The Observer

Sara B. 12/06

I spot her immediately as she enters the room.  She takes a seat at one of the booths near the back and I’m grateful because this allows me unfettered viewing of my Titian haired beauty.  She is small but I can tell that no one should ever assume that makes her vulnerable.  Her strength radiates from her and she appears so much larger than her physical being. 

Jenny, the waitress, goes to her and a few moments later delivers two drinks, a red wine and a draft beer.  So this lovely is waiting for someone.  I see her head raise and turn toward the door.  A small, nearly imperceptible smile takes control of her lush mouth and her eyes widen slightly.  I turn toward the door and see a tall lanky man in a long trench coat and a sour demeanor walking toward my beauty.  I examine this man who provoked her understated, but unmistakable, sexual interest. 

The man takes a drink from his beer then removes his topcoat before taking the seat opposite her.  He never looks at her but scopes out the room.  His scanning slows then returns to a spot he’d just passed.  I slowly turn to follow the path of his search.  It is a woman and I look at her with a critical eye.  She is tall, at least 5’9”, with blackish hair.  Her make-up is over done and exaggerated; I suspect it is a vain attempt to hide her advancing age but only draws attention to the fact that she left thirty years earlier.  She is dressed in a typical business suit but the shirt is a tad too tight and the skirt way too short in that fashion popularized, unhappily, by television shows.  Overall, the woman is beautiful but she is not in the league of the woman sitting across from him, my beauty. 

His eyes continue his perusal of the room’s occupants and I see him stop on a few more women and I judge them all to be sub-par from his neglected companion.  The man is a fool though I do credit him with his subtly.  Most people wouldn’t notice his scrutiny but I’m not most people and, I dare say, neither is my beauty. 

Jenny returns and they order their food.  They seem to be deep in conversation but the man’s eyes continue to dart around the room as he checks out each new patron who enters.  I return my gaze to his much more interesting companion.  His boorish behavior is not lost on her but she appears to be resigned to it and I regret to see the slight depression that has taken residence on her countenance.

Their meals arrive and conversation ceases.  The man is eating with gusto but my beauty picks at her food.  I want to lash out at the man for his actions that have obviously robbed her of her appetite.  Suddenly I see him take out his phone.  He makes a motion to her and leaves the table.  She watches his retreating back and the sadness on her face is painful to see.  I rise to make my move.

I approach her with caution, not wanting to startle my prey or show my hand too soon.  “Hello, I’m Darren Dresher and I own this restaurant.  How has your experience been so far?”

I’m rewarded with a genuine, if restrained, smile.  “Everything is fine, very nice.”

“I see you ordered the herbed chicken, that’s one of my personal favorites.”

“It’s delicious; I’ve been trying to figure out the various herbs.”

“I’d like to tell you but my chef won’t even tell me.  I’m sorry your companion’s food is getting cold.”  I see traces of anger enter her blue eyes and I know that whoever he was on the phone with was not someone she approved of; a woman possibly?  No, a woman probably!

Out of the corner of my eye, I see her negligent companion; he appears to be wrapping up his conversation and returning to the table.  I make my move hoping my timing is just right.  “I didn’t just come over to talk about your dining experience.  I wanted to invite you out for dinner.”  I hand her my card and she takes it with a delicate hand and an incredulous look.  I’m taken aback at how my beauty seems unaccustomed to attentions such as these.  Her companion is but a few feet from us and I go in for the kill shot.  “I can guarantee you an excellent meal, charming companionship with a reasonably attractive man,” I pause and she gives me a look that tells me I’m being modest.  “And I will give you my undivided attention.”  Her companion chooses this moment to return.  “I won’t even look around the room, at the door or the bar, just you.” My beauty looks at her returning companion; his look tells me he heard my accusatory comments.  I finish by just saying, “Call me when you are ready,” I point at her indicating I would like to know her name, again I’m not disappointed.

“Dana, Dana Scully and this is my work partner, Fox Mulder.”  Mr. Mulder’s head jerks toward her with her emphasis on ‘work partner’.

I take her hand and give it a little squeeze, “call me, Dana.”  I nod to her companion and take my leave.  I continue to watch their reactions in the mirror that hides my office as I walk away.  Both of them watch my retreat and I return to my office behind the one way mirror.  I mentally cheer my beauty on to play this for all it’s worth and she doesn’t disappoint.  I watch their exchange and fill in the conversation in my head.

She fingers my card in her hand with a distinct look of interest and this clearly upsets this Mulder character.  He reaches for the card in her hand and they gently wrestle for it until she lets him have it.  He looks at the card and reads what it says.  His head begins to shake and he says something that upsets my beauty.  Her eyes flash with cold lightning and I am thankful I am not the recipient of her glare.  Her hand waves as she points out the various women that had caught his attention.  She then points to the hallway that he moved to for his phone call and she mouths something that causes her obvious distress; a woman’s name perhaps?  This is a woman of deep passions and her companion’s callousness, aided by my actions, has ignited a firestorm.  She is amazing to watch and I feel an unwarranted pride.  It is clear she is telling him things that he has never heard from her before and he has the common sense to look chagrinned.  The truly remarkable thing is this relationship altering conversation is taking place without any of the surrounding patrons knowing anything is amiss, I repeat, my beauty is amazing to watch.

Suddenly her shoulders sag and I know that though her anger still exists, she has lost the momentum to continue.  She knows that if he doesn’t understand, and know now, she will never get through to him. 

The time has come for him to take over the conversation, but will he?  I watch and for a moment I think he will fail.  I see that she has come to the same conclusion and she begins to gather her things to leave.  Her movements must have awakened him from his melancholy because he reaches for her hand to still her movements yet he still remains silent.  She looks at their hands and the sadness in her eyes trebles and I wonder how this man can continue to remain silent when she needs him to say something.  His grip tightens and he pulls on her to make her raise her gaze to his face. 

Finally he begins to speak and she is listening but then they both appear startled and he pulls out his phone.  Again she begins to rise but instead of answering he turns it off.  His eyes turn soft and he begins to speak again.  I see him pick up my card again and I can tell he wants to crush it but she retrieves it before he can.  He watches as she looks at it and then pockets the card.  I mentally shake her hand at her brilliant move.

He continues to speak but her body language tells both him and me that she doubts his words.  Then her eyes stray back to the women he’d too obviously ogled earlier and he follows her glances; and that is when he begins to understand.  It is the moment I’ve been waiting for; the moment when he realizes what he is in risk of losing.

It is at this moment that she places money on the table and she leaves.  The man remains and his arm holds his head up as he watches her retreat.  It is time for me to go into action again.

I approach the table from behind the Mulder person.  “Has the lovely Ms. Scully gone?  I wanted to speak with her again.”

The man is not happy to see me and makes no attempt to hide his contempt for me but I pretend not to notice.  I take a chance and begin to move on but he begins to speak.

“Why did you ask her out?”  His voice is demanding but it covers his worry.

“She caught my attention from the moment she walked in.  I saw she’d ordered two drinks so I thought I didn’t have a chance.  When I saw you join her I was sure I’d been right.  Then I watched you openly scope out every other woman in the room and you hadn’t even given her even the most cursory glances and I knew you two were not a couple.  I also saw her reaction to your, in my opinion, piggish behavior; Ms. Scully is an unhappy woman and you seemed to be the cause of that unhappiness.  When you left her sitting here to take a call I decided ‘nothing ventured – nothing gained’.  Do I know if she’ll call me?  No, but I think that depends on you, or more accurately, if she decides to believe whatever it is that you said to her after I left the table earlier.”

“You watched us?”  His tone sounds suspicious.

“I watched her, as did every other straight man blessed with eyesight and half a sane brain does.  She is a woman to notice.  Her features are delicate, unlike,” I point to the first woman Mulder had checked out earlier.  “Too much make-up that hardens her face and the clothes that although are expensive, make her look common.”  He looks over and as I speak, I can tell that he now finds her lacking. 

Two years later:

I was standing at my usual spot looking out over the restaurant from my office.  The door opened and there she was; my Titian haired beauty.  I’d often wondered about how my little experiment turned out.  I looked closely and saw that there was something different in her countenance; a peace that wasn’t there two years earlier.  Now the question was, did she stay with her companion of that day or did she find someone else who gave her this inner tranquility?  I moved to leave my office when I noticed the door open again and my answer walked in carrying a small squirming bundle.

I watched as they kissed over the child the man handed over to my beauty.  I joined them at their table and welcomed them back.  She was startled that I remembered her but he wasn’t and he didn’t spare me his look of suspicion.  She moved to remove the outerwear of the child, who I learned was named William.  I took that moment to congratulate the man.  He still viewed me with a critical eye but I just smiled and clapped him on the back as I walked away.  I went to Jenny and told her their meal was on me.