aegean eyes

brunches is my haven.

it is my home, and the staff and customers, my family.

but today, the small metal bells on the door handle choired the arrival of a new relative.

i watched him stroll towards the counter,

i watched him point towards a black on the chalkboard,

and i watched him settle into a seat, surveying brunches with his pair of clear, ocean-blue eyes.

for a moment, his eyes locked with mine. they were alive, an ombre of aegean and turquoise, hypnotisingly whirling as every inch his eyes widened. they reached from the depths of his soul, reflecting his every emotion like a shimmering sea.

realising the position that i was in, i could feel my cheeks turn a light crimson. reigning in my self control, i shifted my eyes back to my notes, which seemed a tad duller than before.

and as the prince of the sea took his paper cup filled with coffee as dark as his curls, he thanked joanna, the waitress, and returned to his table with summer seas trapped in his eyes.

but i lifted my gaze for a second. and i found myself staring into the exact pair of eyes as before.

but his right eyebrow and the corner of his lip tugged upwards, in a questioning smirk, and a mischievous gleam filled his eyes.

determined for this time not to be a repeat of earlier on, i simply stared back, and returned my own smirk.

slightly stunned, he failed to notice joanna approach him. after a few moments, he swiftly packed up his items, while an elderly couple sat down at his previously occupied table.

saddened that he was leaving, i refocused on my notes in an attempt to get back on task.

out of the blue, i heard the pulling out of a chair and things being put on my table. looking up, i once again saw the same eyes i was staring at earlier.

"hi," he started off, "the waitress asked me to vacate the table to allow the elderly couple to sit together as there are no tables left." then, i spotted a faint blush rise up his neck and tinge his ears.

nodding awkwardly, i silently returned back to my work, resisting the urge to look back up to further admire his features. then, joanna caught my eye, mouthing "he's cute" and sending a not so subtle wink my way, causing me to send a pointed glare back at her.

from across the table, i took in his sharp, defined jaw line, his messy, coal waves and the dimple that appeared on his right cheek for a brief second when he smiled. damn, he's actually quite cute.

"um hi, i'm amber," i mumbled quickly, after mustering my courage to introduce myself .

"i'm kai," he returned, the corners of his lips turning up slightly.

kai. as in "sea" in hawaiian. his name fits his appearance well.

we settled into a somewhat comfortable silence, my concentration on my chemistry notes dwindling by the second.

instead, i watched as he took out a worn but charming paperback of little women, and started reading, annotating as he went along, his text slowly filled with bluish-green hues, and colourful tabs adorning the right side of the pages.

"you annotate your books?" i couldn't help but blurt out, before recovering, "sorry, i just really love little women and couldn't help but notice." my cheeks were aflame at that point, and i wished i could bury myself right there.

"only for a handful," kai replied, "i'm rereading this for a book club." next, he skimmed over the page and questioned, "do you think jo should have married laurie?"