As I walked into the petrol station my mind was on the fact that I was later than expected and this was just adding to it. I’d had an OK-day. My friend and I had met for coffee but we were not sure where to go so spent too long driving round.
My attention was caught quickly though by the new cashier behind the till. Young. Attractive. Smiling. Now that was first – ‘miserable and with no customer service skills’ is on the job description.
He continued to smile as I approached the till and then the usual conversation appeared. What an attractive young man, I thought. (OK, it wasn’t quite those words. More like, my god you‘re cute.) I swear he could read mind because he smiled again that way.
I dropped my eyes and focused on keying in the right pin on the card machine.
As I pulled out my card I looked up again and he gave me a big grin. Oh my. I smiled back. Oh my again.
I know, I know, he was probably smiling because he knew I was attracted to him. He may be the most conceited, self obsessed man in my county. He would probably never go anywhere near anyone like me.
But that smile made me smile, and that’s all that matters.
Starting from the Middle 