Tangled Up in Blue

"Harry, do you have a girlfriend?" He asked after approaching him.

"What?" A young adult mumbled as his eyes widened after hearing the question.

"You heard me, didn't you? "He said as he looked at him.

Lifting his eyes to the sky, he said "Dad, I…., I think it might rain today."

"That is true, but you haven't answered me," Alexander said making eye contact with his son.

"Yeah, that's right," Harry said staring at the pool in a distance.

Harry, your response please?" Alexander asked as he waited for Harry's answer impatiently.

"About?" Harry asked, raising his bushy black eyebrows beating around the bush.

"The girlfriend question," insisted Alexander.

"Oh, about that, I now get you, dad, that is a good one, wow," He said as he turned his eyes looking over his shoulder to the garden filled with flowers.

"Harry, are you making an effort to avoid my question?" Alexander questioned.

"Dad, why do you say that?" asked Harry.

"You did it again," Alexander said.

"Do what?" Harry asked.

"Harry, Answer the girlfriend thing already."

"Dad, I'm still somehow immature for that kinda stuff," Harry said.

"Hey, stop fooling me, everyone knows that you are eighteen now," Alexander said, " don't tell me that..."

"That I fear girls, of course not."

"I didn't say that you feared girls Harry, those are your words, " Alexander said.

"No, they aren't, they are yours."

"Why would you say that Harry?" asked Alexander.

"I said those words because I just anticipated that they were the same words you were going to speak," replied Harry pacing back and forth.

"Breaking news here on the Banks news Channel, Harry Banks the son of the richest business tycoon Mr Alexander Banks is afraid of girls and as a result, he doesn't have a girlfriend." Alexander kiddingly said taking on the role of a news reporter.

"What! Alexander, don't tell me that..," Harry is what I heard true?" asked Martin, for he gave attention to the breaking news, he said as he moved towards them.

"Uncle Martin, it isn't, " Harry said.

Martin is not only Alexander's best friend but also the Banks family friend, Harry addresses him as uncle occasionally, since they are close, and Alexander loves and trusts him like his own brother.

"Hey Martin, don't believe him because he already admitted it to me," Alexander said ( Harry's dad)

"Wow, so it's true?" asked Martin.

"Yes it's true Martin, he is just like you, " Alexander said.o

"Wait dad, wait, don't tell me that uncle Martin too didn't…., " Harry said as he found it interesting.

"That's it," Alexander said hitting his palm on the round table.

"What! Uncle Martin, is it true?" Harry asked as he smirked.

Taking a seat on his right hand he said, "Yes, yes I won't deny it, it is true."

"Oh my God, so, Uncle Martin, what went wrong?" Harry asked sitting back and ready to listen.

"The problem that I had was one, " Martin said as he cleaned his eyeglasses.

"And what was that?" asked Harry because he was curious.

Martin stared at Alexander and at the same time his eyeglasses as he cleaned them, he did this multiple times.

"Go on Martin, answer him already, will you?" Alexander asked.

"Okay, I was shy and even though I was the best in the whole class, you know, in the classwork thing, in biology, mathematics blah blah, I wasn't good or the best in the go get a girlfriend thing, he said,

"Alexander, why are you giving me that look?"

"I think there is something that you have to rectify, Martin," Alexander said.

"I don't think there is anything that needs to be rectified, Ale-xa-nder,"

"The lie," Alexander said.

"Oh, the lie, and what lie could that be?"

Martin said as he glanced at his fingers," oh, I recall now, Harry, Alexander was always number one and I was the second in the classwork thing, in those days."

"Thank you, '' Alexander said, "speaking of being number one in class, Harry here is also as gifted as me, so if it is shyness or fear then he got it from his mother and if it is brightness, then he got it from me.

"Really?" asked Harry.

"Nope, I think someone here is trying to cover up something," Martin said as he moved toward Alexander.

"Covering up what?" asked Harry Banks.

"Will you or should I?" Martin asked.

"I also feared girls," Alexander confessed," but not that much."