The Girl in the Coffee Shop
What is the worst thing that can happen? - 📖 ONE-MINUTE FLASH FICTION
He hadn’t seen her for a couple of days. Tuesday was the last time. But now, here she was back again. She ordered coffee and peach pie, and sat at the table framed in the front window, like she was posing for an Edward Hopper painting.
He likes to watch her, but she never notices him. They’ve been here in this same coffee shop so many times, but he has never once spoken to her. Why can’t I just smile at her? Or say hello? What is wrong with me? She is just a girl.
But no, she is not just a girl. There is something unusual about her. He studies her carefully, like observing a foreign species, a rare plant. Not in a creepy way or anything, he just likes the look of her, that’s all. Her clothes are very quiet; her jacket is brown like a walnut, her skirt, the dark blue of a night sky. Short boots, wooly socks pulled up. She takes off her knitted cap, and runs her fingers through her hair — hair that is sort of chopped off at an angle, like a soft whisk broom against her cheek.
But — and this is the odd thing, he’s never seen her with a cell phone in her hand. She never has a laptop in front of her. Sometimes she’ll read a book for a few minutes — he has seen her cozied up with Hemingway and Dickinson. But mostly she just sits quietly over her coffee, looking like she has ideas, maybe, like she is thinking about something funny or planning something clever. She seems comfortable just being alone with herself and thinking about stuff. She is different.
He would like to stand up and walk over to her table and introduce himself. Hi. My name is Jeremy. I see you in here a lot. How hard could that be? What is the worst thing that could happen? He’d do it right now if he had any idea of what to say that might impress her. He imagines how cool it would be to walk out the door with her beside him, the feel of her hand in his.
He gets up and goes to refill his cup at the counter. When he returns, she is standing at his table. “Hi,” she says, “my name is Lucy. I see you in here a lot. Mind if I sit down?”
I'm sure he appreciated Your gift. I've had several men delighted that, reading their interest, I took the first step. And, they were great experiences.
Lovely! I was hoping it would happen this way! I just don't wait anymore for the guy, etiquette I was fiercely brought up with -- not to be so brazen, "Young Lady". I'm not brazen, and I am bold when it comes to meeting someone I think I'll really like. We could say, for young women today who hold onto these traditions, this is a revolutionary piece, Sharron, the Daring! Thank You!