The warm afternoon sunlight streams inside the doorway as I open the heavy metal door. I lean down and wedge the doorstopper into place before stepping outside onto the wooden deck. There is a soft wind rustling in the trees as I look around to the hills in the distance, the vision marred only some of the tall buildings of the downtown business core.
I sit down on the deck, in my familiar spot and grab my cigarettes. I bring one to my lips and glance over to the industrial scrap-metal business that backs onto our work property. I scan past the trees, look past the forklift and other heavy machinery in hopes of seeing him. But, not one worker is in view.
It started a few weeks ago, in the very same location. I had sat down for my morning cigarette break and I noticed him looking in my direction from where he stood over one hundred feet away. I thought nothing of it as I lit my cigarette and started to read my newspaper. Between stories, I looked up and noticed him look up from his work every so often to look at me. I smiled and secretly wondered whether he could see up my skirt from that angle.
Each break I took that day, he was there. Working away, casting glances as he did. I watched him as much as he watched me. My final break of the day, as I turned to walk inside, he lifted his arm and waved at me. Laughing, I waved back. Too shy to go over and talk to him, I simply played the game. I glanced, he glanced. He waved, I waved. I smiled, and then he would smile. Whenever I went out and he would show up, he usually made a noise that would make me look up from my reading, and our flirting would begin.
It continued each day until suddenly he wasn't there anymore. I still scanned each time I sat down for my cigarette, slightly disappointed he wasn't there for my pleasure. As silly as it was, our flirting across 100-feet was enjoyable, and I missed it.
Not seeing him again today, I strike a match and light my cigarette and the thoughts of him fill my brain. I don't even know his name, yet our rendezvous from across the yard have obviously affected me.
As I inhale, my mysterious partner emerges from behind the forklift. My heart skips a beat that he is there. Suddenly, I realize that he is not stopping at the stand where he keeps his beverage. He is walking towards me, smiling, slowly removing his hardhat and gloves as he does. I watch him as he walks slowly over to the bottom of the wooden fire escape where I sit.
"May I come up?" He says, smiling.
"Okay." I managed to stumble out.
He walks up the stairs until he is level with me. He kneels on the stairs so he is at eye level with me and kisses me deeply on the lips. After a moment, our lips part, and his tongue searches for mine. When we separate, he smiles at me. "I have wanted to do that for the past three weeks."
"I have been trying to get the nerve to talk to you for the past three weeks, but you disappeared." I say, surprised I can find words.
"I have been around, you just couldn't see me. But I have been watching you. Each time you would lean back in the sun, when you straighten your skirt, when you bend over to get the door stop before going in. I have been watching you." He says, never breaking the eye contact we share.
The thought of that sends shivers down my spine, that he was somewhere, somehow watching, undetectable by me.
