The sun beat down on me like the hammer of a blacksmith on glowing steel. I sat outside the coffee house. I gripped my coffee cup in one hand and with the other took a drag of my cigarette. The nicotine might as well have been Gatorade. At mid day on a Thursday there weren’t many people walking the street.
Sweat ran from my forehead through my week old beard and off my chin. I glanced at my watch, 1:30 pm. Another pull of my cigarette allowed me to sink into my chair a little more. The sun was relentless. Life was relentless. Much had happened in the past weeks. The happiness, the sadness, and madness I had experienced it all. I suppose this was life’s way of topping it all off?
The click of the heels agains the brick walkway gave her away immediately. I didn’t turn. She slowly walked by, hips swaying and legs like you read about. My hand tightened around the cup of coffee, but I could barely hold the cigarette in between my fingers. Her long dark hair waved to everyone she passed. We caught eyes for a minute and we both smiled at each other as if to say hello and goodbye in the same sentence. My stomach began to glow with excitement. I took another swig of my coffee and took the last drag of the cigarette and wiped the sweat from my brow. The temperature rose about ten degrees as she walked by.
She carried a few notebooks with her. Something fell from in between the pages. I grabbed my bag and ran towards her lost possession. I knelt down and picked up the envelope. I looked up towards her. She was unaware that anything had fallen. I looked back at my watch, 1:45 pm. I needed to do this. I ran towards her.
“Excuse me.” She turned with minor confusion. ” Excuse me Miss, you dropped this back there, I wasn’t sure of the importance, but I figured you’d probably need it at some point,” I rambled.
“Oh thank you, that is so nice of you. And yes it is important, it’s my paycheck, so I’m sure I’d miss it.” She smiled back at me.
“Oh my that would not have been good. Do you work around here?”
“Yea, right around the corner actually, I’m a paralegal.” She said in a quiet voice.
I looked down at my watch, 1:50 pm. “Wow, that’s great. Well, here is your check. I won’t hold you up any longer.”
“Thank you.” She tucked her hair behind her ear and looked up at me ever so gentley. Our fingers touched in the exchange of the check. We might as well have been electricuted.
“Maybe I’ll see you around?” She said as she turned to leave.
I couldn’t find the words to response so I mumbled under my breath and half-hearted goodbye. My watch read, 1:55 pm. My heart sank into my stomach.
“Would you like to get a glass of wine with me?” I reached out towards her with a wave. She turned around slowly and looked at me with her gentle light brown eyes.
“Yea, that would be nice.”
We walked up around the corner away from the coffee shop to the local lounge and wine bar. “My name is Anna.”
“Tony.”
Off in the distance I could feel Her pull into the first empty spot she saw in front of the coffee shop. It was 2 pm. and she sat alone at the table in front of the coffee house. She looked down and saw the cigarette butt and the empty coffee cup. A tear came to her eye.
Anna and I smiled at each other as we both sipped our drinks. The lounge was full of young couples such as ourselves.
The street was empty out by the coffee house except for Her car.
Tags: coffee, date, love, relationship
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