Game Over

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I love going for coffee with Caroline and her little daughter Evie. It’s the highlight of my week. Well not quite the highlight, the highlight is the one night a week I got Caroline alone but that’s another story. I love watching the two ladies chat and play. I’ve never wanted children but watching Caroline with her 4 year old makes me just a little broody. I suppose whatever love you feel you can never replicated the true bond between mother and child.

Anyway it was Tuesday, our coffee day and Caroline looked really delicious, better than the cakes that tempted us from the cake counter.

‘Do you want a cake?’ she said to Evie.

‘Can I?’ The child’s eyes lit up, she was Caroline’s mini me, almost a perfect replica of her beautiful mother.

‘Yes of course,’ the two women walked over to the cake counter to choose their sweets. Summer suited Caroline; her flimsy summer dress accentuated her curves which were subtle and dainty. Her converse shoes gave the impression she was walking on a trampoline, and those legs, well they were a smooth, silken stairway to heaven. When she came back from the counter she smiled at me, her eyes sparkling, her whole face illuminated by the smile. Her smile was the Ebola of smiles; highly contagious and highly dangerous. If you caught her smile you’d fall in love just a little bit, prolonged exposure to it and there was a risk you’d never recover. I smiled back, happy to be the cause of the smile but frustrated that I couldn’t do what my hands wanted to do.

‘Mummy,’ Evie said. ‘Have you noticed that man over there is smiling at you?’ Evie pointed to the table that I was sitting at, three across from the girls.

‘Well, he’s probably just a nice man.’ Caroline said but I could see her blushing.

‘Mummy I think he was there last week too.’

‘Really?’ Caroline was looking around hoping the waitress would bring cake so she could change the subject. ‘He’s probably here everyday.’

‘Mummy, I think he was in the park last week as well. Should we tell Daddy?’ Evie asked.

The cake arrived.

‘Oh these look nice,’ Caroline said, ‘shall we share?’ She was desperately trying to get her daughter’s eyes away from the stranger in the corner.

I tried to catch the eye of the waitress so I could pay. I needed to get out of here. Game over signs were flashing in front of my face. It’d been fun being a ‘stalker with permission,’ but Evie was an inquisitive child and if she’d noticed me, it would be impossible for her to unnoticed me, we could no longer play the game. I paid my bill and got up to leave, giving Caroline one last smile before disappearing.