her phone from her bag and jumped on the bed.

Somewhere along the way home, her phone had died out.

"Oh damn" she muttered as she got off the bed to search for her phone's charger. She normally left it at home as she never had reason to exhaust her phone's battery at the work place before recharging.

Finding the charger in the kitchen she went back to her bed. Connecting the charger to the socket, she waited for it to charge for some minutes before switching it back on.

The first thing to catch her attention was the number of missed calls. She panicked a bit when she saw they were all from Kobe, about twelve of them. He never called on a date night. She called him immediately then remembered she just started charging the phone so she ended the call and decided to wait a while, she fell asleep before she could return his call.

Daryl was hoping he'd be able to get to his room without Diane's knowledge. That hope was dashed when he entered only to see her waiting at the kitchen.

"Hello Ms. Diane" he said and dashed up the stairs before she could respond or even ask.

Now that Daryl knew her name and where she worked, he decided he would relax now and let the small influence he had do its job. The throughout the night he'd mentioned her name.

Karen awoke in the middle of the night to see more missed calls from Kobe, but now, it was too late, or too early to call so she went through her feed on social media and listened to a sermon she'd downloaded on YouTube before falling asleep again early Saturday morning.

As usual, Karen cleaned up and did her laundry then called Kobe but he didn't answer so she stayed in bed and binge watch series on Netflix.

Early Sunday morning Daryl was dressed and ready for church. This time Ms. Diane wasn't surprised. Last week, Ms. Diane had slept in because well it was a Sunday and no one went anywhere on Sundays. She didn't notice Daryl's absence till breakfast was ready.

Today she had a coffee ready for Daryl, after church service he'll have breakfast.

Daryl couldn't wait for Monday, no not Monday. He couldn't wait for when he'd have a proper conversation with Karen and be friends with her. It was his goal for the week that by next week Sunday, they'll be cool enough to go to church together. That would truly be amazing.