Pauses in the Early Times

 

Looking back, he could only think about geometry.  Physics...timing.

What had led him to intersect her...or perhaps her arc merely melted into his...an apex, an arrival.  A collision.  

Either way, he was surprised when he heard her voice in a place most unexpected...a SoHo bar, late at night, in an evening surprisingly quiet in its weekday wear.  

But there are very few voices that ring the chimes in his head.

Is that really you? she said.  He tilted his head, wondering if the words were even intended for him to hear.  He didn't hear a reply and fully turned.

And she was there.  In a place they had never been together...but now were.  Outside a sudden ambulance siren broke the evening and he had to delay his response, so they stood there...this collision unfolding in silence and she didn't blink once.  Rather she just stared.

Then, it got quiet and yet he was gently reminded how much he enjoyed just the quietness of her and how he could simply stay and stand with her.  Or stare.  Didn't really matter, their were arcs intersecting, complicated algorithms that had landed her here.  

What are you doing here he asked and immediately was regretful and rapidly added I mean, it's rather amazing you are here....but...really.  What are you doing here?

She smiled...she already had a drink in her hand and she was a bit in shadows in the dim lit bar...he could see her face, but not much more.  He could see her eyes though.

I just stumbled upon you.

She cocked her head as was her wont...and regarded him.  

Well, he offered...there is no stumbling.

Yet she replied.

So she joined him and her glass was empty and then it was replenished and they spoke about a million things, nothing special, just catching up...just this arc of a story that suddenly intersected.  They were huddled, hunched together...almost like their bodies made the shape of a heart if you were to see them at the bar.

It wasn't much longer than lights started alighting and the bar became an overhead distraction.  He paid and asked her where she was heading.

South.

They walked a bit, avoiding the uneven bricks in deep Soho streets and the scattered landscape caused them to sometimes bump into each other, a slight move into her,  a lean into him...a random intersection of bodies and sinew and muscles aligning...for just the briefest of moments.  In his mind he accounted for each little movement, his hand in the gentle part of her back, and when the tiny collision occurred it was like flint and rock.  

They ambled down the darkened street, coming into the circle of a streetlight the returning to a shadow.  As they walked and she sometimes got closer he could smell her perfume.

As they passed on particular dark brick alcove he felt her briefly stumble, and he pushed her alongside her back and his other arm came across her front...it was almost a hug but in his mind it was a catch...and she walked backwards a few steps until the bricks stopped her and he was brought closer into her...and in that moment she leaned forward with a kiss...a first quick kiss with cool lips and then he felt her warmth and she intersected and collided with him and her hands pulled him towards her and the geometry of them allowed for the perfect of angles and in the dark, if you could see their bodies intertwined and the shape of them in that alcove it almost like the perfectly drawn curves of a heart.