365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day Six - Eye Contact

The man sits alone at his table drinking coffee with his eyes glued on the glowing computer monitor placed in front of him. This is normal for him. He wakes up in the morning, prepares for the day, computer in hand, smirking on his way out the door with angst on his next writing session before work.

Yet, the thought of work erases the smirk from his face and his expression contorts to one of pure ambition, wanting nothing other than to push himself so one day he can move away from the penny pinching lifestyle of his average day and into the one of his fantasies and these writing sessions before work are what will take him to that fantasy. And with this chain of thoughts, his smirk returns as he starts his car and starts off for the local coffee shop, just like the hipster he his.

Today was just like any other day, starting out with another brilliant idea with no follow through due to the overwhelming writers block that is inevitably becoming his life. He stares at the broken sentences and half a paragraph of explanation and no words or thoughts come to mind. Just a giant brick wall, if only it were real he thought, so he could at least rattle his brain against it hoping to stir up some thoughts.

The migraine started a little bit early today, he thought to himself. He placed his head in his cool palms hoping to relieve at least a little pressure from that pounding cantaloupe he calls a brain, yet no relief. The man let out a slight sigh and removed his head from his hands. Another useless page and another 15 seconds holding down the delete key. He hoped that a better idea would come to his mind before the last word on the page disappears from existence. But he never imagined that during those next 15 seconds in his life would transpire the way that they did.

He felt a rough bump on his chair jarring his finger away from the delete key and heard the thud of a cup filled with liquid striking the ground. A cold chill started to run across his foot knowing now that the object that hit the floor decided to rest on his shoe. Luckily it was an iced coffee. "I'm so sorry!" said a woman quickly moving to the floor with two handfuls of napkins dabbing around the carpet of the coffee shop trying to clean the mess that had been made.

She brushed her long, wavy blonde hair out of her face and looked up at him apologetically, but when they locked eyes no words came out of his mouth. The world stood still as if all the birds and cars paused to make this moment the only thing that was even relatively in motion on this floating orb called Earth. She wore form-fitting jeans with a small flowered blouse and brown flats. It didn't matter what she was wearing or what he was wearing, if he had shaved that morning or the fact that he forgot to floss, because that moment they shared was real.

He finally blinked and she started to blush. "It's okay, really. Matter of fact, I think I like my shoe better now. It's like I'm on a beach!" His faced turned red too as he questioned why he would respond with something so stupid, but she seemed to not mind judging by the smile that lit up on her face as she giggled. He got down on the floor and started helping her clean up the spill. "My names Kevin, by the way", He said awkwardly hoping that it was a good time to introduce himself knowing nothing about this woman other than the fact that she might enjoy spilling drinks on tennis shoes.

"Grace" she responded, quite quickly to say the least. "Isn't it ironic here I am being so clumsy, yet my name is Grace?" She laughed to herself.

"I think it's a lovely name..." Kevin replied. "Maybe I could get you a new cup of coffee, since I'm going to be taking most of this one to work with me?"

Grace blushed again, trying to hold back a smile, "I'm actually in a hurry, hence the bumping into your chair and all."

"Oh, I understand" Kevin, said while looking down.

"BUT! I am free tomorrow morning... If it wouldn't be too much of a hassle for you." A look of hope gleamed across Grace's eyes.

"I would love that. I truly would." Kevin responded. His heart pounded and his chest felt like it was going to float away from his body if he wasn't careful enough to keep it in place. They stood up realizing that they just had a conversation with a puddle of spilt coffee.

"Well! I will see you tomorrow then!" Grace said giddily walking backwards towards the exit. "Tomorrow, same place!" As she stared at Kevin she accidentally bumped into another table. "I'm sooo sorry!" she apologized to the table of three who had no idea what kind of moment was just held inside these four walls of this coffee shop.

"Yeah" Kevin grinned, not able to contain his happiness anymore. "I will make sure to talk to the owner and let him know not to touch the coffee stain here on the floor so we know where to meet!" They gave each other one last smile and look of acknowledgment and she went out the door on her way to complete her busy day.

Kevin thought to himself and smiled. He thought about how crazy the odds are of two people equally attracted to one another locking eyes for just a second could possibly change the rest of their lives. He took a deep breath and retook his place in front of the computer screen he had left, which now was black do to inactivity. As he swiped his finger across the track pad the screen lit up and on the screen right next to that blinking bar that he had used so many times to topple paragraphs of text stood one word... Love. And just then, he got an idea.