Pup & Ben, Part 2

A week or so later Katie was back. I hadn't expected to see her, so it was quite a great surprise to see her smiling, bright face peering over the register at me. I was behind the counter, kneeling down and probably looking for something obscure like envelopes for gift cards, or packets of honey, or sandwich bags. Or I was cleaning the floor or something else. At any rate, I heard her voice, and looked up so see her smiling down at me, saying, "I just wanted to thank you more properly for bringing me that drink last week..." I smiled back, dropped a line to the effect of, "Has anyone ever told you you have a beautiful smile?", and stood up.

She was eye-to-eye with me.

Maybe I confessed my surprise by saying something like, "Wow, you're tall!" (As opposed to to the slightly more premeditated compliment I'd given her just a moment before.)

I don't recall asking, but she did go on to explain that she'd been engaged in a very intense discussion--she'd been breaking up with her boyfriend, and couldn't really spare attention for anything else. Now, I'm not the subtlest guy on earth. In fact, I'm pretty obtuse and careless at times. But I could understand this much: a beautiful woman was smiling at me and talking about her her ex-boyfriend.

Some small part of me wanted to react with an "awwww, that's too bad," kind of sympathy, but let's be real here. I cheered inside when she said that. I knew it was only a matter of time when we'd at least go on a date--at least that much.

She actually ordered a drink this time, sat down at the same table, with her white Macintosh, and set herself back to work. The shop was busier than the week before, so I didn't have an opportunity to go bug her again, so she simply left later with a friendly wave goodbye. I hadn't wanted to press too hard by asking her out that same day, but my mind was made up: I would meet her again and get that date.