Beautiful Stranger

(Chapter One: Destiny)

She was beautiful, Elliot thought as he watched the woman standing at the counter across the room. He was having lunch with a few of the guys from work and actively listening to their conversation.

But his eyes were drawn almost magnetically to the attractive stranger thirty feet away. He had to talk to her. To find a way to meet her. She was laughing and talking to the waitress behind the bar. She was gorgeous and had an amazing smile. Elliot watched her, completely taken by her mere presence in the same room as him.

She wasn't really tall, but had long legs. He liked long legs. She wore blue jeans and a white tank top. Her hair was soft and wavy, a delicate blend of brunette and auburn. She had an amazing body with curves he would kill to touch.

It had been just over a year since he and Kathy had divorced. Elliot hadn't even looked at another woman, until now. He just hadn't quite gotten over Kathy. They were high school sweethearts and she was the mother of his five children. But years of being second to the job had finally taken it's toll and the last time she left him, really was the last.

It had all seemed unreal at first. He got an apartment in the city and Kathy kept the house in Queens. He got his kids every other weekend and on Holidays. It sucked! But it had become his life. And this was the way things were now.

Friends had tried to set him up before. Blind dates were always a disaster. He hated the thought of being alone and longed for someone to spend his time with. But after twenty four years of marriage, Elliot wasn't even sure where or how to meet women anymore.

And now as he sat here staring at this exotic beauty across the room, he couldn't even think of what to say to her.

"I got this," his buddy said picking up the bill as the waitress laid it down and standing to go pay.

"No," Elliot interrupted. "It's on me." He pulled his credit card from his wallet and walked toward the check out counter. He might not have anything to say once he got there, but this would at least give him an excuse to get a better look at her.

He stood only inches away from her and watched as she flipped through the menu. He handed his credit card to the girl behind the counter and waited as she slid it through the machine. He turned to look at his beautiful stranger again. This time she was looking at him as well.

She was smiling and his heart was pounding. He wanted so badly to speak to her, but found no words. Elliot smiled shyly and quickly turned the other way. Who was he kidding? Girl's like this only date rock stars and famous people.

"So," she said tapping her manicured fingernails across the counter, "you can stare at my ass from across the room for twenty minutes, but you can't say hello?"

Elliot looked back up at her and smiled. "Hello."

"That's better," she said with a smile. "Hello."

"And I wasn't staring at your ass."

"No? You weren't checking me out?"

"I didn't say that," he laughed. "Well, maybe I noticed your ass."

She smiled and laughed a little.

"How did you know…"

"The mirror behind the bar," she said pointing ahead.

"Now I'm a little embarrassed."

"Don't be. It's flattering."

"You don't think it's creepy when a guy sits across the room and stares at you?"

"If you hadn't said hello, then it would have just been creepy."

"Oh," he said with a smile. "Do you come here often?"

"No, actually this is my first time."

"You are in for a treat. They have amazing food."

"Good, because I'm starving."

"I could make a recommendation."

"The steak?" She asked pointing to his bill on the counter.

"Ahh, did you see that in the mirror, too?"

"No, actually. You have a bit of steak sauce on your tie."

"I do?" Elliot looked down at the small but noticeable stain. "Oh, great. I have to be in court in an hour."

"Relax. I can help," she said confidently twisting his tie in her fingers and leading him toward the bar. "Club soda, please." She said with a smile to the bartender. She picked up a cocktail napkin and wiped away the sauce. Elliot watched as she dabbed another napkin and soaked the stain with club soda and blotted it until it disappeared. "There," she said with a smile.

"Look at that. You can't even tell it was there."

"The hand dryer in the bathroom will dry the spot in a couple of minutes. No one will ever know."

"Can you keep a secret?" He said with a smile.

"Your secret is safe with me." She smiled back.

"So, I guess I should leave you to your menu." He said before he realized he really didn't want to stop talking to her.

"Umm," she said shaking her head. "I just am waiting to pick up my order. You can wait with me if you'd like."

"Sure," Elliot smiled again as he pulled out a barstool for her.

"Thanks."

"Can I get you a beer while we wait?"

"Oh, that's okay. I really don't drink beer often."

"It doesn't have to be beer. Scotch…"

She laughed. God he loved her laugh.

"Or soda, whatever you'd like. You have to let me thank you for the tie."

"Okay," she said nodding her head. "Iced tea?"

"Iced tea it is," Elliot said looking at the bartender as he took a seat on the stool beside her, "two please."

They sat and talked about pretty much nothing for another fifteen minutes before her order came up. Elliot paid the bill for their drinks and thanked her again as he watched her walk out the door. It wasn't until she was already gone that he realized he had forgotten to get her name. He had no way of finding her, but to hope that somehow destiny would bring them together again.

That night as he laid in bed alone staring up at the ceiling his mind drifted back to her. The beautiful woman he met in the restaurant who had saved his tie and his heart from their doom.

As he closed his eyes he saw them. Her big brown eyes gazing back at him. The prettiest brown eyes he had ever looked into. He wondered what it would be like to kiss her full luscious lips. Or to comb his fingers through her hair. He wondered what it felt like to hold her tight and cradle her through the night and wake up next to her in the morning. To see her golden skin, kissed by the morning sun through the bedroom window as she laid across his bed. Covered only by the thin smoothness of his Egyptian cotton sheets. For now, all he could do was wonder. He had let her slip away, his Cinderella, without so much as asking her name.