If you ever meet a girl sitting quietly at a coffee shop, with a book in her hand and a cappuccino by her side on the table, reading away to glory, I hope you don’t disturb her. She has a lot on her mind as it is and she doesn’t need another reason to abandon that one book she intends to finish. Her eyes will be oscillating with each sentence as she forgets her lukewarm coffee. She will be happy in her world. Sit on a table next to her and try to observe her without raising any eyebrows. You will notice something peculiar about her. Her eyes would be big and wide as she turns the page which is building up to a cliffhanger. She will try to resist reading the twist in one go and she will keep the book down and sip her coffee for a while. Maybe your eyes will meet hers and you will be pleasantly surprised by her warm eyes looking and checking you out for a brief second.
If you dare, you will approach her with a half-crooked smile that you think will convey to her that you’re no stalker or creep. Maybe she won’t mind you sitting beside her and if you’re lucky, you both can strike up a conversation. You will come to know that she has read a plethora of books from Nicholas Sparks to Stephen King and Murakami. She has lived a lot of her life in pages. She might tell you over coffee how she is currently taking off from an otherwise hectic schedule and how she cherishes these small moments of solitude. Maybe you’re intruding but she will tell you that you are not. You will share a cup of coffee and maybe that’s how it all begins, with a random coincidental meet at the coffee shop.
You will get to know her through and through and she will, in time, rely on you and tell you things she rarely shares with anyone. She will talk of butterflies and how magical it feels to drive in the rain when the droplets feel like sharp kisses on your face. She will love to dance even though she’s shy and she will tell you stories of places you never knew. She will ignite in you a hope, a lingering hope that all is not lost. That everything is believable if you just hold on to hope. Looking back, you will feel like the luckiest son of a gun to decide to sit beside that girl in that coffee shop.
It’s not that she’s naive and hasn’t known how the world is. She has been all over the country and has had many experiences of love and loss. Maybe that’s why, one fine day, you come back to see her curled up near the window sill wearing just a long pullover looking at the clouds with another cup of coffee in her hands. You would lift her chin with your finger and see that the hope in her eyes, that you were so used to, seems faded. Maybe she had a bad dream or maybe she had a bad day or an encounter with someone and that made her feel low or out of her depth.
But you know that she’s not like that at all. So you hug her and hug her close, knowing that if you give her time, she will recover and she will be herself again. So you stay close to her. Maybe she cries in your shoulder or maybe she just sighs and hugs you back. Both ways, be there for her because she needs you. She has seen bad, probably worse things but she is still the same girl you met at the coffee shop with big wide eyes full of hope. It is because she knows the value of hope in this world and how bad experiences may lead to bad memories, they should never be given the power to ruin your future. She knows that hope is the only way to stay happy and contented. Hope in herself, hope in her books, in her work, and in her love has brought her so far. She’s broken she knows but you know you’re broken too and only a shattered soul knows the value of another and that is what attracted you to walk over and sit next to her that day in the coffee shop.
She looks back at you after her mood is better as she pulls your collar down so your face could be closer to hers. Her eyes, either wet or dry, will look at you for a brief moment in a grateful manner and she will kiss you. You will kiss her back and in that precise moment, you will realize that no matter where you reach in life or what you achieve, you will never be able to forget this girl that taught you what it felt to believe in better things ahead and to not give up and to truly…hope.
Her eyes will betray all that hope she has in the second when she looks at you. She will convey that she is vulnerable and the fact that she showed you is because she trusts you not to break her. At that moment, I promise you, all your worries, troubles and plans will shoot right out the window and you will want nothing else but to never ever let go of her.
Note – I have recently published my collection of short poems on Amazon and if you liked this poem, you can find 20 poems all neatly packaged to enjoy just for you –