Glow

Sara B. 10/05

She watched the couple as they walked by.  There was something about them that caught her attention.  Okay, so they were strangers in a town that nearly everyone knew everyone else’s business, but that wasn’t it.  They also had the look of ‘big city’ with well tailored suits, expensive suits and good hair styles.  It didn’t hurt that they were both very good looking but those things were external and not what drew her to watch them.  No, none of that had anything to do with what caught her attention; it was something different, something bigger.  It was THEM.  They glowed.

He was tall, but not overly so, she’d met others who were taller.  His hair was dark and his face was, well best described as, unconventional.  If you took the individual pieces they really were an ‘off’ assortment.  His chin was too small and his nose a bit large.  But when you put the pieces together the whole package more than worked.

The woman was a beauty.  Not in the too thin, over processed way of the women in the movies or on TV but a classical, natural sort of beauty.  The woman was small but everything about her was proportional to her frame.  Her hair glowed in the waning early evening sun and it gave the woman a halo.

The couple walked into the diner.  She threw out the rest of her soda and followed them in.  She nodded to Emile to let him know she was back from her break and went to wait on the twosome that had caught her attention.

It surprised her when the man ordered first; usually men let the women order before them.  She’d hazard a glance at the woman but she was not upset or even surprised, her demeanor seemed to be that it was expected. 

The man had an easy smile and his voice was gravelly with a tinge of nasal.  He ordered the meatloaf and mashed potato dinner with an iced tea.

She turned to the woman who was now looking at the man with her eyebrow raised.  The woman said nothing but the man got her message and added a salad to the order and the woman seemed satisfied. 

Unlike the man, her smile didn’t come easily but it wasn’t ill temper it just seemed that she was the type who smiled infrequently.  When people like her did smile it was a gift.  The woman’s voice was ‘cool’ and measured and she

wasn’t surprised when the woman ordered the grilled chicken with steamed vegetables, salad and water; the healthiest thing on the menu.

She placed their orders and served them their salads and drinks.  It was Wednesday, church night, so the diner was empty except the mysterious couple.  It would start filling up about seven thirty when people would stop in for some coffee and dessert spiced up with a little neighborhood gossip.  If the couple had come in them she would have been too busy to indulge in watching them, but now she had nothing but time. 

She could tell he was not normally a salad eater by the way he moved the bits around the bowl without eating more than a couple bites.  She also knew he thought he was getting away with it but the woman was not fooled.  She was walking toward them with their dinners when she heard the woman say, “three more bites that’s all I’m asking.”  The man nodded and the woman smiled back indulgently. 

She placed the dinner on the table and went to get refills for their drinks.  She walked back to the counter and sorted through her checks but always kept here eyes on the couple.  She was too far away to hear their conversation but it didn’t matter.  They were talking business but they were not business partners; or at least not JUST business partners.  Their postures spoke of their ease with each other.  The ease that comes with time and trust, it was the ease of long time love.

The couple finished their dinner and ordered two coffees to go.  The man stopped her as she was turning.  “Add two chocolate cakes to that, please.”  She didn’t see but she could imagine the look the woman gave him.  “Hey, it’s a day for celebration besides you could use to add a few pounds.”

They paid the check then walked out.  She waited a moment so they wouldn’t be alerted and followed them to the door.  She watched their slow progression across the parking lot.  The man’s hand gravitated to the woman’s back.  It was a movement that he wasn’t even aware of, it was just that that’s where his hand belonged.

Emile stood beside her.  “I don’t know what it was but I couldn’t take my eyes off them.”  A nod was her only response.  “It wasn’t just us, look.”  She moved her gaze slightly to the right but still kept the couple in sight.

The townspeople were filtering their way from the church and they all slowed their steps to watch the couple.

The man turned over the engine and they were gone.  “What do you make of that?”  Emile queried not expecting an answer.

“They glowed.”  She said as she walked back to start plating desserts.

End