Handsome Stranger

The sun was beating down on the small street where busy shoppers moved from store to store. Bags were clasped in both of their hands as they glanced at the nicely designed store fronts. Children put their greasy hands on the pristine glass leaving smudged finger prints as their mother’s took them by the wrist and pulled them into the stores. The fathers and husbands trudged behind their wives as they were handed more bags to carry. The men’s gazes drifted away from the pair of shoes that were being examined on to the small coffee shop at the end of the street. Longingly the men heeded to the call of a cup of coffee and a donuts. As the shoppers made their way down the street and closer to the coffee shop the men began drifting away from their families and followed the scent of freshly brewed coffee.

As the men approached the coffee shop they were overwhelmed by the amount of people gathered outside. Like bees buzzing around their hive there were swarms of students all with their notebooks and laptops. They chatted away about their assignments or the latest gossip around campus. Sitting under the shade of a large maple tree Molly and her two roommates gathered around a cast iron table. Each with their own iced coffees and lightly toasted bagels they sat pouring over their computers. Their eyes locked on the screens in front of them as they scrolled through Facebook and updated their statuses. Without even taking her eyes off of the screen Molly reached for her drink. Out of the corner of her eye something caught her attention as she put her drink back down on the table. Molly glanced over to notice the shadow of someone who must have been standing a few feet away. Condensation had built up on her cup causing her hand to be wet after she put the cup back down. As she wiped her hand on her jeans she curiously eyed the person whose shadow had been cast in front of her.

Working her way up the person’s body Molly examined the person’s muddy work boots and neatly fitting jeans. Considering the cleanliness of the person’s shoes and the fact that their jeans were neither tight nor were they lose Molly could assume that the person was a middle aged man. Immediately her gaze jumped up to the man’s face. Starting with the man’s mid-length hair cut her eyes worked their way passed the man’s facial features. Glancing first at the scruff that formed around his mouth and jaw then she looked back at his dark bushy eyebrows being the most dominate feature on his face, for they cast a light shadow over his slightly sunken in ocean blue eyes.

In that moment the man turned his head ever so slightly causing his gaze to wander a bit until it landed on Molly. Frozen they both remained in a trance like state with their gazes locked on one another while everything around them seemed to fade into a far away, blurry, haze. Molly caught her breath as her cheeks began to glow red with embarrassment. Cautiously she lifted her chin and moved so that she would be sitting up straighter. With their gazes still fixated on each other the corners of the man’s mouth turned up. Not enough to form a smile but just enough to express his acknowledgement and pleasure. Before the man followed behind two men who had just exited the coffee shop he tipped his head to Molly. Both of their gazes were glued to one another until the man turned the corner and mad his way back to where ever he came from.

“Molly, what are you staring at?” One of her roommates looked up at Molly and saw her staring at the now empty street corner.

“Nothing, it was nothing.” Molly replied as she tore her eyes away from the corner.

Without another word the girls all went back to their computers and continued to revel in the dramatic stories of their peers. The day was spent just like any other, and not once did Molly bring up the man or their encounter. Despite the fact that all she did for the rest of the day was dwell on her thoughts of the man, Molly kept her thoughts to herself. Something about the encounter did not feel right. As if it was not right for her to have had that exchange with the stranger. When Molly imagined her roommates’ reactions it gave her an uneasy feeling. Knowing they would most likely turn their noses up at her and ban the conversation from being brought up again Molly suppressed her curious thoughts and the impulse to share with her friends.

A week had passed since Molly’s encounter with the man but her thoughts of him had no lessened. During her classes she sat in the back corner of a dimly lit room and watched as the professor pointed to facts that were displayed on a Powerpoint slide. Automatically she copied down all of the information the professor threw out to the class but even though her pen moved a crossed the clean paper Molly was completely unaware of what she was writing.