Mr. Blue Eyes

All those years of my parents telling me to think about what I want to do after I graduate high school, I always thought I’d just live life, fly by the seat of my pants and see where the wind blows.  Well graduation day has come and gone and I’m realizing that I can’t just fly by the seat of my pants, it doesn’t pay very much, in fact, it pays nothing at all. To survive in this world I had to decide to either go to college and continue living with my parents. Or get a job and move out.  I chose the latter. Don’t get me wrong, I love my parents, but I just want my freedom. So I started applying everywhere, well almost everywhere, I decided that working at a restaurant was not my idea of a good time and anyways the job advancements aren’t very good. So I was applying for jobs as a receptionist, file clerk, etc.  I figured working in an office setting there would be more of an opportunity to move up the ladder. After a couple of weeks and a couple of interviews, I finally landed a job. The pay was decent and so now I needed to start saving money to move out. My parents were cool, they knew I had a plan and they were patient while I started to implicate it.

 A couple of months later I was moving into my one bedroom, one bathroom apartment, which was located just fifteen minutes from where I worked.  I knew this was going to be a huge change in my life and a scary one at that. But I had enough confidence in myself to make it happen and to succeed at it.  One thing I didn’t think about was furniture. Of course, I had my bed, my parents let me take it with me. But I didn’t have a sofa, or chairs or anything. I managed to buy a couple of cheap bookshelves at Walmart but I really wanted something different and unique for furniture.  So on my day off, I headed to the vintage outdoor flea market. I’ve been here several times with my parents and always saw things that I liked. I took my time and walked up and down every aisle. I didn’t want to miss anything.  

It was a warm and bright sunny day, my favorite kind. I was so busy looking at everything that I almost missed him.  You know that feeling you get when someone is looking at you, I had that feeling and that is what made me look up from the old picture frames I was looking at.  And there he was, so handsome, big blue eyes and blonde wavy hair. He smiled at me when he saw me looking at him. I blushed and went back to looking at the picture frames.  I was trying to play it cool, but I’ve never been very good at flirting. I hate to say but I’m eighteen years old and I’ve never had a boyfriend. I was always that really shy girl in school who didn’t talk to anyone except for my really close friends. Plus my dad was very strict, he didn’t want me to date while I was in high school and I never argued with my dad. So here I was at a flea market with a really cute guy flirting with me and I had no idea what to do.  But I knew I had to play it cool like I knew what I was doing. The old adage ran through my mind, “fake it til you make it”. But honestly, I didn’t even know how to fake it. So what do I do, I began walking down the aisle, slowly of course because I didn’t want him to lose sight of me or me of him. I stopped again to look at some lamps. When I looked up to see if he was still checking me out, all I could see was his silhouette, the sun was gracefully setting behind him and he was blinding to me. He looked like a dream, the sun outlined his slender build, and his wavy hair blew slightly in the breeze. I couldn’t tell if he was looking my way or not. 

“I’ll give you a good price on those!” The chipper voice said.

Startled I turned to see an older man standing next to me pointing at the lamps, “Excuse me?” I said.

“The lamps, I’ll give you a good price.”

I really did love these lamps, they were mid-century modern style, bright red base with a black shade. “How much for both?”

“$50!” The man said.

“Perfect I’ll take them.” I smiled at him and handed him the money.

“I’ll get a box for you to carry those in.” 

“Thank you.”  As I waited for the man to returned, I kept looking at other stuff he had for sale.  

“Those are nice lamps, good find.”  A voice said from behind me, but I knew it wasn’t the old man who was getting me the box.  I looked up to see Mr. Blue Eyes standing right next to me, smiling, and pointing to the lamps.

“Yes, I thought so too, which is why I’m buying them,” I said to him but thought to myself that I sounded really sarcastic, not meaning to though.

“Clearly.” He chuckled. “I’m Wyatt, by the way.” 

“I’m Tasha.” I reached out to shake his extending hand, I could feel myself blush. His hands were so nice, and strong.

“I saw you staring at me so I thought I’d come to say ‘hello’”

“Um...no I wasn’t staring..” I fumbled with my words, I must have sounded like an idiot. “You were watching ME!” I smiled.

“I couldn’t help myself, you’re too beautiful.”

“Thank you.” 

“Miss, here’s your lamps, I wrapped them all up for you.” The older man handed me the box. Just in time, I didn’t know what else to say to Wyatt, I felt like a fish out of water.

“Thank you sir, have a great day.”  

“You too Miss.

“Let me help you with that.” Wyatt reached out and took the box from me. 

“Oh...um..thanks, but I can handle it.”

“I have no doubt you could, so which way.”

“Which way?” I was confused.

“Yeah, which way?  What do you want to look at next? I mean if you don’t mind the company, I’d like to get to know you.” He smiled at me, and when he did those big blue eyes shined. How could I say ‘no’?

“Yeah okay.” I nodded my head. “Let’s go this way.”

We walked around the flea market all afternoon, it was the best day of my life. Well, next to marrying him four years later.