Faces

      This is a new story that I enjoyed writing.  I hope you enjoy it too.

                                                 Faces

      Candice sat at the table. Her legs politely crossed, were silently tapping a rhythm to an unheard beat. She held a folded piece of paper between her thumb and forefinger that she clicked on the wood table top occasionally. She opened the white paper and re-read the words printed there. She lifted the paper to her nose and took in the aroma. It even smelled like him. Or at least how she remembers him smelling.

      She looked up as the bell on the glass door rang. Another diner costumer was leaving. A man was holding the door as a young boy left. Could it be? He was about the right height. Maybe a little chunkier in the middle, but it had been fifteen years. He has the same hair color, same nose, same smile. It had to be.

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      Travis opened the door of his faded BMW. He shut the motor off and went to slide out of the worn leather seat, when he stopped himself. He held the small folded square of paper in his sweaty palm. It had been so long since he had seen her. He could still smell the sweet smell of her perfume and feel her arms around his neck when he had told her that he was leaving for school. They had stood there on the front lawn of the high school for what seemed like hours while she cried and tried to tell him why he should stay.

      Only now so many years later could he admit that it was the worst mistake of his life leaving her. All of those years alone in school, only to finish with a masters in communications and a job at Target. One day she had somehow found him and had sent him an e-mail. She wanted to with him in person. Maybe they could talk things over. Maybe he could fix a mistake he had made so many years ago.

      He held the door for a boy running out of the small roadside diner. He scanned the booths and seats looking for long blond hair that he remembered. They hadn't settled on a signal or anyway to tell each other apart from the crowd. Travis had just figured that he would recognize the girl he had loved so dearly.

      There in a booth facing the door was a lady with a piece of paper in her hand her long blond hair draped over her shoulders. She was tapping the paper on the table and carefully eying everyone in the parking lot. Travis's knees felt week as he wiped the sweat off of his hands and made his way toward her. He gulped trying to wet his scratchy throat. She caught his eye and smiled.

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      Candice smiled as he made his way around and through the tables to her booth. He stopped at her table and both sat silent. Neither knew what to say to start off the conversation.

      Candice started. “So you are...” She cut her self off. It was such an obvious question, with an obvious answer.

      “Yeah. Its me. How have you been?”

      “Great. Well, good anyways.”

      Travis smiled and motioned to the bench opposite the woman. “May I sit?”

      “I got your note. Travis paused and stared at a painting on the wall behind Candice. “I...I need to apologize for what I did all those years ago.”

      Candice held her hand up to stop him. “What happened in the past needs to stay in the past. I don't want to hear another word about what happened before.”

      Travis smiled and settled down in his seat relaxing his hands a little more. The two had a nice meal together and as she had requested. Travis had suggested that they go to a nearby park to continue their conversation.

      Candice smiled and nodded. “I would love to get to know you more. The current you.”

      Travis opened the door and motioned for her to go first. Candice smiled and thought to herself; Wow I don't remember Chad being so thoughtful before our parents died. My brother must have matured in foster care.

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      Chad slowed his car as he pulled up on the diner that he had agreed to meet his long lost sister at. He slammed on his brakes halfway into a parking stall. A man and a woman had stumbled out of the diner laughing and hadn't noticed Chad pulling up to the building. The woman looked eerily familiar, but he couldn't quite place from where. Chad shrugged and made his way inside to look for his sister.