She didn't look his way at first.  

 

Later,  of course, he wondered about that and considered that he must have been wrong.    

She started the conversation that afternoon after all, standing in the line between several food trucks on a Friday afternoon.  It was a warm spring day and they were two of several dozen semi-random single people sprawled out in uneven lines.   Most of them staring at their phones, or trying to get the attention of their group who were either comparing menu items,  getting some beer or finding a place to sit.

She started it,  he was sure about that.   She asked him an innocent question about condiments.   Which lead to her ideas about Real vs. Fake foods and the entire good vs. bad regarding the restaurant industry.   It was mostly a monologue about herself,  but he found himself mostly nodding his head while trying not to stare at her bare shoulders and the bare space on the fingers of her left hand.    This girl could talk.    Yes she could.  

At some point she touched his arm, to make a point he thought.   She was trying to get his undivided attention, not knowing, of course that she already had that.  She seemed to be getting at Something Important, but he had moved past curiousity into a whole different place.  He wanted to know Her.    He didn't just want to hear her thoughts on Genetically modified anything.   He wanted to know where she worked and how she spent her free time and where she went to exercise.  He wanted to know the Important stuff.  

 

He stopped moving his head in the standard  Give feedback -smile and nod head style.   He squared his shoulders and tried to see if an intense stare might slow down her stream of consciousness.   It took a moment, but it worked.

 

What, she asked-  pulling her bangs away from her face tilting her head to one side, away from the late afternoon sun.  

What does that look mean? 

 

It means I want to know you, it means I'm curious.   

 

Ok, she said, slowly,  choosing her words carefully.  Ok, Then what happens?

 

I don't know

 

 I don't know is what he said.   She could have walked away, she could have cursed him out.  What she did instead was gave him a small blush and big smile.

That's how it started. 

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.