He Waits Part 2

He sips his coffee again and looks at me.  As people enter, light reflects off the glass door and shines across his face, like fluttering lighting bolts, controlled by the movement of a hinge, the bend of a wrist, grasped within a hand.  

Aside:

He’s wearing a blue leather jacket.  He takes it off and gives it to a passerby without a coat.  She smiles and walks on.  

He leans over to me and His gaze grows more intense.  Electric.  I think I need a glass of wine.  

"Wait." He says, gently touching my wrist.

He smiles and his posture relaxes.  “I can wait.  I need your full attention.”

He looks down and a slight smile crosses his closed lips.

I come back with sparkling water instead of wine, and wait for what he has to say.

He looks back up and his eyes are weighty and bright.  His mouth relaxes into a more serious expression while the smile concentrates in his eyes.  

“To be honest, I’ve been waiting for you to be ready.  I really need to know you’re ready for this.” 

His irises are rimmed with gold, and orange, exaggerated by the late afternoon sun.  The prospect of evening chills me, but his expression gives me hope, that the sun will never set, that he’ll never leave, and the dawn will always reflect in his eyes.

Ancient text:

Your sun will never set again, 
   and your moon will wane no more; 
the LORD will be your everlasting light, 
   and your days of sorrow will end.  Is 60:20

“Ok, What is it?  I can’t wait any longer.” 

He pauses, smiling, taking in my excitement.

“I want you to come with me.  But I didn’t want to ask until I knew you were ready to come.  I knew there would come a time when you would know me well enough to trust me, so I waited. And now I’m asking you. Will you come?”

“Where are we going?” 

But even as the words leave my mouth I realize this is not an invitation to a destination.  This is an invitation to a relationship.  I look into his face and know that it doesn’t matter where we are going, as long as I am with him.  

Without hesitation: “Yes. Can I please come with you?” 

He laughs, “Yes, that’s what I’m asking you.  Will you please come?” 

Smiling at each other there is the giddy tension of people professing their love to one another for the first time.  

He reaches out his hand, and it envelops mine. 

“Yes, I will come.” 

But suddenly I feel some disappointment. I was hoping he would take me somewhere new. Somehow no “destination” seems like less, like sitting in a coffee shop for the rest of my life.  I need him to clarify this for me, because it must mean more, but I hesitate to ask.

Before I can form the question, he answers.

“You won’t be disappointed."

"Being in relationship with me means going everywhere I go. 

There are many wonderful destinations, but that is not the most important part. The best part is that you are going there with me.  I need you to go there with me, and keep your eyes on me. I love relationships, and it’s so much sweeter to share pleasures than to have them alone.  To share my creation with the ones I love.  Be sure of this: I have many places for you to go.  I am not an idle man.  All I ask is that you follow me, and love me. The coffee shop will always be there: the sweet familiar place.  But, I have many new places to take you. As many as you are willing to go.  And the best part is, we will go there together.  I’ll never let you go. No, never.”