Episode 2

'I will blow your mind...' he whispered in her ear, then sat back and took a deep breath, inhaling all the fumes of his cigarette, while waiting for her reaction. She listened curiously to his words, then giggled and took an amused look at his stance.
'And how exactly are you gonna' do that?' she asked him, hardly stopping herself from laughing.
'I will read your mind.' he replied and gave her a mysterious look that made her giggle again. She then took another look at this guy in front of her that was trying to impress her and thought for a little while if he was even worth the next question she was about to ask. But she decided to play along, at least for the fun...
'And how will you do this?' she asked, this time more serious and curious about his reply.
'I won't tell you how', said he, 'but I will show you. Think of something interesting and I will tell you what that was...'
She suddenly became more interested in this little game he was playing. She gazed into his eyes and saw that he was serious in every word, so she decided to beat him at his own game. She started rolling her eyes mumbling nonsense words whose meanings she barely knew, waiting for him to be truth to his words and say what she was thinking about.
'No! Don't ruin it, by thinking of random words I might never have heard about!', he told her, interrupting her sabotage. 'That's not how it works. Think of something interesting, something worth thinking about...'
She stopped in amazement. Even though he wasn't specific about, he did said what she was thinking about. But then again, she was mumbling, so he must have read her lips. That was too easy, she needed something challenging.
She stopped smiling and began to think about something he couldn't have known about. She lowered her face in concentration and looked at that small glass table that was separating them and saw in it the diminishing light of the sunset. A small breeze blew away some fallen leaves, somewhere in front of them, and she began staring in a far, admiring the sight, with a glimpse of a smile on her face.
He watched her quietly for a few minutes, letting her fall deep into her own memory. He analyzed every move she made, everything she did, without her even realizing it. After a little while, he said briefly:
'That's lovely... Where was that?'
She stopped and stared at him in full amazement, not blinking and almost jaw-dropping. 'He couldn't have... could he?!' After a few seconds of trying to decide, she asked: 'What was what?'
'That beautiful memory of you and your father, on that lovely alley, in that lovely afternoon...'
She stopped breathing. She threw a scared look at him as she could barely believe what he just said. 'You were just a little girl', he continued troubling her, 'and your dad took you out, in a lovely autumn afternoon...'
She became pale and couldn't say a word. She stared for a few seconds at this guy that had just blown her mind so bad she could barely speak. She was trying to understand how that was possible, but that last sentence, you were just a little girl, blew her over. There was no one else, except her or father, that could've known about it. But still...
'How...?' - that was everything she could say, but it was enough for him to understand what she meant.
'Oh, darling! Relax!', he told her comforting, 'I'm not a telepath! I didn't get into mind and looked at your secrets, I've just read you and I knew what you where thinking about...'
Not surprisingly, that wasn't too much of a comfort for her, though. She still couldn't understand what really happened a few moments ago and she was just as confused as before. She took a deep breath and asked him: 'How did you do it?'
He looked at her in disappointment, but saw exactly how troubled she was, so he decided to unveil his secret to her.
'I didn't have to go inside your mind to understand what you were thinking about, I've just used my reasoning. I saw you looking at the sunset and then at the blown leaves. I then saw that smile on your face and the way you were caught by your memory. I understood it was a memory, because you were looking downwards. That's what we do when we think of something that is stuck to our memory. So I followed your look to the fallen leaves and they gave me the clue that it was autumn in your memory. And then the smile told me it was a beautiful old memory, from your childhood, because those memories remain with us the longest and they are the ones who shape us...'
'But how did you know is was about my father?' she asked him, with a tear running down her cheek.
'I didn't. I guessed. I knew you only live with your mother so I presumed your dearest childhood memory would be one with your father. I guess I was right.'
He stopped talking and saw her eyes full of tears. Maybe it was too much, maybe he had gone too far this time. He had a burst of apologizing, but she interrupted:
'I was 6, back then. My father took me to the park. He bought me some candy floss and took me to those small trains... I don't remember much about it, but it's my strongest memory of him. It was before...' and stopped. She just looked away and didn't say anything.
They stayed like this for a few minutes, her staring at the far and him not knowing what to say next. He smoked another cigarette while she was trying to pull herself together. She wiped the tears from her eyes and took a look at him as he was calmly smoking and said:
'Boy! You do know how to impress a girl, don't you?'

The "F" words...

F**k everything that should've been and wasn't, f**k false hopes and dreams that never came through, f**k every smile that wasn't returned with a smile, f**k every missed call and every unanswered SMS, f**k every greeting that wasn't replied...
F**k all the dates that didn't took place, f**k all the stars that weren't counted, f**k all the poetry and all the lyrics and all the speeches that were never spoken outloud, f**k all the beaches all around the world, that were walked on alone, f**k every night and every day alone, every breakfast not taken in bed and every dinner not taken with candle lights...
F**k one-way roads, empty houses and taxi cabs, f**k burned photos, favourite songs and soaps, f**k sunrises and sunsets by the beach all alone, f**k promises, f**k space, f**k heart-shaped pillows and chocolate boxes...
F**k Valentine's Day, f**k romantic movies, f**k Harlequin novels and every other liar...
F**k anxiety, f**k fear, f**k prejudices, f**k pride, f**k rules on behavior...
F**k exes, parents that would enterfere, friends who won't tell and friends who did, f**k everyone from everywhere who stood in the way of ever expressing how you truely feel.