At a glance (Part 2)

He was stumped. Caught off guard, all his preparation down the drain. He sat down on a chair beside her, she turned away but continued eating. 

“Hey, I didn’t expect you to eat the sandwich, I had a whole speech prepared to convince you,” he said sniggering.

“Well, my dad always told me, never take your anger out on food. If you’re angry at someone, don’t look at them, don’t talk to them, throw a spoon at them, but the food has done nothing to you.”

“Okay so I guess now I know that you are mad at me…”

“Yes, I am angry at you.”

“Angry, yes angry. I am sorry, I didn’t mean to talk to you like that. I have never spoken to anyone like that actually, let alone a woman. But I was tensed about the situation and it just came out…”

“Whoa! It's okay. I didn’t need an apology, I forgave you as soon as you did that. I’m a grown up, I can understand situations. For a person this buff, you are so sentimental!”

She surprised him. Confounded him. Shocked him. 

“I have a heart too, and I apologized because you said you were angry.”

“Oh, so if I wouldn’t have said anything about being angry, you wouldn’t have apologized?”

“Probably not. I mean yeah I would’ve, maybe a couple of days in or something.”

“Sensitive and honest. How charming! Damn, now I feel bad! I should’ve said no to the sandwich and heard your whole speech. Will you say it anyway?”

“Ha ha, very funny.”

“No I am serious, I would like to see how you would’ve convinced me to eat this sandwich. C’mon, you did prepare it, lay it on me!”

“Well, I would’ve started by asking you to take the sandwich a couple of times. Then there was the stuff about how it wasn’t the food’s fault, I swear to God I thought of that before you told me about what your dad said. Then something about the hardworking café owner who arranged this stuff for you and finally if nothing would’ve worked, I would’ve used the old, eat if you want and walked right away.”

“Wow! I’m impressed! That's a mean effort you made there. But that’s the thing you know, I am the queen of the unexpected, you think you have me pegged, and BAM! I will surprise you.”

“I’m not going to argue with that.”

“Listen, you’re right beside my bag, could you please just hand the hair clip that I have on there, my hair is now starting to annoy me.”

As he looked at her while she tied her hair in a bun, fussing and mulling over each strand, he realized she was extremely pretty. She turned to pick up the remaining sandwich that she had placed on the table behind her and he noticed something…

“You have a tattoo, at the nape. That is an unusual place to get a tattoo, if you get it done wouldn’t you want to show it off?”

“No. I actually got it done when I got my first paycheck, a reminder of an achievement, a reminder of the fact that the best of both worlds was within reach, always. It was a while before I got here. It isn’t for anyone else, it is for me to remember how it felt earning that paycheque  It was one of the days when I was truly happy, doing something I loved and got rewarded for it. But a cheque wasn’t going to last that long, so I got this dream catcher with the amount and cheque number hidden somewhere in there,” she said with pride.

And then began a series of beautifully mundane conversations....