Rome-ance
My arm tingled as I gripped the overhead rail in the tagged up subway car as my friends and I headed back to our suburban villa outside of Rome. As I stared blankly into the next subway car, barely paying attention to the conversation my traveling companions were having, our eyes met.
From beneath his ruffled light brown hair, through wide rimmed glasses, this young man’s eyes locked onto mine.
A quick smile spread across his face when I glanced behind me to see who he must actually be looking at, only to find it was me.
I felt my face getting warmer and my body began to shake off the tiredness of the day.
Let me be clear. He was handsome, wearing a gray cardigan over a plain white T-shirt. Gleaming brown eyes. Endearing smile. Not drop dead gorgeous, but neither am I. We continued to eye each other as the train passed another stop on the route to Termini station.
Feeling ultra aware of how my ultramarine blue dress and my hair must look torn and tussled from the day, I stood a bit taller and eased my gaze. In the most subtle way, so as not to alert my friends, I tilted my head and gave him a soft, shy smile.
His eyebrows raised over the frames of his glasses and his smile widened, and my heart fluttered a bit in way that I wasn’t sure I would ever feel since my last heartbreak six months ago.
The train slowed for the next stop and this man, the one who, with a smile and a few flirty glances, made my heart feel tender and renewed, tilted his head gesturing toward the approaching platform. Now my eyebrows shot up. He was asking me to follow him off the train. Surrounded by my friends I knew I couldn’t just walk off the train and follow this stranger. Could I?
In that instant I ran through the what ifs. What if I got off the train and he didn’t speak any English? What if I got off the train and my friends don’t follow me? What if they do follow me? What if this man is the love of my life?
The thought of romance no matter how brief or subtle, came heavy. After ending my first relationship in the beginning of the year, I have been a non-believer in loave.
Two years had flown by leaving me with an empty bitterness, a box full of mementos, and hundreds of photos with our faces plastered with empty smiles. Not realizing how empty they were until seeing them again without the rose-tinted glasses.
And though, after months of sorrow and stress, I had made up my mind that true love was a fallacy, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was fate giving me a sign, a sign that in the most unexpected ways we can find love all around us.
I turned to him finding his waiting eyes, and shook my head. I could not get off the train, something in me kept my hand on the handrail, letting the opportunity pass me as quickly as it had come.
It is almost better that I don’t know where that road would have lead. It was enough to have that one moment, to clear my head and heart and look forward to what awaits me around the next corner, at the next bus stop or on the next train.
