A Brief Encounter

It was love at first sight and it was the last thing in the world he needed right now. A woman with the most incredible color of red hair he had ever seen coupled with what seemed to be just the perfect amount of freckles plunging beneath her t-shirt was leaning again the wall next to the stereo. She smiled at him and he smiled back at her, raising the plastic cup full of beer to his face, trying to hide from her. She twirled her hair and stood there, leaning against the wall without taking her eyes off of him. He wanted to crawl into the cup and disappear, but instead he walked over to her. Every step closer to her he took, the wider her smile seemed to get and the more the ground seemed to be sliding out from under him. The back of his mind screamed for his best friend to pull him away, the lights to suddenly go out so he could run away, or a shark to suddenly jump through the hardwood floor and devour him. It all had to be less painful then what his legs were dragging him into. He couldn’t even imagine what he would say. “My fiancée left me at the altar” would probably be a bad start to whatever this was going to turn into.

What was he thinking? It was going to be a train wreck, the first thing out of his mouth was going to either offend her or be so incredibly stupid that she would just laugh at him and walk away. Two women running away from him laughing wasn’t going to anything to boost his spirits.

He leaned against the wall next to her and smiled, taking a drink of his beer, to steady himself and to give himself a chance to think about his first words before they came out.

“Hi, I’m Brandi.” Her smile seemed to widen and almost stretch off the side of her face.

The thought of her smile leaving her face made him snort beer through his nose and back into the plastic cup. His face turned beet red and she just smiled even wider.

“Here, you need a new glass.” She grabbed him and led him through the sea of people. He could barely keep up with her and a few times he almost fell over, but he was confident she probably would have just kept on dragging him across the floor to the keg.

He stood over her as she filled his glass full. It occurred to him watching her that she just might be the most energetic woman he had ever met. She seemed to attack the task of filling his beer with vigor and he was actually mesmerized watching her.

“You’re Charlie right?”

“Hmm, um, oh yeah.” Charlie responded after he realized she had said something.

“I’m Amy’s friend, your buddy Mike’s ex. We’ve run into each other before.”

He had no idea what in the hell she was talking about. But he had come to realize over the last few days that he had his head up his ass about more than a few things since he proposed to his ex.

“Oh, right, Brandi. Yeah at the umm...” he tapped his glass to emphasize that he was thinking, and to give her a clue to help him out a little.

“Joe’s birthday party. You were with some girl, you seemed pretty distracted. It was a pretty crazy night. I can barely remember it myself.” She laughed and he smiled back at her. What a great laugh. He smiled a little wider. He still had no idea who she was, but she seemed like a nice girl and he had to move on sometime right?

She started to talk and he just listened. They stood by the keg while she talked about herself. He smiled and nodded appropriately, taking a sip of beer and interjecting when she took a sip of hers. He was becoming more and more comfortable standing next to her the more she talked, and he was relieved that he didn’t really have to contribute at all. The best thing was she seemed so totally into him. She kept laughing, touching him, and playing with her hair. All with incredible enthusiasm and a big toothy grin on her face.

The party dissolved around them and at one point she looked down at her cell, realizing that three hours had passed by and they were both sitting next to a floating keg, alone. The party had disbursed who knows how long ago and he had become completely engrossed in everything she had said for almost half of the night.

“I guess they all left us here huh?” The entire house was dark except for the little patio light that was just big enough to cover the keg and the spot where they were sitting. He looked down at his watch and back up at her. She reached into her purse and started digging for something.

While she was busy in her purse, it occurred to him that something was supposed to happen next. Should he kiss her, ask for her number, see if she needed a ride somewhere?

“Sorry to keep you out so late.” He sat down next to her.

“It’s cool. My husband is probably fast asleep anyways. I’ll just be real quiet and not wake anyone up. It was really nice talking to you. Your girlfriend is lucky to have such a nice guy like you. Cut the porch light off when you take off will you?

She found her keys and walked into the house, leaving him alone next to the empty keg.

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