Love At First Sight

Love At First Sight

"Describe your Perfect Man." Well, that was almost dangerously simple.
"Tall, dark and handsome, witty, rich, intelligent and loveable" wrote
Annie, in the space provided under question five. What a ridiculous
quiz! But fun - yes, fun, she'd forgotten what that was, and if it took
a teen mag to rekindle a sense of it in her, then so be it.

She crossed her fifteen-denier legs and glanced around the restaurant,
feeling conspicuous. Forty-five year old women did not dine alone in
public - wasn't that an unwritten rule? Unless, of course, you were
waiting for someone, which she was. Relax! They'll be here in a
minute.

Oooh - who was that? Her Perfect Man had just materialised across the
room. She quickly checked the cover of the magazine. Emblazoned in pink
capitals across the front was the caption 'MAKE ALL YOUR DREAMS COME
TRUE THIS YEAR'. Yes, she would definitely buy this again! Silly Old
Bat.

But wait! He was coming over. Mr.TallDarkandHandsome wove his way
across to her through the maze of occupied tables. Self-consciously,
Annie reached a hand up to tuck her new bob back behind her ears, one
side and then the other, then she arranged her face in the seductive
half-smile that used to work when she was nineteen.

"Hello, I'm Richard. Nice to meet you." He smiled down at her,
extending a hand across the table. She took his fingers in hers and
shook gently.

He pulled out a chair and sat down, hitching up the trousers of his
expensive-looking suit slightly to accommodate his long legs in the
bent position. She tucked the magazine into her handbag with a
trembling hand.

Omigod! Keep calm, relax. Her heart was thumping in her chest and she
could feel a blush creeping across her carefully made-up cheeks.
Instinctively, she rubbed the cold spot where her wedding ring had used
to sit. It still felt strange, a year after the divorce, to feel
nothing where once there had been a solid, familiar strip of gold. Such
a simple gesture, the removal of a ring, and yet it's significance was
life altering. Twenty-three years of marriage reduced to a signature on
a few papers, the dividing up of money and assets. Two people who had
been lovers for twenty-five years sitting like strangers across a
polished table, each with a self-important hired mouthpiece, coldly
dissecting a lifetime spent together.

But that was past now, and to be single after so long was heady stuff
indeed. Suddenly, decisions that she had had to make at the age of
twenty were hers to make again. What do I do with my life? What next?
Of course they had been too young, but then, it was the seventies and
they were in love, supposedly.

But not love like this. The young man sat with her at the neatly
dressed table was trying to entertain her. Yes, witty too,
intelligent&;#8230;he was exactly as she had described. Love At
First Sight. Oh, she had never believed in it. Daniel had been a slow
burn kind of falling in love experience. No fireworks, only sparklers,
but they had written their names in the air with them.

But now&;#8230;now, with her Perfect Man in her fancy restaurant,
she believed. Yes, it was possible! She felt nineteen again as she
stared at him, besotted but not really listening, as he reeled off,
animatedly, some tale of how he'd got here.

Annie's insides were churning. She wondered how old he was - couldn't
be more than twenty-five, twenty-six. Such incredible eyes; deep, dark
and liquid brown, the beginnings of laughter lines at the corners
which, as time progressed and they grew more pronounced, could only
improve his handsome face. Dark hair fell forwards over his forehead
and he made gestures with his strong-boned hands as he talked.

It dawned on her that such a man would surely have hordes of young,
beautiful women lining up to date him, so why on earth should he hone
in on her? Perhaps it was the blonde that did it; although these days
it was, admittedly, assisted in it's pale gold colour by Debbie the
hairdresser. And she'd always been slim, shapely - she could get away
with being thought to be in her late thirties. Some men liked older
women, anyway - and why not? You saw middle-aged men running around
with girls of less than half their age all the time. Why shouldn't she
have a toy-boy? Or whatever expression was used to define it these
days.

He kept glancing at her with those to-die-for eyes, kept flashing
those lovely white teeth in a warm smile. What confidence he had, to
approach a woman unknown to him in the middle of a busy restaurant and
start, well - chatting her up. Daniel had never been so suave - quite
the opposite in fact. She remembered the first time he'd approached
her, shy and falling over his words, anxious to say The Right Thing, to
appear all-at-once sexy and blokey and irresistible to the girl he was
after.

"Where is she? How long does it take to park a car? I knew I should
have made her let me drive. Shall we order some champagne while we're
waiting?" He looked at her expectantly.

Annie allowed his words to wash over her, mildly wondering who 'she'
was, but not really letting it bother her. And champagne? Really!
They'd only just met. Ohh, someone as decisive as this in matters of
the dining room must surely be the same in matters of the bedroom. She
shivered in anticipation, imagining those hands tracing her hips, those
exquisite lips on her skin&;#8230;

"Yes, champagne would be lovely" she breathed, resting her chin on a
manicured palm and gazing at him adoringly.

He looked a bit worried, his brows
gathering in a slight frown, but his smile was soon restored. He
started to talk about the weather and she indulged him, nodding and
"Hmm"-ing every now and again, so he would know she was listening. He
was definitely a talker, liked an audience, obviously. But she was
happy to sit and admire him as he entertained her.

Annie only began to realise that all was not quite right with this
scenario when she heard him utter the words "wedding dress",
"reception" and "church" within the space of a few sentences. She
perked her ears and began to listen properly. He was talking
about&;#8230;marriage? Surely that was rushing things? She knew it
was the twenty-first century, but come on.

Yes, he was talking about HIS wedding! But not to her - oh no, not to
middle-aged-divorcee-lunching-alone, but to some much younger,
infinitely more beautiful creature called "Lissy". Lissy? What a stupid
name.

She glanced at her watch and frowned. It was half past one, and
Elizabeth had promised her faithfully that she would meet her at one.
Her daughter was bringing her fianc? to meet her. They'd got engaged
only a few weeks before, and Annie had come up to London for a few days
especially to meet him and to spend time with her daughter. Elizabeth
was going to introduce him to her father separately, since Annie and
Daniel were not on speaking terms. Annie sighed. How would they cope at
the wedding?

But here she was, her darling Elizabeth. Tall, slim and blonde, an
almost exact replica of Annie as she had been at twenty-two. Like
mother, like daughter - too young to get married, as Annie had warned
in vain. Elizabeth had assured her.

"You'll love him" she had gushed. "He's gorgeous, and funny and clever
- oh, he's the Perfect Man!" And Annie had smiled indulgently, knowing
she would have to let her daughter make her own mistakes.

"I'm so very sorry," Annie turned to her beautiful table mate. "But
you see, my daughter has arrived - she's bringing her fianc? to meet
me." She leant forwards and grasped one of his hands in hers. "Thank
you so much for keeping me company - I've enjoyed it tremendously, but
you must excuse me."

Oh, how she hated to let him go. Given a few more hours, she was sure
she could have made him fall in love with her and forget his fianc?e
with the silly name. If only! But it was Elizabeth's day today, not
hers. She wondered whether it would be inappropriate to ask for his
phone number.

She realised that he was looking at her very strangely, like one would
look at a crazy person spouting unintelligible gibberish.

"Mummy!" gasped Elizabeth, arriving at the table and kissing Annie on
both cheeks. "I'm so sorry I'm late, but I'm sure Richard has been
entertaining you."

"Wh-what?" stuttered Annie, staring wildly from one to the other. "You
mean, Richard is your fianc??"

"Well, of course he is! Oh, really Mummy, you're sounding like a crazy
old woman more and more these days. I sent him in to keep you company
while I was trying to park the car - it took me ages to find a space! I
suppose it is silly, driving in London. I told him you'd already be
here because you're always on time for everything, and that he couldn't
miss you, because you look exactly like me but older."

She giggled, wriggling her body into a seat. "Mmm, I'm starving -
shall we order?"

"What a good idea," said Richard, briskly taking control of the
situation. Lissy hadn't warned him that her mother was bats but never
mind; it wasn't her mother he was marrying.

Annie studied the menu silently, cringing inside. Richard kept
throwing her sidelong glances as if she was some kind of freak! She
made a mental note to never ever buy a teenage magazine again. It
seemed they couldn't keep their promises. Love At First Sight indeed!
Yes, she had been right. She was a Silly Old Bat.