An older couple are sitting at the row of tables across from me in the food court. My guess puts them in their mid-to-late 60s. I notice him looking at her like she is the center of the Universe itself as they talk and giggle with one another. I begin to (surreptitiously, I hope) watch them in earnest. She opens a food item: something is wrong with it. Faster than I believe his old bones of moving, he puts down his food he was about to take a bite of, leaps up, and whisks it away from her, planting a kiss on her head and whispering something in her ear that makes her smile in a gentle, knowing way. As he walks away, she & I make eye contact. Head-on, she is stunning. Beautiful in the way only a woman who has lived through beauty and pain can be. Her eyes, surrounded by crows feet, shine with lessons taken to heart and serene joy. Her mouth seems to be ready to smile softly at any moment. I ask her with a smile of my own how long theyve been married. She gives a little laugh, shakes her head, and delicately wiping her mouth with a paper napkin, tells me, were not. She assumes a rueful, almost guilty, expression, and goes on. We were going to five years ago, but I chickened out. My eyebrows shoot up, quizzing her. She glances aside, breaking our eye contact. He was cheating on his wife with me, and we fell in love. He left her for me, she re-established our shared gaze, but I felt too guilty. Even told him to go away for a while. How longs a while? She shows me that smile again, the peaceful, knowing one, and opens her mouth to tell me. It is then he returns, corrected food item in hand. Before laying the prize in front of her, though, he puts his free arm around her and gives a squeeze as bends over to once again kiss her head. I can see him breathing in her scent, smiling, as he does so. She accepts regally, as though this is her due, reaching behind herself to wrap her arm around him, closing her eyes ... with that smile. He speaks to both of us as he puts her food in front of her, Are you telling her all of our secrets? She and I quickly look back to one another. Busted. Holding my gaze, she says with a giant smile, Only the important ones.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 16:40:33 +0000
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