From far away

At one of my recent art exhibitions, there was a man who came to the opening of the show. After he had been there sometime looking at my art work, he approached me and asked typical questions of the art, which is to be expected. The he asks me, "Where is a good place to go for lunch?" "There is a really good soul food place in town that is fairly new; they have good food." I replied, trying to be helpful. Then he asked me, "Do you like it?" I shrugged my shoulders and said, "yeah, I have eaten there before." Quickly he responds, "Then what day would you like to go with me?" Uh, that was a surprise, nicely done though. He sort of came in on the blind side there. A not so bashful smile made an appearance on my face and just above it, my mind was now beginning to wonder, 'How does my hair look?'

"Um, I don't know." I stammered with my words and on my feet as I almost tripped on the half wall I was standing next to. "How about Tuesday?" He asked. "Tuesday? I have to work Tuesday. What about Friday?" I inquired. He looked down at his shoes for a minute. He had nice shoes too. Then he looked at me and said, I will be leaving on Wednesday, I am not from here and I go back home." I admire the bold action of a man to ask a woman out for lunch even though he isn't from there. With a half smile, I said to him, "Sorry it won't work out but thank you for asking." Then it was like a light bulb went off in his mind. "I will bring you lunch at work! You get a lunch break don't you?" Awww, he is so sweet!

I smiled and shook my head in agreement, "Yes, I do get a lunch break at work but time is limited, it is a short break." "That's okay." he said. Then looked for a piece of paper and asked me to write down the directions to my work. As I started doing so, I stopped and asked him, "You're not a stalker are you?" As soon as I said those words, I realized how stupid it was to ask. Like he would just come out and say, "yeah, I am a stalker." He just smiled and softly said, "no'.

Tuesday, I was surprised that he did show up at my work, with lunch. With lunch!? Wow, I finally meet a spontaneous nice guy who seems sweet and thoughtful and he is from out of town. While pondering this, I asked him another stupid question as I pointed out to him his thoughtfulness. "You aren't married are you?" He gave me a strange look, smiled and said, "No, but I have a cat who can get pretty possessive of me." "Yeah, me too." I said. We both laughed and I continued to eat my sandwich. It was short and sweet and just like that, he was gone. Probably the shortest date I have ever had. Un-like most of the bad ones, this one I would have liked to have lasted longer. And I never saw him again. We didn’t exchange any contact information, phone numbers, email address, nothing.