Again I was ready to leave before I found her. This time, though, I was at a local bar. Not too big, not too small, full of women but not the right ones. That is until I noticed her.

She was sitting at the other end of the rainbow shaped bar. The bar is in the back of the building so I had taken a seat at the far end with my back facing the wall so I could watch the door and see everyone that was in the bar. She, however, was at the other end. From where I sat all along the bar to where she sat men were scattered about. I turned to my right to get one last drink in hopes she would reveal herself to me before I decided to leave when I noticed her myself.

She sat alone staring down into an amber colored drink, her chin resting on a fist her other hand stirring the drink with a mixing straw. Brown hair so dark it looked black in the dim lighting of the bar cascaded over the sides of her face down passed her shoulders almost to the bar itself. She was wearing a maroon sweater with the sleeves pulled up to her elbows. As for her pants, I could not see them from where I sat but if all went well she wouldn’t be wearing them later anyway.

For a few moments I merely sat and stared at her while sipping my drink to see if she would look up at me but she never did. With the exception of a few sips of her drink and looking for a bartender to point at her glass to order another she never looked anywhere but into her drink. Her stone-faced expression never wavered. She did not look happy, though, she did not look sad or disappointed either. As though she was simply existing and trying to find the reason for her existence in the bottom of her glass. Drinking away layers hoping it would explain her to herself. And, who’s to say she wouldn’t have found it had I not come along? Then again, who says I wasn’t the answer?

Lifting my glass I slid off my stool and slowly walked in her direction around the bar. Standing behind her I stopped, took a few sips from my drink and when she still had not turned around I invited myself to sit on the empty stool beside her. It was then I saw the eyes. Her eyes. They were darker than her hair which was lighter than I had thought from where I was sitting before. I had never seen eyes like hers before. So dark it seemed a though they were bottomless pits and I easily started getting lost in them. She stared at me for several seconds, not blinking or saying a word. I didn’t know what to do so I did nothing. She reached across to the bar, picked up her glass, slightly raised it as if giving a toast and drained the rest of the contents. She kept her eyes on me so I did the same, raised my glass and drank the rest down. She gave a slight smile, turned and signaled the bartender for another drink and took the same position she held before I came to this side of the bar. She stayed facing forward as if I wasn’t there, put her money on the bar for her drink took another sip and once again began that distant stare.