Moments That Change Lives

But then a pang of guilt hit her. Henry was an eligible bachelor out of a relationship and free to do whatever he willed to do. Mira on the other hand… Raoul’s face came into focus. His pleasant face that always had to spare a smile for her and always ready to make her day better. What was he responsible for? Did he deserve for his girlfriend to have s*x with some other guy?

This was not an ordinary situation, Mira thought. She was going to die and Raoul wouldn’t even learn about everything that happened. He was at work now surely. Serving his customers all kinds of cocktails and beverages to chill their throats while thinking of her.

Henry’s words separated her from her deep thoughts. “We shouldn’t talk about this, don’t you think? I mean -“

“Agreed,” Mira immediately replied. “It looks to me that we won’t live to talk about this.”

“You lost all hope?” Henry asked perching himself on his elbows and looking at her.

“Well, don’t pretend as if you didn’t. I’m just facing the facts here. We’re blocked from the outside world – the fallen ceiling from one side and also rocks from the other – the signal on the radio is well dead. There is actually no one who would even find the bodies here.”

“Wow, you are pessimistic as hell. Didn’t seem to me that you were that kind of person,” Henry said stroking her chin.

“I call myself a realist and you know that I am speaking the truth here. We don’t have food nor water and we’re going to run out of air even before our stomachs start to rumble.” Mira gave him a wan smile which he returned back.

“I’m going to breach the agreement, but just wanted to say that you were amazingly wonderful. Who would say that you had the vigor of a lioness in you,” Henry said, giggling.

Mira felt heat rising in her body reaching her cheeks. “You make me uncomfortable. You were not bad yourself,” she told him putting her index finger on his chin and dragged it across his jaw line.

“I get that quite often.” He laughed and Mira followed. The atmosphere was unbelievably cool despite the warmth in the cave or that was how Mira thought. She was enjoying her client’s company more and more. They quickly dressed and sat next to each other.

“Let’s play a game,” she said with glistening eyes like a small child’s when it would want to play with its favorite ball so much.

“A game?” Henry was taken aback.

“Yup. A game of favorites. You played it before?”

“No, but I believe I know how it is played. Each of us takes turns to say a favorite thing or guilty pleasures or something like that.”

“And once you say your favorite stuff, you ask a ‘what’s your favorite’ question.”

“I think I get it.” Henry smiled. “So, what’s your favorite movie?”

“Movie? Err… That’s a tough one. I don’t have much spare time for movies, but I can definitely enjoy one in the weekends.”

“Please don’t be too mainstream,” he teased her.

“You can see by the place I live and work that I am definitely 100% out of the mainstream.” They burst into laughter. “I can’t decide between American Beauty and Slumdog Millionaire.”

“Wow, definitely out of the mainstream. I really liked A Beautiful Mind when I saw it a few weeks ago.”

“A great movie. So, favorite celebrity who you’d like to have s*x with?”

“Err… And you thought movie was a tough one… Let’s say… Beyoncé,” Henry said.

“Beyoncé, seriously?” Mira asked, giggling.

“Yeah, what’s wrong with Beyoncé? She’s smart, talented and hot as well.”

“Yeah, but it didn’t seem to me that you would be into her music and into her basically. But a smart choice. Interesting… It’s my turn now, right? Well… Probably Idris Elba. That guy is killing me. Damn he is perfect.”

“Who’s he?” Henry raised his eyebrows.

“You don’t know him?” Mira asked surprised that he hadn’t heard of him.

“No. However, I am sure he can’t compare with me.” A booming laughter escaped their throats.

Boom! It came suddenly like a bombshell. The deafening sound shut down their conversation as their eyes darted toward the place where the ceiling collapsed. They looked at each other then and again toward the place from where they had arrived into the cave. There was some more buzzing, whirring and even knocks on rocks.

“What’s happening?” Mira asked gravely shifting her stare to Henry.

“No idea. But I think someone is coming to the rescue.”

And he was right. Indeed he was right. A rock fell leaving a patch of night sky in its place. One after the other the rocks were cleared and the face of Angelo appeared before them.

“Mira,” he shouted and went to hug her.

“Oh, Angelo. Thank you. We thought that we were going to die. How did you find us?” Her eyes went to Henry’s. He smiled softly.

“I got your radio signal after all. I couldn’t hear a thing and I thought that it might be important and immediately went to the computer. Thanks to my excellent IT skills, I was able to see that it was coming from your radio. Then I knew that since my best friend is calling the offices while on tour, it must be something really really surprising or terrible.”

Mira chuckled at his words.

“I phoned the other guides and some colleagues and here we are to save the day,” Angelo said pointing to his back. It was in that moment that Mira saw around five to ten guys with tools in their hands waving.

“Thank you, guys, we owe you,” it was Henry this time that spoke. “You all have a free dinner and beer from me. Put it on my account.”

“YEAH!” came from the guys as they started cheering and all of them laughed.

After a week, the events leading to and taking place in the cave were just a memory or a scene of a movie Mira had watched and faded with each passing day. She had an amazing time with Henry revisiting all the wonderful sights, reminding herself again why she had come there in the first place. She had made sure she had an answer to every question of Henry’s, made sure to maintain their relationship casual and professional. As they agreed, not even a word was shared of the night when they had used each other’s bodies as comfort in the desperate times. Just friends. They had remained just friends and partners in the tours around the forest. That was the whole truth.