Frances

12:01

I met Frances at 12:01 pm in Noah's Bagels. I was sitting in the corner waiting for my six cheese bagel with extra salmon cream cheese. I had just checked my phone to confirm that I had in fact been waiting 23 minutes. Frances walked through the doors that were much larger than her small height. 

I suppose I actually did not meet her until somewhere around 12:05 but I have always considered my first encounter with her before we had spoken to be the same thing. Frances walked up to the counter close to where I had been sitting and looked around. all the workers were in the back, none there to help her. I got up, stood beside her and rang the bell. I pretended not to look at her though I noticed her in my peripheral vision as she turned her head to glance up at me and sucked her lips in.

An employee named Thomas arrived from the back to Frances informing him she had been waiting for curbside picking for the last "20 or so minutes." "me too" I said, "in the shop."Thomas apologized and Frances smiled gracefully telling him not to worry. 

I noticed she was much more polite than I expected her to be, walking into the shop looking frazzled. Thomas asked for the names of our orders, Frances saying and I Romeo.Thomas went to the back.Frances had a seat in the chair next to the one I had been sitting in and I walked to stand next to her. "I hope the bagels worth the wait," I said.Frances made a half laughing half tsking noise. 

"Romeo, the order is ready."I looked at the single bag in Thomas's hand and shared a questioning look with Frances."Is hers?" 

At 12:11 Frances and I sat together outside Noah's Bagels at the tables that Frances said "always left marks on her legs." I had asked her to stay and eat before she left or else I wouldn't give her the bagel that Thomas had taken from her bag and placed into mine, assuming we ordered together. To this day it surprises me that Frances stayed and ate with me, but I focus more on the sense of pride that she must have liked something she read in me, at least enough to stay. 

"You know I'm gluten free, maybe this was the universe's way of telling me I should not eat this bagel." 

I smiled, "is the fact that youre gluten free not enough to keep you away?"She laughed and displayed that she had the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. her lips curved perfectly and if you paid attention-which I did- you would notice the tiny smile lines at the corner of her mouth right before her smile turns into a laugh. 

"i guess its not"i asked her if she worked and she said she preferred to say she hustled.she told me later that she read a blog on tips for aspiring artists and thats where she picked up the term.as frances spoke- a result of me pushing her to brag about her artist lifestyle- I realized how much I enjoyed every thing about her. though she never saw it, she radiated a sense of understanding for the world that was both admirable and enviable. she was intellectual on a level I do not think anybody I have ever met was. she didnt tell me much about herself, even after our may years of knowing each other i realized that Frances loved herself and keeping things between soley herself and herself only. she was a private person, mostly because she felt talking about herself did nothing for her. she wanted people to talk about themselves, making them trust her and also making her learn more.

 from our 37 minute lunch I learned that Frances was a painter, her favorite people were Patti Smith and her sister, and that I had never met anyone who's beauty compared to hers (that part I learned myself, she did not tell me.)

 frances learned that I was a journalist and author and had written two fairly succesful books, one that she said she had seen once but it was in too much of a hurry to look at it. She knew that I had 3 siblings. That my moms had divorced when I was 12 and each remarried so I had four moms. and that I wished I could read minds._

F_rances never interrupted when I talked which I knew she did because she could tell I liked to talk. of course to this day I prefer her voice to my own, but the only thing Frances never noticed about the world was that. that she was much more interesting than most, but perhaps she did know that and that's why she never talked, maybe she liked the power it gave her to know she was never giving people parts of her. Frances, she was terribly hard to read. 

a/n: the other chapters will probably be longer do not fret <3