One less kiss

Love at first sight.

Betty:

Leaving work was always the worst time of day, especially when it was so cold and dark out. I had been working at a crappy job as pretty much everybody's personal assistant. Although, it was never tough, it was quite a small office building so I had been recruited to - the coffee maker. A dreary dead-end job for an aspiring magazine editor, which is what I was. Parking was always too tough at the office, especially when your job was so minimal, I managed to rack up two parking tickets in the space of four days, so from then on I had caught the train to work.

The train. A crammed commute with so many other people, it makes the journey seem endless. My phone had died on my way to the station after leaving work and I had found myself running for the train in order to get there on time. Fortunately, I had made it, with time to spare. The seats were taken and I had chosen to stand by the trains doors while I caught my breath. The carriages were filled with miserable workers, scowling at anything and everything around them. One man was trying to discretely jam his finger into his nose on one of the seats, which must have been hard considering his finger was probably five times too big to fit into his nostril. I laughed to myself as I saw the woman next to him look in the opposite direction with a look of complete disgust, suddenly, standing for the journey didn't seem so bad.

I saw a few flashes come from the side of my eye and I turned to see somebody with a camera, standing further back on the platform. I watched as he lowered his camera and his features came into light. A mop of deep black hair, a chiseled nose and jaw, I couldn't make out the colour of his eyes and I found myself wondering what it would be like to stare into them. Would they be dark and mysterious? Would they be a bright green colour similar to my own? Suddenly our eyes locked... neither of us tore away from the stares. His lips twitched into a smile and I had to force my lips to move to do it back. I couldn't think, my mind was twirling. I had never believed in love at first sight, that was until that very moment when even the simplest of actions, a smile, had turned my brain into complete mush.

I took in his appearance, a shirt, jeans and bag slung across his chest. A watched as he looked at me from head to toe and I cringed inwardly at the fact he was scouring every inch of me. The moment seemed to last forever and I suddenly wondered, what should I do? Should I wave? Should I consider getting off the train? What would he think if I did get off the train? My mind whirled and it came to an abrupt stop when I saw him place his camera in his bag and begin to walk towards me. I stood up straighter, preparing to stand in front of this man that I had suddenly decided was the man of my dreams when I heard the noise of the doors beginning to close. I panicked and turned around to click the open button. I clicked it repeatedly but it did nothing and the train began to move. I watched as the man came to a halt outside the door and I looked at him one last time before the train sped away.

Love at first sight - a ridiculous statement. At least that is what I had always believed. I always thought it was just the kind of thing that happened in movies, the typical romance. Yet my twisted stomach and mashed up brain had told me that I had just become a victim to love at first sight.