Finding {A} Love {Story}

Prologue

"Mom, tell me a bedtime story."

My tired mother turns around and looks at me from my doorframe. Her posture is slightly slumped and her eyes are drooping, proof that she has had a long day at work and only wants to go to bed. My bright brown eyes meet hers, and I slightly pout. I really want to hear a story, and I am all but begging for her to agree to it. My mom stares at my pleading face, and with a resigned sigh, she nods.

"Which one, munchkin?"

My smile is quick to appear once I hear those three magical words. All the stories she's ever told me fly through my head as I try to think of which one I want to hear.

"The one about when you met dad."

Even though she's exhausted, a loved-struck smile graces my mom's face at the mere idea of my father. Without even realizing it, she begins to fiddle with the silver band on her left hand, the small diamonds on it catching the light every so often.

"Alright, but this is going to be the only one and then you're going straight to bed."

I quickly nod and move over on my bed to make room for her to sit. She walks across the small room and climbs into bed with me, saying a quiet thanks as she does. I curl up against her side, smothering my face in her comforting figure. Her slim fingers begin to run through my uncontrollably curly hair, and her eyes gloss over as she replays the scene in her mind for the umpteenth time. The smile never once leaving her face.

"When I was 18 years old, I was working in an old photo shop. Now if you asked anyone, my job was simple: take people's rolls of  film and develop them into physical photos. Every now and then I would do a mini photoshoot, but that would be it. Well of course when you say it like that, it sounds boring and trivial, but I never saw it like that. To me, I was helping people develop their best memories into something they could hold on to for the rest of their lives. People were capturing the beauty of 'now' in order to remember it later, and I had to make sure that they had that. To me, it was an important job, and I was happy doing it. I would smile every day, and I always tried to remember every person's face because I wanted to actually notice the small change I was making.

Well one day I noticed a man walk into the store- and let me tell you, he was the definition of tall, dark, and handsome. Now seeing him there was not a strange sight since a lot of people would come in and out of the store, but this man was different because once he saw me at the counter he turned around and walked right out of the door.

Now at first I brushed it off. I figured he had went into the wrong store and only realized when he went in, but he came back an hour later. Again, he didn't say a word. He just looked at me, and then he walked right back out.

For the next week he would just come into the store at weird times throughout the day before promptly leaving. He would never say a word and as the week had progressed I started to notice a red tint to his cheeks everytime he would be leaving. After a week or so of his strange behavior I decided to figure out what his deal was. He walked into the store and I immediately left my client to talk to the man.

When the man saw me I fully expected him to run out, but instead he just froze. The light red tint on his cheeks getting much darker than they had ever been. I walked up to him and I just stared him down for a few second.

Now being the most passive aggressive person on this planet, I asked him, 'do you need any help because you keep coming in here but you've done less in this establishment than a typical fly'."

I giggle from my mother's side and she lets out a small laugh before continuing.

"Now at that point the man turned fully red, and began to stutter. He couldn't get a single full word out, and I was standing there the whole time pretending to still be somewhat upset even though I found his awkwardness hilarious. Finally he just sighed and  pulled out a small reel of film. I finally got the idea of what he wanted and so I asked him if he wanted the film developed. He nodded and I lead him to counter to give him a price for the service. While writing down his order, I asked him why it took a full week for him to come all the way in there. He cleared his throat before slowly saying, 'I'm s-sorry, m-m-ma'am. It's just th-that every t-time I came in h-here, I didn't know h-how I was going to be able to say a-anything without making a f-f-fool of myself in front of the beautiful l-lady.'