I round the corner, coffee in hand, and my eye immediately picks her out from the rest of the scurrying lunch crowd. It is as though, in that moment, the rest of the world falls silent and expectant around us and there are only two characters; a man rushing back to his office from lunch and a woman quickly approaching him on the same sidewalk, the distance narrowing by the second. The possibilities are endless.
She has the sort of face, I think to myself, that I could fall for hard; one that I could spend ages looking at and appreciating it’s contours, studying it’s form and the wonderful whole that it makes. She is not classically beautiful like a model but that makes no difference to me. Her face is a little broad across the cheeks bringing to mind perhaps Native or Asian origin, but then her long lower face is sculpted down to a narrow, well formed chin. Her mouth is also somewhat broad, with a full lower lip, and her expression is one of serious non-committal common to most city-dwellers. Her eyes are large and pale blue, bright and intelligent, below a high forehead with her long light brown hair swept backwards and cascading down toward her shoulders. She is probably a little under average height, and I can see from the way her pants and jacket fall on her that she is a little busty and has nice hips.
I am, of course, completely stricken by her and decide, on the spur of the moment, to do something which I never have the courage to do: I will speak to her. I take a quick sip of my coffee as the low click of her boots comes to my ear above the background of the city noise. I swallow the small sip of coffee and manoeuvre myself into a course that will bring me directly in front of her. My nervousness begins to appear, and I sense a slight tremble in the hand that holds the coffee cup, a vague unstable feeling in my legs and the back of my neck starts to feel prickly with sweat despite the cool breeze.
When we are about 10 paces apart, she notices, and does a quick scan of me to assess any threat. With my heart pounding like a dance beat, I do my best to break into a friendly smile and try to make eye contact. Her eyes meet mine and seem to hold for just a moment longer than they normally will with a stranger. I open my mouth and begin to form the word ‘hello’.
At that moment, the toe of my left shoe catches in a crack in the sidewalk. I stumble and begin to fall forward. She sees me start to fall and her expression begins to change into one of surprise; her eyes widen slightly and her mouth slowly contacts into an exclamation. Now off balance, my left hand instinctively goes outward in search of support and for some unexplained reason my right hand grips tighter on the coffee cup which causes it to buckle slightly and the lid pops off. Neither of these actions have a good outcome. My left hand immediately comes to rest very firmly on her right breast which, as I had expected it to be, is full and round under my palm. Stepping forward, and bending my knees, I begin to recover my balance, but not before the contents of my coffee cup come spraying outwards from the open cup and all over her jacket and the pretty ivory-coloured blouse she is wearing underneath it.
Even before I remove my hand from her breast, I am blushing and blabbering incomprehensible apologies, but I realise that I have created a social situation from which there is no recovery. She studies the mess down her front and pulls her jacket closely around her and then glares at me. I continue my litany of apologies and point like a fool at the crack in the sidewalk saying, ‘Someone should fix that!’ She shakes her head and glares at me once more before stomping off on her way, cursing under her breath. That didn’t go as well as I had hoped.

I round the corner, with a fresh cup of coffee in my hand, and before I have even merged into the flow of pedestrian traffic along the sidewalk, I am struck by the vision of a remarkable woman walking toward me. Her broad cheeks and bright blue eyes seem to set her apart from any woman I have ever seen before. My heart does a quick pit-a-pat and I know immediately that if I don’t try to speak to her then I will regret it. I decide to do just that.
I take a sip from my coffee and dodge among the people as she quickly approaches me, clearly intent on her own affairs. I manage to place myself in her path as she comes within 10 paces of me. I take a deep breath, and as those blue eyes pick me out from the other nameless people on the street, I say ‘Hello’ and try to smile in a friendly way. Her eyes narrow slightly and she fixes me steadily. ‘How you doin’?’ she says and the question does not invite a response. She steps nimbly around me and keeps walking, quickly disappearing into the city throng. I stand on the sidewalk looking in the direction in which she has disappeared. I start to feel foolish for my recklessness and I feel the flush of embarrassment on my face. I guess that didn’t quite go as expected and I make a mental note not to try that again.

With my coffee cup firmly in hand, I round the corner onto the main street, watching for cracks in the sidewalk and trying not to collide with the steady flow of people rushing about. I look up and am instantly transfixed by the wonderfully attractive woman who is walking in my direction. Her bright eyes are intelligent and watchful of the people around her. I feel a flush rise to my face and recognise the instant attraction that I feel for her. Trying not to second guess myself, I decide that I will try to speak to her come what may. I manoeuvre myself into the human traffic and onto a course that will bring me in front of her. With only ten paces separating us, I take a deep breath.
“Hello!” I say and try to smile in a way that would not make me look evil.
“Hi!” she responds brightly and seems unsure whether to continue on or not.
“…um…Hi!” I say and begin to panic because I hadn’t expected this outcome. “Don’t you work in that building?” I ask, guessing, and as I point, I come dangerously close to poking her in the breast with my index finger.
“Sure I do!” she answers, “Hey, is that coffee for me?”
“um…sure” I answer and hold it out toward her. She cocks an eyebrow at me and it begins to dawn slowly on me that she is joking.
“Oh my God, I’m sorry…” I say as she begins to laugh. I take the leap. “…but I’d love to offer you one, I mean, if you’d like that…”
“Yeah! That’d be nice. How’re you gonna do it?” she asks and I melt a little as her eyes twinkle at me.
“Oh…I can call you if you want…” I suggest but feel like something is not quite right.
“Guess you’ll need my number then won’t you?” she says playfully. I blush and realise that I was going down a blind alley.
“um…sorry…I wouldn’t expect…”, and then I practically fall over as she clearly pronounces the phone number. My hand shakes and my mind seems to do back-flips and I ask her to recite it three more times before I finally get it registered on my cell.
“Well, nice meeting you”, she says, “but I do really need to get my lunch.”
“Oh! Right! Errr…your lunch…um…I’ll call you for a coffee in the next couple days.”
“Looking forward to it! Bye!” She turns and leaves.
I break into an idiotic grin as she bounces off into the lunchtime crowd. I turn back on my way and immediately stumble on a crack in the sidewalk, spilling my coffee on my trousers. ‘Someone should fix that!’ I mutter to no one in particular as I pull my jacket tight around me to hide the stain.