Serendipity

 

 

So there's this guy.  I don't know his name, but I've seen him around the community.  I was instantly attracted to him, so of course I kept my distance.  He has dark hair - shorter than I typically like, but his perpetual five o’clock shadow made up for it.  It was his smile, though, that really killed me.  I couldn’t even think coherently when I looked at him, and I couldn’t imagine trying to talk to him.  So yeah, I avoided him like the plague.  It wasn’t too difficult, really, as I never once saw him looking in my direction.  It’s not like I was constantly looking for him or watching him, but I needed to know where he was in order to avoid him, right?  Observe and avoid – it was my go-to M.O. and has always served my heart well.  

 

I never mentioned my interest in him to my friends, and they never indicated that he was on their radar. eH  He was, from all outward appearances, just another face in the crowd. 

 

One day, a large group of us were going on a weekend road trip.  There was a Renaissance Faire about five hours away, and I had never been to one.  It was a multi-vehicle caravan and I didn’t personally know everyone who was going.  I did know who wasn’t going, though, as I hadn’t seen him around in a few weeks.  It’s not like I was constantly obsessing over him, I just casually noticed when he wasn’t around.  At least, that’s what I told myself I was doing.  Anyway, aside from noticing he wasn’t there it wasn’t something I was dwelling over because – road trip.  There’s something carefree about driving down county roads with your friends that has you just living in the present, and that’s what I was doing that afternoon. 

 

A couple hours down the Sentinola Highway we were about half-way into our trip and wanting snacks.  We stopped at a gas station in the next town, though it wasn’t really a town - more like one of those pit stops in the middle of nowhere that just has a couple gas stations and fast-food places.  I was perusing the junk food aisle, trying to figure out what I was in the mood for.  I heard my friend come up next to me, and I turned to ask her what she was getting.  Except, it wasn’t my friend.  And I had suddenly forgotten what words were.

 

“Hey,” he said as he looked at me and smiled.  Shit.  Where the hell did he come from?  Also, where did all the air go?  I couldn’t breathe and felt like my body temperature was pushing two hundred degrees.  Neither of us spoke for hours. Or probably it was only a few seconds.  “Looking for anything in particular?” he finally asked.

 

I just gestured toward the shelves and said “road trip food.”  I groaned inwardly as I said it.  My first words to him were neither witty or charming.  They were bad.  Maybe not as bad as “I carried a watermelon” but definitely on par.  I wished I was invisible in that moment, but I was acutely aware that he wasn’t looking through me, but intently at me.  And while I was pretty sure he couldn’t read my mind, I have no doubt he read my body language.

 

“I think milady is interested,” he observed, sounding a little amused.

 

‘Milady?’  I thought to myself.  Who says that nowadays?  Oh, duh. The Faire – he was probably going too.

 

“No,” I replied, trying to regain my composure.  “You just caught me by surprise.”

 

“Then I shall endeavor to catch you by surprise more often” he said with a grand bow.

 

I wasn’t sure if that was the corniest thing I’d ever heard and seen, or the most romantic.  But I realized my go-to M.O. was in serious jeopardy.  He was so damn charming.  Confident, but not cocky.  Irresistible, but not – I was abruptly pulled out of my reverie as he broke eye contact and turned to look to the front of the store.

 

“I’m coming!” he called out to his friend.  Apparently, we weren’t the only two people in the store, and his friends were waiting on him at the register.  He turned back to look at me briefly, then grabbed a box of chocolate off the shelf. 

 

“Here, this one’s pretty good,” he said as he handed it to me.  Then he winked and walked up to join his friends.  I watched him walk out of the store before looking down into my hand at the box he had given me.  I literally felt my breath catch when I saw the name of the chocolate company – Serendipty.  Seriously??  I looked back toward the empty front door.  All I could think was ‘Damn!  Why’d you have to go and make me like you?’

 

I still don’t know his name.

 

  

© Dahlia Ramone: June 10, 2017

 

 

 

 

This was written for Blogophilia Week 15.10

Topic: Country Roads

 

Bonus Prompts:

Hard (2 pts): Use a line from a Gwen Stefani or No Doubt song *

Easy (1 pt): Include the word “serendipity” (last paragraph)

 

*  Why’d you have to go and make me like you? (from “Make Me Like You”)

(last paragraph).

 

Side note:  This was inspired from a dream.  In the dream, I was part of an outdoor community (kind of like a hippy commune or something, that part was kind of vague).  I did travel on a road called the Sentinola Highway (not a real highway, I looked it up afterward).  There was a guy I was attracted to, but knew nothing about.  I ran into him in a convenience store, and we had the exchange about him ‘endeavoring to catch me by surprise more often.’  Shortly after that, I woke up.  I wish there was a way to go back to sleep and continue dreams, I wasn’t ready for that one to end ;)