Reconnecting

I was on my way out of a long hot shift at work, relieved, and chatting with my work partner as we quick stepped our way through the rest of the plant towards the door when i happened to notice him staring me down.... so intently that even my partner made a comment as we passed by.

i couldnt help notice how committed he was to making me aware of his presence. He stood leaning against the metal railing, propped up on his elbow slightly, his ankles crossed, and his eyes dead set on me, grinning. It must have been a full minute of undivided attention! it caught me off guard and made me nervous and feel flustered! my partner tried to make light of things and made a joke to lighten the mood, to which i was ever so grateful! as we exited the building i turned back, my glance sweeping the production floor briefly only to be met again with the same eyes and smile as before, as if he was a statue made of stone....

That morning i went home confused and curious. I knew he looked vaguely familiar, yet, i had NO idea from where!

As the morning continued on like a typical friday after a long week at work, my mind slowly began to bury the incident as i had a few glasses of wine and tried to relax so i could get some sort of a nap in before everyone else got off work and began the typical friday night bonfire bags and grilling festivities.

to be quite frank, the entire incident drifted so far into the back of my mind that it seemed no more than a hazy faded dream by Sunday night's return to the grind that no more was made of it....

the week ground on in the same manner as all the rest seem to when youre 3rd shift. you have your 'Sunday' Monday, your 'Monday' Monday, then 'Monday Jr', 'Wednesday', and 'Thursday/Friday'......

Me and my partner and a few of the chattier coworkers were gathered around the wash sink scrubbing the film of black dust off of our arms and faces scoffing about the threats of impromptu overtime we were constantly threatened with before we beelined for the parking lot to check out for the weekend when i realized that i was being watched. none of the others noticed at first, mostly because their faces were buried in papertowels with their eyes closed exclaiming sighs of relief.

i tried to go back to what i was doing but was flustered and a lil thrown off by the blatant attention. i waited for the others to finish to walk with them and as we rounded the corner, we were met with his fixed gaze and beaming grin that snagged each of our attention this time making it very beyond obvious that he was trying to get my attention. i scuttled over to one of the first shift girlies that i happened to know and struck up a quick conversation with her and tried not to be obvious as i inquired what that guys name was because i knew i knew him from somewhere but it didnt dawn on me as to exactly where until she uttered his name......

it had been 9 years since we met and life had definitely taken us in completely different directions in that time. He had journeyed out to California to pursue a Beekeeping gig for a couple of years after his tragic break up with his ex (who i actually met him through), and I finished my Cosmetology degree, pursued a career in my field, got married and divorced.... and somehow we both managed to land ourselves a couple of terrible jobs in a terrible place! what are the odds?? haha!

I tried to not be awkward as i turned and left after i finished my conversation with the first shift girlie, but i failed miserably! He was RIGHT behind me and flustered me so fast i couldnt even have said words if i wanted to! He was really gorgeous! Tall, medium muscular build but still slender, light brown hair neatly cut into a faux hawk and styled just right, just enough tan that u know hes an outdoorsy guy, eyes that smile with his face, and a beautiful sparkling white smile that infects everyone around him! I was HIT and it was obvious!

When i finally made it out the door and made my journey home, i decided to take the chance and friended him on facebook to find out what the deal was and almost immediately, he messaged me saying he knew me and remember me from when we first met. I was not only shocked but intrigued! We barely met way back then and it was quite brief... But here we were, reconnected after all these years!..................................