“Uh hum. Excuse me” she repeated loudly. Again, no reply. The man continued to bob his head to the music and read his book. Jodie began to become extremely irritated; she hated being ignored.
“Look,” she snapped, “You are obviously listening intently to this dreadful noise but I believe not every other person in a 50 mile radius does want to listen to it! So, could you turn it down please?”
“What other people?” the man retorted sharply, still with his head buried in his book.
Jodie glanced around the petite park and realized, to her embarrassment, it was deserted.
“Well, urm….,” she stuttered, “me. I don’t want to listen to that racket, thank you.”
“It’s a free country, miss,” the man grunted, “if you don’t like it, leave. But both I and my dreadful music are staying put.”
Jodie’s cheeks flushed pink with anger and she let out an irritated groan, however the man still paid no attention to her or made no attempt to make any eye contact. So Jodie turned on her heels, picked up her belongings and stormed off to the other side of the park.
Sat by the lakeside, Jodie could not believe that a person could be so arrogant and rude towards someone they did not know. Did people not respect each other anymore? She thought men were supposed to be chivrilous or at least kind, but she guessed she thought wrong as usual.
Trying no to ruin the rest of her day off, Jodie graded a few test papers from her last English class and paddled her feet in the warm lake. After finishing marking the tests, Jodie lay back on the embankment and began to fall asleep, still disturbed about how ill-mannered and pompous the stranger had been.
Later that day a gust of wind woke Jodie suddenly and with a shudder she sat up realizing it was running in to evening. The sun was setting across the city and the warm glow from the sun a sparkling haze across the lake.
Jodie hugged her books tight in to her chest and strode along the winding walkways in the park towards the flower garden. Surrounded by dancing daffodils, Jodie bent down to pick a petal and was met by a pair of perfectly maintained, shiny leather shoes. Her eyes slowly moved up and where met by the chiseled features, piercing blue eyes and golden hair of a ruggedly handsome man. In contrast to his disheveled hair the man was wearing what appeared to be a very expensive and sophisticated navy blue suit.
“Not you again” Jodie exclaimed with a hint of anger. The man was the arrogant stranger from earlier that afternoon.
“And what am I supposed to do with that?” Jodie snarled as the man stretched out his hand towards her.
“Err... shake it” the man said sarcastically.
Still visibly annoyed by the man, Jodie sighed heavily and reluctantly shook his hand.
“My names Andrew Thompson, I work at the law firm just two blocks away,” he said smoothly, “I saw you walking through the park and thought I should come over to explain about earlier on. I’d had a very stressful morning and when you came over I wasn’t in the mood for speaking to anyone especially when I thought you were just a moaning old bag…”
Jodie bit her lip as her temper reached boiling point and she felt like she wanted to scream at this discourteous and offensive man.
2I’m a moaning old bag? Well thank you very much!” she said sharply, “At least I’m not an arrogant, rude, pig-headed man who has no consideration for anyone else. The cheek of it. And here’s naïve me thinking you were going to apologise.”
“Woa, woa, woa” Andrew shouted defensively over Jodie’s rants. “If you let me finish I was going to tell you how extremely sorry I am for the way I acted and as you walked away from me I realized you were not a moaning old bag. Far from it. Infact, I was kicking myself for treating such a beautiful, young woman with such disrespect.”
Jodie’s anger melted away and she looked down to the paving below her feet as she was stunned in to silence by Andrew’s apology to her.
Andrew tilted up Jodie’s chin with his hand until their eyes met. Jodie’s heart skipped a beat and butterflies flew around in her stomach as a surprising thought dawned on her. She was unusually attracted to a man she thought to be arrogant and rude and who at first impressions had irritated her immensely.
Andrew leaned in closely to Jodie and placed a soft, gentle kiss on her lips. Thoughts buzzed around her head and her body tingled with excitement. Jodie’s breath was taken away with one small kiss; she had never experienced such an intense feeling before.
It was love and they both knew it.
Jodie hastily pulled away from Andrew and began to walk towards the entrance of the park, leaving Andrew in the flower garden still stunned by their kiss.
As she left the park Jodie grinned from ear to ear as she relived the amazing feeling of experiencing love at first sight, but as she twirled the ring on her finger it dawned on her and she thought to herself: ‘What have I done? I’m married.’
