Solivagant Strangers

Benedict: Coffee Shop Adventures

        Ben stared through the café window, riveted to the spot by what he saw. Never had he been so captivated by hair that seemed to hold all the dawning sunrises in its ringlets. He wanted to reach out and stroke each strand so delicately that the beholder of this gorgeous hair would cry with the tender trace of his fingers. He wanted to run his hands through the thickness and savor in that moment endlessly. His eyes traveled down to her curves and he felt a small flush creep up his neck. She was real, this girl. She was not some stick-thin fantasy at three in the morning and she was not something that looked starved. She had flesh upon her bones and it was fascinating.

        So lost in his moment he didn’t realize that the girl had turned and was enchanting him with her gaze. God, every single detail, every single fiber of her being was flawless. Ben wanted to paint her with words that would stay in his mind incessantly depicting her image. He knew that he was ogling, pilfering looks at what was not his, but he couldn’t help himself. He was enthralled by her in every damn way possible.  Sunsets and sunrises were piled on top of her exquisitely sculpted neck, elegant with every turn of her head. Lips that looked so succulent and rosy and soft as a feather. Eyes that pierced the soul with every shade of green painted into the spectrum. Her eyes were a forest filled with life and desire

        She raised one fiery eyebrow, a look of curiosity shooting across her features then turning to annoyance seconds later. Crossing her arms she glided to the door leading outside.  She walked up to Ben confidently. She had to be a head shorter but there was a fervor in her eyes. The forest was burning and the fuel was Ben’s stare. “Do you have a problem with how I look?” She asked thoroughly exasperated.

        He was at a loss for words. He struggled to make his mouth open, to push out incoherent sounds like a small child. He squirmed under her death defying glower and choked out, “No, you’re just beautiful,” the same time she snapped, “I won’t steal your soul. I’m not that type of redhead, you know.”

        She blushed and Ben chuckled. “I didn’t think you were going to steal my soul. I was just, I don’t know…mesmerized by you.”

        Her eyes widened. Something almost happy mixed with the anger that danced in her woodland eyes. “You know, that is probably the sweetest and most creepy thing someone has every said to me.” She sighed with a confused look upon her face.

        Ben looked down at her flushed cheeks and laughed. Loud and boisterous, a full head-thrown back laugh that went all the way down to his toes. “Goodness, you’re beautiful. You deserve to be told that every day.”

        Her lips quirked up into the smallest of smiles and her insanely long lashes brushed her cheeks. She was embarrassed by his kind words. Ben wanted to beat every single person who had ever made her feel undesirable, had ever made her so weary to a strangers compliments. He wanted to bellow unforgiving lyrics at them from the rooftops and throw eggs at their houses, he had never felt such an urge for violence in his short life.

        “I mean what I say. I’ve never seen a human being as lovely as you.” He whispered to her through the dull roar of the British city.

        “I’m not lovely by any means but, you are generous. Sweet, even. Thank you.” She ducked her head, yet again embarrassed. Gone was the fiery urge that lurked in her eyes seconds ago. She was folding into herself, building walls to protect what little she seemed to have.

        “No, I’m honest. I was never made out to be a kind man.” Ben shoved the words at her, attempting to bulldoze the rapidly rising wall in her mind. She was immaculately beautiful and intelligent it would seem. Ben wanted to know her, to really, really know who she was inside and out. He wanted to know whether she preferred sun or rain. If she loved orchids or roses or neither. He wanted to know what song she would sing in the shower and what book could move her to tears with a single thought. She was as mysterious as the wavy ocean and Ben wanted to study her never-ending depths.