Forty-Four.
LUKE'S POINT OF VIEW
It was a chilly late-winter, early-spring night. One of those where the weather couldn't decide between the two seasons, so it combined frosty temperatures with pouring rain instead of clear blue skies and perfect white snowflakes. I was sitting alone in a corner, at a table for two, in a restaurant that wasn't famous per say, but well known enough to keep afloat. I think the reason it never became more popular was because most the people who went here were like me - loved it, but too much to share with friends. It was my own, in a way, because I could come here and be alone - but be perfectly content. Or not so content, and then no one would find me at least. It was good. There were a few small tables inside, and another couple outside, at the back. The garden wasn't beautiful, but the owners had done all they could to make it tolerable, almost nice even. But it wasn't undercover. So on nights like this one, the tables and chairs from outside were stacked in a back corner of the room, and the door was shut tight. For some reason the place was bursting at the seams tonight, I don't think I've ever seen that many people there.
My mind was elsewhere though. It was with Dad, and how edgy he was lately. How we were always fighting, how always came home late - agitated, and sometimes drunk. It didn't make sense to me. He was such a smart man, and he'd always been amazing with money. He was one of the better known financial advisors around the place, and with his monthly pay-cheques, I really didn't see what was getting to him so much lately. A woman, maybe. But I'd never seen him with anyone in my entire life. My mother left just after I was born, but I never even knew her so it never affected me much. People expected me to want to know her, to grow up and somehow find her one day. But to this day, I've never had the urge. Dad didn't really talk about her, and I didn't care enough to ask, to be honest. Dad seemed happy enough on his own, and I doubted that a woman was the cause of his recent behaviour. I absent-mindedly cracked my fortune cookie. Two neat halves, just like I'd done since I was a little kid. My love for Chinese food was something I'd developed at a very early age - courtesy of Dad's love of it, his time constraints, and his inability to cook. That was the other thing I learnt to do at a very early age - cooking. While I didn't miss the mother I never knew, I'd go to friends' houses, and their Mums would cook proper meals for dinner, and bake muffins and cookies for bake sales; and I'd miss all that when I returned home.
So I taught myself to cook. Dad never minded, he was happy to see me find something to do - it made him feel less guilty for spending so much time with his work. When I finished school, and told him I wanted to become a chef - or, at least, take some time off to work in a restaurant - he was furious. Said I was wasting my life, said I had too much potential, and that cooking was going to get me nowhere. But he wasn't going to fight me. He wasn't like that. He never failed to let me know he didn't approve, but he gave me money when I needed it, and he let me make my own choices.
After eating the cookie (I was one of those few people who actually liked the things), I unfolded the piece of paper.
"At this very moment, you can change the rest of your life." I read quietly to myself.
"Excuse me?" Your voice, while loud to battle the noise of too many people in too little space, was careful.
I looked up.
"Could I sit here?" You motioned to the empty seat opposite me. "There aren't any other tables..."
"Yeah, sure, go for it."
I watched you sit down. I'd finished my food, and I was considering leaving. There were too many people here, and I needed some peace and quiet. I needed to think. Well no, I didn't really. I didn't even want to think. But I needed time to just be. That was usually why I came here, but there were too many people here tonight. It was hot, stuffy, and crowded.
You took your scarf off, and let your semi-wet hair fall over your right shoulder. A big blue chunk caught my attention. As the words of the fortune cookie remained in the forefront of my mind, a little voice repeating them over and over again like some chant, I felt inexplicably drawn to you. No, I wasn't going to leave, I decided. Not just yet. I was captivated by those big green eyes, the way your hands moved so swiftly to eat anything with chopsticks with such ease, like it was nothing, when it took me years to only drop every second bit of food with them. I wanted to talk to you. I would talk to you, I told myself. But what to say?
You looked too perfect to be disturbed, too divine to... Stop that, I mentally slapped myself. You don't even know this girl. You're just lonely and upset and it's rainy and cold outside. Leave the poor girl out of it. You will not say anything, and you will leave now. My body was fighting my mind. You will leave now, I told myself. Oh, but I wanted to talk to you. How do you talk to a stranger, when you've spent the past ten minutes in an absolute trance, rapt by beauty in such a simple sight, how -
"I'm Luke." I blurted out.
Nice one, the voice in my head remarked sarcastically. You looked up, seemingly confused. Oh god, what had I done? This was all so silly. I was never awestruck by girls, especially not when I hadn't even talked to them. Especially not when they wore an oversized NYC hoodie on top of skinny jeans and converse sneakers. Especially not when the wet bits of their hair began to curl dramatically, creating a strange contrast to the bits that had escaped the rain and remained straight. Especially not when amidst the long, lush, thick dark hair, there was a bright blue part. Especially not when those big green eyes were so honest, that I could see right through them to the troubled mind they tried so desperately to hide. I didn't need that, I really, really didn't. Yet I couldn't take my eyes off of you. This didn't happen with girls, for God's sake. Especially not when the girl showed no interest in me. I bit my lip. This was terrible.
But then you smiled. You smiled a smile I found impossible to resist, and I was suddenly glad I'd spoken.
"Bec."
I relaxed. This wasn't too bad after all. You didn't judge. Probably because you hadn't seen or heard what had been going on in my mind over the last quarter of an hour or so. Thankfully.
Conversation was easy from then on. We were still there long after you finished your food, and the restaurant began to empty. We ended up being kicked out because it was closing time. I walked you home. More accurately, we ran through the rain like lunatics because it was freezing cold and neither of us had an umbrella. We hugged goodbye at your doorstep, and agreed to see each other again a few days later. I still saw something resembling trouble and pain in your eyes, but it was overshadowed by the way you glowed when you smiled. This entire night I'd wanted nothing more than to just hold your hand, touch your face, and kiss your lips. When I hugged you, I never wanted to let go.
As I walked slowly down the street, I couldn't even feel the rain anymore, I smiled and realised the fortune cookie was right - the rest of my life changed tonight.
