Fiction Series : Story Two

                                                                             EYE LOCK 
She knew someone was following her. Still, she continued to walk knowing that there would be no looking back. Constantly feeling his presence behind her she crossed the road and started to walk on the opposite side of the pavement to get a glimpse of him. Laying her eyes on the other side she got a subtle view of him. He was tall, broad-boned with a dusky skin tone. He was wearing a thick beige woollen jacket to protect himself against the wind in this cold winter morning, his well fitted pants with leather shoes gave out the impression that indeed he wasn't a stalker , just a handsome young man on his way to work probably.

He gave her a quick glance and she quickly turned her eyes away because she didn't want him to know that by now she had checked every little detail from his clothing to looks. In the midst of her mindless walk she received a call from her boss. The man who had rejected her or the man who had easily considered her as an option or maybe that boss who had so intelligently used her just to throw her away. She still didn't know why she worked for him, maybe it was the fat salary that fancied her. She didn't know, her own questions interpreted no answers. She answered the call and the work given out to her was that she had to collect a file. Oh, of course he was so big a man but still the details were always left out by him, easily.

To collect it she had to cross and get back on the pavement she was previously walking on, on his lane to be precise. Nearing the crossing the red light signified one more minute of waiting for her. She fiddled with her watch and looked up and there he was on the opposite side looking back at her. This time she couldn't look elsewhere, he looked at her intriguingly. She couldn't do a thing about it, she couldn't shift her eyes, it was like she was caught in a cheating act, there was no escape. She had never felt so conscious before, she hoped that her trench coat was right in place, she hoped that her hair hadn't frizzed out or else she wouldn't spare her hairdresser who kept insisting on using this frizz-ease cream so her hair stayed intact, she hoped her pants hadn't crumbled. Suddenly she saw the freckles on his skin breaking out into a smile, a smile so innocent yet so inviting and comfortable. The light went green and off they went walking towards each other each taking steps for their desired destination.

That moment felt like certainty for her, if only she had known this man and he had swept her off the ground to a place unknown, away from this chaos, away from boundaries. She needed warmth and assurance and that's exactly what his smile gave out. His strangeness among this mayhem in her life felt like a tiny spark of happiness had just shone.

They walked past each other and she looked back and then she couldn't believe her eyes because he had looked back too, for her. On her way to the mentioned building to collect the file she smiled to herself not knowing precisely why. A passing moment of heart-felt happiness, the irony being that this happiness had been shared with a man unknown. Because indeed he was a stranger.
The eye lock, the bliss, just for a second.