As I walked over to her I noticed two different things that my action had created. One- the lines from the Boss’ “My Lucky Day” kept running through my mind and specifically besides the chorus the line “life’s a game and to win we must play/ Honey, you’re my lucky day”. Second – Tessa noticed me and while she had a smile on her face her eyes displayed something close to fear. The short walk over seemed to last a full minute (Have you ever noticed how far you actually walk in a full minute? Go ahead and try it, I know I travel at my normal pace 99 feet in a minute. Now consider she was maybe 30 feet from where I parked. See! Almost a wormhole effect, but I digress…) and I was able to notice what I had recently noticed about her, she is beautiful in a simple, warm way. I fought the flight drive and decided to fight through it because I knew I needed to win.
“Hello Tessa, do you have a minute?” She looked at me smiled brighter and the look of fear began to fade from eyes. “Hi, sure – are you okay?”
“Yes, everything is good I wanted, needed to give you this,” and I presented the package to her. (Now you have to remember this was not a gift wrapped box because I had intended to mail it to her. The box of candy was wrapped in purple tissue paper so it wasn’t like a “product order”.) She put her hands out to receive the box, she looked at it, looked at me and said, “Um, sorry, but I don’t understand. Do you need this shipped…”?
“No! No!” I exclaimed. “It is for you, I want you to have it.” She tilted her head to the left and looked at me and at the same time I felt the flight drive really kicking in. (Seriously I had to have looked like Michael Jackson doing “the lean” move from “Smooth Criminal” because every ounce of body embraced the “flight drive” but my feet were resolved to “fight” for the win.) “Thank you,” she said, “um, should I open it now?”
“No! No!” I exclaimed, “Please open it at home,” at that moment I could feel my toes breaking free from the pavement.” “Really?” she asked, “You want me to wait to open it?” She looked at me and I think she realized at the moment I was becoming unglued and her special heart and kindness had mercy on me. “Ok, I will open it when I get home” and she tucked it under her one arm.
“Great!” I said (noticing much of what I had said so far was one word exclamations) “um,” looking around and noticing it was just us standing in the parking lot and my car, “um, do you need a ride home?” (What the heck was I saying?) She looked at me; surprised was what I was reading from her – heck I was exuding it myself! “That is sweet but I live just around the corner. It is at least a little exercise I can get in today.”
What happened next has to be one of the stupidest things I have ever said, in fact immediately after said it I could feel one of my feet break completely free of the pavement.
I said, “Exercise? You look great.” (Ahh!) Tessa looked at me and she knew what I meant and that I realized what I said was a surprise to me – she smiled and had pity on me “Thanks but I enjoy the few minutes of walking outside” and with that she began to walk past me and she touched my hand and our eyes connected “Thank you for stopping by tonight” and she walked away.