Love At Sunrise

Love By Chance

"Hi, I'm Lea, nice to meet you!"

We met, finally, but I do hope I wasn't as awkward as I thought I was when
I shook her hand. Her delicate skin felt as if I was touching silk, and
that's a very good mark in my book. I adore women who take care of
themselves.

Lea sat down on the chair to my right, brought by a rather condescending
waiter who had no other choice, giving both me and Julia a warm smile as
she sat down. She left her black trench on the back of the chair, tying her
little purse on the side, before she gave out a disappointed sigh and
glanced at Julia.

"No luck for me."

Julia raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"The guy didn't show up. I was supposed to have a date with this guy I met
a couple of days ago, but that bastard didn't show up."

Julia nearly choked a moment later on her wine. I wasn't sure it was
because of what happened to her and the luck that I have or whether it was
because my downright weird moves of my head to the left and to the right as
I tried to contain my excitement. Lea looked at me dubiously and then back
to Julia.

"What's that reaction? I thought you're being supportive, Julia!" said Lea
between her smiles.

Julia laughed. "Well, yeah, I am, but it happened too many times. You
should learn to expect less from guys, less heartache."

"Oh well."

The waiter barged in our conversation a moment later to take Lea's order.
As she ordered, I took a quick, furtive glance at her beneath my eyelashes.
Behind that slightly disappointed expression was a 20-something year old
young woman, dressed in a tight fitting white shirt and dark blue jeans.
Her long, brown hair was tied in a ponytail, and somehow the blonde locks
that flowed from the tail downwards did not look out of place at all. When
she smirked at Julia earlier, her little frown was as cute as it would get.
Her green eyes twinkled whenever she smiled, and when she did, it looked as
if she never held anything back. In short, she was a joy, and that included
her little nose that was only slightly pointed upwards.

I woke up from my reverie when the waited left, glancing towards Julia who
caught my wandering eye. But she ignored me and turned back to Lea.

"What did you order?"

"A Guinness. Stout beer."

My eyes went wide. Julia couldn't keep her laughter any longer, causing Lea
to turn towards me with a smile.

"What?" Lea asked me.

"A girl drinks stout beer? Guys, yeah, but girls? Since when?"

Lea gave me a smile. "Cut me some slack, come on, I got ditched by my date,
right after a busy day at work and plus, Guinness has good flavour."

What could I say to that? I just smiled in return and raised my shoulders.
Lea drew closer to me.

"Don't think of me as a weirdo. I know girls are supposed to drink lighter
stuff like Julia here in the corner with her little fizzy drink pretending
to be wine, but sometimes, a good glass of beer can make your day better!"

Amen to that, I guess. Even a whole minute later, Julia was still laughing,
albeit mildly, and this time it was probably because she noticed my intense
stare and how easily I managed to get into the conversation. I spent the
next 20 minutes making light jokes about Julia, making Lea laugh every
other moment. God Bless Julia, she's been a great straight man to help me
out.

In the end, one stout beer turned into about three hours of laughing, good
humoured jokes and inevitable discussions about personal preferences of
movies, music and of course, food. Any thoughts about that dissertation
quickly flew away, nobody wanted to even hear of that any more. That
included Lea, who still had one more year of her own Masters.

Julia however still had another ace up her sleeve.

By the time the check came, she excused herself with a sly smile and headed
over by the bar where she greeted two female friends. After each of us paid
the share of the bill, Lea gave me a quick smile from behind her eyelashes.
I don't know what had gotten into me at that moment, but I did it.

"Lea, do you want to go for a dinner date?"

She stopped and stared at me for a couple of moments. Maybe I blew it,
argh! My mind raced from a corner to another, my fingers twiched and dug
inside my palms and I nearly bit my lip bloody. But Lea tilted her head
slightly sideways and gave me a warm smile instead.

"Yeah. I think we can do that."