meeting him again, for the first time

I had to go to Joanne Drew, the fitness club in the tony financial district but I forgot to bring a towel. The salon was located right next to Rustan's, a high-end department store where the Forbes Park- and Bel-Air-type people shopped. I didn't have cash and only had a few hundred American dollars in traveller's cheques, leftovers from a recent trip to Australia. I went to Rustan's, searched and found the towel suitable for my purpose and paid for it with my traveller's cheque. The cashier asked me to cash the cheque first at the foreign exchange counter.

I had to walk across the floor to the FX counter. That day I wore a deep red sheaf dress with a high slit on one side, and high heels. The FX cashier was counting my money when I heard a familiar voice behind me. I turned around. Suddenly, Benjamin and I were facing each other.

You know in the movies, how a scene like that would be shown as a slow motion, the camera panning between the protagonists? It felt like that when I heard, then saw Benjamin. It seemed to me like everything else and everyone else were swept from the room and there was no one else in the scene except him and me.

"Ben!" I exclaimed, the excitement in my voice could not be contained.

The same smile, the same sparkle in his eyes, the same lithe body, I felt like I was 17 again. Had it only been eight years? It seemed like I saw him last in another lifetime. He had not changed.

The surprise and the excitement was also evident in his face. He had been working at the department store for a year now. How could I have missed him when I would shop here almost every week. When he saw the high-heeled lady, the slit of her red dress so high up her thigh, it aroused his interest. His fellow sales clerks dared him to speak to me. His post was at the engraving section and it was right beside the FX counter, so he had a reason to be there.

Automatically, his hands reached out to mine and there we were, standing in the passageway, staring at each other's eyes, stupidly smiling at each other. The FX cashier's voice broke the spell.

"Ma'am," I heard the cashier say. "Please, your cash!" As if waking up from a dream, I shook my head and walked back to the cashier. She started to count the money again but I didn't really care about it. She called me back again to give me my receipt. I felt my knees weakened as I walked back to the sales cashier to pay for my towel. Benjamin was right beside me, and I couldn't believe it.

I knew for sometime that he had married. So I tried to act as non-chalantly as I could but my voice quivered when I asked him, "How's your family? How many kids do you have now?"

I heard the other sales clerks teasing him. "Aw, she knows you're married!" and they laughed.

"I have three kids, the eldest one is a girl, five years old now," he replied, while he waved his friends away.

"Look at you, you look so...pretty. So...so...sexy." It took a long time for the word sexy to come out of his mouth. "You look like you're doing well." Then, as if remembering something, "Are you still modelling?"

"No, not anymore," I said. "I'm going to work out next door but I forgot to bring a towel, so, here I am. Buying a towel from your store."

"And an expensive towel, too," he reminded me. "What time are you through?"

"About an hour plus a few minutes for a shower."

Then, we said at the same time, "Would you like to have coffee after?" and we both laughed.