she walked beside him, keeping up with his longer stride. she just bought gloves, cute ones, rainbow coloured from an american conglomerate new to canada. this excited her. her excitement made him smile.

they were seated in a corner of the restaurant. date-ish. but it wasn't a date. was it? she made conversation, he went with it. they order appetizers, her's looked funny, so he laughed. her eyes were bluer than they have ever been.

she had this thing with her smile that made him question a lot of things. it was one of those smiles that make you grin goofily in spite of yourself. it was one of those smiles that makes you wonder why it is that your still sitting across from the girl instead of just grabbing her and kissing her right there. then he realized that he had table manners, and continued to eat.

he hated himself for his polite upbringing

she smiled

her eyes were big and blue and held secrets that he couldn't decode if he tried. and she thought it was all so obvious. she thinks she's easy to read. the general public disagrees. she calls him clueless, he agrees, because he can hardly speak at all.

she brought out latex gloves that she still had in the pocket of her knitted sweater that fit oh so well. they were from her lab earlier in the day. he fell in love.

she was unaware.

or hyper aware. you can't tell with this one.

she made fun of him, he laughed sheepishly. she makes him continually sheepish, and he seems to sort of like that.

she looked at him for a while, and didn't say anything. just looked. whatever thoughts were racing behind those dangerous baby blues were completely hidden. shrouded. unknown to all who tried desperately to know. perhaps it would make more sense if we all stopped trying.

he looked back. tried to think of funny things to say, and failed, cause he's not all that funny. and still she looked. and he felt naked. and realized that that wasn't very fair. reciprocity is key.

she tried to melt his brains with her eyes when he tried to pay. dimly lit restaurant brightened by the fire in her eyes. but they don't take debit, so he did it anyway.

they walked home. he showed her his school. she made fun, because it's basically a shanty. for some reason certain programs get no money. not that he's bitter.

he liked the way that her cheeks got red in the cold. and the way her scarf fell across her neck. really he like pretty much everything she had going on.

she was unreadable.

she gave him cd's, and left into the night. long trip home. he watched her go.

she watched him watch her go.

she talked about him when she got home.

she probably thought the same things he was thinking.

but he'd never know it to look at her.