A Strange Afternoon Encounter

After having finished my lunch of a mozzarella and sun-dried tomato sandwich, a lip-studded, inked-up boy, who sat lonesomely in the corner doodling in a little writing pad, walked up to me and randomly asked me what my name was. I looked at him with a puzzled expression on my face and asked him why he wished to know. He told me he wanted to draw something for me, and I answered him with a fabricated name - “Brenda”. My first thought was that this boy was about to draw a caricature of me, but instead, he poorly drew my false name in graffiti-style letters… and beneath the doodle, he had written… “Brenda, you’re very beautiful. I’m Michael. I’m 24, from (town).”

Immediately after reading this, I smiled sweetly at him… in which he did not respond to for he was unsure of whether or not that was a smile of rejection or approval. I crumpled the note, threw it into my purse, briskly walked out of the cafe and made my way up a frozen yogurt place.