She Was Beautiful …

December 23 –

She was beautiful.  Not the young, prideful, narcissistic, manipulative kind of beauty that is only of the skin, but of something much deeper, soulful.  It emanates from the experience of life, of someone who has seen and experienced much, both joy and sorrow.

She walked in the bar and sat down a few stools away, placing herself in my line of vision.  It’s an upscale restaurant and bar, one that a woman would find easy to enter without any “assumptions” tagged on her. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She gazed around the room and when she turned my way again, I thought I saw the faintest hint of a smile cross her lips as she held my eyes a beat too long.  

 

I nodded to her. 

 

 

 

 

 

My friend returned from the rest room and he and I returned to our conversation, our usual “male bonding.”

She ordered from the bartender and soon after, she interjected herself into our conversation.  She was small, trim, about 5’ 4,” around 38 to 42, bright, funny, with a powerful laugh for such a small woman.

 

As I spoke with her, I thought I noticed an edge to her.  I was picking up signals, a lot of them . . . body movements, vocal intonations, eyes, everything.  “Would you like a drink?”  I asked.  “Yes I would, thank you.  A Cognac.” 

Soon, too soon, she ordered another.  Between them, between the laughter, and the banter, she would drift away to live some other experience.  When I would call her back, she would change into her public face but I saw it. 

“I like you, I want your number,” she said.  “Ah, but I don’t give my number out to a woman I’ve just met, unless she gives me hers.  You know, a fair trade kind of thing,” I said with a smile on my face, enjoying the role reversal and my wittiness. 

“Well, that’s not going to happen!” 

“Ok.”  I said, with a shrug of my shoulders, turning back to the conversation with my friend.  Soon, I heard another; “I want your number!” 

“I told you the conditions.”  “Ok, ok,” she said as she wrote on the napkin. As she slipped the napkin into my hand with a gentle squeeze, I noticed the wedding ring.

– Continued –