One evening, while working from a coffee shop, I saw an amazing exchange.
Two people had been sitting on the couch together. They were both in their late 30’s, and had been sharing coffee and conversation on the couch. The whole thing seemed rather platonic to the casual observer. They seemed like old friends, or perhaps they had been in a relationship before and were just visiting. There was a very clear visible separation between the two of them–that distance that sits between two people who are not physically intimate with one another.
As I walked by and ordered my coffee, I glanced over for a moment, soaked in the details almost instantaneously, and moved on. It is a familiar coffee shop scene.
Later, I could not have expected what would happen. I was sitting by the door, and as they were leaving, I looked at them once more. She was tall, had an extremely fair complexion, and long, curly red hair. He was stout, almost stocky, and had shorter blond hair. By the way they walked, they both seemed shy. Not too shy, but enough to notice.
The two of them walked past me, and through the front door. And, at that moment, the most amazing thing happened–as he turned around to speak with her a chat their goodbyes, she stumbled over her foot and suddenly found her face within inches of his–and he reached out, almost instinctually, and kissed her.
Her hands flew from her sides, and wrapped around his shoulders as quickly as he had reacted, and suddenly, the two of them were wrapped in a full-force, entire body kiss. It is one of those rare first kisses where the universe fell away from them and the only things left were his lips and hers.
Right there, in the doorway, his hands traveled the length of her body–stopping at a respectful depth of her back, but far enough down to tell us that he had thought about holding her before. And, right there, only a few feet in front of the doorway, they kissed for three or four minutes.
Perhaps a passing patron triggered their awareness of where they were, but they stopped kissing for a moment. Red faced, they looked around and back into the coffee shop, and then decided to move to the adjacent alley–they weren’t done yet. The 6’1″ red headed woman in her mid-thirties literally skipped into the alley with her boy in tow.
I continued with my work, but everyone within eyesight, including myself, was grinning. There were two giddy adults acting as if they had just kissed behind the backstop for the first time.
After about 20 minutes, they came out of the alley. He walked her to her car, they kissed one more time, and he pushed the door closed and waved as she drove off. He turned and started to walk to his own car and presumably home for the evening. In order to do so, he had to walk past the front windows of the coffee shop . . . and his face told a tale that I love to hear.
His smile was almost larger than his face could contain. He looked blankly–almost bewildered with excitement. He looked as if he could shout or jump or climb anything. He looked like he was pleased with his life in a way that he had never been. He was going to sleep tonight with that smile, and wake with it in the morning, and walk with it all day for a week–at least.
Good luck to you two? I hope you find love in the world–an uncomplicated, sweet love that brings that smile back to your face every time you hear her or his name. I hope that your grandkids chuckle when every time you tell that story.
And, to all you readers: I hope you have an experience like that . . . at least once in your life . . . if you haven’t already.