Mature Man & Maiden Maureen Ch. 22

It was apparent that intense intelligence abounded behind those sexy and erotic eyes. As if she knew me, she captured me and summed me up in just a look. I felt transparently violated by her invasive stare. Her look made me feel used but not in a bad way. She made me feel nakedly exposed but not in a sexual way.

In a truth be told sort of look, she removed the layers of pretenses, deception, and foolishness about me. I felt that she saw the real me and was looking at the person that hid beneath my masked persona. Immediately, by her overtly penetrating look, I could tell that she liked what she saw. Immediately, our mutual attraction flickered before catching fire.

# # #

Suddenly, I thought of that movie, Heaven Can Wait with Warren Beatty as Joe Pendleton and Julie Christie as Betty Logan. The movie was a remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan with Robert Montgomery and Evelyn Keyes. In the original movie, Joe Pendleton is a boxer who's in the pink of his physical fitness, whereas, in the remake, Joe Pendleton is the quarterback of a professional football team at the height of his successful career. In the original movie, Joe dies of a heart attack in the boxing ring, whereas in the remake, Joe is hit by a car while riding his bicycle through a highway tunnel.

Nonetheless, as it was in the original movie, the main character died when an angel, hoping to spare him from the pain and the suffering of dying, prematurely, pulled his spirit from his body. Only, just as happened in the original movie in the boxing ring, the boxer wasn't having a heart attack and would have not only survived but also, he would have won the fight. In the remake, the car would have swerved and missed him and there would have been no fatal accident. Prematurely removing the soul, the angel made a huge mistake.

In an attempt to rectify his mistake, the angel took Warren Beatty around to different people who are about to die hoping to find a comparable body for Joe Pendleton to inhabit. Finally, he put him in the body of a rich industrialist, Leo Farnsworth. Only, unbeknownst to Joe, there's a plot, by his wife, Dyan Cannon, and her extramarital lover to murder him. Now, Joe and the angel are on a panicked mission to find another body to inhabit before it's too late and he's dead again, this time forever.

Meanwhile, complicating things, while inhabiting the body of Leo Farnsworth, he meets a woman, Julie Christie, and has fallen in love with her. He knows now that the angels are searching for another body to place him inside. Fearing that he may lose touch with this love at first sight woman, he warned Julie Christie that if anything was to happen to him, and that if he was to die, she should give a stranger a chance. Figuring that fate would intervene and inevitably bring them together again, but that he'd be a stranger to her, he told her that it's in the eyes.

The eyes are the window to the soul and the only way that she'll recognize him again. With all of this supposition flashing through my mind within nanoseconds, I wondered if Kate had a similar accident and the angels, having made a terrible mistake by taking Maureen too early, and to rectify their mistake, had put her spirit in another body. Nah, grasping at straws with my grief twisting my mind, that's just crazy, or is it?

# # #

"Sorry," I said, as we reached for the same package of stew, beef bones and our fingers briefly touched.

As if an electrical shock with a subsequent surge of energy, the feeling that I received when I touched her fingers was jolting. The sensation of her presence, standing so close to me without making contact, penetrated my soul. While wondering if Maureen was in there, I couldn't stop staring at her eyes. She melted me with her look and I was forever lost in her stare.

"Go ahead," she said pulling her hand away and reaching for another package.

I gave her a big smile.

"Thank you," I said staring at her.

Unable to look away, her hypnotic eyes set my heart ablaze with romantic desire for her.

"I give my dogs these as a special reward. This is the only package with a small bone and a big bone. I have two dogs a Golden Retriever and a Rat terrier. Chewing on the bones keeps them quiet for a couple hours."

# # #

Suddenly, I felt pathetically lonely that I had to explain why I wanted this particular package of bones to a stranger. I needed to explain why this particular package of bones was so important to me. Yet, it wasn't the package of bones, of course, it was her. Just as it was the first time that I met Maureen at the dog park, engaging her in conversation was my simplistic way of prolonging my time with her. I didn't want her to leave and not see her again.

Moreover, just as I had talked to Maureen about dogs when I first met her at the dog park, I talked to his woman about dogs at the meat counter in the supermarket. Just as I didn't want Maureen to leave that first time that I met her, I didn't want this woman to leave either. It was my way of hoping to instigate something more, if only a longer conversation. At the very least, I needed to know her name so that if I never saw her again, I could dream about meeting her again.

"Yes, I understand," she said giving me a look as if there was something wrong with me.

I laughed.

"This package has a big bone and a little bone," I said again while holding up the package to show her while staring at the package and then looking up at her again.

Making me nervous, she was stunningly beautiful. In the way that men stare at models that they happen to see on the street, I couldn't stop staring at her. Suddenly feeling ridiculously weird that I was going on about this package of bones and about the dogs, I realized that I've been home alone way too long with just the dogs. I needed to explain.

"I have a big dog, a Golden Retriever, and a little dog, a Rat Terrier at home," I said again and unable to stop myself from repeating myself.

As soon as I said that, realizing that I was repeating myself again, I was embarrassed for myself. I sounded like someone who was mentally challenged telling her that I have a big dog and a little dog. What the Hell is wrong with me? Why is this woman making me so nervous? Why is she still standing here listening to my miscellaneous ramblings.

"I know, you said that already," she said with a laugh. "Please," she laughed and raised a hand to stop me from talking. "You don't have to explain. You may have that particular package of bones. I'll take another. Even though I love dogs, I don't have a dog. I only use the bones to give flavor to my broth."

# # #

Her assurance relaxed me and immediately, I felt comfortable with this woman and, now that I found her, I didn't want her to disappear from my life. In the way that I used to haunt the dog park looking for Maureen, I didn't want to haunt the supermarket while hoping to accidentally, albeit, deliberately bump into her again. Before she left, I needed to show her my interest in her now. I needed to know if she was as interested in me as I was interested in her.

'What if she's married,' I thought? 'What if she has a boyfriend? What if she's...' I thought with a gulp. 'What if she plays for the other team? What if she swings from the other side of the plate? What if she prefers having sex with woman instead of with men? What if she's lesbian and not interested in having a sexual relationship with a man?'

With all of those thoughts pouring through my mind, husband, boyfriend, and lesbian, taking a chance of making a fool of myself, I stuck out my hand.

"Hi," I said. "I'm Mark."

She laughed.

"Hi Mark. I'm Kate," she said smiling while shaking my hand as if we had just met at the office.

Her hand was soft and warm. I didn't want to let go of it. I didn't want her to leave. I tried thinking of things to say to keep her there with me longer.

"Hi, Kate," I said unable to think of anything else to say and to keep her there talking to me.

She blanked my mind with her beauty and with those eyes that reminded me so much of Maureen's eyes.

"It's nice to meet you," she said turning and about to leave.

I lightly touched her hand.

"Pardon me for being so forward. I apologize for asking you such a personal question but," I said leaving my hand on her hand to, hopefully, stop her from leaving.

She smiled at me again. She had a wonderful smile. She was even more beautiful when she smiled.

"Yes?" she said looking at me with those eyes again.

I gave her an embarrassed look.

"Do you have someone in your life?"

She looked and made a face as if I was crazy.

"Pardon?"

# # #

I'm such a dummy. In the way that I blurted that out, it sounded too much as if I was trying to intrude upon her personal and private life. I sounded too much like a stalker. She looked at me oddly and I would have, too, if someone, a stranger, had asked me a question, such as that and, in that way when I had just met them. I rephrased the question and smiled.

"Please, forgive me for being so impetuous, but are you married or do you have a boyfriend," I asked not daring to ask if she was lesbian?

She gave me an embarrassed laugh and a nervous smile.

"Oh," she said. "No, I'm not married. I'm divorced." She made eye contact with those hypnotic eyes before answering me. "And, presently and sadly," she laughed. "I'm without a boyfriend," she said rolling her eyes while laughing.

I returned her laugh with my laugh.

"Listen," I said suddenly feeling a psychic connecting with her gaze. "I haven't had lunch since my fiancée died."

I saw the shock that washed over her face.

"I'm sorry," I said laughing. "I've been home alone way too long with the dogs. Obviously, I forget how to communicate with a human, especially with a beautiful woman." I took a big breath. "What I meant to say was, I haven't had lunch with anyone since..."

Suddenly, she turned pale and I knew that there was more beneath the surface to this woman.

"How did she die?"

Saving me from making more of a fool of myself, she interrupted me to look at me with interest. No doubt, she wanted to know if I had killed her.

"She died suddenly...in a car accident."

I returned her look of sadness with my look of sadness.

"I'm sorry," she said wringing her hands. "I had a car accident several months ago, a very severe one, and I nearly died. I was in a coma for sixteen days."

She looked weirdly distant suddenly, as if she had left her body and someone else was speaking for her.

"To say that the accident was a life altering experience is an understatement." She pulled a handful of her hair forward. "I used to have beautiful, natural blonde hair. When I awakened from the coma, I was totally gray," she said with a laugh. "I decided to keep my gray hair as a reminder of how fleeting that life can be."

She touched me with her story, with her sensitivity and with her personality, and, of course, with her good-looks. Oddly enough and coincidentally, her accident was around the same time of Maureen's accident. After loving Maureen, never did I ever think that I could fall for in love with anyone again. Yet, love at first sight, suddenly, I was so very nervous again. I was afraid that she'd leave and I'd never see her again. I was in a panic.

Could she be Maureen? Did an Angel make a mistake, when he took my fiancée too early and by mistake? Hoping to rectify his mistake, did he put her in Kate's body? Is our meeting in the supermarket at the meat counter destiny? Here's the woman of my dreams standing in front of me and I'm tongue-tied.

I took a breath to relax. Maybe, she's Maureen reincarnated. Nah, it can't be. There's no such thing as reincarnation, or is there? Who knows?

To be continued...