The two men sat on the wall eating sandwiches from their lunch containers.
That morning their respective wives had handed them these before they left for work. Although they each worked in different buildings they would occasionally meet up and keep each other company while they watched the passers-by.
The town square was busy with locals, out shopping or taking their own lunch breaks. They had been chatting idly for several minutes when one of them, the slightly older, stopped talking and stared across the square with glassy eyes.
The other prompted. “You OK?”
“Oh! Yes. Sorry. It just suddenly came back to me.” He was still gazing at something.
“What are you looking at?”
“No… nothing really. It was something…”
“Go on.”
“On that step over there. On the opposite side of the square. That’s where I saw her.”
The other nodded.
“She was a lot older than me of course, but she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She sat right there, reading a magazine. I guess you could say I was smitten.”
He chuckled softly.
“I had this compelling urge to go up to her and introduce myself or at least pretend I was lost or just needing directions to somewhere. I don’t know; anything I suppose.” He shook his head. “I didn’t, of course.”
He took a deep breath. “Anyway, when I came back a few minutes later, she was gone.” He shrugged. “The next day I made sure I was in the same place at the same time. I waited an age but she didn’t appear. I must have done that for days, no weeks! Just waiting for the chance to see her again.”
He fell silent, staring at the ground.
After a while, the other said, “And did you?”
He shook his head. “No. I never did.” A look of anguish came into his eyes.
The colleague said, “But why the sadness?”
The other touched his fingertips, counting. “She’d be going on for eighty now.”