First Sight (14 page)

“That’s terrible,” I said.

“Oh, you get used to it after a while.”

We
walked a short way down the block and
arrived
in
front of the
restaurant
.  The covered patio area was empty—the tables
and chairs
all pulled inside for winter. 
I’d spent many a happy hour there on warm summer
evenings
, but the area certainly didn’t look inviting now. 
Travis
opened
the door for me, and
together
we
walked inside
. 
The restaurant was
warmly lit, with
large
, colorful
Spanish paintings on the walls,
wrought-iron tables with
blue
mosaic
tops
, and
an
earth-colored tile floor.

“Table for two,” Travis said when we approached the hostess stand.

The
hostess
picked up two menus and
guided us to a cozy table by the window.
I
unwrapped
my scarf and
slid off my coat
,
d
rap
ing them
over the back of my chair.  Travis sat down across from me, shrugging out of his leather jacket. 
He had on a forest green sweater, and as I watched his face—
taking in
his strong jaw and dark brown eyes—I was reminded again how handsome he was.  We’d been walking around looking at painting
s
all afternoon, so this was the first chance I had all day to really
focus on
him.

After handing us each a menu, the hostess walked away.  Just then a
few
teenage girls
walking by the window
peeked in
at us
. 
I wondered what they were looking at since we had just gotten there
; it wasn’t like they could be admiring our dinner.
 
They saw me watching them and jumped back as
I laughed.
 
“We don’t even have any food for them to look at,” I said
.

“
Maybe we just look really interesting
,” Travis said with a grin.

I raised my eyebrows doubtfully at him, still laughing.

“Maybe they liked your
outfit
?”

I glanced down at my fitted black cashmere sweater.  Although I liked it, I doubted it was my sweater they were looking i
t.  More likely they had been checking out Travis.
 
But I
looked
back up at
him
and said,
smiling,
“You must be right.
 
Why wouldn’t they want to stop in the cold to see
what I was wearing
?
”

He laughed and then picked up his menu. 
“
So what’s good here?”
he
asked.

“They have really good sangria,” I
immediately
replied
.

“Do you want to get a pitcher?”

“Sure, that sounds
great
.”

I told him how I liked to come here in the summer and sit out in the patio area, drinking sangria into the evening and people-watching. 
We’d
even
come here after work a few times for happy hour. 
Travis seemed to be spending more time with our group lately,
and
as I told him about it,
I
wondered if he would be joining us for our after-work activities
this
summer. 
I turned my attention back to the menu, and we discussed various combinations of what we should order. 
I pointed out a few things to him that I had tried before. 
Eventually w
e picked out a
selection of
tapas to share and gave our order to the waitress.

“So how do you like living here so far?” I asked.

“It’s great.  I like DC—it’s a lot smaller than New York, but I like it here.  I guess the only hard thing
is not really knowing
people.”

“Yeah, I
think
it would be hard to move somewhere that you don’t know anyone.”

“Have you always lived here?”

I nodded, taking a
sip of my sangria.  “
I’m from Northern Virginia. 
I didn’t always live in Arlington, but close enough, you know? 
I already knew tons of people when I moved there. 
That was pretty brave of you to just move here
to DC without
knowing anyone.”

“I guess I was ready for a change,” Travis said easily.

“Tired of New York?”

“Well, I’d been there since college
—in the city, I mean.
 
And a
s I said earlier, my ex and I broke up last summer.  Neither of us
were
happy in the end, so it was the right thing to do.  But still, I felt ready for a bigger change.  Maybe I was just ready to start over
somewhere new
.”

I nodded thoughtfully, listening to his explanation.  It was hard to imagine just picking up and moving
to a new city
.  I’d grown up in
this area
, and all of my friends and family were here.  I was happy in my job, so that wasn’t
a
reason for me to leave either.
  Travis certainly was different than the
other
guys that I’d dated.  He always seemed so sure of himself, so confident in his actions.  I decided that he must be older than me—no guys my age were this mature
about everything.

We
chatted
easily
throughout dinner and after we’d
finished eating
,
walked outside
into the night
. 
Travis held the door open for me, and I smiled up at him as I went by. 
It had started to snow again,
and tiny f
lakes were
falling softly down,
dancing
in the light from the lampposts.
 
As they swirled around in the air, they were landing on both of us
.
 
“Wow, it got cold,” Travis
said, the fog from his breath filling the air between us.
  He zipped up his jacket as he stood facing me.

“I know,” I said, brushing a few snowflakes out of my hair.
  I noticed that he watched me as I did so.

“
Should we head for the metro
?” Travis asked.

“Yeah, definitely,” I said
.
  “It’s freezing out here.”

“I don’t know this part of DC, so you lead the way
.
”

“There’s a station right around the corner.” 
I started walking down the block with Travis at my side.

“What line are you?”
he asked.

“Orange line.
 
How about you?”

“Same thing.”
  Travis
silently
walked along beside me, although
I felt content next to him
. 
It was a
comfortable
silence. 
He slowed his long stride to keep pace with mine
, and i
t actually
took me
a few minutes
to notice
that neither of us had said anything in a while
.
 
“Are you okay to get home?”
Travis
suddenly
asked in his deep voice.  “I can drive you
back to your apartment
after
we get to my metro stop
if you’d like.”

I looked up at him, surprised.  He was
gazing
down at me,
his brown eyes intense,
but I couldn’t read the expression on his face.  Still, as I watched him, I felt a tiny surge of pleasure at his concern
, at the idea of Travis driving me home.
 
“Oh,
uh,
yeah
;
I’ll be fine
,
”
I stammered.

“
Are you
sure?
  I don’t mind.
”

“Really,
I’ll be fine.  It’s not late.  Thanks for the offer though.”
  I smiled up at him, telling myself that he was just being polite.
  He probably would’ve offered anyone a ride if he thought they needed one.

We arrived at the
metro
station and rode the escalator down beneath the city streets. 
A train had just pulled into the station, and we strode right on. 
I
selected a seat
next to the window, and Travis
sat down beside me. 
The train was not very full, and he stretched his long legs out in the aisle. 
As we pulled
away from the
platform
, the walls were
soon
whizzing by us
,
and then
we were in the dark tunnel.  A young couple was sitting near us, and I wondered if they thought that
we
were a couple
,
too.  The guy had his arm casually draped around his girlfriend’s shoulders
, and he was whispering in her ear.
  Although Travis and I were seated side by side, I was
quite
aware that no parts of our bodies were touching.

The conductor announced the
next
stop, which came out sounding complet
ely garbled over the intercom.
 
“This is me,” Travis said,
glancing
over
.

“Okay.  So I guess I’ll see you Monday?” I asked.
 
We’d had such a fun afternoon
and dinner
together, I was kind of sad that he was leaving.  Maybe I should have taken him up on the offer for a ride. 
Did he want to spend more time with me, too?
 
I could have always invited him up to my apartment for a drink after he’d driven me home. 
There was no time to analyze the situation now
,
though,
because
the train was
coming
to a stop.

“Yep,”
Travis
replied with a smile.  “
I’ll s
ee you on Monday.
 
Goodnight
,
Maddy
.
”
 
He
slowly
stood up
,
and
I watched as he
walked toward the doors. 
His broad shoulders filled out his black leather jacket, and he had an easy saunter to his step. 
He pulled his black wool cap back over his head, covering his dark brown hair. 
As he turned
to leave, he looked back at me. 
My breath caught as m
y eyes met his.  Neither of us said anything, but as his
dark
eyes
bore into
mine, I knew
in that moment
that I was starting to fall for him.

After a lazy morning
spent
reading the Sunday paper and drinking coffee
in my pajamas
, I couldn’t put off the chores that needed to get done any longer. 
I threw some laundry in my washing machine and then headed out to do
my
grocery shopping. 
The cold air blasted against my face as I walked outside,
but at least it had stopped snowing.  I drove to t
he store, trying to decide what to make for dinner that night. 
As I walked in the door, a
cute guy in gym clothes smiled at me
.  I gave him a brief smile back, but kept walking, not feeling
like
getting stuck in a conversation with a complete stranger.

I decided to make fajitas for dinner, and
I
wandered around the produce section,
pick
ing
out green
and red
pepper
s
.  I walked along the outer aisles of the store, grabbing a container of
low-fat
sour cream,
package of
tortillas, and
finally
a steak.
  A couple near me was doing their shopping, and I wondered what it would be like to have someone to eat dinner with every night.  My ex and I had spent a lot of evenings together,
even
g
oing grocery shopping to pick out the ingredients for that night’s meal.  B
ut since we hadn’t lived together, there were certainly
plenty of
times
that I’d eaten dinner alone. 
It
must be nice to live with someone else—to have someone to
make dinner with each evening, to
spend
e
ach
night with.
 
I sighed, realizing that it would be a while before I was
in that stage of a relationship
with anyone again.  Not only was I currently without a boyfriend, I wasn’t even dating anyone now.
 
My cell rang, and I
pulled it out of my purse to s
ee
Marissa
’s number
on the screen
.