Coffee , Tea or Mia

Time : December 24th 1997 Location: Termini Bakery

this story is told to us by mark

Do you believe in fate? Or is fate just a random act of coincidences.

As always its christmas eve and I am last minute shopping. Every year I tell my self to start early but I always make excuses until the time is almost up and I have no choice, you have to scramble and shop quick.

That year I really did not have anyone to shop for, oh sure the regular bunch of suspects, Father, mother , sister and brother, but I mean, you know, someone special that can really make this time of year very beautiful and enjoyable,., or any time of year for that matter

You know it always seemed like I struck out when it came to the game of love, when I was supposed to be making a right turn, I was going left, and when it was a left turn, you guessed it I was going right.

....Until this one year though...

You know when you are alone for sometime, you seem to turn things off, things just seem to go into a state of comatose, I guess its nature 's way of conserving batteries, at that time if a woman smiled at me , I would turn around to see if there was someone standing behind me, I was just a dud in the game of love....

......Until this one year though....

Like I was saying, it was Christmas eve, it was late afternoon, the sun was setting and I was just starting my Christmas shopping , I went into this candy shoppe, ( you notice the extra "pe" on the end of that , it means it's old)

I'm minding my own business picking out my assortment, picking out the wrapping paper (choice of one) everybody was rushing in a state of panic, I didn't even notice the beautiful woman standing next to me, I didn't notice her soft shiny hair and how the light made it glistened, I didn't notice how her smile made her eyes sparkle, I didn't notice the smell of her intoxicating perfume, and you know what ,it's not just the perfume, it's the person wearing it that makes it intoxicating, PERSON + PERFUME = INTOXICATING, you could spray a whole bottle on a skunk but it will still be a skunk.

In the clerks rush she accidentally gave my credit card to the beautiful woman standing next to me, and the woman got my card, it was a good thing I checked, she had finished her purchase before me and was almost a block away when I ran after her to tell her what happened.

When she turned towards me it was then that it hit me, I felt my batteries kick in, It was as if I found the remote control for my heart and clicked it on, have you ever met somebody and you just know? You know that there is some kind of bond, it could be a smile or a touch of the hand that sends a jolt of electricity to your heart, the brain kicks in later.

I explained to her what happened and we exchanged cards, when she opened up her wallet there was a photo of a handsome young boy, I remember thinking to myself, "oh no she's married", but my heart kept saying "talk to her".

We walked along a little bit and she told me her name, Jenny, she was on her way to work at a diner up the street, one of the few places that are opened late on Christmas eve , she said that she took this shift because she was a single mom and she wanted to have off Christmas day so she could be with her son,Jeff, who was staying with her mother.

We talked as we walked, and there was just a sense of feeling very comfortable with her, the conversation just flowed, I had intended just to walk her to the diner, but she invited me in for coffee, the coffee became a six course dinner followed by desert and another cup of coffee.