We met by chance. A slight collision of the shoulders. She looked at me and I cleared my throat, losing my words. Beautiful. Absolutely enticing.
"I, I'm so sorry" she looked down, I tried to catch her eyes. "Are you alright?"
I nodded, trying to muster up a response. "Are you?"
She smiled and nodded. I stuck my hand out. "Greg Porter." She adjusted her purse and began walking. I watched her take her steps, 5 before I ran after her.
"Coffee." I said. She looked at me confused, then looked down. "Please?" She looked back up at me and nodded.
"Great 'cause I know a really quaint place around here, Hot Mugs, and they're really good and cheap and hopefully you'll like them." I tried to catch my breath, looking everywhere but at her. I pointed down the street and we began walking.
When she walks, her hips contour up and down, her stout legs making quick movements forward. You would think with small legs she would walk at a slow pace, but I found myself racing to catch up at times.
Valerie Young. Born in 1973, four years after me. Auburn hair. Short. Ambitious. Only child. Motherless. Defensive. Journalist. Nosy.
If you look close enough, you can see small freckles splattering on her nose, leaking slightly onto her cheekbones.
She likes her coffee black with two packets of Splenda, and her bagel buttered with cream cheese on the side.
I ask her why she likes her coffee plain and black, she asks me why I like my bagel plain and butter-less.
I think about it, but eventually shrug. "Touché, Ms. Young. You've got me there."
She scrunches her nose. "Ms. Young," she repeats. "That sounds so old. I'm only twenty!"
Short, opinionated, Valerie Young. Twenty.
"Sorry," she nods, signaling me to continue on. "Touché, Valerie."
She claps her hands, slowly, then collectively. "Better."
I look at my watch. 3:30. I bite the inside of my mouth and look back up. "Cutting this short is not my intentions, but I have to get to work."
She looks at the clock on the wall. "Right, me too."
"When can I see you again?" I ask without hesitation. She smiles, a small toothless smile, her red lipstick smoothing out.
"Soon."
"How soon?" I asked, as she started getting up from the table.
She looked back and chuckles. "I guess you'll just have to come here every day to find out."
And so I did.
\\•••••//
The next day, I went to the coffee shop again. I ordered a small black coffee, and put two packets of Splenda in to see why she liked it. The steaming coffee burned my throat, and I put it on the table away from me.
I scanned the small venue before sitting at the same table we sat at the previous day. A half hour passed, then forty minutes, then, after minute fifty seven, Valerie shuffled inside.
Seeing me, she smiled a wide smile, flashing me her small white teeth. "How long have you been here for stranger?"
I looked at my watch. "Sixty one minutes." I looked back up and she looked surprised.
"You waited here for an hour?"
I nodded. "Today is soon."
She nodded excessively. "Soon is now." She paused. "Are you going to be running out on me again today?"
