She has such beautiful eyes

I have had enough, I am going to pieces. Every time I sit down in a restaurant whether with family, friends or even strangers, I fall in love with the most engaging woman in the room. Something in me cries out and says, “Make eye contact with her, she is beautiful”. And so I do because she has eyes that laugh.

What mad gene or electrical impulse in my brain makes me do this? Perhaps the urge springs from loneliness? Perhaps it is me turning back time’s wind of change as it searches me out blowing in gusts to remind me that I am getting old. Regardless of that I cleverly follow the train of conversation around the table and I join in. You can’t keep me out because I want to talk directly to her. And so it is that the two of us are soon in a fierce discussion about politics, study, work and even children.

As each of the company cries out some bitter objection to what either of us is saying, I glance over to where she sits and find that she too is playing the game and smiles at me. And I notice her hands they are beautiful too. It is funny how much you can tell from a person’s hands. Then when that subject is exhausted at the table we alone continue talking together quieter now about nothing important; the future development on the road south or somebody we both knew at work years ago. Perhaps we are both hooked?

I am hopeless. She is probably half my age and her husband is there and he is interesting to talk to as well but regardless of that I still breathe in the scent of her. “Stop it” I tell myself. So I order another coffee and soon I hear the steam and hot water attacking the coffee grounds in the filter and before long the cup is placed before me. I stir the coffee pointlessly and wonder whether I dare look her way again. She has such beautiful eyes.