In the beginning, there was a girl.
She liked to read and listen to music. She was pretty, but not in the “I can bat my eyelashes like a doll” kind of way, she was truly pretty, the kind of pretty that matters…from the inside out.
She was the kind of girl who could talk about everything from football to politics…she had her opinions, but was gracious enough to bow to superior argument.
She went out one Friday night. Movie night with the girls and it was supposed to be fun! Heck, it was fun especially because they went out dancing afterwards, the girls were always fun.
While she was dancing, she felt someone watching her… She was used to this kind of attention, so she thought nothing of it. She looked at him, gave him a smile – bold but not flirty. She kept dancing.
Eventually, she went home and went straight to bed – it had been an eventful week and she was knackered!
Two weeks after, she went to her favorite restaurant/reading spot to try to get herself to finish a book. She did that sometimes, not to draw attention to herself, in fact, she had a hidden corner of the restaurant to herself…it was clear, she wanted no disturbance.
But again, she felt eyes on her, she looked up. It was the same guy from the dance floor two weeks ago. She remembered because his smile was nice and his face was cute. He also had a book and was alone. She smiled, he smiled too.
Years passed, plenty of unrequited love and plenty of unreciprocated gifts from plenty of men. She wasn’t mean, she really wasn’t, she just hadn’t felt any connection. Try as she might to explain to those who asked, she couldn’t explain it beyond “I just don’t feel the same way”.
She started giving excuses when her girls called her up for hangouts, all she really wanted to do was be alone with a book and her music. She was no longer excited by a night of drinks and dancing…it had lost its appeal.
She got older and started to do what people do as they grow older – think back and tick boxes of regret. Could it be that the men she didn’t feel a connection to needed more time for the friendship to develop to the love level? Maybe her standards were a tad too high, would it hurt to lower them just a little?
Could it be that there really is no such thing as “the one” and should she grab the next man who says hi and settle down, after all it’s about stability and a good home for the kids, yes?
Oh, don’t get her wrong, she wasn’t ungrateful, she had family and friends that loved and cared for her…a very good “support system”, but sometimes her support systems were busy being support systems to others – their own husbands or their own children. She needed her own, a support system she could brand and lay claim to.
One day, a substantial amount of time after she first felt the eyes on her on the dance floor, she bumped into Mr. Nice-Smile-Cute-Face again. This time at a flower shop, both came for flowers, but for different purposes – he for his mum’s birthday and she for her friend’s wedding bouquet.
This time, for the first time, they spoke. Their first words. “I remember you”, he said. “I remember you too” said she.
In the end, there was a girl…but she was no longer alone.
– youRSrandomlY