A Mist of Brightness

One

This is just a story idea that came to my mind. For the most part, I still don't know where I'm going with this. 

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Standing by an old telephone booth, I glanced up and down the almost deserted street. The sun was almost down and low clouds hung over the mountains. A small breeze passed by me. Glancing down at the screen of my phone, I let out a frustrated sigh.

He was late, again. I’d been standing alone for almost twenty minutes. Last time he’d been over fifteen minutes late, and had apologized like crazy after that.

A petite girl walked past and gave me a small smile. Her brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she wore shorts and a plain shirt. I then noticed she was walking her small dog. Smiling automatically, I tried not to grimace. 

After another five minutes, I decided it wasn’t worth it. If he wasn’t willing to be on time, then he could forget on meeting me here. I turned and grabbed my bag from the shelf of the telephone booth. Turning around, I didn’t notice the man walking past me and bumped into him.

I stumbled back a bit. “I’m sorry,” I said apologetically. I had expected him to just keep on walking as he mumbled something like “It’s okay.” It’s what most people would have done anyways. What I hadn’t expected was for him to stop walking and place a hand on my shoulder to stop me from walking away.

“No, it’s my fault. Here,” he said and bent down to retrieve something from the ground.

The first thing I noticed was his messy dark brown hair. His hair was so dark it could pass for black. He wore a dark trench coat and dark pants.

He stood back up and inspected something in his hands. I was so entranced by him that it took me a while to see that he had my phone in his hands. I hadn’t noticed I’d dropped it.

“Oh man. I’m so sorry,” he said sincerely.

I frowned and quickly glanced at his face. From what I could see, he had very strong features. His face was down, looking at my phone.

“Sorry for what?” I asked as I looked at him.

“Your phone…it cracked.”

Changing my attention from his face to my phone, which he held with two fingers, I forgot about his good looks.

“What?” I asked stupidly. I could see a big crack that ran down the middle of the phone. Dang it. Not again.

I groaned. “Not again,” I said softly. I reached out to grab the phone from his grasp but he moved it out of my reach. I could feel his gaze on my face, but I didn’t meet it.

I tried one more time to get my phone but he just moved it again. I sighed in frustration. After giving the stranger in front of me a quick eye roll, I looked back at the phone he held. “I’d appreciate it if you’d give me back my phone.”

“I will, once I replace it.”

“You’re not replacing my phone, it just cracked. Besides, it was my fault.”

“No.  It’s no inconvenience on my part.”

I crossed my arms. Stupid stubborn good looking stranger.

“Please let me replace it. We can exchange numbers.”

I shook my head.

“Please,” he said softly.

Sighing, and knowing this stranger wouldn’t let it go, I looked up into his piercing gaze.

That’s how I knew.

 Mesmerized by his blue-gray eyes, I could do nothing but stare.  A sudden intense but warm feeling crept into my chest.  And for a few moments nothing else mattered. It didn’t matter that I was here because I’d been waiting for another guy. It didn’t matter that my phone was cracked and being held on to by a stranger. None of my problems from the last few days mattered either. I couldn’t even remember where I stood. I felt like I could stare into his hypnotizing gaze forever and be content.

My heartbeat accelerated and my eyes widened. That warm feeling subdued a bit, but it lingered. I couldn’t get any words out, I couldn’t even think straight.

Who was this stranger? This was a man who had just captured me with a single look into my eyes. I’d be lying if I said it was love at first sight. Not exactly, it was more like…understanding the other person on a deep level, feeling a connection to this stranger who I’d known for less than five minutes.

The second his eyes were off me and roaming my body, I came back to my senses. That had been the strangest, yet best, feeling I’d ever experienced.

So standing there in the middle of a street by an old telephone booth waiting for a different guy to show up, I knew.

And I knew that he knew as well by the way he smiled at me.

I’d just found my soul mate.

So I did the only thing that came to my mind. I ran.