Kate's insides knew it was a bad idea from the very first moment she heard him speak. But she couldn't help it. She lost her mind to him, which was how she thought about it - that she lost her mind, not her heart, - very early on in their relationship.
Kate had moved to Atlanta a few months earlier from Chicago and was working for a publishing house. She lived downtown and could walk to her office from her condo. She was on her way to the office the morning that they met. She was standing in line at her favorite little cafe waiting for her cup of coffee when she heard a low voice with a slight twang in hear ear whisper, "You're about to lose your keys miss."
She immediately reached for her purse and felt her house keys dangling precariously from the back of her handbag. She tentatively turned to give the stranger a smile and all of her hesitation melted away when she saw the handsome, well put together man standing before her.
"Thanks," she murmured. She started to say more, to flirt with this man, but she saw a ring and decided against it. He was sweetly handsome. He looked like he was in his mid 40s and comfortably fit. Plump pink lips, trendy glasses, grey hair and goatee, and a twinkle in his eyes that gave Kate the impression that he just may be up to no good. He was not the type of man she was usually attracted to, but she immediately liked him. She smiled again and turned back around.
They followed that routine for a week. They were always both in the coffee shop a few minutes before eight each morning. They almost always exchanged a few pleasantries but that was all. Names were not exchanged.
After the first week, the flirting started. It was easy, good flirting. He could make her blush with a few words and she could make his eyebrows perk with just as few. She learned that his name was David; he lived in a more rural area outside of the city, took the train in each day, and had been married for just over seven years.
He found out that she was a diehard Chicago Cubs fan, was single and new to the area, and was much more chipper after her first sip of coffee. He had felt his body stir the first day they'd met. His eyes took a moment to focus on her keys dangling nearly out of her purse because they were busy being focused on her perfect round behind. And when she turned around and fixed her blue gaze on him, he found himself wishing he could take her somewhere private and show her just what she was stirring inside of him.
Kate appeared to be fairly reserved to an outside observer. She kept her light brown hair pretty short, usually in a flirty little bob. She typically wore glasses to the office – she felt like it made her look more like she belonged in the publishing world. And she kept her clothes limited to trousers and blouses, with the occasional skirt thrown in, most usually when the weather was warm. At only 27, she and worked hard to get where she was and wanted to be able to stand on the merit of her work, not the curves of her body.
David saw right through this. He could see the curves plain as day and sometimes had a hard time not imagining how it would feel to slide his hands along them.
As the days passed and they began to open up to each other, sometimes actually arriving early so that they could sit and have a cup of coffee before each heading off to work, David learned more about Kate. And the more he learned, the more he wanted to know.
They didn't talk very much about their personal lives. During one of their conversations the second week David made mention of his wife, but that was it. Kate did not talk about her dating life either. They focused on baseball and their pets and movies and music and things they loved in life. For Kate it was so wonderful to have a male friend whom she could just talk to. Though they did flirt, Kate knew she didn't have to worry about David hitting on her or how their relationship would change if they slept together. They both knew that's just not what their dynamic was all about. They were buddies. Their minds clicked in a way that made conversations effortless, and though they were both attracted to each other, they seemed to know that was just off limits.
Kate realized she was in serious trouble a few weeks after they had first met. That weekend, Kate had a date with someone her friends had set her up with and, though the gentleman was cute and sweet, she found herself comparing him to David the entire evening. She didn't fully realize she was doing it until she got home and was speaking to her friend on the phone trying to describe what wasn't just right about the guy.
It hit her like a ton of bricks as she leaned against her counter, sipping wine and chatting with her friend. After she hung up the phone, she thought to herself, "He may be the perfect guy for me. But he's married. And if anything happened I would never be able to trust him in a relationship."
She realized at that point that she had to either come to grips with the fact that he was meant to be just an acquaintance or she had to find a new coffee shop. The thought that if she simply stopped showing up at their shop he would probably never think about her again was a sudden and rather painful one for Kate. She decided that even though he might think she was crazy, she was going to talk to him about it Monday morning.
She showed up at 7:30am Monday. She waited in line, buying two cups of coffee, and sat fiddling with the creamer while she waited. He finally arrived a few minutes later and took a seat across from her in their small booth. He gave her a small smile, but she failed to see it where it was usually the brightest, in his eyes.
Immediately she knew something was wrong. She furrowed her brow and asked him right away if he was ok. She didn't even know where to begin with asking him what might be the matter because she really knew nothing about his life outside of how he liked his coffee and how much he loved the Yankees. He just gave her a little sigh and shook his head, clearly unsure of where to begin. He lifted his hands in a little shrugging motion and she noticed his sudden lack of jewelry.
She let out a soft little cry as she realized what must have happened. She didn't know what to say to him. Her first instinct was to ask a million questions, but the tired look in his eyes prevented her from doing so. Kate noticed now that David also looked especially out of place this morning because he was wearing jeans instead of his typical dress pants, crisp shirt, and colorful tie. She opened her mouth to say something, anything somewhat comforting, but could come up with nothing.
As David sat watching her bright eyes put it all together, he felt a little tug in his chest that he hadn't felt as he watched his wife pack her bags and leave him. He knew things weren't great with them, but he expected them to get through the rough patch and come out happy on the other side. Unfortunately he failed to mention this to his wife. He supposed they both failed to do a lot of things. But as he watched Kate's eyes go from curious to concerned he knew that for the first time in three days he was happy to be exactly where he was.
She pushed his cup of coffee over to his side of the table as she reached into her bag to pull out her phone. He watched with questioning eyes as she dialed quickly while passing him the cream.
