I wondered where this had gone to. Apparently it got dumped to "Draft" status for some reason. I would like to continue working on it though, so expect another installment at some point in the future.
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The first time I laid eyes on her, I knew I was done for. It wasn't that she was particularly beautiful, at least not the way you might think. She was kind of short, and her figure was not the type that you would see in a magazine, but she carried herself with a grace and poise that I hadn't ever seen before. It was amazing, the way she seemed to operate under complete control, while her eyes blazed with a fierceness and passion that showed a girl who saw what she wanted, and never had any trouble getting it. This was my first impression of Christina Rossi. Her first impression of me was nothing quite so remarkable. I had seen her come into the shop several times, and had seen the faces of every guy in the room change in an instant. One time I even saw Kevin, the assistant manager, leave a customer holding a case of printer paper and walk off mid-sentence to see what it was that she wanted.
Before I tell the story of the first time we met, you may want to know a little bit about me. I'm 25 years old and divorced. It's not like I meant to be a statistic. I fell in love, and thought that was the end of it. I wasn't one of those hopeless romantics thinking, "Love is all we need," or anything. I had a plan, and we were pretty well off. It had taken me a long time to fall in love with my ex, but once I was hooked, I was in it for the long haul. So obviously, I asked her to marry me, and she said yes. We never even made it to our first anniversary. She claimed she was too young to be married, and apparently found more excitement in sneaking around than in my arms. Five years later, I can shrug it off and say that it wasn't meant to be, but at the time I was devastated. I was never a big hit in the females 18-30 demographic in the first place, but this particular life experience certainly did not help. Anyway, back to my story.
It was a Thursday, which I usually liked to call "my Friday" since my schedule at work was somewhat non-traditional, and I had the next two days off. I was following my usual routine of kicking off my weekend with dinner for one at the diner. I had seen her as soon as I walked in, and had made a concerted effort not to stare. After all, she didn't even know I existed, and I certainly didn't want her first impression of me to be that of some creep staring at her from across an empty restaurant. I guess I was doing a good job, because I looked up from my plate and there she was, so close I could feel electricity in my hands, which now rested on the same table as her elbows, which were connected in turn to her hands, which now cupped her face, upon which those eyes danced with delight at my suddenly shaken state.
Her laugh was good natured, and did much to put me at ease as she said "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. It's Mark, right?"
I had no idea what to say. I think I may have stared with my mouth open.
"I'm Chris. Well, it's Christina, but most people don't take the time to say the whole thing. What does that say about society, anyway? It is Mark, isn't it? I'll be so embarrassed if it isn't, but then again, maybe you're the one who should be embarrassed for wearing the wrong name tag all the time."
"Oh. Of course." I looked down at my shirt where there usually sat a blue piece of plastic with "OfficeTech" engraved in white, and my name and title printed on a slip of paper that slid perfectly into a groove at the bottom. I looked back up as if I were about to say something, but as usual, I was struck with the realization that I had nothing to say that this girl might find remotely interesting. My best tactic was to open my mouth as little as possible.
"Well aren't you wondering why I'm sitting here? I'm being terribly presumptuous. I can leave if you want."
"What? No," I responded, just a little bit too quickly. Stupid move. Way to make things awkward, Mark. Deep breath. "Well, what are you doing over here? Not that I mind the company."
"I was supposed to meet someone. Do you know Kevin?" My heart sank, which made me realize it had even risen at all. "Well, he's been asking me out almost non-stop for weeks now, and I finally relented and told him I'd meet him at some bar across town. I'm hoping this place is far enough away that he won't find me."
Again, that laugh broke some kind of barrier I had been hiding behind, and made the whole atmosphere seem more comfortable. I even joined in for a few awkward chuckles. "I'm sure I'll hear about that on Tuesday."
"Are you gay?" she asked.
"What? No." Again, a little too quickly. "Why would you think that?"
"Well every time I come into OfficeTech to pick up some staples or paperclips or whatever, you're the only guy in the whole building that doesn't turn into some kind of pathetic little lapdog trying to help me. I'm not trying to be conceited, but I would have to be blind not to notice. In fact, you've never helped me even once. Why is that?"
"Oh, um, well I guess I'm just really busy. I mean, with everyone else distracted, Rachel and I have to cover the whole store by ourselves." Brilliant, way to make her feel like a jerk. This is not going well.
"Oh," she said sort of sheepishly. "I was hoping you were just shy."
"Well, yeah, that might have something to do with it too."
"Oh good then. So you'd be willing to take me out to dinner? You pick the restaurant, but no peanuts. I'm allergic. Here's my number. It's a cell phone, so if you're too shy to call," her eyes sparkled playfully at this, "you can just text me. How does Saturday night sound?"
"What? I mean, yeah, sure. I mean, wait, I work Sunday morning."
"Hey now Mr. Presumptuous, it's only dinner."
"Oh. Oh! No, I didn't mean--"
"I was giving you a hard time," she laughed. "We can do Friday. That's tomorrow though, so you better get your ass in gear and find a restaurant. Oh, and one other thing: I'm paying. Don't get used to it, but I just sprung this on you, and I don't want you to think I'm just in it for a free meal."
With that, she left. I was so thrown by the whole conversation that I was half way home when I realized I had walked out on my check. Lucky for me I was a regular, and had a good relationship with the staff, or they told me they would have called the police. I doubt there's much the police would do about a $15 check, but Gerry still managed to guilt me into a 30% tip. She was good at that sort of thing. I made it home a little while later and didn't even take my shoes off before I sat down at my laptop to research restaurants. I knew I was out of my league with this one, but I managed to take a little comfort in the fact that she had approached me. I spent the rest of the night trying to figure out why.
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