People Watching

Someday I'll be fallin' without caution
But for now I'm only people watching

She sees a lot from where she stands each night.

She watches.

She notices a lot, more than most even realize.

Sometimes what she sees makes her smile. Like when a couple actually seems happy and cuddle and can't keep their hands off each other. She wants that.

So much.

Other times she sees the girl with the dazzling diamond on her hand trying to get the attention of the one she's with. But he's indifferent. His eyes roam.

To others…

I don't want that.

It's so hard.

Relationships.

I've had them before. I've had the ring on my finger. I missed the clues. Maybe I was the clueless one, but I didn't see it coming. I think I just wanted it too badly. I mean, I wouldn't say I was blind; things were not perfect. Maybe I was settling. Well, yes, actually, that was exactly what I was doing. At that point, after years of being together, what do you do next? It was a bad pattern, one so many couples fall into.

I had a dream about a house behind a picket fence
Next one I choose to trust, I hope I use some common sense

However, that was then, and this is now. It's over, ended badly, but all in all, I'm happier. I'm looking for Mr. Right. I think I've seen him, or I thought I did. He was here for days in a row, we hit it off, or I thought we did. There was flirting. Hair twirling. Moony eyes from both of us.

I know he worked in the area for a great company. He told me a lot about his job and his family. He was a little older. He married his high school sweetheart, but it did not end well. No kids. He was now married to his job, but he was looking for something, hoping just like I was.

But, just like that, he never came back.

Being a bartender is a tough job. So many men flirt. Women, too. You have to be able to sift through them and find the sincere ones, and I thought he was it.

Oh, well. Like my dad always says, 'it will happen when it happens.' I love that man.

I grew up in this bar, been in the family for generations. It isn't my actual profession. No, I'm an adjunct professor at the college. It's semester break, and I'm helping out Dad and my brother, Em.

Like I said, I'm a watcher, so this is a great place to do that sort of thing.

All my friends are paired off with great partners, and I'm really happy for them. And yes, they always fix me up with this one and that one, and I go along … for them.

But it never ends well.

Anyhow. Here I am on Saturday night, working with my hands, but people watching with my eyes. The place is packed, and I've zeroed in on a few people. Tall, dark, and handsome is in here at least five nights a week, and every week it's someone different. Well, wait, one time, one of them lasted a few weeks. I thought she was the one. But then she wasn't. Funny thing is, they come back in too, and they look for him; see him with another, and some try hard to get his attention, others slink away. If all the jilted women got together, there would be a small army of exes, and he'd be in big trouble. Lol, that I'd love to see.

Oh, look, those two are dancing so close, she's rubbing his back, he's talking to her in her ear, but his eyes are on the ass of a younger girl with the tightest dress on earth. See, that right there. So wrong. Two other people in booth five are arguing. They're regulars, and they do that a lot. But other times, they are the cutest.

It's almost break time, and I look around for Em. As I turn, I see something out of the corner of my eye. A glimpse of exactly what I've been looking for.

He's smiling and looks like a man on a mission to get to the bar. Where has he been? Why is there a beautiful woman with him?

"Hi, Bella," he says as he gets closer, gently grabbing my hands in his, which has never happened before.

"Hi, Edward," I reply with a slight giggle.

"Can we talk, maybe sit for a few minutes," he asks in a rush.

Soon we're seated at a quiet table in the back of the room, and he hurriedly tells me about where he's been and why. And he explains why he entered the bar with a beautiful blond. It's his sister, Rose, who ran into trouble on her cross-country ride back home. She lost her wallet in the middle of nowhere and called Edward for help. He took the first flight out to Arizona, rented a car, and got to her as soon as he could. Then they drove back in her car.

He shakes his head at Rose, who is now chatting it up with my brother at the bar. She's laughing at something he's saying. She then makes her way to our table, and we introduce ourselves. She tells me Edward was a mess that he had no way to contact me. That all he did was talk about me. Right now, his face is beet red at being called out. Little does he know I was missing him, too. Emmett can attest to that … and he does. Now it's time for me to blush.

We talk a short walk outside, and Edward holds my hand. I watch as others pass, I notice them, but my mind is on the man by my side.

When we turn the corner to the parking lot, he stops, pulls me to him, and gently kisses the top of my head.

"Bella," he says breathily, making me shiver. "I thought about you a lot. I missed you. I want to take you out, get to know you better." Would that be okay?"

"More than okay," I say, transfixed by how drop-dead gorgeous he is.

I wanna feel all that love and emotion
Be that attached to the person I'm holding

He gives me that crooked smile I've come to love just before his lips meet mine, and I feel like this is a new beginning.