Keller
Chapter 14
They agreed to meet for coffee at a local bakery and he would look over the contract.
No big deal. It was a chance for some fun conversation, a chance to forget the other matters of her life.
Mia was very nervous as she drove to the bakery. She had never done anything like this before. She knew there was nothing wrong with her meeting a man for coffee, and it was perfectly innocent, but still. There was a certain illicitness to it as well. At least, Mia felt there was. She realized without even meeting him, she was already starting to have feelings for the man.
Mia wondered about the man. Was he married? Of course he was married! She chided herself. What did he look like? How old was he?
He had told her where he would be sitting as well as what he was wearing. She arrived at the coffee shop, and pulled into an empty space. She did a final check in the mirror, made sure no bruises were showing and got out of her car.
She walked slowly towards the front door of the bakery. She almost spun around and left, fear grabbing a hold of her. Instead, she steeled herself, opened the door and stepped in.
The smell inside the bakery was delicious and she immediately got hungry. She looked around and saw a man sitting where he said he would be. He had his head down in a book and wasn’t paying any attention. It gave Mia a chance to size him up.
He was late forties or early fifties. He had brown hair. He wasn’t good looking, but not bad looking either. He looked like he enjoyed eating. The man felt her eyes then and looked up at her. He had bright green/gray eyes, and they looked right into her. When he put down the book, Mia could see he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. Mia walked over to him.
“Hello, Mia, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” said the man, standing up.
“Hi. I’m sorry if I’m late.”
“You’re not late,” he checked his watch, “You’re right on time.”
His voice was soft, calm, confident, like he had all the time in the world and was in no hurry.
“Please sit down.”
“Is it okay if I get something to drink first?”
“Of course. Would you like me to get it for you?”
“No, that’s OK. Thank you.”
He watched her walk away and noticed her slender figure and small ass. She was a beautiful woman. This is a woman who keeps herself in very good shape, he thought absently.
Some small feeling was pushing against his consciousness. He hadn’t really meant to look into her, but it was an ingrained habit from many long years of use. While she was getting coffee, he went up inside his head and explored her.
There were walls surrounding her mind, lots of them. They were tall and black. He couldn’t see over them, or through them. This is what he saw the first time during the email conversation when he sent his intention out to her.
This was usually a sign of someone with something to hide, but that didn’t feel quite right in this case. He probed deeper, testing and tasting the feeling. He pushed against one of the walls, and it pushed back. She has strength, a lot of it, he thought.
Then the certainty washed over him. Yes, she was hiding something. She was hiding her fear. She had a lot of it, mountains of it. Huge black walls of fear enclosing and encircling inside her mind. He got out of her immediately.
Mia returned with her coffee and sat down. She didn’t know what to say or how to begin. The man seemed to be waiting for her to start. She looked up and he was staring straight at her.
“Mia?” he said softly.
“Yes?”
“Everything is going to be OK. You don’t have to be afraid with me. Everything is going to be all right.”
Mia broke down and started weeping, right there in the middle of the bakery, in front of a man she didn’t know, and for reasons she couldn’t explain.
As soon as she started crying, the walls broke and came crashing down. The man saw/felt with instant clarity the lifetime of abuse and it shocked him. He feared