Close Encounter
by Liz Haigh
We met in
Starbucks. He was standing in the queue in front
of me. When the barista asked to take his order
he looked completely lost, he turned and asked me
what I was having.
“A tall
skinny cappuccino”
He ordered the
same and then insisted on paying for mine. We sat
down together at a small table by the window. He
didn’t speak at all at first and I started
to wonder why I’d even sat with him. He
glanced out of the window into the street, there
were mostly just people shopping and probably a
few office workers who, like me had finished
early as it was Friday afternoon. He then stopped
looking out of the window and stared down at his
mug of coffee, he looked at it for the longest
time till he eventually spoke.
“It looks
neither tall nor skinny”
We both
laughed. Then we talked and then we talked some
more. I must confess he was slightly odd looking
but there was something about him that was
endearing. He seemed to be genuinely interested
in me, he asked me lots and lots of questions and
then listened intently to the answers. How many
men out there actually do that?
As we got up
to leave he asked if I knew of any good hotels as
he needed to find somewhere to stay. I
didn’t, when you have lived in a city all
your life you never really get to know any of the
hotels. In the end I said he could stay on my
couch for a few days.
He actually
stayed for two weeks. We had the best time, we
went dancing, we went for long walks and had
picnics in the park. One day I drove us all the
way out to the beach. He loved the ocean, he was
in awe of it. He sat and stared at it for a long
time. When I suggested we went for a swim he
responded with such glee, he jumped up and ran
straight in, without removing any of his clothes.
It was only on
our last night together that I actually invited
him into my bed. What a night we had. I’m
not going to tell you exactly what happened but
suffice to say the experience was out of this
world.
He’s gone
home now. I don’t know when I will see him
again. As a parting gift he gave me a beautiful
glowing orb which I am holding now. He told me so
long as I remembered him the light would never go
out.
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