August 6th was a day like all the rest, or so I thought. I woke up, did the usual morning crap, and then tried to plan out my day. The most important thing I ever did in this world would be to get my coffee; this would require a little foot travel time. I’m not really sure what bugged me more, the thought of putting on my shoes or that I forgot to get coffee when I was at the store so I had to put on shoes, but whatever. I opened the front door and stepped out into the warm, bright day and began placing one foot in front of the other on this little five block walk.

The art of making my coffee at Quik Trip is something I have spent years perfecting. Start with the right amount of sugar, then five shots of creamer from the flavored creamer machine thingy, then the coffee, can’t fill it up too much or not put enough in, the ice is what makes the difference, then stir well with a straw, not those pansy-ass little stick things. After all that time spent on this one cup of coffee I thought my day might turn out to be a good one, I wouldn’t find the truth of this matter until I was standing in line.

The woman in front of me was cute from the back, and that might have been all that mattered. She was maybe 5 foot 3, shoulder length brown hair, black yoga pants that highlighted these perfect hips and an amazing butt, and a form fitting grey t-shirt. I thought it best to stand back a little. And I had a better view that way. With temptation personified in front of me, I was surprised to find that the paper in her hand is the thing that captured my attention. She was shifting her weight from one foot to the other in a frustrated kind of way, then I found out why. As she was paying she began to ask for directions, and as luck would have it, I recognized the address. When the clerk just shrugged at her, her shoulders drooped about eleven inches, which was unbelievably cute. I must have laughed a bit because she started to look over her shoulder, and I caught a glimpse of her cheek and long eyelashes, but then the clerk asked if she could help me and Temptation turned back around to get her stuff off the counter. She’d been dismissed.
“Go right out of the parking lot, take your first left, go through the first intersection, and it’s the green house, fourth one down on your right.” I knew the place well, knew the loud Asian woman who lived there, as well as you can know someone who doesn’t like you or being in this country. Why was Temptation going to see her I wondered.

As she turned to face me the whole of everything moved in ultra slow motion, almost in a movie special effect kind of way, everything behind her seemed to fade away into nothing and it was just her and myself standing there, then just as quick reality came slamming back. She had the most beautiful brown eyes I had ever seen, way beyond sad puppy dog eyes. I followed the line of her nose down to her mouth as it formed the perfect words. Whatever they were.
Before my eyes continued down to inspect the rest of her body, I thought it maybe might be polite to look into her eyes again. After this effort of politeness, I allowed my eyes to fall, not taking too much time on anything specific (okay except the hips again), I followed her frame all the way to the floor and then back up to her eyes. I caught her returning the favor.
She thanked me and made her way to the door, as I was paying for my coffee and donuts I was watching her walk away, the hips and the way her hair swung as she walked, and she glanced back at me. Perfect day.

I wanted to see her again so I walked a bit faster on the way home, and there in front of the house next to mine was her van. I placed myself on my front porch and lit up a smoke and waited. It wasn’t very long before she came out. There was that butt again, and I had trouble remembering that this was my second chance to talk to her. I got up and said “Guess you found the place ok then.”

She stopped walking, but I could tell that she was smiling. And then I got that smile full force, and I wanted to skip work that night and just hang out with her for a few million years. Over the next weeks we emailed and talked on the phone, and then she invited me to meet her kids and go with them to this festival thing downtown. I’m not into crowds or festivals or downtown, but I would have walked to Cuba if she asked me to. On the way to this thing we stop at McDonalds and she quotes Lethal Weapon. Joe Pesci specifically, with the F-bomb and everything but not loud enough for the kids to hear her. It was almost impossible not to grab her and kiss her right there. It was at that point I knew if she would let me, I would never stop loving her.