Lunchtime Love

She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Some kind of heavenly orchestra played in his ear. Together they would start a love story bigger than the world. In his head the deep voice narrated the lines and the echoing music began the soundtrack. His heart warmed as the blood rushed through his valves increasingly oxygenated by his engrossing gulps of breath. Of course he imagined these exact lines in his head and listened to the air whistle through his nostrils. He lived his life to that invisible film reel. He imagined the camera panning from his soft curled hair to the edge of his nostril which flared from the scent of the beauties perfume. Panned to his eyes dilated and fixed. His muse looked over her curved shoulder through her crystal green eyes to smile at the obvious stare. Always in the same corner, they were old friends who had never met. The girl always seemed sad and ill at ease with the world. He imagined a battered tortured soul under that top knotted hair and porcelain skin. A Slight frame held the weight of the girls own oppression. She licked her pink lips as she turned from his gaze. He lifted his pen and continued to write on the warm yellow pad with coffee trimmed edges.

He laid his head sideways on the pad and stared in her direction. He stared at her through the gap between the milk jug and the sugar dispenser. Both objects acted as blinkers on a horse, cutting out the view around her magnificence. Then she turned again holding a rough sketch of an eye on a stained napkin. She grabbed her worn brown leather bag and left the café. Curly haired boy threw some money on the table and grabbed the napkin as he passed her table. ‘I see you too’ was written under the sketch. He sprung from the café on his worn converse and glanced up and down the crowded street. This was the scene in the movie when he finally could talk to her if he could find her. He saw her turn into Union Square and hop on the tram. Running under the hot sun he ran for the tram as it threatened to start up the hill. She reached down and grabbed his arm gesturing him to climb aboard. His dark skin glistened with the sheen of sweat from the run and his brown eyes met hers. They embraced each other’s gaze as he caught his breath.

He wanted to touch the face of this stranger and cup the heart shape in his hand. Her teeth bit her bottom lip as she stared at the sun and squinted in its response. He stared also as if there was something he was supposed to see. She looked at him and smiled weakly, briefly flashing her enticing teeth. He had no idea as to how teeth could be enticing but somehow every scrap of his being wanted every scrap of hers. The camera panned to his eyes then hers with slices of bright sunlight casting shapes on faces. His arm pressed against hers as they clung to the side of the tram. The tram groaned up the hill. “Feels like it could die at any moment” said the pretty one “but it will keep going because that’s what it does”. She stepped from the tram as it stopped. He jumped down and stood beside her. She took a notepad from her bag , tore a page out and scribbled on the piece of paper. She folded it and passed the precious cargo to its eager recipient. Gazing at the sun again she turned and left him and the staring brown eyes. Her gold pumps scuffed the ground as she walked away. He watched as she walked across the park her body swaying with each step. He opened the piece of paper and saw the digits and a message: I always knew there was another sun. He grasped the paper and smelt it for any remnants of the authors incredible scent. Rubbed his finger along the flow of her handwriting.