I ordered a ristretto and sat by the window. I have always liked the cafeterias with red checkered tablecloths. It takes me back to my grandmother’s, to tranquility and safety.
I sat on the wooden chair with the matching red cushion and let my eyes get lost through the window long enough to forget my surroundings.
Ten, maybe twenty minutes passed when I saw him. He was at another table, with his coffee. I liked his tie, how elegant he was. He looked at me, not so covertly, so I smiled back at him. Maybe those ten or twenty minutes in which I was absorbed, the boy in the suit had been looking at me … and the heat ran through my entire body, so I turned my eyes to the window again.
It did not help trying to avoid his eyes because he came and asked me if I was alone. I could not look away again so I could only say yes.
– I have to go back to the office again, but I’d like to have a ristretto with you. This is my phone. Write me and say yes – he was so sure of himself as he took the napkin where he wrote down his name and the nine numbers that were going to change my life.
