When I was hostessing on Thursday night, not wanting to be there, A husky, animated man from Yorkshire walked into the foyer, wearing an old coat and a smiling mouth that spit out thick-accented one-liners about the weather, the smell of Indian food, and my smile. He flirted with me like a grandpa would with a cute hospital nurse who just delivered his meds to him.
Throughout his meal, I would walk past him to pick up a to-go meal from the kitchen, and we would exchange smiles and laughs like we already knew each other. Then I would walk back to answer the phone, and the exchange would happen again. And finally, he called me over to his table that held up 2 empty Bud lights and 3 cleaned plates of what used to be the spiciest Indian food.
He grabbed by sleeve and pulled my ear toward his voice.
"I've got a good piece of advice for ya, gal. Because i can see that soft sparkle in yer eyes." (picture someone like Gerard Butler saying this to you, but not as good looking)
"Life is like an orgasm, gal. It's up to you on whether it's good or bad."
After he finished cracking himself up, he loosened his grip on my sleeve and let me stand up straight, slightly above his eye level.
"Just listen to me. I restore historical buildings all over the country. That's what I do. And as for you, I can tell that you know exactly what you want to do. You just need to figure out what you're going to do to get there. You think you're quite the rebel I'm sure, complaining about school and fighting with your parents over the pettiest things. Gal, be thankful for your parents. They love you so."
After he basically put Caroline Turner in the most fitting and accurate nutshell, I walked back to my hostess stand and beamed with encouragement. When there is a stranger that recognizes the moxie that you've always seen in yourself, it gives you reason to be brave enough to use it to get somewhere. At least it did that for me.
And when he was through, and he walked out of the dining room and toward the hostess stand, and he was putting his second arm into his second sleeve, he came as close as he could get to me, the hostess stand our only separator. He said, "Don't worry I don't want a kiss."
Then he grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it, looked me straight in the eye and said, "Don't you ever stop being a lady. You go home and tell your parents just how much you love them."
And he laughed again while the front door was closing.
Oh, how many times I have had to be reminded of my capabilities on this earth. On Thursday, it was an unassuming angel from Yorkshire.
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