His room had been completely adapted to accommodate his blindness, yet he moved around the space as if he knew exactly where everything was.
The book he handed me looked well-read, did it belong to one of his parents? Is that where his love for the author came from?
"Shall I just start from the beginning?" I asked. Maybe he had left off somewhere in his brail version.
"Honestly? I just really like the sound of your voice. You could read me IKEA instructions and I'd gladly listen," he said with a coy grin.
Was he... flirting with me?
"So, why am I really here?" I asked, wanting a straight answer.
"Did you know that I write poetry?" he asked, fumbling for his phone.
"And by write, you mean...?" I asked, unsure of where things were going now.
"Sorry. Habit, I guess," he said, managing to unlock his phone with a thumbprint. "I use the Assistant to open the voice recorder and then express what I see in my mind's eye."
I didn't think that a blind person could do that. How could you see things in your mind, if you've never seen them in real life?
He apparently found what he was looking for and pressed play. His quiet voice melodically recited the poem...
A face, a book, a smile,
One day, two day, three.
Will he ever look up,
Look up and know it's me?
Chaos, pain, now darkness,
Will I ever again see...
That face, that book, that smile,
That once had set me free.
"Is this about... me?" I asked, in surprise.
"I wasn't always blind," he said with a sigh. "I would often walk past your bookstore and see you with your nose buried in a Lovecraft book."
I heard myself swallow.
"So many times I wished that you would look up and see me too."
He had caught me completely off guard and I didn't immediately know what to say. I was sure that I had never seen him before the day he first walked into the shop.
"So, do you have like a crush on me?" I asked, stupidly.
"Given the evidence so far, what do you think?"
"How do you know that I'm even interested in guys?" I said, continuing the stupidity. Of course, I was interested but how did he know that?
He raised an eyebrow and said, "I was told that you were outed against your will by your best friend."
Shit! Even people outside of my school knew that?
"Oh," I said.
"My blindness taught me that I'd rather live with taking a chance than missing one," he said plainly. "I liked you from afar and now even more from up close. I needed to tell you, although I'm kinda scared of what you're going to say."
I thought about my situation and said, "Will you write another poem after I do this?"
Then, I lightly kissed his perfect lips.
His face burst into a wide grin. "Hmmm, I think I'll need to do that a couple more times for inspiration."
"Is that so?" I asked, before kissing him again.
